"Goblins!" someone shouted and then all hell broke loose.
Half of Gabriella's men were felled before she could cut down her first goblin. She slashed one with both swords and back-stabbed another. Gamblers and whores were cut down as they tried to get past the melee and reach the doors. Some of the more eager goblins sliced off fingers or ears and swallowed them even as they moved onto their next target. Gabriella was too busy to feel sick, so she concentrated on trying to regroup with her shrinking number of soldiers.
A goblin jumped at Warrigan's back and he turned to fight it off. Gabriella kicked it in the head and one of her men speared both it and Warrigan.
One of the Huntress' guards leapt to the back of the room and pushed with one palm. A wave of tables and chairs immediately hurled themselves into the morass of people and goblins. Gabriella made a long slide across the floor and came up with each sword in the gut of a goblin.
A goblin shaman gestured at the human who had made the chairs move and the man exploded into shrieking flame. Gabriella wasn't about to give him the chance to do the same to her; she scooped up a fallen knife, the hilt slick with greenish blood, and hurled it into the goblin magician's neck before he could notice her.
He fell but there were still many goblins in the Huntress and as they rushed across the room, Gabriella backhanded one with the pommel of one sword and ran a second goblin through with the other. She ran up the stairs after a female goblin and plunged both swords into her back. The first goblin recovered, spitting out teeth, and came up after her. She kicked him in the face and he fell to his hands and knees, before scrambled up after her. He made a grab for her, but she twisted her hips and threw him off. He slammed into a door and, when Gabriella rammed a knee into his gut, they both fell through it.
The room was designed for dubious pleasures and was flooded with the scent of Dreamweed. A man wearing a pair of leather trews and an open grubby red and black shirt, was helping the first of two women wearing only paint to climb out through an open window. They paused and looked on in surprise as Gabriella fenced briefly with the goblin before pitching it back out of the room, with a gaping wound in its chest.
The two slatterns hesitated and Gabriella gave the nearest one a shove towards the window.
"Don't stop. Climb out and run."
They made a quick getaway as directed. The man didn't climb out, but lifted a broadsword from beneath the bed. He was a little taller than average. His shoulders were broad and his collarbone, visible through the open shirt, was covered with the pink scarring that only flame could give. He had a youthful, angular face, betrayed by silver stubble. His eyes were clear and penetrating, the right one underlined by a scar, and his unnaturally white hair was tied into a ponytail by a leather thong.
"You're not Crowe, by any chance?" she asked, remembering what Warrigan had said downstairs.
"Might be." He looked at her askance. "You don't look like a whore."
"Is that meant to be a compliment, or an insult?"
"Just an observation. This is a brothel. I'd kind of expected to meet whores in it."
"Then you'll just have to be disappointed."
"Not necessarily." He hefted a leather pouch, which jingled. "I don't know how much they pay members of the Order, but I doubt it's so much that a little extra wouldn't come in handy."
"You can put that purse away, before I shove it so far down your throat you'll be dropping silver into the privy for a week." She pushed past him and glanced out through the window. "Come on, we're getting out of here."
"Good plan. Didn't expect gobboes this far out of the World's Ridge. I mean, God's hairy bollocks, but it wasn't the night I had in mind — "
Gabriella slapped him. "That's for the blasphemy. Just be glad I'm taking the mitigating circumstances into account."
He lifted the broadsword and levelled the wide point at her throat.
"And you just be glad that I'm taking the gobboes, and the need for as many blades as possible when running into said gobboes, into account." He lowered the blade, and nodded at the swords in her hands. "I hope you know how to handle that cutlery of yours."
"I'll bet you do."
She glanced towards the wall beside the shattered door as a creak came from the other side. She leaped across, burying one sword into the wall up to the hilt. When she pulled it free, the blade was slick with bile-like greenish blood and there was a loud crash from the landing. The plasterboard wall exploded inwards, a war-axe tearing through it. Gabriella dodged, using her swords to force the axe down into the floor. She kicked out at one of the muscled arms holding it, breaking the elbow loudly, then ran the creature through.
Crowe wasted no time in heading for the window but, before he could dive out, a lanky, snarling goblin swung into the room from the guttering at the edge of the roof outside, and caught the broadsword's edge in the face for its trouble. It disappeared with a burbling scream.
Crowe leapt out of the window and Gabriella followed. They dropped onto the awning that covered the Huntress' main door and from there jumped carefully to the ground.
"Let's get out of here." Crowe said as they reached the ground.
"First things first." She ran back into the barroom, cut down two more goblins and then sheathed her swords. Then, finding a few spirit barrels suitable for her purpose, she grabbed a crowbar and used both hands to provide the maximum possible force, levering off the lids of the barrels. She kicked them over. Neat spirits sloshed out and flowed across the floor of the tap room.
Crowe sneered from the doorway, slicing the arm from one goblin and kicking another in the groin.
"You one of those temperance nutters, girl? Think you need to get rid of that stuff? Nobody's going to be drinking it for a very long time. Unless you're concerned about the souls of the gobboes."
As if summoned by his words, another half dozen goblins swarmed down the stairs and several others emerged out of a back room, leaping over smashed furniture in their haste to get at the two humans.
"Oh, I'm thinking about the goblins all right." Gabriella smashed the lid off another barrel and grabbed a lantern as she ran for the nearest door, shoving Crowe ahead of her. "Not so much their souls."
Crowe understood immediately. "Oh, right. Good one. I like the Faith better already."
Gabriella turned and hurled the lantern back through the Golden Huntress' shattered doorway. It flew in a perfect arc, landing exactly where it would have the most effect. A soft whooshing sound heralded a blue flame that rushed out across the floor. And then there was the first of a series of explosions as the fire reached the barrels of spirit.
As Gabriella and Crowe ran, the Golden Huntress erupted.
Every remaining shutter blew off the windows and the walls visibly bulged outwards. A few goblins were blown into the corral and the lake in screaming pieces as the building's roof collapsed and vented roiling black smoke.
Gabriella kept going, glancing at Crowe as he ran beside her.
"That won't be all of them," he said. "And the rest will soon be coming for us."
"Keep running." She shoved Crowe ahead of her and made for where the Sword's horses were tied. "Can you ride?" she asked.
"I'm a horse thief, among other things; what do you think?"
"Pick a good one. Fast and strong."
Crowe approached a strawberry roan, calming it with hand gestures and soothing sounds, before mounting it. "Well, it's been… interesting knowing you."
"Don't think you're leaving the custody of the Faith yet, sinner. A little confession is good for the soul and I'm not going to let yours stay bad."