Chapter 25: Serica: Caught!
SERICA:
Areli was still bundled in her quilt with her back against our room's headboard. "My friend will be back soon," I told her and fished her spectacles from my shirt pocket.
Illia's role was now to brew as much chaos as possible and send Regis's watchmen stumbling in various directions. Plan A was to leave without any raised flags. I was fairly certain Persephine hadn't outed us, we likely just overshot our gap in the patrol.
The manor's bell still rang. The hollow space in my chest where I'd let Illia reside now held uncertainty. Her work was dangerous. I decided against sending my Wind to check in. It would have to return, and that risked pulling eyes to our location.
Illia can handle this.
When she could, she would return here and we'd leave together cloaked in darkness.
Areli seated the rose-tinted lenses at the end of her nose and finally spoke, "Where's Reilin?"
Right.
I should have told her already, "We'll be seeing her soon." A cobblestone popped out on the street, someone else calling on Earth to speed their travel. I held my breath.
We shouldn't have come back here.
It was a calculated risk. If we'd left Illia's trail it would mean more eyes. Now our escape hinged on her return.
A trio of bangs rose from below, from the Inn's door.
Shit.
Whoever this was, they were intimate with stone. They could have interrogated the street, discerned where I'd made my leap to the window.
Areli shirked down into her cocoon. Grabbing her and bolting was the wrong choice. I wasn't going to win a footrace weighed down. The alternative was to fight. My best blade was flame and brilliance, and it did not suit the situation.
CRACK.
That was the door.
I considered Areli. She wasn't in danger, at least in the immediate sense. Assuming the worst, our assailant would make a bee-line and break into the room in a few seconds.
I didn't carry steel. To do so would speak a lack of confidence in my skill as Tactician and Mentor. If a cutting edge was needed badly enough it could be claimed from an opponent or directed in a student's palm.
You stupid dog-headed bitch.
The stairs creaked, I was out of time. I lifted the edge of a throw-blanket from the bed and tossed my hair. Wind billowed into it and it drifted toward the door as I sunk into a corner.
The bedroom door burst open and she followed through it to spear my cotton double with her sabre. She was tall and thin-set, in a black shirt and brown shorts, a pony-tail of blonde hair trailed behind her.
"Twist," I said in hushed tone, and the throw wrapped itself along her blade. With that I was at her back, my hand tensed and I drove my second set of knuckles into her kidney. Her back was hard, muscled enough to make my fingers ache, but I'd achieved my desired effect, she didn't cry out.
I slammed my other elbow mid-back, she stumbled forward and spun. The sabre's pommel pounded into the side of my neck and I lost my feet. Fire ran down my spine as copper played upon my tongue. We both fought our bodies to get off the floor. The strike had hummed, the steel in her weapon served her like a loyal hound. I'd played at the thought of impaling her on it, on her way down. Now I knew the thing would fight tooth and claw to avoid biting its master.
Who the hell is this?
She didn't wear the crimson watch-uniform. My time with Purfree hadn't revealed this threat. Some ally to Regis?
She had a hand at her back, fought for her breath, "Where's the girl pervert?"
What? Pervert? What does she think this-
"What did you do with her?!" She pressed the blade's tip into the floor and used it as a pivot, reclaiming her feet.
"I'm right here," Areli said, peeking above her cover.
"Did she-"
"No."
She had no idea what was happening here. Her eyes switched back and forth between Areli and I, bleeding away their ferocity.
"This is an extraction you stupid bitch, and you're ruining it," I turned to the busted door. the Inn's proprietor was likely cowering in the hall, or rushing off to find a watchman.
How the roles could have been reversed. I'd likely have done the same, had I come across a kidnapper's trail in the middle of the night. I'd probably have raised even more hell.
She tried to piece things together. The situation wasn't straightforward, "Why?"
"We don't have time for that. Come on Areli..." I rose, my hand at my screaming neck.
"No," She stepped between me and the door, held out her sabre. "What are you running from?"
Areli came to my side, quilt wrapped around her in one hand, her other set on my shoulder, "My father," her voice held a timber that betrayed everything. This woman hadn't earned that level of truth.
My teeth clenched. I didn't want to force my way out of here, but I would, "Are you going to get out of the way?"
Her sabre grumbled, and knelt. She rolled it behind her, "Let me, let me help..."
We likely had moments before an armed contingent arrived. A skilled blade carried worth, when pointed in the right direction, "Fine, grab my pack and keep up."
Areli and I exited into the hall and made eyes with the halfling woman. The girl asked for her silence, and she nodded. I promised to pay for the damages as we rushed out to the street.