White Stag (PERMAFROST #1)

Chapter Five: Hunt

I bristled, hand touching the butt of my axe, my mouth opened with a stinging retort—How dare she order me around, I wasn't her slave—but Soren got to it first. "Don't call her that," he snapped. "You've no claim to." His unspoken words lingered in the air. I was his slave, not hers, I was his property, and if he had his way, it would be different before long.

I leveled my gaze at Elvira. "I don't take orders from you." Elvira could rip me to shreds easily enough if she wanted to, but I was determined not to let her frighten me. "What do you want me to do, Soren?" Anger burned as the words left my mouth. But I caught Soren's calm, lilac eyes and they told me that it wasn't worth the battle.

"Go hunting, Janneke."

I gave a brisk nod and motioned to Rekke. The young girl's eyes were dull and she glowered at her older relatives before grudgingly trudging over to her horse. My own bow was already slung over my back and everyone else wore their weapons, but Rekke's bow was attached to her saddlebags with complicated straps. It was stupid and sloppy and would probably get her killed but I couldn't find it in me to care.

She joined my side and I opened my senses to the other creatures in the sparse woods. Then I started to track.

I'd always been good at it, tracking. As my father watching his daughter become his son, it was one of the few things he took pride in. We'd hold competitions in the village were during the dead of night we would sneak through the forests to try to find and capture one another. People would bet on which hunter they thought would get the most "kills" and who would survive the longest without being seen. To the fury of the other men, I was always the winner. Becoming invisible, adapting so that I was one with the environment, was always my strong suit.

And so I walked lightly through the underbrush, my steps barely making a sound. I could sense Rekke's presence behind me. She didn't speak, but I could feel the eagerness to kill coming off her like waves. Hopefully a rabbit would satisfy her. I'd no doubt I'd kill a few goblins before this was over, but I'd rather not start soon. I would never be what Soren wanted me to and I knew the more I killed, the closer I came to it.

The tips of my fingers tingled as I got close to a source of power. It was small, nothing like the power of a predator, but it still prickled at my fingertips and flowed through my body like ice water, bringing it to life. Ever since the power of the lordling absorbed into my skin, the goblin-like senses became sharper. I reached for the nail in my bracer's pocket; relieved when I didn't feel the hint of a burn. I was safe. I was just in a hunter's mindset, was all. My make-up wasn't changing.

My ears sensed the rabbit before my eyes did; and my arrow went through its eye before it could run. I picked it up, pulling the arrow out of it and strung the dead animal across my belt. One down, countless more to go. I knew how much goblins could eat.

A deer would've been better but I'd have more luck finding a unicorn than a deer able to graze in these scrublands. The bare, skeleton trees and the scraggily grass barely were considered life as it were.

Rekke didn't hide her thrill at my skills. "Wow," she said. "You're amazing at that."

I turned to look at the small she-goblin, surprised at the compliment. It'd been so easily given and wasn't shrouded in the double-meanings behind most of the words her kind spoke. She really was young, then. An older goblin would be more guarded and definitely less likely to give me, a lowly slave, a compliment. What was she doing out here on the Hunt, the she-goblin barely had enough power to participate. I reached out with my senses and could vaguely grasp her power, shrouding her like purple mist, but it was brittle and easy to break. Perhaps Elvira brought her along to kill her.