Kuni, whom Stephen had previously only witnessed wearing various confections of eye-searing pink, had donned black-and-gold Wynchester regimentals for battle, two knives gripped in her fists.
Elizabeth was also wearing Wynchester regimentals. Stephen’s throat went dry at the sight of her looking like a vindictive goddess in tight-fitting pantaloons and a tunic of chain mail. Rather than knives, she clutched a deadly sword in each hand.
Expertly, she twirled both swords, then struck a battle pose.
“Kuni has only two daggers left.” Graham scooped up Stephen’s bag of knives and tied a sword to his leather belt. “I’m going down there.”
“You know how to fence?”
“Aim for the enemy,” Graham answered dryly. “You control the ship.” With a grin, he nudged Stephen. “It’s nice to have a puppet master in the family.”
Before Stephen could formulate a reply, Graham was out the window and gone.
“Attack!” shouted Reddington.
All eight of his appointed soldiers rushed Elizabeth and Kuni, swords and bayonets held high. Metal clanged against metal.
Graham dropped down into the middle of the melee. He tossed his wife the bag of daggers and beat back Reddington’s men as best he could.
The crimson paint-water had ceased flying from the upper windows. Either Marjorie and Adrian were out of ammunition, or Reddington’s army had caught on to the ruse.
“Get the leader,” Reddington screamed, pointing his blade at Elizabeth. “We win the moment she yields. Bring me her head on a pike!”
Half of the crowd roared its approval. The other half looked confused… and concerned.
Reddington’s face twisted into a mask of fury and vengeance.
This wasn’t a game anymore, if it ever had been. Reddington would never allow himself to be humiliated in front of witnesses. He wasn’t pretending to wage war. He was out for blood, and wanted Elizabeth’s literal head on a literal spike.
The man had to be stopped.
Stephen watched with his heart in his throat. Elizabeth was trying her hardest. Graham fended off one of the soldiers, while Kuni held back three, leaving Elizabeth to fight four at once.
She disarmed two in short order, then wounded a third, leaving only one to—No. Reddington had nominated replacements already. It was one against four again. Elizabeth wounded a second, then disarmed a third, and then… stumbled. Sickeningly.
To say Stephen suffered an immediate apoplexy would be understating the matter. He nearly flew out the window just like Graham, except that for Stephen to do so would be to invite instant death. He could not aid Elizabeth whatsoever.
Already, two new soldiers advanced to replace the latest pair.
Stephen’s stomach roiled.
Elizabeth gathered both swords with one hand. She glanced up over her shoulder at the turret where she knew Stephen was watching. She pistoned her free arm into the air, and made three quick number gestures with her empty hand.
One. Zero. Zero.
She tossed one of the swords back into her other hand just in time to defend herself against Reddington’s newest batch of soldiers.
One-zero-zero. One hundred. She was telling Stephen not to worry. That she was one hundred percent Elizabeth. That Reddington was going down, because he held no chance against a berserker fighting at one hundred percent.
Of course, that number was a wild overstatement. By Elizabeth’s own admission, she rarely even felt eighty percent, and even that had only occurred on a handful of occasions. Which she knew Stephen realized. She also knew he was zero percent calm when it came to her well-being, which was why she was trying to reassure him.
Stephen wouldn’t trust Reddington if the man claimed water was wet, but he did trust Elizabeth. More importantly, she was her own woman, which was why Stephen loved her. And no matter how he felt about the unfair situation, she was right about one thing:
She was a warrior. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop her.
41
Elizabeth knew the moment she heard the tree fall that Reddington was up to his usual tricks. She had no intention of being predictable, either. This was war. Wynchesters played by their own rules and had wiles of their own in store.
