“You wouldn’t dare.I’m the clerk of the Citrine Court.Even your master can’t protect you if you harmed me.Do you imagine he’d even care?”
Well, and didn’t that sting?She opened her mouth to argue the point, but it suddenly occurred to her that she might not be the only one in this little tango playing for time.Gnome-Clerk’s round eyes didn’t roll to the side or focus beyond her—no tells from those orbs—but the hair on the back of her neck prickled and good old intuition saved her again.Nothing like having a mother who’d sneak in a slap upside the back of your head when you weren’t paying attention to give you the instincts of a house fly.
She spun, barely blocking the blade of the fae who’d crept up behind her, and swiftly ducking the blow that came through her guard anyway.Red-orange sparks showered around her—and she cleaved the guard’s sword in half like cutting through paper.
Cricket Clerk started howling, “Guards!Thieves in the castle!Guards!”
Awesome.Just fabulous.
The fae attacking her was tall and had the reach to match.Blindingly yellow and willowy, the fae was as narrow as they were tall, with a bladelike face sharp as a hatchet.A wide mouth bisected their head, opening widely to reveal triangular teeth of a shade uncomfortably close that of a human’s who was raised in extreme poverty.The stench steaming out did nothing to correct that impression.
The fae warrior wielded the broken blade like it was an extension of their arm.Come to think of it, maybe it was.Curved and slender like a scythe, the lethal blade cut through the air with a high-key whistle, the jagged end intimidatingly sharp.She ducked again, the blade just barely passing over her head.Then jumped as the backswing nearly cut her off at the knees.
Something stung her back, and she blocked the Citrine fae’s broken scythe, pivoted beneath, and found Gnome-Clerk holding what looked like sharp salad tongs he’d just poked her with.
“Should have beheaded you when I had the chance,” she gritted through her teeth.Still, she really had a thing about murder.She was a thief and a smuggler, yes, but not a killer.Momentarily disengaged from the yellow fae stalking toward her, she chopped the salad tongs from Cricket Clerk’s feathery paws—taking the paws with them—and ignoring his screams as he ran off.The hands would grow back; he wasn’t dead; he couldn’t attack her back again.
Win/win.
Especially as she needed all of her attention to keep Mr.Tall Yellow and Ugly from painting the floor with her innards, even with his half-bladed scythe.She barely evaded a swipe of the scythe at her belly, a bright sting reporting she’d been a hair too slow, but fast enough that her guts were still inside.Think fast,she told herself.She’d better figure out how to disable and escape this situation before reinforcements showed up.She could barely hold out against this fae.One of their buddies would ensure her capture or worse.
And then they’d be after Dy, Azul, and Katu.
But she was tiring, her energy flagging the longer this fencing session continued.It didn’t help that she was faint from hunger and thirst.And the fae warrior knew it, a sickly yellow grin splitting their narrow, jaundiced face.They were toying with her now, wearing her out.
So she deliberately let herself flag, giving into the weakness sapping her vitality, her breathing going ragged and desperate.Waiting for her opening, she calculated her best strike.There would be only one opportunity for this.
Shouts echoed down the dim corridor, heralding the arrival of the dreaded reinforcements.Her opponent glanced that way.
Cha zoomed in under the raised sword, close enough to kiss—yuck—and struck.
~27~
A Downward Spiral
She’d gone forthe groin, which was a high-stakes gamble.Azul might have anatomy in that region delightfully similar to a human’s, but that wasn’t necessarily true of all fae.Especially these ones with an insectile feel to them.Still, even if they didn’t have humans’ particular sensitivity in that region, it tended to be central enough to at least slow them down.
Fortunately, luck was with her.
The fae warrior doubled over, clutching their groin as if to hold in the globby gloops of black jelly that apparently formed their insides.Double yuck.
Then they burst into red-orange flames and burned with a stink like melting tar.
Cha didn’t linger to be further grossed out.Or, really more important, captured by the onrushing hoard of tall, yellow pipecleaner warriors hurtling down the hallway.She took off running at top speed, wishing she’d taken the time to put on her boots instead of stowing them in with Azul.Once her feet had been tough as leather from going barefoot on the farm in every kind of weather.Now she was practically a princess, they were so tender.
Least of her problems, though.
She caught up to Dy who was huffing and puffing and looking wan herself, pushing the cart with effort.Cha didn’t bother asking questions or offering explanations.She put her shoulder to the cart and pushed.They picked up speed, but probably not enough to hold back the onrushing guard.She opened her mouth to say something.She didn’t know what, as no pithy last words came to her, but Dy spoke first.
“My turn to play rear guard.Keep going.”
Cha didn’t much care for that solution, but she also hadn’t done a brilliant job earlier so she stuck to her one task and pushed.The spiraling nature of the palace began to work in her favor, the ramp sloping downward ever so slightly.Near as she could figure, the servants’ passage ran under the halls for the more highfalutin’ palace population.Occasionally she passed various ramps and circular stairs leading upward, along with shafts containing magical boxes that would go up and down to carry heavier supplies.They’d gotten lucky on their timing.Setting aside the very unfortunate run-in with Gnome-Clerk, they hadn’t run into many fae at all.The ones they had passed hadn’t been interested in their efforts.
Now they just had to get lucky finding the cargo bay at ground level, and jump in Big Betty where Dy had left her.
Maybe things were starting to go their way.The cart was much easier to push now, the slope doing most of the work.As soon as Dy caught up with them, they’d be able to really speed out of here.In fact, she was seriously going fast now, almost feeling like she wasn’t pushing at all and having to jog to keep up with the cart.Okay, no almost about it.She was running now, with the glamoured Katu loping beside her, which looked so absurd she’d laugh if she had breath for it.She was also having to dig her fingers into the crate to hold on, not pushing at all, but pulling to actually slow it.
If she’d been a bit less brain-fogged from not eating and drinking, along with the cumulative lack of rest since she’d arrived—what she got for fucking instead of sleeping, not that she’d normally regret that choice—she might have figured out what was going on a hell of a lot sooner.As it was, she only realized way too late that the cart was careening down an increasingly steep and spiraling ramp.