Tor could hear the fire now. A low, crackling roar in the distance. Daena whimpered as she gripped him more tightly, her breath huffing in short, panicked gasps. Gods, what horrific memories was she reliving?
The path flattened a little and they ran faster. Keely widened the distance between them as she sped ahead.
He pushed past the screaming tension in his shoulders and hips where Daena’s weight bore him down. Pushed past the acrid burn in his ragged throat where he tasted blood. They were almost to the top. Almost to the ridge, and from there, the safety of the bare gully with its stone-strewn path and steep rock sides.
Just a few more—
A crossbow bolt whistled past his ear, coming from above and thudding heavily somewhere behind him.
He reacted on instinct, flinging himself behind a tree, hauling Daena with him, and roaring out a warning to Keely up ahead.
Fuck. The final guard was in the trees.
Keely leaped behind a huge pine just as another bolt thudded into the trunk where she’d been standing only seconds before.
Tor crouched low, frantically trying to see where the last guard was among the branches.
“Save yourself,” Keely called out toward the guard over the distant crackle. “You can’t stay here.”
A dark voice chuckled from the canopy on the other side of the path. “Neither can you. And the difference is… I can fly.”
Another Mabin. Damn. How was it possible that they could have been so unlucky?
The last guard dropped down from the trees, farther along the path, close to Keely.
The guard’s face was heavily bearded, his ancient uniform torn and mended in multiple places, trinkets—spoils—sewn onto the sleeves glimmering in the dim light. A reiver. And, by the look of him, a Brythorian deserter.
“The fire will pass. And then I can be the one to give Andred your heads,” the reiver observed in a low voice as he raised his crossbow and took a step toward Keely’s hiding place. “Maybe I’ll even be promoted. Get one of the cushy camp jobs.”
God of the Abyss. Why hadn’t Keely fired and ended this already?
Tor pulled out the knife he’d taken from the guard at the camp and spun it in his palm. It was poor quality, unevenly weighted. And the only one he had.
He sidled slowly around the tree, looking for a good shot. The reiver was too far away to guarantee hitting him, and he didn’t want to lose his only knife.
Keely flittered out, a pale wraith in the darkness as she lifted her crossbow and fired. But the bolt thudded heavily into a tree, passing the reiver far too wide.
She dashed back behind the trunk, but not before he saw how unevenly she was standing. Gods. Her arm. She was struggling to hold the crossbow.
The reiver flapped his heavy wings, launching himself toward Keely’s hiding place, and Tor pulled back his arm to throw. But Keely leaped out. Right into the space between Tor and the reiver.
Tor spun, still gripping the knife he couldn’t risk releasing.
Fuck. What was he going to do? He started to run.
Keely beat the reiver’s crossbow to the side with her own, and then threw it down to pull out the sword she’d taken earlier.
The reiver mimicked her, flinging his crossbow down and drawing his sword to circle Keely menacingly.
Tor ran up the path toward them, forcing himself to run faster than ever in his life before, not daring to throw the unbalanced knife in case he missed and caught Keely.
The reiver stabbed and swore, but Keely danced back, screaming out her rage and swinging her sword desperately. Her movements were stilted, but she was fighting with everything she had.
The roar of the flames rose like a rabid beast below them. The wind whipped up the gully carrying sparks and choking smoke as Tor leaped over the yards between them.
The reiver chuckled as he belted Keely hard across the face with his free hand, then lifted his sword for the final blow as she stumbled. There was no chance to get closer, use a better weapon, or even pray. He had no choice. Tor threw the knife.
It caught the reiver high in his belly, and the Mabin doubled over with an agonized grunt, collapsing to the ground where he curled into a ball just as Tor reached him.
