Page 236 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
“Behind you!”
Chapter
Fifty-Four
ALLIE
Ispun, arrow already in my hand, as a masked figure lunged from above.
He fell down on my shoulders, throwing me off balance. My arm swung, but the tip of the arrow hit the copper mask, not his neck.
His dagger gleamed in the darkness, asking for my life.
The air moved before I did.
Nadya’s axe impaled in his stomach just as the dagger went down.
He exploded in ash, she howled in pain, clutching her arm and leaning onto me. I caught her in my arms as her axe thudded to the ground.
“Son of a foul seed,” she hissed through her teeth. “He got my shoulder.”
If the dagger had punctured to the bone, it might have shredded through tendons–or dislocated it completely. Judging from the limpness, it had.
Nadya was not fighting again today.
She struggled to even pick her axe back up.
As I helped her back to her feet, the final torch went out unceremoniously.
Complete and utter darkness pressed against us.
My heart threatened to beat out of my chest.
What was an archer without vision?
“Come here,” I whispered, the words getting lost in the slashes of steel. I slid her other arm around my shoulders. “I’m getting you to safety.”
“No, I can–”
“You can shut up to not give away our position,” I said, some of that First Daughter sting returning.
I grabbed onto her ribs to steady her, her uniform coated in a grimy layer of ash. But the blood from her wound had already reached her chest and back, smearing my fingers.
Nadya was losing too much blood.
I let my ears guide me as I widened my steps. My boots would hit the wall before we did.
Too much of her weight leaned on me, but I didn’t stop, even as I felt my muscles protesting.
Finally, my boot hit stone, the pain shooting up my leg.
I let go of her torso for a second, bloody fingers feeling around the opening.
Thuds rattled the walls around us. Beats, codes, maybe cries for help.
I didn’t know, but I knew I had to save Nadya.
The gap was large enough that we could squeeze through, one after the other, but hopefully small enough that none of the attackers bothered with it.
