Chapter 4Tuxtax hid in the shadows as he watched the bandits surrounding his target. Em was hiding in the top of an ancient tree, perched upon on of the mighty oak’s giant limbs. When they had first met, Em had been a lanky-limbed child with a shy smile and a tangled braid of messy blond hair; as an adult, the only thing that had remained constant was her hair color. Even though her body was shrouded in the amorphous sheath of her threadbare dress, her bare wrists and ankles proved that she had outgrown her peers. She was covered in an accumulation of grime from hard labor, but the look of hatred and defiance on her face as she sneered down at the men beneath her revealed that her spirit had not yet been broken. Seeing the confidence in her body language and the ease of her strategy filled
