Page 5 of Trial of Bronze and Blood
She downs the rest of her wine while Dru places a couple of coins near their empty cups, and the two of them make for the door. Dru opens it for Ovi, the hinges creaking.
“Besides,” Ovi murmurs, a cool gust and lambent firelight catch in her hair as she pulls her hood over her head, “if we’re quick with our unfortunate friend behind the blue door, we can come right ba?—”
The squelching of an arrowhead finding its mark cuts her off.
CHAPTER TWO
DRUSILLA
Splitting the air between the two women, the arrow embeds itself into the back of a man’s skull at the table they just vacated. The dead soldier’s forehead slams onto the wood, blood pooling beneath it.
Deodamnatus. Heart pounding, Dru’s eyes widen at the arrow. She’s more than familiar with the burned wooden shaft, the sharp obsidian arrowhead, the coarse ebony feathers of their native bird now distending from his head.
A Namican arrow.From the rebels across the river.
Dru drops to the ground, grabbing Ovi’s arm and pulling her down with her.
Fear spoils the cries from the crowd. But no more arrows fly through the tabernae, and no one runs through the open door with swords or spears. The two of them share a baffled look.
“Someone took their target practice too far,” Ovi murmurs.
Dru opens her mouth to respond when a second arrow races through the tabernae. It sticks out of the wall beside the bard’s head, the shaft wobbling from the sudden stop. The bard throws up hishands belatedly and drops the lute to the floor with a twang, joining it soon after.
Dru pulls her hood back over her head as well. “Unlikely.”
Crouching low, she and Ovi steal through the open door and into the night. Pockets of unnatural fire ignite the small village, lighting up the dark. Smoke from the burning thatch roofs of nearby houses billows up into the star-pocked skies, obscuring it, the stench burning her nostrils.Of all the nights for this to happen…
Before they can take another step, more black-tipped arrows break through the windows above their heads. Thick shards of cracked glass plunk harmlessly onto their hoods.
Ovi taps her shoulder. “I’ll go commandeer some horses so we can fulfill our orders and get the fuck out of here before war starts.”
Dru nods. “Be careful.”
“Aren’t I always?”
“No, notalways?—”
An arrow wooshes toward Dru, burying itself in the wall beside her right arm.
“No time to argue the point,” Ovi says, hurrying around the building and out of sight.
Guess I’m on my own then.Moving to pull her bronze pugio dagger from its sheath, Dru climbs to her feet?—
—when someone grabs her arm and yanks her aside, right as a barrage of arrows impales the wall. A moment later, and she would’ve been pinned to it, dead.
Not allowing her a moment to breathe, the stranger pulls her around the tabernae, shoving her between the protection of two swollen olive roots. Her head hits the wall hard enough she blinks away stars, her hood slipping down around her ringing ears.
Looking up, she immediately recognizes him as the man from the dark corner inside.I knew I wasn’t imagining him.
She struggles in his iron grip. “Let go of me.”
Instead, he moves closer, crowding her with the breadth of his body and covering her completely with his cloak. She opensher mouth to protest, fingers inching down the wall toward her dagger again. Claiming it was her father’s, her mother gave it to her when she was old enough to hold it, in case someone ever tried to attack her. It’s the only thing she has left that holds any sentimental value to her. Some of the Faithless call that a weakness, but it allows her to hone her anger into a weapon.
The pounding of rushing boots stays her hand.
A group of Phaedran soldiers barrel past them, hurrying from the direction she last saw Ovi headed. But with the two of them hidden beneath the man’s broad shoulders and long black cloak, not a single head turns their way.
Forced to look at him as they pass, he’s less than a head taller than her, though she towers over most Phaedrans. His cloak—which she recognizes to be silk rather than wool—continues to hide most of his face in shadow, leaving only his full chapped lips and square jaw.
