Lucky? Believable? Rambles hadn’t actually known I was working for Kells?
He thought he’d made it all up!
Oh, I was going to enjoy dusting this bastard.
The ring of steel on steel sounded behind me.
“We need to go,” said Rambles, pressing harder against my neck with the sword. “Get up.”
I started to comply, holding my left hand, seemingly limp and hurting, against my body. As I rose, Rambles took a step back to give me room. In the moment of his step, I felt the pressure of the sword ease off. That was what I’d been waiting for.
I lunged off the ground with both feet, driving myself upward. At the same time, I thrust my left elbow out. His eyes grew wide at my movement. They got even wider when my elbow drove into his crotch with the full force of my body behind it.
I ducked my head as I came up, but still felt a light cut slide across the back of my neck. It was worth it, though, to see Rambles collapse on the street next to me. I drew my boot dagger and gathered up the rope as he began to vomit on himself.
“I wish I could make this linger,” I said. “Angels know you’ve screwed me over enough to deserve it, but I have more important business than you.”
He blinked the tears from his eyes and rolled on the ground, drawn up into himself. Rambles looked at me, then past me. “Kill the fucker,” he grated through his teeth.
“Kill him yourself,” said a voice behind me. “I have orders.”
Damn! Since when did Rambles run with a partner?
I rose and spun, lashing out with the rope. The woman was standing just beyond its reach. As the end passed by her, she slipped in neatly and punched me in the face. I staggered, brought my dagger up, felt it taken away. Then I noticed the white sash around her waist.
What the hell was a Sash doing here? Where were Nicco’s people? Or even Iron Degan? If Rambles was going to have backup…
She hit me again. Between her and what Shadow had done to my night vision, my head wanted to fall off.
I tried to back away. She grabbed my doublet, holding me in place, and brought her fist back yet again.
“Stop!” I said, dropping the rope. I held my palms out toward her. “Enough!”
The White Sash glared at me. “Hardly,” she said, “but it’ll have to do for now.”
I looked up at her and felt a stirring in my memory… A savage smile, cloak streaming out in midleap, her blade brushing me aside in the rain…
“The Barren,” I said. “You’re the Sash who ambushed us in the Barren.”
“And you’re the fuck who helped kill two of my brothers,” she grated. “Now, let’s go.”
She yanked on my doublet, pulling me toward her. She was tall, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and a hard presence-lots of muscle, lots of reflexes there. Her eyes were a pair of copper coins on a winter’s morning, while her mouth seemed most comfortable set in a stern line of displeasure. The only thing remotely soft about her was her hair-a long auburn braid, the hair interwoven with a white ribbon edged in fine lace.
I remembered I’d thought her beautiful in the Barren, and she was. But it was the beauty of a finely swung sword, or a freshly frozen lake at morning. It was a beauty you knew better than to touch.
I glanced back at Degan. He was busy pressing Shadow, forcing him back, even as the Gray Prince reached into his pouch for more coins. I groaned. If there was ever a time to tap Shadow from behind…
The Sash followed my look.
“That’s a Gray Prince,” I said. “Shadow. Think of the feather in your cap.”
She bit her lip, then shook her head. “Orders,” she said, and pulled at my clothing.
“Screw you, Sash,” I said, digging in my heels. “I’m not about to-”
Her face was suddenly inches from mine. More important, though, I felt a firm, constricting pressure clamp itself around my balls through my pants.
“I don’t give a damn about your friends right now,” she snarled. “You’ll move your ass, and fast, or we’ll leave a few nonvital pieces behind.” She squeezed to emphasize the point. “Understood?”
“Understood,” I gasped.
She let go and spun me around, then gave me a shove. I would have bolted, except my legs were still shaky from her… handling. By the time I caught my balance, I felt a hand on my shoulder and a blade at my back.
“What about me, damn it?” gasped Rambles from the ground behind us.
“Don’t stand so close next time,” she said. Then, to me, “Go.”
I considered asking her what the hell was going on with Rambles but decided it would likely get me a punch in the kidney. Her being with Rambles meant she was most decidedly not going to be a shortcut to getting the journal to the emperor.
Instead, I took three dragging steps in the direction she was steering. Then I heard Degan call out.
“Drothe!”
I smiled and looked back past the Sash. Degan was stepping back from Shadow, as if to come after me. Shadow paused for a second as well to look our way.
“Stop!” shouted the Gray Prince.
Even better.
Both of them began to move in our direction, although not at a run. Each was eyeing the other as they moved, blades at the ready for any kind of treachery.
“Fucking brilliant!” muttered the Sash. Her fingers dug into my shoulder. At the same time, I felt a sharp spike of pain between my kidneys. “Understand this,” she said as she prodded me forward. “I’ll kill you before I let them have you, orders or no. So move.”
I moved. Part of me wanted to stumble, to drag my feet… to do anything to give Degan a chance to catch us, but the knife in my back argued otherwise. Then we went around a corner, and I realized that even if I could slow us down, it wouldn’t matter.
In front of us, nearly filling the small street, was a patrol of Rags-waiting.
“There’re two Crawlers behind us,” said the Sash to the Rags. “I don’t want them following me.”
“Don’t worry,” said one wearing a commander’s steel gorget. “We’ll stop them.”
“No, you won’t,” muttered the Sash as they parted and flowed past us, but she said it soft enough that only I overheard. There looked to be more than a dozen of them, but I knew she was right; at most, the Rags would delay Degan and Shadow, not stop them. That delay would be long enough for us to get away, though.
“Nice job, sending them off to die,” I said as we moved forward again. “Is that standard procedure?”
“Shut up,” she said. The pressure against my back increased.
“No, really,” I said as we exited the street and cut across to a not-quite-parallel one. “That was well-done. I know some Upright Men who would have been impressed by that.”
“Shut up!”
She steered us down a narrow side alley. I could almost touch the walls on either side.
I took a deep breath, let it out. “You know,” I said, “if you ever get tired of working for the emperor, I can probably get you in with the Kin.”
That did it.
She roared and shoved me toward a wall with her free hand, intending to drive me into it, quite likely repeatedly. I spun with the push, though, and lashed out with my fist. On the downside, the punch didn’t land as solidly as I would have liked; on the upside, it hit her in the side of the neck. She staggered and started choking.
I bolted.
There was no way to get past her in the narrow space, so I headed in the opposite direction. I dodged piles of garbage and even kicked over a bucket of rainwater as I passed. Anything to make the footing worse and slow her down. Behind me, I heard cursing and the beginnings of a stumbling pursuit.
The alley exited onto the end of a rambling lane. There was a fence to my left; I headed right. After half a block, the lane widened enough to allow for a line of small trees down the middle. I cut to the left side of the avenue, hoping the trees would obscure me when the Sash finally came out of the alley.