“I don’t know why you’re here, but I recommend you leave now,” I said, in as threatening a tone as I could muster. “Their Majesties aren’t going to allow masked men to roam the grounds of their palace killing their servants.”
The man cursed again, but he was looking at the geese rather than me. They were still honking and flapping, their piercing calls echoing around us.
The other two attackers, slower runners than their leader, arrived beside him. They both looked from me to the geese, one of them murmuring something too quiet for me to catch.
“No!” the leader said. “We take her now. With three of us we can do it easily.”
My hands tightened on my staff, fresh fear filling me. For a moment it had looked like I might succeed at driving them off with words and a single blow. But with three of them coming for me at once, they would be able to pull me down from the rock.
They circled around, surrounding me. I struck out with my staff, hoping to land another head blow, but they were prepared this time. My target jumped back out of my reach, the other two closing in even as he retreated.
Sweat made my hands slippery as I screamed silently at Sierra in my head. I had no doubt she had sent them. Likely they were the recovered guards, traitors just as she was.
I had a sudden picture of Daria and Cassie facing them down in such a manner, but without staffs to defend themselves, and my stomach heaved. I screamed, letting all my fear, defiance, and anger pour into the sound.
One of the men hesitated, and my eyes latched onto him, even while the leader pressed forward.
“Please,” I managed, but the leader lunged toward me.
My second scream was more of a grunt of effort as I put everything I had into blocking his sword. It deflected off my sturdy staff just as hands grabbed at my legs.
I teetered and slipped, letting myself fall heavily on the man who had grabbed me, sending us both collapsing to the ground. I expected other hands to haul me off him, but they didn’t come.
Instead a different scream rang over the honking of the geese, followed by a thud. I flailed, trying to right myself and only succeeding in becoming further entangled with the black clad arms and legs of the man beneath me.
He was cursing and pushing at me, trying to get me off, and I used his momentum to push myself up, stepping on him heedlessly. As soon as I felt ground beneath my feet, I dashed away, giving myself some space from the groaning man who was now hauling himself up as well.
Looking frantically around for the other attackers and the source of the scream, I found one man on the ground, a knife protruding from his thigh. Nearby, the leader wrestled with a fourth man. Somehow the masked man had lost his sword, and the two fought hand to hand.
For a moment of stunned silence, I stood staring at them. The third attacker, now upright several arms’ lengths away from me, watched in equal stupefaction. But then our paralysis lifted. With a yell, he ran toward the wrestling men. I ran for the injured man.
I recognized him as the one who had hesitated at my plea, and I dropped to my knees beside him. The enchantment binding me wouldn’t let me mention anything about my true identity, but it wasn’t myself I wanted to talk about.
I gripped him sharply by the shoulders, and he groaned, opening his eyes to stare at me.
“The other girls,” I hissed in his ear. “Daria, and Cassie, and Daisy. What did you do to them?”
He made no attempt to prevaricate or claim ignorance, but he spoke so slowly that I shook him, hissing for him to hurry up.
“Are they dead? Have you killed them?” I could hardly bear the tension of waiting for him to spit out his answer.
“Dead? No…” He drew in a pained breath. “The older ones ran. We managed to split them up, but we couldn’t find them. We chased them…like she instructed. They must be…long gone.”
I drew in a shuddering breath of relief. Lost and alone was bad, but it was better than dead, or in the clutches of Sierra’s guards.
“And Daisy?” I asked sharply. “The young one. I saw someone drag her away.”
The man coughed, giving a gasp of pain at the sharp movement.
“She escaped.” He winced, although whether at his words or his wound, I didn’t know. “She’s a fighter. Bit so hard she drew blood.”
I let go of him, sinking backward onto my heels. They had escaped. All of them. Some of the underlying burden of dread I had been carrying lifted, despite my own danger.
Memory of the struggle going on nearby rushed back, and I twisted, looking for the other two attackers. My ally—who I now recognized as Philip—had managed to retrieve the leader’s sword and stood panting, staring at him. The leader fell back, one hand clutching the opposite arm which hung as if broken.
He growled a series of commands at the third man, who hovered uncertainly nearby. Philip called my name, his eyes flickering briefly to me before leaping back to the injured leader. He gestured with his arm for me to come to him, and I jumped up as the third man rushed toward me. I raced for Philip, scooping up my abandoned staff on the way, but the third man made no move to intercept me.
Instead, he crouched by his injured companion. Ignoring the knife in his leg, he dragged the man up, slinging him over his shoulder. A sharp scream cut off abruptly as his burden slumped senseless and unprotesting.
The leader shouted something else, although I couldn’t catch the words over the sound of the geese, and the two of them staggered into the deepening evening, their companion carried with them.
I stared after them. “Should we…I don’t know—do something?”
“Like what?” Philip glanced down at me. “Chase after them, you mean? It seems they’re willing to give up the fight to avoid being captured, which is good for us. If they decide they’re cornered, they’ve still got enough fight in them to make it a dangerous situation for us.”
I drew in several breaths so deep I started coughing.
“Thank you. For rescuing me. How did you know?”
He glanced toward the geese who were finally beginning to calm down. “I heard the geese. I hadn’t made it all the way back yet, and I heard them start honking and screeching.” He looked back at me and smiled for the first time since he had arrived to my rescue. “Better than guard dogs, geese. They’ve got excellent hearing and will raise a hue and cry at anything unusual.”
I looked toward the birds with more affection than I had ever imagined feeling.
“I’m most grateful to them. They gave me warning, too. Although I must admit guard dogs would have been more useful when the danger actually arrived.”
Philip chuckled softly, shaking his head. “You seem to be taking being attacked by masked assailants rather well.”
“I’m just so relieved…I thought I was going to die.” I didn’t mention my other source of relief.
“Who was he?” Philip asked. “The man who was injured.”
I frowned. “I don’t know. His face was covered. They all were.”
Philip turned and scrutinized me. “But you were speaking to him. Weren’t you trying to find out who they were and what they wanted?”
“Oh. He…he didn’t say,” I said lamely.
Philip examined me for another moment and then turned his gaze out toward the park where the men had now disappeared.