She wished she’d grabbed a sword when her team had felled the first round of pirates, but those weapons were out of reach from where she was now. She knew that all she had to do was kill one of the pirates chasing her to get one. But it was proving impossible. She ran away from the water toward the rocky hill that led up to the road in Quill, now leading half a dozen pirates away from her team. Nimbly up the rocks she ran, and realized the pirates weren’t quite as agile as she. She climbed faster, her legs burning, and the pirates fell farther behind. When she reached the top, she picked up a huge rock and threw it down at the first pirate, and because he was looking down at his footing, he didn’t see it. It smashed into his head, sending him tumbling backward and knocking down the two women behind him.
Lani followed up with deadly scatterclips, one right after the other, putting an end to all three before the pirates behind them could reach her. Heartened, she picked up the pace again, going down the rocky hill this time, leaping recklessly, but with no other choice. She ran past a few of her team who were struggling and managed to fire heart attack spells at their enemies’ backs as she ran.
More tenders landed, putting Lani and her team in even bigger trouble. Lani managed to dodge the chasing pirates long enough to go back to one of the fallen ones and grab a shield and sword. She swung the sword wildly, finding it a good bit heavier than the swords Mr. Appleblossom trained them with in Actors’ Studio, but she soon adjusted. And when she managed to knock the shield out of the hands of a pirate, she threw her own shield to the ground so she could grab a handful of heart attack components.
“Heart attack!” she cried, flinging them. They hit their mark, sending the pirate tumbling down the hill.
Lani lunged for the shield, but she’d lost concentration for a split second, and a burly pirate scooped her up from behind, then flung her over his shoulder. She kicked with all her might into the pirate’s stomach and slammed her sword into the back of his leg. He spun around, roaring.
Lani wiggled a scatterclip from her vest pocket, and as he started pulling her off his shoulder, she shoved the clip deep into his ear and shouted, “Die a thousand deaths!”
The man went limp. He dropped Lani hard to the rocky hillside and fell on top of her. She was trapped.
“Get! Off! Me!” Lani yelled, struggling with all her might to push the pirate off, but one of her arms was trapped. She took a second to look out at her team, trying to see how many of them still stood, and counted fewer than half. She struggled again, and then realized the other pirates were ignoring her because she was on the ground. She eased her free hand under the pirate’s smelly armpit and reached into her vest pocket, grabbing as many scatterclips as she could get her fingers around, and then laid them out on the dead pirate’s back.
Whenever a pirate got close enough, Lani fired. She managed to take down eleven pirates over the course of her lengthy entrapment. But things were only getting worse instead of better, as a seemingly endless stream of pirates rushed ashore. Soon Lani was the only living member of her team who hadn’t taken to the trees in hiding or run into Quill for safety. The remaining band of pirates rushed toward the mansion.
“You stupid brute!” Lani yelled, pounding on the dead man’s back. She pushed with all her might, but with only one hand free, she wasn’t nearly strong enough. Finally she fell back, exhausted. Her trapped arm had lost feeling by now, and the rocks dug into her back. She closed her eyes, furious, and breathed heavily, trying to build strength. And then, out of immense frustration, Lani tried a spell she’d never done before.
She put her hand on the dead pirate’s back, took a few calming breaths, and concentrated on an image in her mind of Queen Eagala’s stupid face. When she felt good and calm and ready, Lani whispered, “Transport.”
An instant later Lani was free, and almost simultaneously a hideous scream rose up from a nearby ship. Lani grinned. That voice was one of the very few sounds she’d heard when she and Samheed had been captive on Warbler Island—it was the unmistakable scream of Queen Eagala.
Lani eased up off the rocks and got to her feet. She shoved a sword in her belt, grabbed a shield, and shook out the prickling arm that had fallen asleep. “Yowch!” she muttered, half laughing and half crying as it came back to life. “Now that really hurts.”
A moment later a stampede of pirates rushed along the shore below, coming from where Samheed had been fighting and heading toward the mansion. Lani knew that could mean only one thing . . . everybody on Samheed’s team was down or gone.
“Oh no. Sam,” Lani whispered. She peered to the west, then shouted for him. “Sam!” She started running toward his station like a mad person, searching the fallen bodies on the rocks.
“Where are you?” she said, her voice pitching higher with fear. “Sam!”
She scrambled up the rocky bank to the trees that lined the road. “Samheed!”
A body dropped out of a tree next to Lani, startling her. She reached for a component, ready to attack. And then she saw his face.
“Hi,” whispered Samheed. “Are they gone?”
Lani blew out a breath of relief and nodded. “They’re headed to the mansion.”