Evony kept them all at a light jog, fast enough that they were moving, slow enough that Admina wouldn’t get exhausted. Only when they were out of the wing of the building that held Galen’s rooms did Evony feel like they weren’t about to be ambushed around every corner. It was still eerie, hurrying through the dark halls, not seeing anyone, only hearing things from a distance. It was almost like they had died and were echoes, wandering around the halls of the living, unable to interact with anyone or anything, trapped for all eternity...
She shook the morbid thoughts away. She needed to think about what to do, not focus solely on the worst case scenarios. Movement had her head snapping to one side, but only saw the terrified face of what appeared to be a servant before the woman disappeared back the other way. Evony didn’t blame her. Without knowing which soldiers were which, it would be far safer to avoid all of them.
They kept moving in silence as Evony kept her eyes scanning for anything that could possibly be a threat. She heard the footsteps as they rounded a corner and saw two soldiers coming straight towards them. Her gaze widened and her whole body tensed as they all skittered to a stop.
“Hey! Who are you?” said the man in purple, coming towards them. Noticing three soldiers, his hand went to the hilt of his sword. “What families do you belong to? Which side are they fighting on?”
“Oh thank the gods!” Evony cried, hurrying towards him, one eye on his companion in red, her hands already reaching for her weapons. “We heard the awful fighting and have been looking for somewhere safe, and with only my guards we didn’t think—”
She stopped talking as she reached the first man. She slashed out with a knife across his throat, ignoring the red spray that came from the deep wound. He gurgled, hand reaching for the wound. Evony was already rushing the short distance that separated her from the man in red. He fumbled for his sword, but she was already there.
Evony lunged forward and slammed one knife up and between his ribs. Her strike was as smooth as if she was still training on the death point dummy. The blade pierced his heart before he could even cry out. Evony yanked her knife out and stepped away, letting the body hit the floor. The first man was already there, blood still pooling out from his neck.
Leaning down, Evony wiped her dagger off on the bottom of the closest man’s tunic then straightened. Glancing down at herself she sighed. Already she was flecked with blood. So much for her disguise. She thought she’d leave it for now and see if she could pretend it was wine or some such.
She turned back to look at the other four who were all staring at her. “We need to keep moving,” she said. “If they’re checking on which family people belong to, there’s a possibility they’re looking for hostages as well as us. That means they’ll be stopping everyone.”
“W-what if they were on our side?” asked one of the soldiers, staring at the bodies.
“Then they would have asked if we were loyal to the emperor or if we were the rebels. No one on our side would care which family you belong to,” Evony replied. “And we can’t take the risk of anyone waking up or being found and telling others where we are, so I had to kill them. If this bothers you, you had better toughen up or you won’t survive what is undoubtedly coming. This is war, even if it is on a smaller scale than you’re used to. It’s not a war we started, but it’s one we need to finish, and unfortunately, we can’t afford to give quarter. Do you understand?”
He swallowed but nodded. “Yes, brightness Evony.”
“Good. Now let’s move before someone finds us here with these bodies,” she said, stepping past them.
Admina moved up so she was beside Evony, face paler than it had been and just a bit green. “This is only going to get worse, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” Evony replied, wishing she could reassure her but knowing the truth would be better. “I can find somewhere you can hide if you would prefer. Or you could head towards where your brother is. You should be safe there, whatever happens.”
She shook her head, eyes hardening a bit though no colour returned to her face. “No. I am loyal to the emperor and the empire. I will stay with you and do my best to help.”
Evony smiled though she really wished her friend had gone to her family. She wasn’t sure any of them would survive this, and putting Admina in danger, who didn’t know how to fight... But it was her choice, and Evony couldn’t deny the girl’s bravery or loyalty. And as a noble, her duty was clear. Evony repressed a sigh. As much as she wanted to believe otherwise, she didn’t think they were all going to get out of this unscathed.
Chapter 23: Honour
They only made it down a few more hallways before they were stopped again. This time it was a group of four soldiers who had clearly set themselves up to stop anyone passing by. Evony slowed to a stop in front of them, noting the unsheathed swords, defensive postures, and steady gazes of the men.
“Stop!” said one of the men, ignoring the fact she was already doing that. The two who had been watching the other direction of the hall turned to face them, all four men standing ready. Four against four wouldn’t be too bad, Evony thought, but she also didn’t want to risk Galen or Admina getting hurt.
“We’re just looking for somewhere safe,” she said, trying to pitch her voice higher and letting it waver, like she was frightened. “We don’t want to fight you—”
She was cut off by the first man stepping forward. Evony tensed, hands ready to draw her knives. “Brightness Evony?” he asked, eyes wide.
She jerked her head and looked at him, studying the face that was only partly visible due to his helmet. She recognized the face of Erryl from her morning practice and as she looked at the others, she realized she knew them too. “It’s you,” she said, dropping her scared act and feeling relief run through her. “I thought you were more rebel soldiers.”
“No, brightness Evony. We’ve been trying to catch some of them, to try and figure out what’s going on. We were on guard duty down by the wine stores and heard the shouting so...”
Evony nodded. “The barracks is under attack at the moment, and we could use your help, so you should come with us for the time being. Are you okay with that?”
The four looked at each other then saluted. “If we’re with you, brightness Evony, I think we’ll be exactly where we need to be.”
“Good. Fall in with us then,” she said, already looking up the hall to where they needed to go. She glanced back at Galen and jerked her head in the direction of where the hallway ended up ahead and split to each side.
“Right,” he told her, pitching his voice lower so as not to be recognized.
“Thanks,” she said, before heading back out and settling into the light jog they were all getting used to. The new soldiers fell in to either side of them, leaving their original guards at the back and Admina safe in the centre with Galen in front of her and behind Evony.
Down that hallway they went until it joined up with a walkway. Outside of the buildings themselves, the sound of the battle around the barracks was louder, more shouts and screams ripping through the night air. The soldiers kept turning towards the distant sounds, training making it difficult for them to ignore the obvious trouble.
Evony had no such problem. If Galen was taken out, everything they were working for, all the fighting to save the empire, would be meaningless. He had no heirs and it would just end as the rebels wanted it. Though Evony suspected it would be civil war rather than whatever smooth transition she thought they must be imagining.
As they approached where the walkways crossed another, Evony’s sharp ears picked up the sound of many feet all marching, creating a stamping beat that echoed towards them. She hissed, knowing from the sound that they were far too outnumbered to deal with them and she wasn’t about to gamble on them being friendly. “This way,” she whispered, leading their group off the walkway and into the nearby ga
rden. She hurried everyone over to a narrow archway that led inside the nearest building.
The room they were in was a narrow entranceway that held a few benches among its painted walls, something that Evony guessed was typically used to rest out of the sun while still having a view of the gardens from the windows. Another arched doorway led out to a smaller hall. Evony waved everyone to either side of the doorway and away from the windows, while she crouched at the garden door, gaze on the walkway they’d just abandoned.
It took what felt like an hora, but was probably less than a tenth of it for the soldiers to come into view. They marched in an orderly square, armed with shields and swords, their heads swivelling as they moved. The colours that Evony could see under the lantern their leader held were a mixed bag. Grey, purple, red, blue, and even green tunics were in evidence. She didn’t see any orange or white, and knew she wouldn’t see yellow, but it seemed like more than a few different provinces had joined the rebellion.
Evony snarled silently at the traitors. How these provinces could forget their duty as nobles, how they could rise up against Galen was something she couldn’t and didn’t want to understand. All she need to know was that they’d forsaken their honour and she wouldn’t feel bad about killing any of them.
She waited until the group was well away and she couldn’t hear any of their footsteps before she stood up properly and waved everyone to follow her back out. As much as she would have liked to stay in the building, Evony knew they’d have an easier time of hiding and running if they kept outside as long as they could.
They barely made it around another building before they spotted two more soldiers standing at the centre of where two walkways met up ahead in the distance. They were able to hurry off to the side, but it was obvious from the way they stood that they’d been stationed there. Evony eyed the two, clear to see as they had hung a lit lantern off one column. One of the men wore grey while the other purple and both were keeping their gazes moving.
Of course if they’d really wanted to be effective they would have done without the lantern and let their eyes adjust. Evony thought it stupid to do, but if the men were trying to identify soldiers, it would make some sort of sense to keep it. Only the palace soldiers would be in black.
She sighed. That left them with no real choice in the matter. She turned to look at the others. “I’ll go ahead and take care of them,” she whispered. “With the light they’ll be able to tell which side you’re on easily and will likely attack or call for help. A lone woman shouldn’t raise suspicion.”
The soldiers all nodded while Admina bit her lip and Galen shook his head. “It is not safe.”
“Nothing about this situation is safe, but it’s our best option at the moment.”
“I do not like it.”
“Then it’s a good thing I don’t care,” she replied, straightening and getting back up on the walkway.
She ignored Galen hissing her name and hurried towards the distant circle of light. Evony did her best to counterfeit the awkward run of a woman not used to it and to arrange her face into something that resembled fear, which was hard when most of what she was feeling at the moment was anger at the stupidity of the whole rebellion.
Evony deliberately stumbled into the light, as the two soldiers who had already been alerted by her footsteps, moved towards her. She faked being out of breath and panted, looking up at them both with her eyes forced wide. “Please,” she whispered. “Help me! Everything has gone to madness out there, soldiers are attacking one another and I-I...”
She hugged herself and shook her shoulders, like she was sobbing silently, but really going for her knives as the men closed in on her. “What family do you belong to, brightness?” asked the soldier in grey, reaching out to grab her shoulder.
That was all Evony needed. She slapped his arm away and slammed the other into his chest. Her strike was deep, but she missed his heart but got a lung which was evident by the way he began to wheeze. She ignored him for the moment, whirling on the other man who shouted something unintelligible. He swung at her, but she jumped to the side and lunged in to slash his throat.
He went down and she turned back to the first, who clutched his chest and was gurgling now. She pulled his head to the side and struck his throat to put him out of his misery. The sound he made was clear evidence that his lung was filling with blood and it was only a matter of time before he died anyway.
Shouts from ahead had Evony’s head snapping up. Her eyes widened as she saw the six men hurrying towards her, weapons drawn. She grabbed her bow and nocked her first arrow, sighting on the nearest men and letting it fly then grabbed another. Her first shot took the man in the neck, while her second only glanced off the next’s helmet. She shot one last time, this arrow hitting the man in the shoulder making him cry out and stumble back, before she put her bow away and grabbed her knives again.
She could hear the others running towards her but knew they weren’t going to reach her before her opponents did. Evony settled herself into a defensive stance, her two longest daggers in each hand. Another shout had her jaw tightening. The four coming towards her she could probably handle, more than that... For the first time, she considered running.
But it was already too late and the first man came swinging a sword at her. She jumped back from the slash, and darted to one side, getting around his shield so she could stab him in the side. The man cried out and tried to turn himself so he could bash her with his shield, but Evony had already moved.
She danced away from the next nearest man’s blow and lashed out at the eyes of a third. He fell back with a cry just as the reinforcements arrived. Hearing a scream not coming from a blow of hers, Evony glanced over and saw that the second group to approach all wore black. She smiled faintly and leapt away from another blow.
Then there were no more as the nearly dozen men in black made short work of the four soldiers in a rainbow assortment of colours. “Brightness Evony,” said their leader. “Are you safe?”
She nodded. “Thanks to you and your men.”
“You were doing pretty well without us,” called one of the others.
Their leader glared at them. “Brightness Evony, do you know what is happening? All we know is that we returned from our night manoeuvers to this chaos.”
Slowing footsteps announced the arrival of the rest of Evony’s group. “This is an attempted coup,” she told the newcomers as Galen came to stand behind her. “Will you help us?”
“We’re glad to help, but what is it you need us for?”
Evony shook her head. “I’ll explain once we’re settled in. Will you follow me for now?”
The man hesitated then studied Evony’s steady gaze. He nodded. “Yes. You of all nobles wouldn’t lead us astray.”
She offered a small smile at that. “Good. Then fall in with the rest.”
Only then did she look at Galen, who was still finishing his visual inspection of her. “Is there a back way where we’re heading?”
He shook his head. “This is the back way.”
She sighed. “Of course it is. Well, let’s keep moving then.”
Evony took the time to blow out the lantern to make the scene of carnage less obvious, then again took the lead. They hurried away from the crossroads, heading towards the palace wall that loomed over the buildings. They headed straight towards it, making Evony wonder if the storeroom Galen was taking them to wasn’t underneath it or something. Though to her that seemed like it would be putting a giant, unnecessary weak spot in the palace’s defenses.
They were heading towards the last place the walkways crossed before they ran parallel to the wall, when Evony spotted light approaching from the left and from straight ahead. She choked and was about to drag them off the path when Galen grabbed her wrist from behind. She looked at him, but he said nothing, only towed her after him as he led the
way off the walkway and into the garden to their right.
He had them running down the path that cut diagonally across it, and in moments, they were through the archway that led into the building that bordered it on one side. Everyone else followed behind them, everyone silent, as Evony wasn’t the only person who had spotted the light of approaching soldiers.
Evony said nothing as Galen took them down one narrow hall, then another. She was glad he was leading now, because she was already confused with all the turns he was taking them down. It didn’t help that all the hallways looked the same, every one made of the plain stone of the building, the floors of the same. That alone told her that this building was intended for the servants.
Galen eventually took them down a narrow hallways that had two doorways off it. He headed to the farther one and waved Evony in. Looking inside she noticed wooden crates and what appeared to be broken and worn furniture piled up in the corners. It was obvious this was not somewhere people came often and she could see why a young Galen would have hidden there when he didn’t want to be found.
The narrow hallways and doorway were good, though she’d have preferred an actual door to act as part of a blockade. But there wasn’t anything she could do about that at the moment. Evony nodded as everyone joined them inside. “Alright, this is where we’ll be holding out,” she said. “Hopefully we’re not found here.”
The leader of the last group frowned. “Shouldn’t we be out there, fighting?”
Evony shook her head and looked at Galen. He got his cue and stepped forward, removing his helmet. “Unfortunately, I must ask for your assistance in this. Legate Balint has taken charge of freeing the barracks. We deemed it necessary to add your swords to ours once we saw the number of rebels moving about, most of whom are obviously looking for either me or hostages.”
The man choked and bowed deeply, his men following suit. “Your Imperial Majesty,” he said. “Of course we... We didn’t realize... Your safety is obviously of highest priority.”
The Emperor's Arrow Page 22
