Page 81 of Unrivaled
I caught it before my mind realized what my body was doing, the weight settling into my palm, too top-heavy, the handle too short.I was still sifting through those sensations as I slashed at a grabbing hand, shocked when I felt the blade bite into flesh.Longer.It’s longer.The thought was slow.My limbs weren’t as I ducked from seeking grips.
“To the lady!”
The call came from the other side of the sea of ravenous faces, just as thunderous as Thomas’ shout, and just as chilling.
“Grab the fucking ropes!”
Something ran into me.I bounced off the wall, swinging, but my target was already clutching at the geyser of blood coming from their groin in rapid spurts that hit my skirts.The pressure from those spurts was shocking.Somehow, over the chaos, or under it, I heard the sound of it against the fabric of my skirts.Like a horse pissing, or buckets of water being hurled at close-range.But simultaneously not like either of those.It hit me so hard I didn’t even know if it’d soaked into the fabric or bounced off, as if my skirts were made of steel.
Watch your footing.Isolde’s voice was clear and steadying in my mind.Blood’s slippery.And it’ll leave tracks a child could follow.
Except I wasn’t hiding.
A La’Angi shield appeared in front of me.Not beside me.It wasn’t attached to Thomas or Chay.It was in the fray, propelled like a ship through the one safe channel in and out of the bay.It swung wide.
“To the lady!”Thomas bellowed.From behind the shield another voice raised in perfect unison, their voices echoing off the stone halls.If there had been glass in the windows, surely it would’ve blown out.The claws of urgency had me by the throat.
The man behind the shield was Kaelson.Blood had splattered across his lined face and flecked his grey hair.He fell in beside Thomas as if they were born in step. The spurter clung to his wound with his hand at my feet while the butt of Thomas’s spear sent his weapon skittering away.A shove came from the back, the group of them pressing forward in a crush.
Kaelson and Thomas’ shields locked together, holding back a human wave.Their feet set at the same angle.
“Rooms compromised,” Thomas said, the words carrying over the noise.
“North corridor a trap,” Kaelson shot back.“Defend!To the lady!”
I was grabbed from the side.All I needed to see was the scraggly beard to know they weren’t my ally.The stolen knife cut through the joint of their padded vest beneath the arm, sinking into the pit.They staggered back when the butt of a spear hit them in the face, clutching their arm in the crush.
“Get the cursed bitch and get the fuck out!”
The order came from somewhere nearby.
They were dying to get to me.They were dying to seize me.
The idea was abstract.Beside me Chay was a whirlwind, his shield cracked and useless.To the other side, Thomas and Kaelson moved in unison.
Over both of their heads I saw an armored man, mace in hand, come to the front.His chainmail shirt had no tabard over it.
“Hand her over,” he demanded.“There’s only three of you.”
With the spurt of fury that rushed through my veins I might’ve attempted to throw the knife in my hand, if only it was my own.
I didn’t count.
Even when I was theirtarget,I didn’t count.
“Until my blood no longer beats.”
I couldn’t have heard the words correctly.They were too soft, the chaos too absolute.I could feel the heat of the blood against my skin.It had soaked through my skirt, finally.My eyes didn’t dip down to the man who’d been trying to hold the blood inside his body, but the force of that effort made the scene before me whir.As if propelled by magic, time seemed to condense.Chay stepped in front of the armored warrior, ducking under a lethal swing, his sword grating against mail.Thomas and Kaelson pivoted so they covered his flanks.
The knife in my hand was useless.Had I a bow?—
Time ebbed and flowed.Shots I could take came into focus.The mace-wielder lifting his arm, chin raised.Shoot through the throat into the brain.To the left, a man hurling a rock overarm toward Chay, standing there and watching its progress halted by the broad side of Thomas’s shield.Shoot through the eye into the brain.Shoot through the mouth.My hands ached for my bow.A man rushed into the gap Thomas’ body had left beside me, a big bag in his hands, unarmored, his saber tangled up in burlap.Shoot between the rib bones into his heart.Shoot into his partially open mouth.Thomas’ spear cut across his body, opening a bloody line over his chest, nonlethal but enough to make him falter.A man grabbed his friend while they clutched at their bloody throat.The man stared down at Kaelson’s victim, eyes wide, cheeks pale.Arrow through the eye.Arrow through the throat.Arrow through the chest.I had so many targets and could take none of them.
There was no way for me to enter that ebb and flow.There was no way I could help them.
“Call it,” Thomas said.
In unison, a moment later, the cry came from the two of them.“To the lady!”
