Chapter 162: Immediate Threat

The fourth blow didn’t come, and for a second that was worse.

Everyone in the cellar listened. The alarm kept ringing outside. Men were shouting in the courtyard now, too many voices to separate, and somewhere above us a horse screamed.

James looked toward the passage. "We move."

Daphne was already at the door. The older woman still had hold of my sleeve.

"The tiger..."

"I know."

"You don’t."

That was probably true. Upstairs, wood cracked, and something heavy hit the floor. Her grip tightened. I looked at the thirteen people behind her: two children, a woman who could only walk because I had fixed just enough of her ankle, a girl holding injured ribs, a man whose neck I had closed thirty seconds ago. None of them were ready for a fight. Neither was I, but that mattered less.

"We’re leaving," I said.

James looked at me. "Upstairs?"

"No."

That surprised him. It surprised me too. Daphne didn’t react, which was right.

"We came for them," I said. "We get them out."

The older woman let go of my sleeve. James glanced at the ceiling once more, and nodded. "Right."

Apparently personal growth was happening to everyone at once, at the worst possible moment.

Daphne pointed at the prisoners. "Pairs. Anyone who can support someone does. Children in the middle."

The older woman repeated it without arguing, and they listened to her immediately. That told me more about her than anything else had.

James went to the corridor. "I’ll check the route."

"No Spatial," I said.

He looked back. "I know."

His face was still too pale. I looked at the hand he had pressed to his chest earlier, and he saw me do it.

"I’m fine."

"I didn’t ask."

"You were going to."

"Later."

He frowned, because he understood what later meant, and then he was gone.

I shrank Dream Haven to wedge it under my arm. Daphne looked at it.

"No. You need both hands."

"This is discrimination."

"Alash."

I put Dream Haven into my storage ring. The System said nothing, which I took as judgment.

***

We reached the bottom of the sloping passage before the first roar came from above. It wasn’t fear. It was anger, deep enough that I felt it through the stone, and everyone stopped. The older woman whispered something in a language I didn’t know.

"Keep moving," said Daphne, without looking back, and they moved. It helps to sound as though stopping was never an option.

James appeared at the top of the slope. "The north hall’s clear."

"For how long?"

"No idea."

"Reassuring."

"I’ve been busy."

Steel rang on steel somewhere beyond him, and someone shouted. James’s face changed. "That’s Academy."

Renn’s people. The alarm had done what Renn said it would, and his guards were moving sooner. For once, something going wrong was part of the plan. Almost.

"The courtyard?" asked Daphne.

"Merrow’s men are between us and the service doors. I counted six."

I looked behind me at thirteen prisoners, and then at the three of us, and thought about six guards and five Tiger beastkin somewhere above. The arithmetic was rude.

"And Renn?"

"Coming. I saw him."

That was better. We started up the slope. The older woman stayed close to the children. The man whose neck I had healed walked at the back with another prisoner holding him up, and nobody complained, which was somehow worse than if they had.

We were halfway up when James stopped. He didn’t slow down; he simply stopped, and I nearly walked into him. He lifted one hand.

Footsteps, above. Slow and heavy, and not guards. Daphne heard them too, and her shoulders set. The prisoners behind us went silent. Something scraped along the wall at the top of the passage.

"No," whispered the older woman.

A shadow crossed the opening, and then a man stepped into view. A tiger. He was taller than Garron had been, though not as broad, with orange-brown ears rising through dark hair and black stripes running down from his temples. He wore no collar. He wore a sword.

Another came behind him, and another, and a fourth. The fifth came last, and he didn’t look like the others. He was older, with grey starting at the edges of his dark hair and one ear torn near the tip. His clothes were human-made and expensive, and his striped tail moved behind him with slow irritation.

The older woman made a sound that wasn’t fear. It was recognition.

He looked down the passage at the prisoners without collars, and then at us, and smiled. "There you are."

"You," said the older woman.

His eyes found her. "Still alive."

She took a step toward him, and the man beside her caught her arm. The tiger looked at me, then at Daphne, then at James.

"Students."

James tilted his head. "Tigers."

I looked at him. "What?"

"Everyone else was identifying people."

The older tiger’s smile went away. "Where are the guards?"

Daphne said nothing, and neither did I. James waved vaguely behind us. "Busy."

I closed my eyes for half a second.

The tiger looked past us at the open collars some of the prisoners were still carrying, and his face hardened. "You should have taken the road quietly."

"You sold us," said the older woman.

Nobody in the passage breathed. The tiger’s eyes went back to her.

"I spared the rest of your clan."

"You sold children."

"I spared more than I sold."

Something in her face broke, not into tears, but into hatred. The tiger sighed.

"Still thinking like prey."

James went very still beside me, and I understood why.

"Move," said Daphne.

The tiger looked at her. "What?"

"You’re blocking the passage."

One of the warriors laughed. The older tiger didn’t. "You don’t know what you’re standing in."

Daphne’s fingers lifted slightly. "I know exactly where I’m standing."

The first warrior moved, fast, much too fast for his size, and Daphne closed her hand. His next step came down as if he had fallen from a height. His knee bent, but he didn’t go down, which was new. His shoulders sank under the added weight, the muscles bunching beneath his coat, and then he forced himself upright again. Daphne’s eyes narrowed.

"He’s strong," said James.

"I noticed."

The warrior lunged again, and I put a Barrier across the passage. Golden light flashed between us. He hit it with both hands, and the impact pulled hard behind my breastbone and pushed me back a step, and then another. The Barrier held, barely. The tiger looked at me through it, his eyes widening slightly, and hit it again. The pull became pain.

"Could you not?"

He struck it a third time. Apparently not.

Daphne added more weight, and this time one of his knees hit the stone. The second tiger started forward. James moved, without Spatial. He caught the warrior’s sword arm before the blade cleared its sheath, twisted, and drove a shoulder into him. The tiger barely moved. James did. He bounced off and stared.

"That’s irritating."

"James."

"I noticed."

The second warrior drew. I shifted the Barrier, and the blade hit gold instead of James, and the pull went through my chest again. I had never wanted so badly to be less useful.

Behind us, one of the children began to cry, and that decided something. I stopped looking at the tigers.

"Daphne."

"I know."

"Can you hold the first one?"

"Yes."

"James."

"Less sure."

"I meant get them out."

He looked at me, then at the prisoners, then back. "I’m not leaving you here."

"I have a Barrier."

"You have a face that says you’re about to do something stupid."

"That’s just my face."

His expression suggested he recognized the theft. Another sword struck the Barrier, and I nearly lost it.

"James."

He swore under his breath, and turned. "Everyone up. Now."

The prisoners moved. The older tiger saw it. "No."

He stepped forward, and Daphne turned her head, and her hand with it. His boots stopped. His knees didn’t bend. For a moment nothing happened at all, and then the stone under one of his heels cracked. Daphne’s face went pale. The tiger looked down at the cracked stone, and then at her, and his expression changed.

"Gravity." He looked at her properly, and smiled again. "Spinster."

Her eyes sharpened. He knew who she was. Knowledgeable enemies were the worst kind. The first warrior was forcing himself higher, and Daphne couldn’t hold both of them forever.

"Go," I said, over my shoulder.

James was moving the prisoners up the passage. The older woman hadn’t moved. I looked at her.

"That includes you."

Her eyes were fixed on the tiger. "He sold my daughter."

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said the only thing that mattered.

"Then live long enough to hate him tomorrow."

She looked at me, and something in her face shifted. Then she took the nearest child’s hand and went.

The tiger watched her go. "Human boy."

"That’s me."

"Do you know what they are?"

"Cat beastkin."

"Do you know what their clan did?"

"No."

"Do you know why they were taken?"

"No."

"You know nothing."

"That’s becoming a theme."

He stared at me. Then one corner of his mouth moved. "You think this is kindness."

"No."

That seemed to surprise him. I adjusted the Barrier. My chest hurt.

"This is logistics."

Behind me, feet were climbing, thirteen people getting further away with every step. That was enough. The tiger’s smile disappeared, and he drew his sword.

Daphne glanced at me. "We can’t hold four."

"There are five."

"I was leaving him out."

"Optimistic."

The third warrior started forward. Then a voice came from behind the tigers.

"Step away from my students."

Everyone stopped. Renn stood at the top of the north corridor with Sorel beside him and four Academy guards spread out behind them, weapons already drawn. Renn looked at the Barrier, then at me, then at the five Tiger beastkin, and his expression became very calm. I had learned that calm adults were the most dangerous kind.

The older tiger turned slowly. "This is Lord Merrow’s estate."

Renn’s eyes went to the sword in his hand. "So I’ve been told."

"You have no authority here."

Renn looked at me. "Did he attack you?"

"His men did."

The older tiger’s jaw tightened. Renn looked back at him.

"Then I do now."

Something inside me loosened, a little. The line from last night came back to me: immediate threats to your safety. Apparently being hit with swords qualified.

The older tiger understood it too. "You don’t know what you’re interfering with."

"No," said Renn. "But I know what I just saw."

Sorel looked past the warriors to the passage behind us. "The prisoners?"

"Moving," said Daphne.

"Collars?"

"Off."

Sorel’s eyes went to me, and for once she didn’t tell me to slow down.

The traitor took one step back. Renn noticed. "Nobody moves," he said.

The warrior kneeling under Daphne’s Gravity chose that moment to move. He roared and forced himself up, and Daphne’s hand jerked, and he broke loose. He didn’t break her Gravity; he tore up a piece of the floor with his boot and launched himself off it.

Renn shouted, and everything happened at once. The warrior hit my Barrier. The second went for James’s retreating back, and Sorel intercepted him, steel ringing. The third and fourth went for Renn’s guards. The traitor went nowhere. He stepped backward, toward the stairs. I saw it, and so did Daphne.

"No," she said, and shifted her Gravity. The traitor’s leg buckled, only for a second, but it stopped him, and he looked at her with something close to real anger.

Then the first tiger hit my Barrier again, and it shattered. Golden light broke apart in front of me. The force threw me backward, and my shoulder hit the stone, and for a moment I forgot where my lungs were. The tiger came through. Daphne turned, too late. He raised one hand, not a sword but claws, which was somehow worse.

I put up another Barrier, smaller and closer. His claws hit it, and the pull behind my breastbone became real pain. My knees bent. He pushed, and the Barrier moved toward my face. I pushed back with everything I had, which was ridiculous, because he was only using one arm.

[Host.]

’Busy.’

[Your mana expenditure is increasing rapidly.]

’Excellent timing.’

The tiger snarled, and his claws scraped across gold, and then his weight doubled and his arm dropped. Daphne. I breathed, badly.

"Thank you."

"Move."

I moved. Sorel stepped between us and drove the tiger back with the flat of her blade, not far, but far enough.

"Go," she said.

I didn’t argue. That seemed to surprise her. I ran.

***

James had got the prisoners into the north hall. The courtyard doors stood ahead of them, and so did Merrow’s men. Six had become nine.

Through the open doors I could see two carts waiting in the courtyard, canvas pulled over their backs. The collars were supposed to come off at the carts, and now I understood why. Anyone who saw them on the road would see beastkin without suppression collars, travelling under guard, or not under guard, depending on which story Merrow wanted to tell afterwards.

James stood in front of the prisoners. He had found a sword somewhere, and I decided not to ask where. The guards facing him looked uncertain, which was good, until one of them saw me running and shouted, "Stop them!"

The first guard came forward. James raised the sword, and his hand shook. Only slightly, but I saw it, and so did he. He changed his grip.

"Don’t Spatial," I said.

He didn’t look at me. "Not planning to."

One of Merrow’s men charged, and a voice rang out from the courtyard.

"Stand down!"

The guard stopped, and everyone looked. Elizabeth stood beyond the carts with Lord Merrow beside her. When the bell had rung, Merrow had gone to his courtyard, and Elizabeth had gone with him, because nobody had told her she couldn’t, and two of Renn’s guards had followed her. Sophie was there too, pale and out of breath.

Merrow’s face had changed completely. The relaxed lord from lunch was gone. Guilty people had finally learned their manners.

"What is this?" he demanded.

Nobody answered him. Renn came into the hall behind us. The fighting below had either stopped or moved, and I wasn’t sure which was worse. Sorel followed with two guards, and Daphne came last. Somewhere behind them, one of the Tiger warriors lay still on the floor. I couldn’t see the others, and I couldn’t see the traitor. That was bad.

Renn looked at Merrow. "Your men attacked Academy students."

Merrow’s eyes went to me, then to James, then to the freed prisoners, and for one second something naked crossed his face. It wasn’t surprise. It was calculation. Elizabeth saw it too.

"You knew," she said.

"Your Highness..."

"You knew they were here."

"I can explain."

James looked at me, and I looked back. Apparently that was a sentence guilty people practiced in advance.

Elizabeth’s face went completely still. "Then explain the children."

Merrow didn’t. Behind us, the older woman stepped into the hall, and she saw him, and Merrow saw her, and the silence changed. Then her eyes went past him to the carts, and she stopped.

"No."

"What?" I said.

Her face had gone white. "The marks."

I followed her gaze. There were symbols burned into the side of the nearest cart: three curved lines around a narrow center. A tiger. The same mark as the crate in the cellar, and the wall in Marrowfield. Daphne saw it. So did Elizabeth. Merrow turned slightly toward the cart, too late, and Renn noticed.

"Lord Merrow. Whose carts are those?"

There was a pause, small, but there. Merrow opened his mouth.

A crash came from inside the north wing, and everyone turned. An upper window exploded outward, and glass rained into the courtyard. One of the Tiger warriors landed on the stones below it, then another, then a third. The fourth didn’t come. The traitor did, last, and not gracefully. Whatever Daphne had done to his leg made him stumble when he landed, but he straightened.

Merrow stared at him. The tiger stared back. Neither of them looked surprised to see the other, and Elizabeth saw that too. We were collecting proof very efficiently now.

The traitor looked around the courtyard: Academy guards, Merrow’s men, freed prisoners, the princess. Then me. His eyes stopped.

"You."

I sighed. "Apparently."

He smiled, not pleasantly, and his eyes moved to the carts. "We’re leaving."

Merrow finally lost control of his face. "No."

The tiger looked at him, which was interesting. Merrow took a step forward.

"You weren’t supposed to come out."

The courtyard went silent. James turned his head very slowly toward me, and I very nearly smiled. Merrow heard what he had said a moment too late.

"Lord Merrow," said Elizabeth, very quietly.

He closed his eyes, once. When he opened them, the careful territorial lord was back, and it no longer helped him. The traitor laughed, actually laughed.

"You humans."

Merrow looked at him with murder in his face, and the tiger looked delighted.

Renn’s whistle cut across the courtyard: one long call. Hold position. From beyond the wall another whistle answered it, and then a third from the direction of the western field. Renn’s people were coming, and there were more boots on the way.

The tiger stopped laughing. His three warriors shifted. Merrow’s guards looked to their lord. The freed beastkin drew closer together, and the children disappeared into the middle of them. I looked around the courtyard and realized there were suddenly far too many people in it with reasons to fight.

Renn knew it too. "Nobody moves," he said.

The traitor looked toward the western gate, then at Merrow, then at Elizabeth, and his eyes changed. I saw the decision happen. So did Daphne.

"Down!" she shouted.

The tiger moved. Not toward the gate. Toward Elizabeth.

I threw a Barrier before I had thought about it, and gold crossed the courtyard. The tiger hit it at full speed, and the impact drove straight through my chest. Something behind my breastbone felt as though it tore. I went down on one knee, and the Barrier held, for one second, and then two. Through the golden light, the tiger’s face was inches from Elizabeth’s.

Then he smiled at me, and struck it again.