'Lyanna!' screamed Erienne and she upped her pace.
Ilkar tore after them, praying Hirad was close enough behind. Gods knew how many of them were in the ballroom. He closed the distance at a flat sprint but time seemed to crawl. A Dordovan mage, ShadowWings live on his back, strode out of the door, looked up once then stooped to pull the Protector's body out of the way. Erienne slithered to a halt, a hand to her mouth, calling Lyanna's name over and over. The child herself held out her hands and begged for help. But Erienne wasn't going to get there in time.
Behind Ilkar an explosion sounded and his thoughts took on a terrible clarity. In front of him, a Dordovan mage leant down to snatch the Nightchild and take her back to Dordover where the threat of the One would be snuffed out forever. It would be so easy to let the mage take her, to not quite stop him. To make an effort so great that none could blame him for her loss. It would save the Colleges. It would save the fledgling new Julatsa.
For a Julatsan mage, it was the only decision that could be made. What had The Unknown said of him? That he wouldn't get in the way of someone killing her. Implying that for him the saving of his College was bigger than one life.
Was it, hell.
Ilkar didn't know what possessed him. It was something he'd never even dreamt of attempting before but his subconscious instructed his body without bothering to check with the rational part of his mind. He drew his sword, his only weapon, from its sheath and flung it down the corridor and time stopped standing still.
The sword flicked end over end. It wasn't a great throw but it was enough. Bouncing from the orchard wall it struck the mage flat on, sending him staggering backwards, concentration and wings gone. In that moment, Erienne dived towards Lyanna and pulled her free. The Dordovan mage came again but this time Ilkar grappled him around the middle and both man and elf tumbled back into the ballroom.
Hirad lashed his sword through the first Dordovan throat, chopping through his windpipe and jugular and sending him crashing back into the corridor where he had come from. Beside him, a Protector overheaded with his axe, splitting the skull of the next through his helmet. Without pausing to extract the weapon, he snapped the sword from his back and drove it through, waist-high, into a third.
The barbarian roared, the blood rushing through his veins, feeling empowered and very, very angry. He batted away a strike to his midriff and laid a straight left hand punch on the enemy's nose. Letting his momentum carry him on, he spun, taking the man in the face with his left elbow, then the right and finishing with the back of his right fist. The Dordovan went down with blood spraying from his shattered face and Hirad was in the middle of them. They never knew what hit them.
'Come on, you bastards!'
Facing them again and with his sword coming through, he thumped it into the forehead of the next victim, slicing through bone and seeing brain explode from the top of his skull as it compressed and shattered. He kicked out waist-high, his foot sweeping the body aside and leaving his path clear.
'Ilkar, I'm coming!'
There were more Dordovans ahead. Two Protectors ran past him, bludgeoning two of those who ran after Erienne and Ilkar before
Hirad caught them up, his eyes seeing only red, and picked his next target.
'Move, move!' called Denser, desperately holding his concentration on the HardShield as arrows and crossbow bolts bounced off it. 'Stay behind me, attack only if they get inside a couple of paces.'
The Unknown was limping hard down the corridor, Aeb to his left and Darrick to his right. Ahead, Hirad had gone berserk and was causing confusion in the Dordovans spilling from the corridor entrances. They didn't know who to attack. Aeb made up their mind for them, charging in and beheading one with a clean sweep of his axe.
Ignoring his pain, The Unknown ran after him, each footfall sending his head swimming.
'Get to the kitchen. Third perimeter. Third perimeter!'
Aeb blocked with his sword and hammered low with his axe, taking the standing foot from a Dordovan mage who sank to the ground, clutching at the bloody stump. The Protector was battering a path, blocking the wing entrance and buying time, but he would soon be outnumbered. The Unknown surged on.
'Denser, stay with me,' he managed, every step with his damaged leg firing new agony up into his back.
'Right behind you, Unknown. I'll tell you when to run.'
The Unknown reached the melee and deflected the attention of two soldiers. The first came at him, sword raised to strike downwards. The big man might have been slow but he wasn't yet a complete cripple. He swayed right and swung his sword from the left, slashing the man across the stomach as he prepared to deliver his death blow. It was a mistake he'd never recover to learn from. The second was more cautious but was distracted by Aeb heaving his axe just past his nose to bury it in the face of another Dordovan. Seeing the chance, The Unknown threw his dagger which the soldier blocked well but then left himself hopelessly open. The Raven warrior carved open his stomach. The Unknown felt sick with the pain now. It carried through his back and into his head in waves, threatening to overwhelm him.
'Run!' yelled Denser.
The Unknown looked behind and swallowed hard. The Dordovans
were charging now, abandoning range weapons for overwhelming numbers. Darrick came past him, shouting something he didn't catch.
'Aeb, we're going,' said The Unknown.
'Yes.' Aeb thumped the pommel of his sword into the face of a soldier and pushed him into the pack following.
He turned, grabbed The Unknown's arm and ran with him up the corridor.
'Get those doors ready!' called The Unknown, fighting the urge to vomit. He wasn't sure exactly how long he could stand up, let alone move.
Behind them, the Dordovans were gaining fast. It was going to be very close.
Ilkar rolled over, finishing on top of the Dordovan. He smashed both fists into the mage, hearing the back of his skull connect with the tiles and his grip go slack. Behind him, Erienne stumbled into the ballroom. He looked around. It was full of Dordovans.
'Oh Gods,' he said. He got up and ran low at the nearest mage, praying he wouldn't prepare in time.
Lyanna clung to her mother as she got up and ran back into the ballroom and towards the kitchen. The man with the sword came from nowhere and struck Erienne across the side of the face. She went down hard, Lyanna screaming as she tumbled from her mother's arms and slithered across the ballroom floor. She refused to cry and got up to run back to Erienne but the man stopped her, pushing her away.
'You're going back home to die, little one, but not before you see me kill your bitch of a mother.'
His voice wasn't right but she understood him.
'You don't hurt my Mummy,' she said, then raised her voice and shrieked. 'You don't hurt my Mummy!'
Ilkar staggered under an enormous pressure in the mana as he tried to attune to the spectrum, aiming to prepare as he ran. In front of him, six mages rocked as one, their hands clamping on their ears. Whatever they had been creating was gone. Ilkar would have killed
the lot of them but the power assailing the mana pushed him to his knees. He groped around, looking for help. Hirad surged through the door, Protectors at his heels and, in the middle of it all, the mana light was pouring into Lyanna.
Hirad saw Selik standing over the prone form of Erienne as he burst into the ballroom. Lyanna was standing alone screaming but he couldn't worry about that now.
'Selik!' he said, advancing. 'I said there'd be another time.'
The Black Wing, sword in hand, swung to face him, his smeared features curling into a travesty of a smile.