XII
City of Flames -- 6
Sarah barely had enough time to duck behind the desk before the window crashed over her. The paladin was a hair too slow getting out of the way and in a beat he had a man in leathers on top of him, dagger bearing down on his face. He'd swung Sarah's pack up under the assassin's forearm just in time to catch the blade. Yet the force of the man's attack put him at an immediate disadvantage.
Keiter and Tessarie both stared in disbelief, though the elf was much quicker on the draw than Sarah had expected. Perhaps it was the recent sex or perhaps it was what they had seen back at the temple-- whatever the reason, she made a run for the door. Half way across the room the front door blasted inward.
The spring trap on the lock
pwanged
into action and three steel bars slammed into matching holes in the floor. The man and the woman that got caught on the other side aimed hand crossbows at Tess.
Sarah raised her pistol. The paladin could take care of himself. She fired at the woman. The flintlock roared and the fat woman's head jerked back sharply. That moment seemed to wind down; the plume of smoke that erupted from the back of the weapon fluttered with aching slowness as the fat woman started to fall back, arcing blood from the finger sized hole in her skull. When she finally hit the railing Sarah's heart managed to beat.
Gods forgive me.
Tessarie whipped around, half ducking into the hall as the other attacker started reloading his crossbow. Another man was half way through the missing window, Sarah barely managed to get to her feet in time to get knocked back down by the new attacker.
Round and round they they tumbled-- he pulled her hair and she tried to gouge his eyes out but eventually he got the upper hand, shoved her down and straddled her chest. Hands grabbed her skull and slammed her. Again and again.
Thump, thump, thump.
Sarah's vision blurred as she clawed for the man's hands. A flash of pain. Magic. Coils of white energy wrapped around the man. He fell beside Sarah, struggling to breathe. A second later the paladin upended his attacker and pinned him down. Two punches later the man went still.
He didn't give Sarah time to react before he was hauling her up. "You all right?"
"You speak as though having a man atop me is something new--"
"Down!" he shoved her to the side and grappled with another man trying to get through the window. In seconds the paladin had the man beaten down and unconscious. Gods he was goods with his hands.
A crossbow bolt slammed into the desk beside Sarah's head. Somewhere along the line the man in the hall had been joined by two others with crossbows. They'd done their homework, it seemed.
Sarah grabbed the paladin, yanking him down. "Out the window."
"What?!"
"Clear us a path! Keiter, Tessarie!" She pointed to the door. "Guests!"
In seconds she had a plan, a very loose, dangerous plan, but the best one she could come up with. In that same time Tessarie had summoned up the courage to poke her head out. She ducked back around the corner.
The small elf trembled, unable to move. Too scared to enter the line of fire and knowing there was no escape down the hall, she froze. Keiter, however, didn't. He scrabbled over the edge of the desk to get to the window while the paladin jerked the would-be attackers out of the way. "Come on, miss! We can't stay here!"
Sarah tucked her pistol into her waist sash awkwardly and got to her feet. "Go, I'll get her!"
"But--"
"Argue later. Move now!" Before the man could react she had halved the distance to the hall. Knowing the men wouldn't risk shooting her didn't make it any easier for her to get through the hail of bolts.
Fancy dress or not, dirt never looked good on Sarah's knees. She crawled as quickly as she could and tumbled into the hall. She grabbed Tessarie by the fringes of her coat and jerked her along. "Come on, sweety."
"S-s-"
"I know."
"But!" the elf tried to jerk away. Sarah yanked her all the harder, flinging her deeper into the hall before she smashed her entire forearm into a section of the plaster to the right. It gave just as she had designed it to, revealing a lever the size of her forearm.
She used both hands to pull it outwardly. A section of wall opposite the bathroom dropped in a flourish of plaster dust and cracking wood. The hallway beyond was a dusty circular mess of old books and forgotten scrolls rotting in piles that trailed down into the gloom. "Go, go, go."
"W-"
"Go!" She shoved the girl into the hall. "Meet me at the south market before dawn!
Don't
be late, I'm not waiting!" Sarah shoved the lever back into position.
"What about-" was as far as the elf got before the stairs dropped into one another making the circular staircase into a circular slide. She screamed even as she disappeared into the darkness with the spill of papers and books.
With the girl out of the picture, Sarah turned her attention back to the main room. There was still had one thing she couldn't leave behind.
The men outside her office were cursing violently as they tried to undo the bars, making no headway as Sarah crept up to the edge. From her vantage she could see the spell that Keiter had cast on the would be kidnapper had warn off and he was getting to his feet. Just beyond him, however, she saw what she was after.
She bolted into the room and scooped up the jar of picked sausages she'd lifted from McDowels. Barely breaking stride she smashed it into the recovering man's head and ducked to the side, not waiting to see if the attack had any effect.
"Hey! What was that?"
"Gods-- its her!"
"No it's not!" Sarah shot back as she ducked behind the crates of books. One particular crate near the back held the book she wanted, the book she
needed.
"Just a figment of your imagination--" a crossbow bolt punctuated her diatribe by punching into the crate she was using for cover.
"How very uncouth!"
Where was it? Where the
fuck
was it?! Sarah upended the crate. It was always right on top--
