Reaver’s Prize by Elin Wyn

“Hello? Is anyone here?”
I’d meant to shout, but something about the oppressive silence of the room muffled my voice, made my words no more than a faint squeak.
An answer came, but not from anyone nearby.
A trill came from the broad metal band around my left wrist.
A flash of blue light.
A blast of static, then a voice. A human voice.
Kyla, one of the other girls who had been with me on the Smarniks Dream.
My heart soared. I wasn’t alone. Everything was going to be fine.
Get to the mountains. Assume everything here will try to kill you.
What?
Then a hulking shadow broke away from the surrounding darkness.
Man shaped, but far too tall, shoulders too broad, he was at my side before I had fully registered his presence.
One massive hand clamped over my wrist, covering the comm bangle, nearly muting Kyla’s message.
“Please,” I begged. “That’s my friend, I need to know what she’s saying.”
But that was as far as I got.
With a quick twist he pulled me tight against his body, my back to his chest, pressing his other hand over my mouth.
You must be silent.
I froze, rigid against him.
That didn’t sound good.
Not at all.