I dragged myself further into the unsteady house, hoping for a broken window or back door. Every breath was agony. Through the shredded door I saw Thomas approaching, yanking the remainder off its hinges. His added weight as he entered the house made the beams groan fiercely and debris fell from the three floors above us. If the house collapsed…well, at least it would kill us both. I reached the far end of the house and tried the handle of an old door but it was stiff, the lock consumed by years’ worth of dirt and rust. It didn’t move no matter how I threw myself into it. Eventually my body faltered as the initial shock subsided and I sat back against the door clutching my side. I heard his footsteps and tore my eyes away from the corridor ahead, breathing in deeply. I savoured each stale breath and waited for him, accepting – regretting – that I hadn’t done more to live.
There was a struggle then, and the sound of beams breaking above me. The house was coming down. I tried to be brave; to be thankful that it might not be Thomas that killed me, but I felt cowardly. I didn’t want to die. The wood groaned and splintered around the room and I slung my arms over my knees, resting my head on top of them. Then I felt the dull pain in my side sharpen as something pressed on it, pulling me out of my corner. I tried to thrash out at the hands that held me but he threw me over his shoulder like I was a sack of flour. When I opened my eyes I saw Thomas sprawled across the hallway floor, trying to push himself up on bent, broken legs. He screamed out as we broke through the door, severing the last remaining strong point and the building fractured, finally tumbling back to its foundations.
I struggled against the hands that held me and brought my knee up into the person’s face. He cried out and dropped me, clutching his nose, and I rounded on him. Ric stared back at me with a peculiar expression, almost shamed.
“Run, Ava,” Ric whispered as the snarls and voices of his comrades filtered in around them. “Don’t look back.”
Why I trusted his word at that point, I don’t know, but I didn’t question it. Behind me wails echoed through the street and I tried to ignore my splitting side as I pressed onward. They’d found him, or, what remained of their companion. Had Ric broken Thomas’s legs? Why did he pull me out of the building? Whatever his reasoning, I was alive and I would stay that way. I ground to a halt as a familiar marker came into sight and hope breathed life back into me, giving me the strength to push forward. I knew my way out.
The final corner spat me out onto the riverfront and I pushed forward, ignoring the ache in my legs. Around me stood a scattering of pairs who desired more than just each other’s civil company – hardly unsurprising at that point that it was known as the festival of new life – and I slipped past them, slowing as I reached the bridge. The night was wild as I listened to the sounds of upbeat music. So far there were two choices:
One: I could return to town and blend in with the crowd.
Two: I could make a run for the farm where I could warn Roan. If the men were after me for making the wrong connections, I doubted they would stop at just my death.
I couldn’t walk back into town looking the way I did; battered, dirty and indecent. Considering the townsfolk’s hostility toward me they’d be more likely to lock me away than believe I’d been attacked by someone. Even if they let me slip through unnoticed I would be putting more lives at risk than mine was worth. I sighed and pushed away from the bridge. Having made up my mind I started across it, stooping low and stopping every so often to look and listen out for trouble. I was scared, there was no denying that, but a small part of me believed I would actually make it home.
A different sort of chaos erupted in the night not long after I crossed the river, as the sound of drums was replaced by the sound of bodies clashing together. Steel against steel. Bone against bone. The noise sounded out so suddenly that it sent me into a blind panic and I dove into the nearest treeline. Several figures dashed past and I held my breath. Their boots were scuffed and well-worn but they were not the shoddy sort the traders wore at the Post. What in Gehn was happening? I couldn’t make a lick of sense of it all, but it didn’t matter. In the few seconds that passed a distinctive smell filled my nostrils and my heart all but stopped. Sweat, dirt and old blood.
A large grimy hand clamped down hard across my mouth. Tears stung my eyes as something pierced the tender flesh of my cheek, my scream trapped, as Gabriel materialised to the side of me.
“Caught you,” he growled. His foul breath washed across my ear like smoke and his free hand travelled up my thigh.
Before I could register the entirety of my fear he threw me headlong into the path’s wall across from where we hid. Something cracked as I collided against the jagged stone and pain shot across my shoulder. I cried out but Gabriel was on me again.
“You put up more of a fight than I thought you would, I’ll give you that,” Gabriel snarled and grabbed me by the throat.
I struggled wildly against his grating hands, driving my fist into his face and arms and neck but it was no use. He was the cat and I was the mouse. He pulled me up and shoved me against the wall again and again until, finally, he drove his fist into my side and the world disappeared. Stars and flashing dots erupted in my vision and I wrestled with my consciousness. He laughed, kicking me to the floor. I grunted, throwing a handful of road-dust at him, and took it as my chance to run once I heard Gabriel’s cry. Up the road; down the road; I didn’t care so long as I got away. But it was a hopeless fantasy as he grasped my ankle and pulled it out from under me. My nails splintered on the path as I tried to drag myself back up to my feet and Gabriel immobilised me with another belt to the ribs. A gargled screech ripped through me.
“I was never fond of Thomas,” Gabriel started, “but he was our brother and you killed him.” He pulled me onto my back and straddled me.
He closed his hands around my throat again, this time to finish it, but not too quickly. My strength was failing as he pressed himself on top of me further, the wretched enjoyment all too clear on his face. The handle of my dagger pressed between my leg and the road and I winced. Of course. Though it made me sick to do it I stopped fighting and relaxed my legs. He saw it as an invitation and pushed them further apart, bringing my dagger that much closer. Gabriel bared his teeth, ready to tear into my throat where life-blood pumped and I cried out with one last effort, freeing the knife from its holster, and sank it deep into his flesh.
There are some noises you hope never to hear, and Gabriel’s howls were unlike anything I’d ever heard before. No longer than it took his hands to find his face did it take me to get to my feet. I pushed every feeling down into my core and clung to only one. I needed to get away. Desperate to forget the feeling of the stunted crack of dagger on bone, I ran until the blackness cleared from my vision, but I could do nothing to silence his screams.
“I’ll make you suffer before I’m through with you,” he screamed before the sound of snapping and snarling drowned him out.
The final stretch of my journey was the hardest and I doubled over, entirely exhausted. “Please,” I whimpered, pounding my hands into the floor, “just a little bit further.”