The Scourge of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood #3)

“Maston,” he murmured.

Lia clawed at his eyes with her fingers. She felt his skin tear as her fingernails bit into his flesh. With her other hand, she stabbed and managed to land the blade into his arm as he deflected it from his throat. He snarled once and backed away, his eyes burning from the smoke. Red tears tracked down the side of his face with the scar. Blood.

The door opened and Marciana fled the room.

“No!” the kishion bellowed. He hoisted his dagger and threw it after the fleeing girl. Lia watched helplessly as it whistled and spun, end over end. In her mind, she remembered Astrid being cut down by such a stroke, the blade burying itself in his lower back. She willed the blade to stop, she willed it to miss. In Marciana’s place, the dagger was caught mid-air by Kieran.

There he was, filling the doorway with his size as he strode into the room.

“Take him together,” Kieran said.

The kishion looked back and forth at them, seeing the change in the battle and blaze and the naked gladius in Kieran’s other hand.

Lia stomped on the kishion’s foot and slammed her dirk against his head, but he responded quickly and deflected the second blow, though her foot had managed to meet his.

Kieran moved like a serpent strike, the blade flashing with the light from the blazing room. The gladius and the dagger met, clanging and hissing as the two engaged. Lia looked for an opening, but the two were a mass of arms and legs. Instead, she rushed to the basket of wet garments and retrieved her gladius. The air was so full of smoke she could barely see either man, but both were coughing. So was Marciana, kneeling on the floor at the base of the doorway, watching as the kishion and the Evnissyen fought.

There was a grunt, a hiss of pain. Kieran’s face was masked with soot. The two smashed into each other again, stabbing, feinting, thrusting. Then the kishion was swung around and struck a bedpost, his head whacking it so hard that spittle sprayed from his mouth. Kieran had lost the dagger somehow, but his fist buried in the kishion’s ribs and she heard the bones snap. Then a knee went up and the kishion doubled over. He popped up quickly again, striking Kieran in the face with his palm.

Kieran staggered back, grimacing, and Lia noticed blood on his sleeve as a wound stained his shirt. With a scowl of hatred, Kieran struck so fast his gladius sunk into the kishion’s gut, pulled it out just as quickly, as the dead man slumped to the ground.

“You are wounded,” Lia said, seeing the rivulet of blood coming from his arm.

“So glad you noticed,” he replied curtly then coughed violently. He surveyed the blazing room, the fire thrashing the rafters. He moved quickly, stepping up on a chest and yanked down another set of curtains from the windows by the iron bar.

“To the stairwell before we choke to death!” he ordered. “Did you light the room afire? You did, I know it. Foolish, foolish girl!”

Lia rushed to Marciana and helped her stand and then pulled her down the stairwell.

Marciana’s eyes were swollen but thankful. “I begged the Medium that you would find me in time,” she whimpered. “I am so grateful, Lia. Where is Colvin? Is he truly in Dochte Abbey? He is in great danger.”

“What precisely do you consider our present situation to be?” Kieran shouted from behind. “A maypole dance? Lia, break that window. Dieyre’s men will have gathered at the door below by now. I lowered the crossbar, but it will not hold for long.”

She noticed the banging coming from below. The windows were narrow and veiled, the glass dark with soot. She tried to unfasten them and Kieran just grunted in amazement.

“I said smash them, girl! We do not have much time!”

Lia used her gladius hilt and struck the window, smashing it. He joined her on the stairs and dropped the mass of curtains and helped her crush the window panes. Then heaving the mass of curtain over the edge, he let it tumble down the side. Then he fixed the curtain rod against the wall on each side of the window to act as a brace.

He looked down below and winced, shaking his head furiously. He glanced up at the room and saw the fire blazing down the stairwell. “The curtain only reaches partway down. We will have to jump the rest. Lia, you first. Climb to the end of the curtain, hang there, and then fall. Quickly, girl!”

“Will the curtain hold my weight?” she asked.