Page 104 of Suncatcher

When it reached her shoulder, she couldn’t help her smile. “Hello.”

It squealed and was gone in a flash, leaping down and disappearing back into the grass.

Driz’s smile faded. But it left her with a piece of hope. She had just startled it.

The sun would be rising soon. She stood and flew up to see it arrive.

Hands covered Pearl’s nose and mouth. She jerked, her eyes flying open, but all she saw was blackness.

Coarse fabric rubbed against her face and a sting pinched her arm. What the hells?

She flailed, striking out at whoever was nearby. She swung through air, her limbs growing heavy and numb.

What was happening? Panic clawed at her. Why couldn’t she see? Why couldn’t she move?

Suddenly she did move, her stomach rolling at the unexpected motion. She couldn’t breathe. She tried to scream, but she choked, even her throat revolting.

Where was Driz? Where was her mother? She had to get to them and make sure they were both safe.

She fought. But her limbs weren’t cooperating. Whatever this was, she was going to end it, and the person doing it. But she couldn’t fucking feel her arms.

Hands touched her. Moved her against her will.

She tried again to call out, but she only managed a muffled wheeze as everything blinked out of existence.

29

Stolen

Pearl surfaced to consciousness in a strange room. The floor was hard beneath her, the interior of the simple log shack dim in what she guessed was afternoon sun. She lay on her side with her hands tied behind her back and a raging headache pounding in her skull.

She pushed up but didn’t make it far before she fell back, her body too heavy.

“Ah, our princess is awake.”

Pearl cut a glare into the corner, where the voice had come from. Several figures moved in the shadows. She tried to speak, but a cough and the gag choked her. She hacked, struggling to breathe. At least her false teeth weren’t around to get in the way.

“Get her a drink. I want her alive and awake for this.”

More hands grabbed her. The gag was ripped from her mouth and water carelessly splashed into it. She choked again but swallowed what she could.

“Who’re you?” she rasped, her sluggish jaw struggling to form words.

The speaker moved into the light, and Pearl recognized Mayor Brooks of Faltsprings, and behind him, Sheriff Langly.

“Where am I?” Pearl demanded, looking at the plain walls again as if they might give up their secrets.

“Don’t trouble yourself with that.”

“My mother will find me.”

“I’m counting on it. She should be here soon, since we told her exactly where you are. If she knows what’s good, she’ll be reasonable. And something tells me she won’t.” He smiled, his tone light and affable as the cool barrel of a revolver pressed to Pearl’s temple. “It’d be a shame if anything happened to you.”

Faint hooves drummed outside, and Mayor Brooks glanced at the holder of the revolver. “Put her away for now.”

She was hauled backward, into a second, smaller room. Before the gag could be shoved roughly back into her mouth, she opened it and let out a single screech. The hunting cry her mother had taught her, signaling danger. She didn’t know who might be out there to hear. Was it her mother?

The blow across her face sent her unsteady body onto the floor. She cursed the hands that silenced her, shoving her down on her stomach, a knee in her back, pressing her into the hard wood. “Quiet,” the unseen person said, the revolver painful against her skin.