Marilyn Todd - Man Eater

Utterly helpless, she was wrenched from the palisade. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Don’t let me die, she prayed. Don’t let me die in a grainsack. Not a grainsack. Not gagged and trussed and Wait a minute. Claudia gulped at the hope that dangled in front of her. He could have suffocated or strangled her at any point and he hadn’t. Why not?

Because her death must appear accidental, that’s why not. Dark night. Storm. Terrified beasts who might rampage any second. Poor Claudia. Took fright and ran. Didn’t know where she was going. Until it was too late.

Very soon, then, he would have to remove the evidence. But how? Pulling off the sack would free her to fight back, unless… of course! She’d have to be unconscious.

Bugger that for a game of knucklebones.

As the attacker fought to heave his struggling bundle over the peak of the earthworks, she let out a short moan and fell limp. Heaven knows there were enough rocks about, any one could have knocked her cold. But would he fall for it?

Minutes passed and nothing happened. Was this a test? Would a boot ram into her ribs any second and expose her trickery? Or was he taking advantage of the lull to get his wind back?

The tension was as terrifying as the struggle. Then he grabbed the top of the sack and yanked, and she prayed that in tipping a dead weight out in the dark, he wouldn’t be concentrating on where her hand went.

It closed over a rock.

Seizing hold of her ankles, he began to lug her over the brow. Above the storm and the growls and the trumpeting, she could hear him wheezing with the effort.

Sinister splashes came from the water below and she felt her heart lurch. Timing was crucial…

When he leaned forward to push his unconscious victim down the bank, Claudia lashed out. There was a sickening squelch as stone drove into flesh, and his mouth formed a wide O as the cry was drowned by a clap of thunder. Stunned only momentarily, his face twisted in fury and he swung towards her. With reflexes dulled by the fight, she just had time to brace herself as strong hands closed round her throat. The night, low and heavy, obscured her attacker’s face. Who are you? Why are you doing this? Thumbs pressed into her neck, deeper and deeper…then suddenly one hand released her and they both stumbled.

Blinded by the blood in his eyes, her assailant had lost his balance. As he looked round for a foothold, the rock she still clutched in her fist caught him on the nose, and this time she made no mistake in the force she should use. His nose exploded under the impact, his hands flew up to protect himself and, in that split second, he realized he had lost. A second cry rent the air as he stumbled backwards, his feet scrabbling furiously on the bank, his hands clawing gouges in the mud as the momentum carried him down the bank towards the snapping jaws of hell.

Then, in a flash of silver lightning, Claudia saw for the first time the face of the person who was trying to kill her.

‘Janus!’

For a split second the shock was so great that she couldn’t breathe, let alone move, and when she did recover, it came as a bigger shock still to find her instinct was to pull, rather than push.

Using one of the larger rocks as leverage, Claudia flung herself flat and stretched out her arm. ‘Take it!’ she yelled. ‘Take my hand!’

The face below was white with terror, panic barely a short gasp away.

You could see the dilemma. The loose earth had slipped far enough, and like a burr on a blanket, her attacker was stuck on the side of the embankment. To move would court disaster.

The words ‘Fetch help’ were mouthed to her, but it was too late. The rains had already begun.

‘No time,’ she yelled back, as the look of bewilderment on her assailant’s face deepened. ‘Take my hand!’

They started with just a few large drops, yet within seconds a cataract was falling from the sky, beating the parched earth like a drum, the overflow gushing down gulleys.

‘Quick!’

There was no time to dither. Any second now and the packed earthworks would turn to slippery mud. In the waters below, stippled with raindrops, larger shapes twisted and dived.

Claudia strained forward, her hair plastered flat to her face. ‘It’s your only chance!’

Like most opportunities, this came but the once. With a hiss, the side of the bank began to slip forward, the gap between them widening with obscene slowness. For several seconds, inhuman scrabbling kept the burr on the blanket, but the torrents had turned the earth to slime. There was only one direction left.

Claudia felt her own weight slide and she lurched at the rock with both hands, throwing herself on top of it. The angle she landed and the desperation she needed to cling on gave her no choice but to watch.

And listen. Above the howling of the wind and the battering of the rain, unearthly screeches rent the air. Then, mercifully, the sky began to go dark, yet she could still hear the frantic thrashings, the snapping of jaws, the crushing of bone even as the blackness closed in…

‘Claudia! Claudia, wake up!’

Someone was hitting her. Godsdammit, someone was slapping her face.

‘It’s all right, you’re safe. It’s over.’

Now someone was holding her wrists.

‘Dammit, Claudia, stop kicking me.’

‘Marcus?’ Where was she? Why were security policemen holding her down? ‘Marcus?’

‘I like it when you call me Marcus. Makes you sound sweet and pliable, warm-hearted and understanding.’

‘Clog off.’

‘That’s better. Thought for a minute you were losing your touch.’

Claudia sat up. ‘What happened to my head?’

‘You’ve had a knock,’ Orbilio replied, supporting her shoulders, ‘but I reckon you’ll live.’

Claudia looked round. She was lying in the lee of one of the animal sheds, camels by the sound of it, where he must have carried her. The rain was hammering down on the roof. ‘There’s a lump on my temple the size of an ostrich egg.’

‘Quail’s egg,’ he corrected, wiping her hair off her face and wrapping his cloak round her shoulders. ‘So stop trawling for sympathy. Can you stand?’ He helped her gently to her feet.

‘How did you find me?’

‘Your wrap. I found it lying on the path, ripped to shreds.’

‘Oh.’ She wanted to thank him, but didn’t know how. ‘What are all those lights?’

‘Once I got you to safety, I sent for help. They’re searching for the body. Er-I’m presuming there is a body to find?’

Claudia nodded numbly. She wanted to tell him what had happened, but for some reason her teeth wouldn’t stop chattering and her hands seemed to be shaking like an old man with palsy.

He shouted for one of the slaves to come over. ‘Help Mistress Seferius to the house, will you? Give her a sleeping draught and-’

‘No.’ If her mouth wouldn’t work properly, at least he’d understand the violent shaking of her head. ‘I’m coming with you.’

‘No, you’re not.’

She tried to say, try and stop me, but it came out like a death rattle. Instead, she pushed him aside and set off in the lashing rain towards the embankment, her torn tunic flapping and her calves caked with mud. She had to see this through to the finish. Barely a dozen paces later, her knees turned traitor.

‘Silly bitch,’ he said, grinning at her from ear to ear. ‘Come along.’

Scooping her into his arms, he carried her to the top of the bank and set her down on a wide, flat rock well clear of any landslips. ‘Stay,’ he ordered, as though addressing a dog.

Hell, she couldn’t move if she tried, but it was a good vantage point. A hundred torches had been lit, guttering in the deluge but still managing to survive. Ladders and ropes had been brought along for safety, since dusty paths had turned to quagmires, irrigation channels to flash floods. Gingerly she rubbed the lump on her forehead and huddled deep under Orbilio’s weatherproof cloak.