Free Barbarian Prince by Kaitlyn O'Connor Page B

left the other female and her captor behind—left everyone else behind.
    Noelle was relieved. If they hadn’t had their captors as an audience, she would gladly have pursued the conversation to discover what she could about the people while she had the opportunity. But she hadn’t been comfortable discussing the ‘barbarians’ as if they were deaf when she already knew they spoke the same language!
    She didn’t try to strike up a conversation with her captor despite the fact that she seemed to recall something in the manual about hostage situations suggesting that it could be very important to establish oneself as an individual and not allow the captor to distance themselves. She didn’t think yelling at him would promote peace or help her case. And the gallop of the beast jarred every bone in her body and rattled her voice box until she could barely force sounds, other than grunts, out of it. The wind was a horror, as well, snatching her words away as if they were bits of debris and tossing them into the sky. She was surprised the warrior woman had heard her well enough to understand.
    But then again, maybe she hadn’t? Maybe her mind had filled in ‘blanks’ she hadn’t actually heard, and vice versa?
    She was pretty sure she hadn’t misunderstood the woman, but that wasn’t an absolute. She’d reacted to the tone and the woman’s expression, she was certain. It was possible that she and the woman had simply screamed at one another and imagined there was more to the conversation that there had been.
    Unwilling to allow her mind to wander to frightening possibilities of what she was about to have to face, she focused on observing.
    There was more to see than a layman might have thought. Granted, the blustery wind made it pretty difficult to see a lot, but she could see New Earth in the sky. Low on the horizon now and swathed in the snow and ice churned up by the wind, it was still visible and recognizable. She’d gotten a similar view when they were approaching their new home and she recognized it.
    Actually, she’d seen this world, as well, since they’d been approaching the closest alignment of their separate cycles.
    Snow drifts had piled high enough to blanket most everything, but here and there she saw rocks exposed and when she looked around she saw they were following a trail along a mountain.
    She was sorry she’d checked that out! She didn’t really like the idea of hanging off the side of a mountain on top of an unpredictable animal that might or might not be surefooted!
    She turned her attention to the animal in question.
    Actually, it seemed surprisingly tame. Maybe subdued by the frigid temperatures?
    It seemed unlikely the added weight of carrying her would overwhelm such a burly creature.
    It had fur. If she wasn’t mistaken, the same fur on the skin she was wearing!
    So this beast must be a primary sustainer? Beast of burden, food, clothing?
    She was sorry Monica wasn’t there to analyze everything and give her feedback—for about two seconds. Then she realized that was an awful thing to wish upon her friend!
    Then she began to worry about her own situation again and to worry and wonder if Monica had managed to make it back to the colony.
    It was a useless exercise and just plain scary besides.
    It might have taken a supreme effort to tear her mind away, however, except that they were hailed from somewhere above them and that brought her attention instantly back to her surroundings.
    She discovered that they were nearing a gate of some kind. It looked like a gate that had simply been set in an opening between two towering stones—part of the mountain pass they were on. Then she realized that there was a wooden bridge in front of it and that the stones were too regular to be natural.
    They were nearing a constructed structure of some kind.
    It looked a lot like the ancient stone Earth fortresses that had been built during the dark ages.
    Her belly instantly knotted with