Arc 6: Chapter 17: Kindling
I stared at the wall for a moment, like a fool, but Catrin was gone.
Not gone. Slipped back into the Wend, and…
“Upstairs. Now!”
My voice came as a harsh bark. Both Mallet and Beatriz, confused at what just happened, snapped to attention as I bulled past them toward the stairs leading up to my quarters. I had my axe in hand, the damp branch grating along my leather gloves. The stabbing pain in my knee barely registered as I stormed up the stair and burst into my office, the two soldiers close at heel.
I entered into a scene of chaos. Penric sat against the wall near the door, his crossbow lying a distance away. He clutched his side, and blood ran through his fingers. Lisette was on the ground as well, unconscious. No doubt Catrin remembered our confrontation with her and Olliard a year earlier, and had known to take the cleric and her binding threads out of play immediately. The young priest had blood running down her neck from a wound on the back of her skull, probably from clipping the table on her way down judging by a red mark there.
Catrin faced off with Emma. My squire stood between the angry dhampir and Hyperia with her saber drawn. The princess remained bound to her chair in the middle of our auratic barrier. Ostanes stood near the window, his hands folded into his sleeves. While he still wore the monkish crowfriar garb, he’d returned to his human form. He glanced at me and offered a grimace, but did not move to interfere.
I took in the whole scene and spoke to the two at my back. “Get Penric and Sister Lisette. Make sure they don’t bleed out. Let me handle her.”
They moved to obey. Catrin clutched her elven dagger, the banesilver gleaming unnaturally in the room’s bad light. It still had Penric’s blood on it. Emma’s sword was a far longer and more effective weapon, but I knew Catrin could be fast and vicious in a fight.
She saw me in the doorway, and a pained expression touched her pallid features. “Alken,” she almost keened. “Just let me do this!”
Any sudden movements and she would go for the kill. She’d be faster than me. But could I keep her talking long enough to get close?
“You don’t have to do this,” I said as calmly as I could with my leg screaming and two of my people lying in pools of their own blood. “I’ve found another way. To save you, to stop all of this.”