In The Darkness. Damantha Makarova

out of the flaps that covered the cart’s backside, she noticed two samurai walking beside the cart, and another two – riding horses a little bit further.

      Something told her that she won’t have much time left on the road to escape. She needed to get away, even though she didn’t even know where she was – these men obviously dragged her through the rift.

      She found a bottle of absinthe in one of the boxes nearby and took it. Her head was hurting, and she definitely needed some food, but that was not as essential as running away from her captors. She gulped down some alcohol and thought that it could serve as a great distraction.

      Kara steadied her nerves before jumping out of the cart and hitting one of the men with her foot. The bottle flew out of her hand into one of the riders and as he unleashed his sword, it shattered the glass into pieces, making the horses jump to the sides of the road. Not wasting her time, Kara hit the last man with the sword, meeting his own, and kicked him back. Before he could dart forward to her – she was already running away into the forest.

      This time she was running far longer, before one of the riders managed to catch up to her and hit her from behind. She found herself in the dark again even before she fell to the ground.

      As she opened her eyes once more, she felt very weak. She tried getting up and noticed her hands chained. The heavy shackles rattled and she heard a man laughing in the far corner of the cart. She looked at him and saw one of the samurai men sitting there with his katana ready to be unsheathed at any time.

      The young woman sat up on her knees and sighed. Chains were obviously a serious complication – as was the guard that was watching her. But she had to do something – she couldn’t just give up and let them take her hostage!

      She looked around and noticed the little cans of food and spices.

      Kara knew that she was hungry, and didn’t mind the guard, so she took the box down to the floor and started going through the cans.

      Her guard shouted something, but she ignored him and kept looking for anything to eat and drink and – maybe – for a way to escape his watchful eyes.

      She found a pack of dried meat and opened it, biting down on one of the pieces. When the guard shouted something again, she simply threw the pack to his feet, offering him to take one and shut up. But he didn’t even look at it, standing up to approach her.

      Before he could even touch her to push her away from the box, she found what she was looking for – a small tin can with powdered chili pepper. Kara opened it and threw the contents into his face, blinding him.

      He screamed from pain and anger, but it was too late for him – she hit him with the chain and threw it over his neck, pulling him down and choking the man.

      When the flaps flew apart and the others looked inside the cart – Kara shouted at them, feeling the guard under her lie motionless.

      The samurai threatened her with their weapons, but didn’t approach. Instead, they stood there, at the back of the cart that was stopped.

      Finally, Kara saw their leader step up. He looked at yet another dead man and smirked, then started clapping to the young woman.

      «Very… Impressive!» he said with a harsh accent.

      He gestured her to get out of the cart, and Kara decided not to test his patience – something in those black eyes seemed far more dangerous than the promise of violence she had ever seen in any man’s eyes.

      She slowly stood up and walked to the man. And as he stepped away, she jumped down onto the road and looked at him without any fear.

      But as soon as she did that – a katana appeared at her throat.

      «I have been… patient and kind.» The commander said. «And I lost four men. Now, since you will not stay calm… you will walk.»

      Kara growled, and the samurai men quickly shackled her to the back of the cart, cutting off any possibility for her escape.

      «Stop killing my men.» The commander smirked again and went back to his horse.

      Kara was left to walk behind the cart under the watchful eyes of several samurai men, who were now more composed and alert because she had killed so many of their comrades.

      Fortunately, the road wasn’t long, and by the time evening started creeping in, Kara noticed a castle ahead. It was big and very beautiful, and looked like it was meant for someone very rich and powerful. In terms of the samurai – it was fit for a Shogun.

      When they arrived – the gates opened immediately and the samurai entered the castle grounds. Kara managed to notice that they, in fact, had a few carts, filled with different goods they stole. At least two of those were filled with her own things, including a number of weapons she salvaged – from a collection of knives and daggers to a few swords and spears she found.

      One of the men freed her chains from the cart and started dragging her inside the castle, following his commander.

      Feeling surrounded and helpless among the hundreds of armed men and women that were inside the castle, Kara felt a pinch of hopelessness in her heart. She knew nothing of their reasons and couldn’t understand why she was still alive – even though she killed four men in the raiding party that captivated her.

      The samurai took her through endless corridors and stairs, finally bringing her to a large underground storage hall, which had a couple of cages standing near the far wall. They threw her in, and locked the door before she could get to her feet.

      «Sleep well.» The commander smiled to the young woman through the bars and left.

      Growling under her breath, Kara looked around, but found no way to escape – especially, since they left her shackled. Furious at this fact, she started kicking and hitting the bars of her cage, but none of her captors could hear her – they already left.

      Soon enough, she was so tired, humbled and hurting, that she fell to her knees, gasping for air and trying not to let tears fall from her eyes.

      2

      * * *

      Kara’s awakening was brutal – someone kicked the cage door and this made the young woman jump up, ready to fight. The shackles, however, made it hard to take a proper fighting stance.

      As soon as she saw the three samurai behind the cage door, she growled – she was not about to give up without a fight. Two of those men were armed with long poles, and were ready to strike as soon as the third man opened the cage door.

      Knowing that she won’t be able to fight off three men at once, Kara growled again.

      «Hands!» the first man commanded.

      Kara leaped to him in an attempt to knock him down, but the other two were quicker than she thought they would be – in a matter of seconds they caught her by the neck and pressed her to the bars on the opposite wall of the cage, leaving her no opportunity to move at all.

      «Enough!» a woman’s voice sounded behind the men and they relaxed, but only a little.

      Holding Kara captive between the poles and bars, they moved aside and Kara noticed a beautiful young woman in a fine white and red kimono. Unlike the kimono Kara knew to be worn in ancient Japan in her world – this one was made differently and looked more like that a samurai would wear, making it more similar to a men’s haorihakama.

      «Let her go.» The woman ordered, and the samurai stepped back.

      Having no more force pushing her into the bars, Kara fell to her knees, feeling that the men were about to choke her if it weren’t for the mysterious woman that came to her rescue.

      «Get those shackles off her!» the woman ordered, and the men complied.

      As soon as her hands were free, Kara jumped to her feet and landed a blow on one of the men, sending him to the floor.

      Before