Free People of Babel (Ark Chronicles 3) by Vaughn Heppner Page A

to the high grass beyond the rock . Perhaps Minos had crawled into them for concealment. She didn’t see any trail of blood.
    “ Help me, Hilda.”
    “ Minos?” she asked.
    The grass rustled . Minos rose. His dark hair shone luxuriously, perfectly combed. No dirt smeared his cheeks. He grinned and seemed unhurt.
    “ I’m glad you came,” he said, with laughter in his voice.
    “ Ariel said a wolf tore you.”
    “ A beast did, yes,” he said.
    Hilda glanced about , confused. “Is it near?”
    “ Very near,” he said.
    She raised her javelin as her heart beat wildly.
    “There,” he said, pointing with his chin.
    She pivoted . He parted grass, approaching her. She frowned. “You’re unafraid,” she said.
    “ Now I am,” he said.
    Where he had pointed , grass now rustled.
    Hilda yelled, and she stamped forward, with her muscles quivering as she readied to throw.
    “No!” Minos shouted. “It’s Thebes! Don’t skewer Thebes.”
    In bewilderment , Hilda stared at Minos. Thebes indeed rose out of concealment.
    “ Here, let go of that,” Minos said. “Don’t stick us.” He drew the javelin out of her grasp.
    “ Good thinking,” Olympus said, rising behind Hilda.
    She blinked, more confused than ever . “Where’s the beast? Where’s the wolf?”
    Minos tapped her on the shoulder.
    “What?” she asked.
    “ You’re the beast,” Minos said.
    “ Me?”
    Thebes and Olympus closed in, grinning, evil chuckles bubbling out of them . She felt dwarfed and suddenly in terrible danger.
    “ You tore my heart,” Minos told her. “So doesn’t that make you a beast?”
    Hilda became uncomfortably aware that she was alone with them in the woods . She tried to grab her javelin.
    Minos shook his head.
    She backed away from him until Thebes dropped a heavy paw onto her shoulder.
    “ Let go of me,” she said.
    Thebes laughed and Olympus reached for her.
    Hilda squirmed. Fingers tightened, cruelly digging into her flesh. She flinched and grabbed for her belt dagger.
    Minos pinned her wrist . “You’re not going to cut us, little Hilda.”
    “ Why are you doing this?” she whispered, more terrified than the time Gilgamesh had shot her father with an arrow.
    Minos breathed in her face as Thebes held her arms. “You strut about the village with your amber necklace, thinking you’re our queen. Well, you’re not. You’re a wicked little girl trying to entice us.” Minos leered. “Now, I’m enticed, little Hilda.” He gripped her blouse and yanked hard.
    She screamed as the three men laughed, closing around her.
    Minos ripped again, exposing her from the waist up.
    “ Hilda!” a loud and familiar voice shouted.
    “ Daddy!” she screamed. “I’m by the rock!”
    The three youths stared at one another in shock.
    “You said Beor was gone,” Olympus hissed.
    Minos flung a hand over her mouth as Hilda sucked down air to shout again. “Down,” he whispered.
    The three youths sank into the tall grass, pulling Hilda with them.
    “Hilda!” Beor shouted. “Where are you?”
    She squirmed until a dagger touched her throat.
    “Silence,” Thebes whispered, his eyes promising death.
    Minos eased up for a look.
    “Down, you fool,” Olympus said, yanking Minos into cover.
    A donkey brayed, and as hot hands held her , Hilda heard the familiar creak of chariot wheels.
    “ Do you want your father to find you like this?” Minos whispered into her ear.
    “ We should kill her,” Thebes said. “For Beor will kill us if he finds us now.”
    Terror blossomed in Hilda’s belly. And she loathed the grimy hands on her bare flesh. “Oh, Jehovah,” she prayed, “give me courage. Help me think.”
    “ Hilda!” Beor shouted. “Where are you?”
    Her father must be by the boulder. Minos had become pale. Thebes trembled.
    “ That was her voice before,” a Scout said. “I’d swear it.”
    “ I know it was,” Beor said.
    Hilda didn’t want to die or be raped. So she bit Minos’s hand, tasting blood. Minos