A Reign of Steel by Morgan Rice Page B

his head, determined.
    “No,”
he said. “Those are our men. We must go to them, whatever the cost. If they
are attacked, then we will go down fighting with them.”
    “You
don’t seem to understand,” she said, equally determined. “At morning light,
thousands of my brother’s men will litter the shores. There is no way past
them.”
    Reece
stood, brushing off the dampness, a fire in his eyes.
    “Then
we shall not wait for morning light,” he said. “We will go now. Before the sun
rises.”
    Matus
slowly stood, too, and Reece looked down at Srog.
    “Srog?”
Matus asked. “Can you make it?”
    Srog
grimaced as he stumbled to his feet, Matus lending a hand.
    “I
will not hold you back,” Srog said. “Go without me. I will stay here in this
cave.”
    “You
will die here in this cave,” Matus said.
    “Well
then you will not die with me,” he replied.
    Reece
shook his head.
    “ No
man left behind ,” he said. “You will join us, no matter what it takes.”
    Reece,
Matus, and Srog walked up beside Stara at the edge of the cave, gazing out into
the howling wind and rain. Stara looked the three men over, wondering if they
were crazy.
    “You
wanted a plan,” Reece said, turning to her. “Well, now we have one.”
    She
shook her head slowly.
    “Reckless,”
she said. “That is the way of men. We will likely die on the way to the ships.”
    Reece
shrugged.
    “We
will all die one day anyway.”
    As
they all stood there, watching the elements, waiting for that perfect moment, Stara
waited for Reece to do something, anything, to take her hand, to show her, even
in the smallest way, that he still cared for her.
    But
he did not. He kept his hand to himself and Stara felt herself hardening,
crushed inside. She prepared to embark, no longer caring what fate had in store
for her. As they all stepped out into the darkness together, she realized that,
without Reece’s love, she had nothing left to lose.
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    Alistair
stood on the ship, terrified, arms bound behind her, her heart pounding as
dozens of sailors closed in on her from all sides, a look of lust and death in
their eyes. She realized that these men all aimed to rape and torture and kill
her, and that they would take delight in doing so. She marveled that such evil
existed in the world, and for a moment she struggled to understand humankind.
    Her
entire life, she’d always been known, everywhere she went, as the most
beautiful girl—and more than once it had gotten her into trouble. She just
wanted to be left alone. She had always just wanted to look normal, like
everybody else. She never wanted to attract attention—and she certainly did not
want to attract trouble.
    Erec,
swinging high overhead in the net, shouted down, helpless, infuriated.
    “ALISTAIR!”
he yelled again and again, trying frantically to squirm out.
    The
sailors below laughed, taking great delight in his capture, and his
helplessness.
    Alistair
looked at them and felt a great anger; she forced herself to be bold, fearless.
    “Why
would you want to hurt me?” she asked, her voice filled with compassion. “Don’t
you see that your behavior only harms you? We are all part of the same planet.”
    The
men laughed in her face.
    “Fancy
words from a stupid girl!” one of them yelled, as he reached up a big beefy
palm, swung it high, and prepared to smack her across the face.
    As
he lowered his hands toward her, something strange happened to Alistair. A
sensation came over her, one she’d never experienced: it was as if the entire
world slowed down, the man’s hand moving at a snail’s pace in midair. As she focused
on it, it seemed to freeze. The entire world seemed to freeze. She saw every
particle in fine detail, saw the very fiber of nature in the spirit and souls
of these men.
    Alistair
suddenly felt a surge of energy. She felt herself on a different realm, able to
transcend everything before her, able to have power over it all through
sympathy and love