caved in his helm with three savage blows.
Marozvolk and Kimi bludgeoned and slashed a bloody path through the soldiers, but were soon split up. Marozvolk fought to defend the many novices, while Kimi surged forward to kill the Envoy. The children, initially cowed after the loss of their friends, saw their allies fighting for them and began to rally. Trine, the dark-haired, fire-breathing novice, hurled a javelin of arcane flame, which punched through a soldier’s armour and into his chest. Another of the men was lifted into the air by a trio of Zemlya novices, only to crash to the ground seconds later. He screamed as his legs broke.
Kimi was a dozen feet from Kjellrunn when she reached the Envoy but no matter what she did, she couldn’t find a way past the soldiers. Kimi deflected and dodged their strikes and replied with thrusts of her own, but she drew no closer.
The Envoy still clutched at the young girl, his short sword at her throat, his hand visibly shaking. He backed away from the fight but there was no escaping Kjellrunn. Her first strike came down on his sword arm, smashing the elbow. The sword fell from the Envoy’s numb fingers and clattered on the cobbles. The second strike almost connected with the Envoy’s head, but was nothing more than a glancing blow to his temple. The young novice slipped free of his grasp and fled.
‘Who are you people?’ mumbled the Envoy as he staggered backwards, holding his head with both his hands. Kjellrunn didn’t answer him, but hefted the mace, making her intentions clear. The Envoy’s expression hardened before spreading his feet wide and gasping down a breath. There was a tell-tale orange glow at the Envoy’s throat that Kimi had seen before.
‘Kjellrunn! Get down!’ Kimi was locked in combat with another soldier a dozen feet away and had no way of reaching her. The Envoy breathed a gout of fire that engulfed Kjellrunn’s head and torso.
‘Kjellrunn!’ screamed Kimi. She slashed the knee of the soldier she was fighting with her blade and sprinted towards Steiner’s sister. The Envoy stared ahead in disbelief. The young woman he had immolated had not dropped to the ground in agony. Kjellrunn had barely flinched. Her blackened skin showed traces of stone beneath the scorch marks. She threw down the mace from granite hands and seized the Envoy by the throat before punching him with a series of wet smacking sounds.
‘Kjellrunn! Stop. You’re killing him.’ Kimi stared from the Envoy to the barely recognisable girl. ‘I didn’t know you could change your skin.’
‘Neither did I,’ said Kjellrunn. She released the bloodied Envoy and stared at one hand, a look of sickened worry on her stony face. Her granite skin shimmered a moment before returning to its normal colour. Marozvolk emerged from the violence to stand beside them.
‘Kjellrunn,’ said the former Vigilant in quiet awe. ‘It takes years to learn how to do that.’
But Kjellrunn paid no attention. She gestured at a cobble by her foot, which she wrenched out of the road by arcane force. Then cobble shot over Kimi’s shoulder, barely missing her ear.
‘You nearly took my head off!’ Kimi shouted before turning to follow Kjellrunn’s furious gaze. The cobble had dented the sergeant’s chest plate and knocked him back a step, but he was still within arm’s reach. Kimi raised her sword but staggered backwards as the soldier slammed her in the face with the butt of the maul. Kimi fell into Kjellrunn and they both sprawled across the Envoy in a heap of limbs.
‘Get off of me!’ complained the Envoy, through a bloody and ruined mouth. Kimi stamped on the man’s face as she regained her feet. Marozvolk parried the sergeant’s next strike, stepping aside and looking for an opening. His armour was scored and dented, but the man showed no sign of giving in.
‘The Envoy has fallen!’ shouted the sergeant, then stepped in closer and swung his maul in a wide arc. Kimi sidestepped the blow and swiped at the sergeant’s knees but the armoured man was surprisingly nimble. Her sword missed its mark and the sergeant replied with a strike at Kimi’s head. The princess folded at the waist to avoid the maul and Marozvolk charged into the man, catching him in the midriff and knocking him down. There was a frenzied scrabble as Marozvolk grasped the sergeant’s maul at each end and pressed down on the man’s throat. He pushed and punched and clawed at Marozvolk but her skin shimmered and turned to stone, weathering his frenzied and desperate attacks. Long seconds passed before the sergeant stopped moving. His arms went slack, his legs stopped kicking, and a dreadful silence descended on the street.
Kimi offered Marozvolk a hand, helping the former Vigilant to her feet.
‘I thought he was going to kill you, your highness,’ said Marozvolk, breathing hard, suddenly formal.
‘I thought the same thing. Thanks for saving me.’
All around were bodies of soldiers. Tief was finishing off the ones who still drew breath, while Sundra attended to the dead and wounded novices.
‘So much for going ahead and scouting to make sure things are safe,’ said Kimi as Romola rounded a corner and looked at the scene of carnage.
‘What have you done?’ said the pirate captain quietly.
The rest of the day was spent disposing of the dead soldiers in the bay. Marozvolk hauled another corpse from the back of the wagon. The novices watched from their position on the ship. They stared down with pale faces, too shocked to speak. They were six less in number now, just seventeen souls. Mistress Kamalov had retired to her cabin, refusing to speak to anyone.
Tief helped Romola and her crew loot the soldier’s bodies, setting aside the coin and stripping the armour. ‘How long before the Empire notices they’re missing?’ he asked quietly.
‘I count eighteen bodies,’ said Kimi.
‘There’s usually ten men to a section,’ said Marozvolk, ‘and three sections to a troop.’
Tief swore under his breath and Romola pressed a hand to her forehead. ‘So there’s another twelve soldiers out there?’ said Tief.
‘We don’t know that,’ said Marozvolk. ‘They might have been under full strength. The other section might be in the next town.’
‘We keep three crew on watch at all times,’ Romola said to her crew. ‘As soon as we sight Imperial soldiers I’m casting off, and I don’t care who’s still ashore.’ She flashed an angry look at Kimi. ‘Where is Steiner?’
Kimi shrugged. ‘I haven’t seen him. I was scouting ahead. That was what we agreed.’ She eyed the captain with a sour look. ‘Who let Mistress Kamalov off the ship with all of those children?’
‘I was overseeing the resupply,’ countered Romola, squaring up to the princess. ‘I can’t be everywhere at once.’
‘You didn’t notice two score of children and an old woman sneaking off your ship?’ said Kimi, taking a step closer. ‘Are you blind?’
‘This isn’t helping,’ said Marozvolk quietly. ‘We dispose of the bodies, we get the supplies, we cast off. You two can blame each other all day long once we’re at sea.’
Kjellrunn
