THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

get Gabby and Tony free fast enough before one of these miniature terrors speared them. And the sticks they used were lethal.
    I followed the blond-haired girl called Etoi who plodded along behind the leader. Callan. Nice name that didn’t reflect his personality.
    I raised my voice. “Where’re we going, Callan?”
    Not a word or motion of acknowledgment. Again. He just kept marching at a brutalizing pace through the thick and muggy forest. If he followed a path, I was having a hard time detecting it, especially with the way the jungle grew back so quickly. Something niggled in my memory that I should be able to read a trail. But why?
    I spoke louder this time. “Who are you people?”
    Etoi made a disparaging sound in her throat, “You teks really think we’re so easily fooled?”
    I was tired of being called names I didn’t recognize, but doubted Etoi would believe me if I argued that I did not know what a tek was. Would she answer if I made it sound as though I talked to her this time instead of Callan? “Is the village far?”
    Silence.
    “Is the village your home?”  I pecked away at her, going for tiny bits of information in hopes she’d slip and give me something.
    Etoi shook her head until her ringlets danced. She chuckled sarcastically, but finally spoke, emphasizing her words that had a funny accent beneath them. “Don’t be a dugurat.”
    “A dugurat?”
    “As if you don’t know,” Etoi muttered. “You put them here.”
    Walking third captive in line behind me, Tony spoke up. “Think she just called you a moron in another language, Xena.”
    I cast him a droll glare over my shoulder.
    Gabby, who was right behind me cut in. “Astute observation from someone who has probably been called that in every language.”
    When I faced forward, Etoi turned around, walking backwards. “Make fun all you want because you will–”
    “ Enough , Etoi.” Callan cut her off.
    Her eyes transmitted a promise of retaliation for getting her yelled at, as if I’d caused her to be in trouble. She spun around and stomped away.
    “Never thought I’d miss being at school,” Gabby murmured as she moved closer behind me.
    I gave a quick check over my shoulder at Gabby. She now wore a wary, distant look I started to think might be the first honest face she’d shown since I’d met her.
    She trudged along looking like some exotic flower left out in the heat too long. Her ponytails and ribbons drooped, as did her shoulders.
    Next to the droopy flower, I probably looked like a wilted weed. But I had a sense of this being my normal state. 
    Trudging along two steps behind Gabby, Tony had a grim set to his mouth and squared shoulders. As if he’d felt me watching him for a moment, he lifted his eyes and gave a half-smile with as much humor as a man going to his death. “The teachers will never believe us if we make it back to the Institute.”
    What could matter so much for him to worry more about a school project than the trouble we faced? I tried to encourage him. “We’ll get out of this.” 
    A sharp poke in my ribs took my breath.
    I swung back around to face forward and found Etoi walking backwards again with one of the sword-type weapons. Some kind of grayish-brown hardwood with the tight grain of dense wood that had been honed to a lethal edge and deadly tip. Her lips thinned with menace. That’s when I noticed Callan had moved several long strides ahead of her, providing Etoi a chance to speak freely again.
    Fueling my own expression with plenty of foul mood from a long day chocked with pain, I lifted my vine-wrapped hands in a quick move and shoved the tip of her sword away from my chest.
    She flipped the blade back in place just as quickly. “I’m not one of the children to easily disarm.”  Her smile promised pain if I gave her reason to justify slashing my stomach open. In fact, her expression dared me to fight back so she’d have an excuse. “You have no value here and would be wise to remember that.”
    She seemed to like hearing herself talk. I changed my tactic to a more friendly approach. “At least tell me where here is.”
    “Don’t act as stupid as you look, tek-nah-tee.”
    I turned that on her. “If you’re as intelligent as you look, you’d realize I’m telling the truth and have no idea what a tek-nah-tee is or where I am.”  A pretty consistent state of mind for me today . 
    Tight lines across her face eased in thought. She clearly considered whether I spoke the