The Queen of War, page 21
Valentina nodded an assent. All the guards ran with him, trying to keep their formation while also avoiding the assault raining down on the attackers.
They made it halfway to the side street before Osian yelled a command.
A few attackers managed to cut them off, bring up their swords. The battle was fierce, but quick. Valentina had her sword up to help, but she wasn’t needed.
Still, she moved around as much as possible, just in case anyone still managed to have an arrow aimed at her back.
The attackers moved away from the windows and ran after Valentina and her guards.
Three attackers stood ahead of them. The rest were running up from behind. The lead guard took out one attacker.
Another guard got a second attacker, leaving Valentina in front facing the third attacker. The other two guards ran up behind Valentina to help her, but they would be too late.
Valentina got into the position she learned just earlier that morning and held her sword ready. It shook in her hands.
The attacker raised his own weapon, his massive muscles bunching under his leather tunic.
Even if she held form perfectly, she didn’t have the strength to parry someone of that size.
Making a split-second decision, Valentina dropped and rolled to the side.
The attacker swung his weapon in empty air. He lost his balance with the unexpected result, having brought all his weight down to bear down on her.
Only now she was gone.
One of the guards coming up from behind had to hop over Valentina to keep from trampling her.
He turned to face the third attacker, while the trailing fourth guard faced the mob of men coming up from behind them, the arrow still in his calf.
Valentina didn’t know what to do. She should go back and help the man.
“Run!” the lead guard yelled at her.
She hesitated.
“RUN!” the guard yelled again. His opponent tried to circle him to get to Valentina, then slashed at the guard, sending the guard’s helmet flying.
Valentina ran down the side streets, her feet pounding painfully on the stones, her armor bouncing and jangling and her sword sweating in her hand.
She ran and ran.
* * *
The sounds of swords crossing and men yelling faded into the distance behind her. Her feet thundered on the paving stones, echoing back at her from the stone walls.
Valentina thought she should be at the market complex by now but only saw more white walls of residential compounds, their high walls pushed up close to the narrow boulevard. Behind those walls were gardens and then further back, houses, but the street itself seemed to be deserted. There was no one to help her.
And she was completely lost.
Slowing, she turned to look behind her. No one came after her.
She stopped to listen, trying to still her raspy breathing, and heard no one.
A child called to someone as if it was a normal afternoon.
Valentina wanted to cry. It had all happened so suddenly. She wiped her face with the back of her hand. No time for that now. She had to get to safety, and to do that, she had to figure out where she was.
Resuming her run down the boulevard, she looked for landmarks, but the walls were too high to see far. Ahead, a small shed abutted the wall of a huge compound. It was lower than the wall, and bricks lay in a pile below it. Valentina ran to it and used the bricks as stepping stones to climb to the top of the shed and then to the top of the wall above that.
Inside the wall lay a massive garden of cultivated flowers and exotic plants. Thick shrubs formed a maze deeper in the yard, and beyond that, a fountain tinkled, only the edge of the pool visible through the greenery. The house loomed in the background. It was an immense amount of wealth for a single household.
Pulling her eyes from the place, she looked upwards for the familiar tall wall of the large forum, or the sprawl of the quad buildings of the palace. Finally, she saw them off to one side. She thought she’d been running toward them, but she’d only been running deeper into the city.
To make things even worse, the Forum Peti marking the school grounds lay even further away. She hadn’t even had the sense to run back to the school.
Suddenly conscious of her visibility against the sky for anyone who happened to be looking her way, Valentina dropped down, but it was too late.
“What do you there?” an angry voice yelled from inside the compound walls. A house servant came running through the backyard of the house, a water pitcher in hand.
“Nothing,” Valentina called as she ran along the wall to get away from the man. She reached the end of the wall where it turned the corner and jumped to the boulevard beyond just as the water pitcher flew through the air, smashing into the paving stones a short distance beyond her and smashing into shards. It landed close enough for water to spray her face.
She ran on, not bothering to look behind at the angry servant.
* * *
When the stitch in her side pulled too sharply to go on, Valentina slowed to a walk. She’d worked her way closer to the main marketplace that marked the edge of the central square and the location of the main palace. The streets were wider here. Citizens walked them wearing cool white robes against the warm sun. Servants ran back and forth, most carrying goods of some sort.
Valentina stood out with her armor and her sword, both rare things to begin with, but even rarer on a woman. People stared. She could not afford to ignore them, instead checking their glances and constantly looking around for either her guard or the attackers trying to find her.
It had been too quiet. Running away too easy.
The attackers had to be somewhere close. It seemed unlikely her four-man guard would hold them for long. Valentina’s shoulders twitched with the thought of an arrow coming out of nowhere and striking her.
What she wanted more than anything was a safe place, and if not that, a disguise.
But she had no money, and no clothing shops seemed open anyhow, even if she’d the nerve to stop and look for something to buy to disguise herself.
Valentina had chosen to come this way since the message from the captain of the guard was probably a forgery. If the captain had been in on the scheme to capture Valentina, the attackers would have just waited until she’d been delivered.
Besides, she’d seen the emperor and his captain. Unless something dramatic had happened, the emperor was still protecting her, and by extension, so too was his captain.
Still, she had to get there if she wanted any chance of safety.
Valentina kept close to the walls by the street so she would have something at her back if she had to fight someone. The walls were few here, replaced with storefronts and the temporary tents of the few vendors doing business on a non-market day.
Ahead, the tall form of the main forum loomed. Just past that was the palace. She just had to get past the marketplace, the forum, and then she was at the front of the palace compound.
Birdcalls sounded loudly, the first she’d heard in a while.
She wiped sweat from her brow as she walked. A rock kicked out from under her foot as she walked. Suddenly, Valentina realized how quiet it was. Even the day insects were quiet.
The bird called again.
A bird, in the heat of the day. Real birds did not call in the middle of the day.
Valentina turned quickly. A man ducked into a shop behind her.
She took off running to the forum. The man came out of the shop behind her and gave chase, his feet pounding on the stones. Startled citizens got out of Valentina’s way.
She ran past the market building and past the small structures surrounding the large city forum.
Another chaser joined the first. He came at her from the left side while the one behind pulled back.
They were trying to herd her to the rest.
Fighting the gut instinct to run directly away from them, Valentina cut left and then ducked down a side street. She lucked out in that it had an exit and wasn’t a blind alley.
Her luck ran out when an attacker in leathers waited at the end for her.
She turned and ran back the way she’d come, barely getting ahead of the original two chasing her.
They ran after her through the forum complex and then blocked her from the palace by another six of them standing in a line with their swords held high.
An elderly man in long yellow robes tried to scold the waiting attackers into leaving, and for the crime of having weapons out in the city, but one of the attackers reached out a straight arm and shoved him over. Rage fill Valentina at the sight, but she could do nothing but keep running. If they caught her, she doubted they would restrain themselves from hurting her, especially if they got a reward either way.
She had no choice but to run back to the main forum. They’d managed to corral her after all.
The forum itself stood empty, no event planned for the day.
Valentina ran into the forum, up a ramp that led to the main complex.
The men chased after her.
The layout of the forum was different from the Forum Peti. She couldn’t find the tunnels she knew must exist underneath it, but instead only the main walkway for the spectators. She ran on the walkways, then through the stands, trying to buy time to find an exit.
Meanwhile, more and more attackers came in behind her, and from other entrances she had not seen.
She was running out of options.
She climbed higher and higher in the stands as the attackers converged on her. Some jumped over the seats in a direct line toward her, others ran through the aisles.
Valentina dropped her sword in her exhaustion. She stopped and looked back at it, but there was no time. One of the attackers would reach her if she went back for it.
She ran on.
Tears ran down her face. She climbed higher as they fanned out in a semicircle behind her.
Reaching the top of the forum stands with the back wall six feet above her head, she turned to face the dozen men chasing her.
She reached into her tunic and pulled out her small knife, slashing it at them to keep them back.
They stopped in a semicircle around her, swords and knives held high.
24
The sun did not reach the section of the stands where Valentina stood with her back to the wall. The same wall shielded her and a small section around her from the hot yellow light.
The rest of the forum baked in the blazing sun. The stone of the spectator stands had been in full light for a few hours already and radiated a heat of its own. Not a cloud graced the blue sky above. Even the air felt still.
Valentina panted, breathless from her run. The men smelled of a foul mixture of sweat, body odor, and that sickly musk she recognized from her time back in Cerceion. They grinned at her. They were also out of breath, but there were twelve of them and one of her.
And they were all much, much bigger than she.
Not to mention the half dozen swords they had. Even the knives were larger.
A manic laugh threatened to bubble out of Valentina. She swallowed it back.
“You risk the emperor’s wrath by coming here,” Valentina said, looking from face to face. Which one to talk to?
One man grunted, but none of them replied.
A birdcall sounded. The only clean-shaven man of the group put two fingers in his mouth and gave out an answering call.
A moment later, Osian appeared in the stands below. He looked around until he found them.
The group waited, no one moving until he reached them.
He looked over the shoulders of his men and smiled at Valentina. “We’ve caught you at last. Our king will be most pleased.”
“Your king wants war with the empire?” Valentina asked.
Osian laughed. The men around him hesitated, then laughed too, a bit more uncertainly.
“No one goes to war over a girl,” Osian said, then spit into the stand next to him, his laugh gone completely.
“You’re here, aren’t you,” Valentina said.
Fury crossed Osian’s face. He waved forward one hand, signaling the attack.
The men moved forward slowly as a group, none racing forward to attack.
“Cowards,” Valentina called. “Are you afraid to go one-on-one with a girl?”
She looked at the man directly in front of her. “You’re afraid, aren’t you?”
He grimaced back at her, but didn’t rush forward ahead of his mates.
Valentina looked to her left, picked the man at the end of the line. “What about you? Are you as much of a coward as this one over here?” She flicked her head at the first man she’d taunted.
“Steady!” Osian yelled, but it was too late. The second man Valentina taunted flushed, then raced forward, his knife out. Valentina lunged to meet him and grasped the wrist of his knife hand and pulled it down.
He stumbled forward. Valentina used her momentum to step on top of him while putting her knife handle in her mouth and leaping up to grasp the top of the wall of the forum behind her.
She kicked the man back into the other attackers, then, pulling up with all her might, she swung one leg up to the top of the wall, and then the other.
She lay on the wall for a second, panting, while her muscles spasmed.
The men below bellowed and cursed as they untangled themselves. Some tried to jump up and grab her.
One man grabbed another to climb on his shoulders. He would reach her for sure.
Valentina forced herself up. She made the mistake of looking over the far side of the wall. The wall stood five stories high. Her head buzzed and her feet felt light.
It was taller than the tower she’d been imprisoned in for three years. She could easily fall to her death, a fear she’d had all her life. Now she was even higher and in more danger. Paralysis gripped her.
No no no.
“Kill her,” Osian called. As if in a dream, Valentina slowly looked to him, forcing her eyes away from the ground to stare at the naked hatred in his. Everyone moved so slowly.
He really wanted her dead.
He screamed his hatred. Wads of spittle flew from his mouth and arced like tiny jewels in the brilliant sun.
The other men shared similar expressions. The ugliness of their emotions was horrifying.
It was all an ugly, terrifying, slow-motion dream.
No.
She was not going to let that happen.
Tearing her eyes away, Valentina forced herself to focus on the wall itself.
She exhaled, and the world went back to normal speed.
“Get her,” Osian yelled. The men inside the forum scrambled over the spectator seating in an effort to get her.
Valentina ran as fast as she dared along the narrow wall top.
She made it about halfway around the circular forum when she stopped. If she kept going, she’d come up to the men again. The only way down from the wall was off the five-story drop off the forum, or dropping back into the spectator seating with the attackers.
Death either way.
Her feet froze with indecision as she stared at the men inside the forum. Could she get past all of them somehow?
An arrow whizzed by her head. Valentina jumped, then looked back to the other side of the wall and the city beyond.
A man in leathers stood on the grounds outside the forum, another arrow already notched and aimed at her.
Valentina ran along the wall.
Another arrow whizzed by.
Ahead, the cluster of support buildings for the forum stood in a group just outside the forum. Banners ran between the buildings for an upcoming festival. Another building had a large awning over the seating area in front.
Inside the forum, the men inside raced to intercept her path.
She saw one way to possibly escape, but she’d have to outrun the men inside the forum, as well as the shooter outside.
She ran faster. There was no other way.
The men inside raced to meet her.
Finally, the next arrow flew past. She leapt off the building.
* * *
The hot air rushed up at Valentina as she sailed through the air in a long arc racing toward the buildings below.
Pulling the knife handle from her mouth, she twisted in the air, trying to face and grab one of the banners slung between the buildings.
She missed the first one. Then, with a glancing blow, she hit the second. Stabbing her knife into the fabric, she tried to hold on to the banner, but she was not strong enough.
Instead, she slid down the material, her knife slicing it on the way down. It slowed her fall only slightly as she smashed into the awning below, and then through to the chairs and tables beneath.
She landed on her back with a clatter of broken wood and falling awning supports. The debris rained down around her.
Women screamed. Men yelled. Valentina had a vague sense of trampling feet but could not see anything from beneath the awning fabric.
Off in the distance, more whistles blew.
Valentina tried to breathe but couldn’t. Her body refused. Panicking, she rubbed her stomach until her diaphragm released with a painful spasm. She coughed as she pushed away the torn awning and bits of broken furniture.
Shocked citizens stared at her.
Valentina scrambled to her feet. Thankfully nothing was broken. The man with the bow would have seen her jump and was probably running to her now. She had to get out of there.
Pushing the people aside, she ran down the narrow alley between the support buildings and around the corner.
She had to get to the palace.
* * *
As if they could sense the chaos in the streets, the citizens of the city had come out of the buildings and houses around the central business area. The whistles of the school guard’s alarm echoed through the city. The school guard had no authority in the city proper, but the city guards also knew to not interfere with a chase.
The school had the patronage of the emperor, and that was not to be taken lightly.
