Page 98 of A Tribute of Fire

They would lose.

You didn’t,a voice whispered inside me, but I brushed it aside. That had been different. I’d been in situations where I had been able to face them one at a time. The priestesses and acolytes were training for war.

Zalira had just jabbed the end of her staff into Suri’s gut when a high-pitched scream rent the air.

It had come from outside. All the fighting ceased and an uneasy silence settled over the room. The scream came again. We were close to an exit and we ran out into the courtyard to see what was happening.

A woman with a torn dress and wild hair was running toward the temple grounds, screaming as she went.

She was being chased by nearly a dozen men.

“Help me! Someone help me!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“Sanctuary!” the woman called out as she burst through the archway and collapsed in a heap in front of the fountain. “I claim sanctuary!”

Antiope shoved her way through the crowd. All the women from the gymnasium were lined up on the outer edges of the courtyard. No one moved to help the woman. I took a step forward but Io put a hand on my forearm, keeping me in place.

“Close the gates!” Maia called out. There were two iron doors on either side of the archway that could be swung into place and locked together.

“No!” Antiope yelled back, pointing her sword at the oncoming men. “Leave them open!”

The men drew closer and the disheveled woman got to her feet and rushed up the steps but stayed on the patio, not entering the temple. The men pursuing her stopped at the archway, not crossing over.

“Return her to us!” one of the men yelled.

“She has claimed sanctuary, and by law, we will protect her,” Antiope replied. “Men may not enter this sacred ground.”

One of the men took his helmet off, throwing it to the ground. “I do not believe in superstition, and that woman belongs to me.”

“She belongs to herself!” someone in the crowd called back, and there were several murmurs of agreement.

“I will not ask again! Return her to me now!”

“Come and claim her, then.” Antiope gave a terrible grin as the man entered the courtyard. I realized that she had ordered the gate to be left open because she wanted the men to break the rules. Half the men followed the first.

Io turned, burying her face in Suri’s shoulder, as if she knew what was about to happen.

“Stay back,” Antiope said to all the women lined up to watch. “Do not interfere.”

Then she approached the men alone, sword at her side. “It is against the law of the goddess for you to be here. Leave now or face the consequences.”

“What do you think you’re going to do?” That first man laughed, as did his companions who had joined him.

“You have made your choice, and now you will pay with your life,” she said.

There was a new round of laughter from the men.

With a war cry Antiope quickly swung her blade and removed the first man’s head from his neck with a single stroke. There was a stunned silence when his head fell onto the courtyard with a sickening thud.

Then the other men attacked Antiope, all at the same time. Not one of them could reach her, though. She not only defended herself from every oncoming stroke but found openings to slice and stick and stab.

She moved so quickly and surely, never missing a step as the sound of metal clanging filled the air around us. She whirled and spun, hitting away every weapon extended toward her. The men were shouting, some yelling in pain, their expressions serious and angry.

But Antiope bore a ferocious smile on her face, delighting in the carnage, like she lived for this kind of thing and wanted more of it.

Three men collapsed to the ground in heaps, clearly dead. The three left alive ran back to those waiting at the archway, limping and clutching their sides.

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