“Of course, ye may.” Flora didn’t hesitate to scoot to the furthest end of the bench, lifting her arm in invitation.
As Elizabeth tucked herself against Flora’s side, the carriage began to move. It rocked rhythmically, and Flora couldn’t resist closing her eyes. She didn’t sleep, her body still on high alert from a lifetime of looking over her shoulder.
The carriage kept a steady pace for nearly half an hour. Then, suddenly, they picked up speed. Each hard bump they hit jostled the girls, waking Elizabeth after a few seconds.
“What’s happenin’?” Elizabeth asked, her voice thick with sleep. She reached up, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she blinked around the interior.
“I daenae ken,” Flora said, leaning toward the window in hopes that she could spot the reason for the oddity.
Just as suddenly as the carriage sped up, it began to slow down. Flora’s hand shot out, stopping Elizabeth from falling off the bench. The guard riding closest to the window cursed, his handgoing toward the blade at his side. Her entire body went cold as she followed his gaze.
Ahead of the carriage were six men, and she heard shouts from behind. Her body rigid, she stood, shifting her gaze to the carriage’s posterior. Four more men on horses were flanking them. None of them looked friendly.
“What is it?” Elizabeth asked, shifting closer in an attempt to see what Flora was seeing. “What do ye see?”
“Stay quiet,” Flora said, grabbing onto the girl and tucking her against her side.
“Is somethin’ wrong?” Elizabeth asked, her voice shaking with fear. “Is… is…”
“I daenae ken,” Flora told her, unable to bring herself to tell the truth but also unable to lie. “But we need to be as quiet as we can and let the guards deal with it.”
Elizabeth sucked in a breath before nodding and burying her face in Flora’s neck. Tears pricked at the back of Flora’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She couldn’t. She had to be as calm as she could for Elizabeth, who was shaking violently in her grasp.
“Ye’re outnumbered!” a voice that Flora didn’t recognize spat, his tone sending a cold shiver up her spine. “Best if ye give up now.”
“Ye must be out of yer mind if ye think that we’ll surrender without a fight,” Ryan spat back, the sound of his sword being unsheathed making both the girls flinch.
“They’re—”
“Shh,” Flora hushed the girl, sliding back so they wouldn’t be visible from the window. “We daenae want them to hear us.”
Elizabeth whimpered but made no other noise. Outside, the horses were stomping anxiously in the dirt, snorting and jostling their tack. More swishing indicated that other men were drawing their swords as well.
There’s nae avoidin’ this fight.
Her ears strained to hear any further conversation, but it seemed as though they were far past the point of talking. The tension rose, bubbling until it reached a rolling boil. Then, the first swords crashed against each other.
One of the men, she couldn’t tell if it was a guard from Castle McGowan or the strangers that had stopped them, let out a thunderous battle cry. The carriage rocked violently directly after, and Flora could only assume that someone had been thrown against the side. She squeezed her eyes shut, sending up a prayer that they be spared.
This cannae be real. This cannae be happenin’.
“We will kill every last one of ye just as we did him,” Ryan snarled, his tone so unlike the humorous man that she’d interacted with in the village. “Yewillsurrender.”
“What could ye possibly be protectin’ in there?” a stranger’s voice asked, disgustingly interested. Flora shuddered, putting her hands over Elizabeth’s ears in a weak attempt to protect her from the fight. “Seems ye’re quite invested in yer precious cargo, aye?”
Elizabeth let out a sob that she quickly stifled by shoving her fist in her mouth. She inched closer to Flora, seeking comfort. Flora did her best to shield the girl from the horrors happening just outside the thin structure of their carriage.
“It doesnae matter what’s inside,” a man whose voice Flora recognized shot back. She couldn’t recall his name for the life of her, though she supposed that wasn’t important at the moment. “We will lay down our lives for our clan and anythin’ that we’re transportin’.”
“Then prepare to die!”
The fighting grew in intensity, and Flora couldn’t make sense of anything that was happening. It was a cacophony of shouts and metal hitting metal. She heard several bodies falling against the dirt, dull thuds that rocked her to her very core. She heard nearly as many getting back up and rejoining the fray.
Icy realization washed over her. There were more of their attackers than there were guards. The odds were stacked againstthem, and judging by the way she picked up on fewer and fewer voices she recognized, they weren’t winning.
Carefully, Flora removed one hand from Elizabeth’s ear, reaching into her bodice to remove the knife she’d tucked away this morning. While she was glad she’d brought it, she hated that she needed it. She only hoped that her brief practice was enough.
She leaned in close to Elizabeth and said, “Cover yer ears.”
