Kaelyn threw her blanket into a corner of the kitchen that she hoped wouldn’t see a lot of traffic in the morning. She wished she could have curled up in front of the hearth, but she’d been warned by the kitchen boy that the fireplace would get busy in a candle mark or two. Now the hearth was empty. The kitchen boy had fed a small log onto it moments before and had curled back into his blanket under the long oak worktable. Perhaps she should follow suit. She didn’t think she’d be able to get any sleep on the hard, cold floor, but then again, the night had gone so slowly that maybe she was numb enough to pass out.
She laid down, pillowed her head on one arm and wrapped herself up like the kitchen boy. Cat wove his way to her side through the maze of chairs and table legs. He curled into the curve between her legs and torso.
“It’s about time,” she said to him, scratching him behind his ears.
Cat leaned into her hand and purred.
She closed her eyes, trying to relax, but the events of the evening continued to run in a tireless loop through her mind. Talar had given Gerid a lesson in the clansmen’s language so the young nobleman could share basic phrases with Bledig, their new companion. But she had no idea what to say to Talar, let alone Bledig, and had remained quiet and watched. She was certain she’d unwillingly memorized every black swirl on Talar’s wrists while silently learning his native tongue.
Shifting, she tried to get more comfortable without disturbing Cat. She wasn’t successful on either account and his warmth left her side. She rolled over, squeezing her eyes shut. Her couple dozen northern words swam around and around in her head, dancing with Talar’s tribal markings.
She rolled over again, opening her eyes to stare into deep, gold-green eyes.
Get up. There’s trouble. The urgency of the voice sent her scrambling to her feet before she realized it was entirely in her head.
Don’t just stand there. Get out.
“Trouble. Right.” She grabbed her belt with sheathed sword and rushed to the door between the kitchen and the common room, realizing how crazy it was to assume Cat was speaking to her. Regardless, she paused to listen at the door, just in case. It was quiet, save for the odd snore from the sleeping men beyond.
It didn’t sound like trouble.
Outside, silly.
You better be right. Or you’d have ruined a perfectly good sleep, she thought at Cat.
Liar.
Well, almost good.
The cat gave a snort in her head.
Fine. She slipped into the common room and waded through the sea of sleeping bodies, searching for Gerid’s shock of blond hair amongst all the brown. They were by the stairs, huddled around their packs and gear.
She knelt beside Talar and reached to wake him.
Fire!
The word jolted through her. She jerked, lost her balance, and tumbled back onto a clansman behind her. He woke with a start and barked a string of angry words, but his expression soften when he saw her.
She prodded Talar with her foot and tried to regain her balance. “Talar, wake up.”
The clansman grabbed her around the waist, cooing something in northern.
She prodded Talar harder. “Wake up. There’s a fire.”
And bandits, said Cat.
Great. Her bad luck hadn’t stayed south of the Halyns.
She twisted in the clansman grasp. “Let. Go.”
He grinned and ran a hand down her chest, making her squirm.
Obviously tone couldn’t break the language barrier. She elbowed him in the face. He yanked her closer and she slammed the hilt of her sword into his gut. His grip slipped and she tumbled onto Talar.
“Kaelyn?” he mumbled, eyes half open.
“Bandits.” She untangled herself from both men and climbed over others in an attempt to gain her footing while moving to the door. She didn’t check to see if Talar followed, or pause to apologize to any of the men in her way. Finally free of the crowd, she staggered to the door and opened it.
An axe blade caught the moonlight and swung toward her. She twisted out of the way, the blade whooshing past her, and met the gaze of a shocked bandit.
Her heart pounded once . . . twice. . . .
Someone behind the bandit yelled, and the man with the axe leapt forward. Kaelyn kicked him back, and slammed the door shut. She dropped the heavy bar across it and scanned the waking men before her. A thump reverberated against the door and she turned to see the axe head poking through the wood a hand’s-breadth away from her head.
“Bandits!” She rushed back into the sea of bodies.
Get out, said Cat. Fire.
“What do you think I’m trying to do?”
The door splintered and the bandits yanked off the bar.
“We have to get out of here,” said Talar.
Kaelyn gave him the driest look she could muster.
“Well, the front door is taken, how about the back?” asked Gerid, grabbing his saddle bags.
No, Fire!
Kaelyn buckled on her sword belt and drew her blade. “No good.”
“Front or back,” said Talar, “there are only two doors and no windows on this floor.”
“I think the odds are better with the front door,” said Kaelyn.
Bandits poured into the room, starling sleepy clansmen.
“What’s wrong with the back again?” asked Gerid.
The kitchen boy ran into the common room, followed by a cloud of heavy black smoke.
Clansmen scrambled to meet the attack. Steel clanged against steel and thudded against leather. Men yelled and grunted, writhing and jerking to attack and defend.
The bandits pushed the clansmen back, and more bandits rushed in.
Would you get out of there?
“Come up with something and I’ll gladly oblige.”
“What?” asked Gerid.
Upstairs, out one of the eastern windows. There’s a tree.
She snorted. Of course. Cat’s solution was ridiculous and brilliant, and typically feline.
“If we can find a window on the second floor, there’s a tree on the east side of the building.”
Clansmen gathered on the balcony and down the stairs. A flash caught Kaelyn’s attention and Bledig shoved her out of the way of a swinging blade. Their gazes locked and something passed through his expression, but Kaelyn didn’t know what.
Bledig jerked back to the assailant and the moment was gone. Kaelyn’s gut churned. He thought her a warrior and yet all she really wanted was to run. But there was nowhere to go. Bledig, Talar, and even Gerid were now immersed in the melee, fighting side by side with the clansmen. She supposed it was only luck that she was a woman–or that none of the bandits had noticed her sword–and didn’t think her a threat.
She turned to the door, knowing if she left she’d be on her own.
No. She was done with running away from her friends.
A bandit stepped into the doorway, his gaze falling on her. He tipped his head, ever-so-slightly, and a chill raced over her. He was the bandit on horseback who’d attacked her in that field all those days ago.
He shoved through the crowd, intent on her.
She widened her stance and raised her blade. This was going to end. She didn’t know how or why he’d followed her this far, but enough was enough. If she could incapacitate him, maybe she’d get some answers.
He lunged at her. She stepped aside, slicing for his arm, but he jerked his blade around and blocked her strike.
She flicked her wrist to get around his guard, but her blade was too wide and heavy for the maneuver and it merely slid up the length of his. “Who are you?”
He narrowed his eyes. “So, it’s true.”
A clansman stumbled toward her and she twisted out of the way. The bandit swung at her head. She ducked but he lunged forward, shoving her. The stairs dug into her calves. She toppled back and the bandit slashed down, knocking her sword away.
“I have my orders.” He leaned close.
There was something so familiar about him, and not just from the fight in the field.
“You shouldn’t have been in Father’s warehouse.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “I what?”
He raised his sword. “I’m sorry.”
His eyes suddenly widened and he shuddered, arms still above his head. He jerked again and blood bubbled over his lip and down his chin. His sword clattered to the stairs and he collapsed, dead, pinning her.
She struggled to breathe against his weight. Above her, Talar yanked his blade free and shoved the bandit aside.
“The tavern is on fire, you know.”
She stared at him, her mind whirling.
“Besides, it’s not fair to toy with them.” He grabbed the bandit’s sword and handed it to her.
A bandit rushed toward them. She grabbed the offered blade and lunged under Talar’s arm, slicing the bandit’s neck. Blood sprayed her and she remembered to keep her mouth shut this time.
She turned to Talar and sucked in a steadying breath. “If the building is on fire, I suggest we get out.”
It sounded much braver than she felt. She leapt into the battle, determined to clear a path to the door. Time slowed. Everything slowed: the bandits, the clansmen, her heart and breath. Everything but her movements. And in that moment, she knew the most efficient way to achieve her goal. She knew the limitations of the heavy, three-foot blade in her hand, and she knew that she could never match any of these men in strength.
She spun through a moving latticework of blades, sliding her sword between pieces of mismatched armor to find her deadly mark. Bandits dropped around her, showering her in blood, deafening her with screams. But they were distant and insubstantial, floating around her.
She fought out the door into the muddy yard. Clansmen poured out of the tavern behind her, chasing bandits. Smoke and yells billowed around her and time leapt back to normal.
Her knees buckled and she stomach roiled. She staggered to a stone half-fence and swallowed back the bile burning her throat.
Bledig and Gerid stood side-by-side in the center of the yard, covered with blood and soot. Talar talked to a clansman a few feet away, just as filthy. Flames engulfed the second-story of the tavern and gray smoke blotted out the stars and moon. A great snap resounded. More flames shot up and the roof collapsed with a shower of sparks.
The bandit had said she shouldn’t have been in that warehouse.
Father’s warehouse.
His father? Or theirs?
Would that make him her brother? If he was her brother, wouldn’t she be able to remember him? She didn’t even remember a warehouse.
With another snap the left side of the second-story fell away.
All this destruction, all this death. Her gut churned at the thought that she was responsible for it.
