There are other humans coming this way.

Sasha pushed away from Rannok, eyes wide, as he jolted. The sound of her own heartbeat drowned out everything else. She could still feel his fingers around her neck, itching there, like he'd left a wound. But she was glad to see him, glad there was some chance of them getting out of here before the guards came back. Not that they had left him well-protected to begin with.

He squinted at her and looked around, searching for the voice, hand still warm on her arm. She gave his hand a squeeze and looked toward the window, but it opened onto a blind space in between buildings, where all she could see was the wooden slats of the building across.

"Is that who I think it is?" he asked. His mouth opened a little, then closed again as his eyebrows creased into a scowl. His face flushed scarlet and he shook his head. "How did he get here?"

"Yes, he's on the roof," Sasha said. "What is he saying to you?"

"Nothing," Rannok said, his voice a bit quick and short. "Asshole. We need to find a way to get out of here."

Sasha's eyes went to the door, then out into the hallway. Of course the crow had failed to mention how far away the humans were, or whether they could be seen. "I don't know where he came from or why." But I should thank him later, she thought, just the slightest bit of sarcasm underrunning it.

If you move now, they will see you try to leave, the crow's shadowy voice proclaimed. Shut the door.

She swore under her breath and swung the door shut, trying hard not to let it squeak or to rattle in its hinges. Hopefully no one would have noticed that the latch had been undone, though she wondered if they would care, so long as Rannok hadn't escaped. She chewed her lower lip for a moment and looked over at him. "What do we do?"

"I don't know," he said, letting go of her hand, the wings on his back tensing like he was in thought. "The window's nailed shut and the glass isn't easy to break, I've tried--"

Sasha clamped a hand over his mouth as footsteps approached from the hallway. "Shut up." She moved away from the doorway, dragging him with her, and crouched near the bed. There was no way she could leave the room now, not without someone seeing her. The crow had led her here to be trapped. She wanted to climb up to the roof and squeeze its neck until it stopped moving.

Outside, voices converged on the doorway. There was a woman, she could hear her high-pitched voice, talking to a man behind the doorway. Every once in a while another man would grunt and interject his thoughts. Their voices were muffled, indistinct through the door, but one word filtered through over and over. Charais. Cattle. The rushing in her ears came back, and her vision began to tunnel. 

"Are you okay?" Rannok asked her in a low, quiet voice. She shook her head 'no'. She understood now what the punishment was in the mountains for stealing. They were going to buy him and cart him off, somewhere far away from here. If she didn't think quickly, there would be nothing she could do to stop it.

"They're going to take you away," she mouthed, trying to keep her breathing under control and her voice from pitching so high they'd hear her. "We need to get out of here, we need to--" She didn't know. Break the windows. Climb down through the floorboards. It didn't matter, she needed to get him out of here and up into the forest, and fast. 

Her eyes darted to the window, then back to the door, then to the window again. Even if they could break it, the people outside would hear. They wouldn't get away fast enough. They wouldn't be able to run without being seen. Breathe. She remembered the feeling of being stuck in a cave with a pack of loose dogs after her and let a shaky breath out of her throat.

"Sasha." 

She nodded as he crouched down in front of her. The woman's laugh pierced through the wall. She cringed. It sounded far too much like her mother's laugh, like what stood there was a happy family that hid terrors. She swallowed hard.

"It's going to be okay," he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. "Breathe."

His expression was so earnest she almost believed him. Out of all the things that made him panic, somehow this wasn't one. He would be fine. He would survive the torture and the chains and the hard labor until he withered away to nothing. He would survive leaving her.

She sucked in a breath, trying to keep quiet as the footsteps outside shuffled around some more, a little further down the hall. The voices drifted off, until they were so faint it was impossible to make them out. Her vision stopped blurring and her eyes went back to the door.

"Can we just wait until they leave?" she asked, still whispering. 

Rannok shook his head, body still tense with alarm. "I don't know. Hide under the bed if they come back. I'll be fine, I promise."

I won't, she thought stubbornly, trying to still the trembling in her hands. She would be fine. They both would be fine. The footsteps and voices drew closer again and Sasha squeezed her eyes shut. This time they stopped directly out the door.

Too late! Hide!

The voice echoed through Sasha's head, an alarm call more than anything else, startling her out of her trance. She looked at Rannok, then at the door, then grabbed the front of his shirt and pressed her lips very quickly to his. He jerked back like a startled cat and stared at her, wide-eyed, like she'd just thrown water on him. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Did you just--"

There was no time to respond or to think, because the door was opening. Sasha pressed herself to the back of the bedframe, far away from the door, while he stood and tried to act like nothing was amiss.

"Here he is," a man's voice said in heavily-accented Ascaran. Sasha watched as ankles filtered into the room, first a man's, then another set's, followed by a woman in a dainty skirt, her pale feet bound up in sandals. The toes were long and crooked, and her nails needed to be cut. Sasha wrinkled her nose.

"Smaller than I'd hoped, but he'll do for the childcare," she said. Her voice was clear, colored with a language that didn't sound like Ascaran. Sasha couldn't place the accent. She gritted her teeth together and resisted the urge to go confront her. 

"If you're sure." The second man's voice, same accent. Rannok said nothing as they all shuffled out of the room, but gave a glance back toward her as they dragged him out. She prayed they would not lock the door, then sighed as quietly as she could as they exited down the hallway without the rattling of a chain.

She waited until the voices were gone, then let all the air out of her lungs and climbed out from under the bed. The crow rested outside the window, its head tucked below its wing. It turned its face to greet her when she looked out.

What are you to do now? it asked.

Sasha pressed her lips together for a moment, looking in the direction of the doorway. "I need to get my sword back somehow."

The bird bobbed its head in approval. Good human girl.