“We need to go now,” Terena said softly. She looked over at Sonah. “You can go back to the inn, I’m fine alone.”
“The fuck you are,” Croak said, sauntering over. “I’ll go with you.”
“I’ve got her,” Rydon said with a quick glance at Croak. “You go on, get to bed. We’ll see you anon.”
The others hesitated but Terena started walking, feeling stronger now as she neared the building. Rydon kept a hand at her back as he continued at her side. He turned to the others to see they were walking back slowly toward the inn, Croak looking back every few steps, a concerned look on his face.
The place looked closed, as did every other building around them. No one was about.
“Looks closed, whatever this place is,” Rydon said in a low voice. Terena scanned around, walking to the side of the building. She frowned and turned back when she heard a door opening. She jogged back to Rydon, who looked at her in question.
As Terena took a step, dizziness assailed her again and she stumbled toward him. He reached out and grabbed her arms before she fell.
“I have something that will help with that,” a voice said behind her. Rydon cursed, scowling at someone over Terena’s shoulder.
“Bring her inside,” the female voice said. The vertigo overwhelmed Terena as she tried to turn her head, making her lose her balance and pitch to the right. Rydon grunted and wrapped an arm around her waist. Terena closed her eyes as he guided her inside the now opened door.
As quickly as it had come over her, the vertigo subsided as they went deeper inside. It smelled of incense, and Terena recalled the oracle and the temple sanctuary in Messene.
But this smell was different. It was just as strong, but not as cloying. Terena relaxed, straightening and looking around at her surroundings. A woman stood before them, a shawl wrapped around her thin shoulders. She was old, an octogenarian with a full head of grey hair. Wrinkles around bright black eyes mapped her face. Terena had the uncanny feeling she knew this woman. She smiled at Terena as if she knew exactly what was going through her mind.
“Thank you,” Rydon said.
“Bring her through, Eudaemon,” the woman said, motioning to Rydon to follow.
Terena looked up at Rydon, her nose wrinkled. He stiffened and she noted the red creeping up his neck to his cheeks.
The room beyond was empty, with old, faded furniture the only decoration. Even the walls were bare and stained with age. The only light in the room came through the threadbare curtains over the windows. Terena was about to say something when the woman’s smile changed, her eyes narrowing as her lips turned down. Rydon swore and unsheathed his sword a moment before five men came out of the corners of the room, their faces hidden beneath black hoods.
“You’ve grown strong since we last met,” the woman said, no longer the frail looking woman from earlier but closer to Terena’s age, her hair now dark like Terena’s and her hateful eyes a strange burnt orange. “But you’ll die, all the same.”
The hooded figures attacked a heartbeat later. Terena jumped back, unsheathing her sword clumsily as Rydon blocked the two infront of her, the clash of their swords ringing loud in her ears. She turned and quickly parried the man at her side.
He was strong.
Terena grunted at the force of his attack. His sword moved to a new angle, a different thrust as he forced her to step back until she hit the wall. Rydon yelled at her from across the room, engaged now with three of the attackers as another came forward from her left. This one had a short sword and another blade slightly larger than a dagger, both of them wielded expertly until she was down on one knee from the force of both her assailants.
Slowed down by drink, Terena’s parries were weak. She thrust her sword at the man on her left, catching him on the inside of his thigh instead of his gut. He grunted but otherwise showed no sign of pain or slowing down. Terena’s breath came in quick bursts and she panicked. She knew she’d be dead in minutes if Rydon didn’t help her soon, because she was outmatched and drunk. A low buzzing beneath her skin started as the man on her right caught her with an overhead swing, the tip of his sword slicing into her shoulder, and she almost dropped her blade. She cried out, stumbling back, and then it happened.
Time slowed, the buzzing in her body turning to heat and her eyes hurt. She swallowed and looked up, her attackers frozen in place, the one on her left in a move sure to be fatal. Terena stepped to the side and glanced to her right, searching for Rydon, when she caught sight of the woman. Her face was screwed up in concentration, her hands out and her fingers halted with the tips of her middle fingers and thumbs touching. She was chanting something and Terena sprang at her. Coming up behind her, Terena put her sword to the woman’s throat as her other arm wound around the woman’s waist.
Terena blinked and time resumed, her attackers stumbling forward, confused as they looked down to where she had been, then up to see her holding the woman.
“Stop!” she screamed, pulling the woman back with her. Terena looked to Rydon and saw he’d defeated one man, the other two wounded, now still as they all watched her.
“Whatever you’re doing, stop it,” she hissed at the woman.
One man took a step toward her and she dug the sword into the woman’s neck and cut her. When he saw the blood trail down her neck, the man lifted his hands and stopped.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Terena said to the woman as she sucked in a breath. “Why’d you attack us?”
“Kill her!”
Three of the men jerked into motion. Rydon caught one of them with a sword thrust to his belly. He yanked his blade free and the man fell to the floor, writhing for a few seconds before he was still.
“Call off your dogs,” Terena warned, “or I’ll have my friend cut them down.”
“I’ll do it anyway,” Rydon growled, his sword at the ready.
