him to regain full consciousness.
Timon’s knife was at the man’s throat when he opened his eyes.
“Quiet,” he said, careful to prick just the skin of the man’s neck. “I need information from you. If you give it to me, I won’t hurt you.”
The raider puckered his lips and spat in Timon’s face. “Bloodsucker,” he whispered.
Timon wiped the spittle from his face. “A woman was brought to your camp,” he said. “Is she all right?”
With an abrupt shift of his body, the raider tried to butt Timon’s head. Timon leaned back, rocked forward again and gave the man another taste of his blade.
“You will tell me what I want to know,” Timon said, shifting the knife much lower, “or I’ll do worse than slit your throat.”
As Timon had expected, the raider feared losing a certain part of his anatomy more than death. He talked.
Jamie was safe, for now. She was being held in the tent of the man who had taken her during the raid, but he was being challenged by several members just as eager to claim a mate.
She would have absolutely no say in the matter.
“You have no woman,” Timon said to the prisoner.
The raider turned his face aside.
“Were you planning to challenge for her?”
Maintaining his silence, the man stared into the woods. But Timon understood his position perfectly. This young male’s only chance of increasing his status was by gaining a mate.
If he hadn’t challenged yet, it still wasn’t too late.
Night had fallen again by the time Timon rode into the camp, a deer’s carcass slung over his borrowed horse’s back. In the hills above, his prisoner had been bound and gagged. Lazarus, however little he liked being parted from his rider, remained where Timon had left him.
Timon was fortunate. The captive raiders’ eyes were pale, like Timon’s, the color difficult to make out in the torch-lit darkness, and Timon’s hair was covered by the fox-tailed hat. His masquerade may just work.
The men gathered around the several campfires either grunted brief acknowledgment or ignored him entirely. He scanned the camp, noting the positions of the tents, and located the place where the raiders prepared their meat. He led his horse to the fire and, keeping his face averted, unloaded the carcass and hung it over a pole near the fire.
Almost at once a woman in a ragged dress came scurrying out of the nearest tent to examine the carcass. Timon took the opportunity to retreat, walking with the kind of uneasy familiarity of a low-status hunter. He tied his mount near the string of horses toward the rear of the camp and melted into the deeper shadows under the trees.
He took a deep breath, trying to sort the overwhelming scents from the one that belonged to Jamie. It was an impossible task, even for a half-blood with an excellent sense of smell. He looked over the tents, noting which were the largest and most prominently situated. Men gathered about the outside of several of them, like warriors standing guard in front of palace gates.
Only one of the smaller tents had a similar retinue, with the men outside looking far less like guards and more like a hostile force.
The challengers, Timon thought. Jamie must be inside, along with her captor.
It took all Timon’s discipline not to rush straight at the tent and take on the six men. Jamie hasn’t been touched, he reminded himself. She was far too valuable a prize, and if her captor moved on her without accepting challenge, he’d likely be torn limb from limb.
If only Timon could tell her she wasn’t alone.
Even as he completed the thought, a short, muscular man emerged from the tent. He growled at his challengers, who muttered threats and brandished knives and axes.
Pushing his way through them, Jamie’s kidnapper walked into the center of the camp and began to speak. The meaning of the rough words, Timon thought, didn’t really matter; their purpose was to boast of his strength and his prowess, to scare off lesser challenges and reinforce his claim over the female.
Apparently there would be no waiting for the fighting to start.
Someone bellowed, and the first duel began. In spite of the earlier display of weapons, the two men fought hand to hand, viciously and with no apparent rules to constrain them. The men seemed equally matched in height and musculature, but it was soon obvious that Jamie’s captor was stronger. Using little more than brute strength, he battered his challenger down to the ground and used both fists and feet to pummel the man into unconsciousness.
A heavy silence fell. The other challengers shifted and grumbled. A pair of boys dragged the unconscious man away.
Then another man, bearing a wicked-looking knife in one hand, flung himself at Jamie’s kidnapper. A knife appeared in the first raider’s hand, and the second battle commenced with quiet and deadly ferocity.
It ended much the same as the first, but this time the challenger didn’t get off so easily.
Again there was silence. Two of the remaining challengers withdrew, heads bowed. The victor shouted hoarsely, mocking the others for their cowardice.
Timon knew that he couldn’t put it off any longer. Lowering his head under the hat and drawing up the fur collar of his coat, he stalked toward his opponent. The victor grinned, showing half-rotten teeth, and beckoned the man he believed Timon to be.
He obviously wasn’t expecting much. He lunged at Timon with his large, long arms, as if he planned to break Timon’s back. Timon slipped out of his reach, darted underneath the man’s arms and butted him hard in the stomach. Confused by the suddenness of the attack, the man staggered back, holding his ribs.
But Timon knew it wasn’t nearly enough. His enemy recovered quickly and punched at Timon’s jaw. Again Timon was faster, and he landed a blow to the man’s face and followed up by heaving the tribesman to the ground.
There were murmurs of surprise from the watchers, undoubtedly wondering at their fellow tribesman’s unusual strength. Timon knew he didn’t dare drag the fight out much longer.
As soon as Jamie’s captor was on his feet again, Timon kicked his knees out from under him and dislocated both of his shoulders. Wailing in pain and rage, the man rolled onto his back. His efforts to rise failed over and over again, and after a time he lay still, his thickly bearded face a mask of fury and humiliation.
Checking to make sure that his hat was still in place, Timon turned to face the few remaining challengers. They looked from him to his opponent and, one by one, melted into the shadows. Timon turned and tossed back the tent flap, entering before any of the tribesmen could change his mind.
“Jamie!” he whispered.
She sat on the ground, bound to the tent pole, ropes digging into her wrists and ankles. Her lip was cut and bleeding, her hair tangled and wild around her shoulders. Her clothing
