The snapping of a twig was one thing. The snapping of a twig by something that doesn't exist was quite another.

But it did exist. It moved, after all. I shifted my focus, and instead of trying to hear the thing itself, I listened for the parting of leaves and movement of underbrush.

Not one, but perhaps a dozen of them were approaching us, quieter than anything should have the right to be.

And then one of them slipped. They made no sound as they hit the ground, but a puff of dust told me exactly where they were. It was the twig snapping all over again, a fluke of the spell, and it had given them away.

The spell was broken enough to tell. They were people.

I thought about nudging Eskir, but the last thing I wanted was to send him into a panic. Even as Royal Guard, as we escorted Lyana through the more unpredictable areas of Durn and the dunes, ambushes were rare. I had so little practical experience in defending against them. I needed him to be predictable.

There were only two of us, and I had no expectations of Eskir in a fight.

Still, I needed him to see it coming. I crossed my fingers and reached over to nudge him, but he spoke before I made contact.

"Oh. We're about to die," he breathed from his resting place.

"We'll be fine," I said, now fingering Stoneguard on my finger. I shot him a look. How had he known?

I stopped focusing on my senses. They would only overwhelm and blind me in a fight, and I needed to be able to move around. I took my spear from the wagon, keeping my head down and placing it gently on the ground, hoping the ambushers had not seen it. I knelt back down beside Eskir, hoping my movement hadn't been seen. "We'll get out of this," I whispered.

There were three in the trees, likely archers with nocked bows, and at least four more behind me. As well, there was more movement on the road we had come from. Some of them had likely been following us.

Eskir's eyes remained closed as he spoke. "No, really. We're dead. We died five minutes ago when we rolled into this clearing. We've probably been dead for hours, we just didn't know about it."

"Hey, snap out of it," I whispered, elbowing the man. "Which one of us is the soldier?"

"Right now, here, today? Me."

I scoffed. He still hadn't pulled out the dagger I had given him when we set out, so I passed him a knife from my belt. It was plain and boring, just a basic patch knife for spellcrafting that had been left at the inn by a wandering sorcerer. She'd traded her fountain pen for a new one, covered in ornate engravings hailing the great hero Torin.

Eskir shoved at my arm as I tried to hand him the knife, so I pressed it against his clumsy, fumbling fingers until the handle pressed against his palm, then dragged him to his feet. His eyes were still only halfway open, as if he'd been sleeping deeply, but to his credit, he did take the knife, fumbling at it and gripping half the bare blade along with the handle.

I hoped he'd at least know which bit of it to hold.

"Take care of the horses," I said. "Don't let them run off." He didn't move, so I stared at him until he clued in.

"Oh," he said, "you mean like... take care of the horses."

The tone of his voice gave me a moment of alarm. "Don't kill them!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, just... take care of them. Babysit."

"Yes," I growled. The ambushers were already moving, and they moved far too quickly. The spell broke entirely when the first of them began to sprint, and a man dressed in full steel plate armour came into view. He had a broad tower shield strapped loosely to his back, and wielded a double-edged battle axe with a head as large as the handle.

Normally, it took a look into someone's eyes to tell if they were Kindred, even for one of us. We could recognise with that much of a look.

But this man was sprinting across the clearing in full plate armour with one hand gripping the shaft of an unnaturally large axe and the other reaching for the full-sized tower shield behind him. That was far too much weight for any normal human being, even with a spell to enhance strength. And he was moving far too quickly.

He was Kindred, stronger and faster than any human had the right to be.

A soft swish in the air announced the incoming arrows from behind us. I clenched my hand into a fist and focused on the single ring on my middle finger. Stoneguard pulsed just like it had at the inn, sending out a shockwave. It scattered the arrows, breaking their flight path before they could reach us.

It wasn't a particularly efficient way to use the ring, but it was fast, and that's what I needed.

I felt my heels turn almost before I wanted them to, lifted myself to my feet with my ankles, and kicked up the spear I had placed so delicately on the ground. I continued my spin, turning back towards the charging Kindred. He had grabbed the tower shield and was pulling it in front of him. His axe raised up to swing, even though he still had some distance to cover. He would close it before the axe came down, and it would meet my flesh with the speed of a diving falcon and the brute force of an angry elephant.

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I held the spear in my right hand, and with a flick of my wrist, I launched it at the oncoming Kindred like I was a ballista made flesh. It impaled him straight through his steel plating, driving the air from his lungs before he even began to bleed. The sheer force of it sent him flying backwards, stopping only when the spear stuck into the road.

I almost paused to admire the quality of the wood. I had expected it to shatter into his ribcage and force me to finish him off with Stoneguard.

Almost.

But I didn't have time to admire anything. Another attacker was already nearly upon us, this one only human. He wasn't carrying much, and moved quite slowly. He could have been a human sorcerer, or even a skilled fighter, but a human was still only a human. I had plenty of time to pull out Stoneguard, moving my wrist in the familiar motion I was so accustomed to. This ring was my partner, my companion, my mark of my place among the Royal Guard. It had never failed me.

Until then. I held my hand out, expecting the weapon held within to emerge, but nothing happened. Stoneguard remained silent. It had pulsed for the arrows, and it responded to my intent now, so I knew I could pulse it again, but it refused to allow me to wield it in full.

I tried again, and again, nothing happened.

The attacker was on top of us now, and Eskir was far closer to him. He hadn't even turned his head yet to see the danger, so at least he'd die oblivious. The attacker held a hammer of his own, and was poised to strike Eskir's head.

I nearly called out to him on instinct, but these people had forgotten what Kindred could do. Quite possibly, they had no idea who I was. Just another mercenary Kindred who would die to such a small ambush, like their companion that I had just skewered like a shish kebab.

In that moment, before the human's hammer even began to swing down, I taught each and every one of them exactly how incorrect that belief was.

He was wearing brigandine with a thin chain mail underneath. I appeared in front of him by sheer speed and punched his chest. His ribcage splintered like candy brittle and my fist met his fleshy, beating heart. He went from a full sprint to a dead-stop in midair, suspended for a heartbeat before being launched backwards and collapsing to the ground, his body spent and the life fleeing his eyes.

"Xera!" shouted Eskir from behind me. I turned. He was looking around wildly, not understanding how I had managed to move from one side of him to the other at such speed.

Another assassin was converging on the wagon as he tried in vain to hold down the now panicking animals. The horses reared up, only held back from bolting by the guidance charm, which was ringing like crazy and doing its best to keep them calm.

I brandished Stoneguard, sending a pulse that passed through the horses and Eskir to slow the assailant down long enough for me to reach him. Eskir stumbled, almost falling backwards and landing on his knees, and the horses nearly lost their balance from the burst. I grimaced, and mouthed a hurried "Sorry!"

I leapt over Eskir and broke the assailant's skull with my vambraces.

I had no real armour to speak of anymore, I had sold my fine steel to a passing Kindred. At the time, it served me no purpose. I wasn't fighting anymore. I didn't want to fight anymore. I was there as a server, not a Royal Guard to be recognised by what I wore.

I was glad in that moment that I had made an exception for the vambraces.

Eskir didn't manage to stand up. He yelped, and pushed off the ground with his feet only to lose his balance and fall on his back, desperately scrambling away from yet another assailant.

This one was untrained, slower than any of the others, and he was untempered too. He wore no armour, and the only thing gripped in his hands was a flimsy short sword. Had he been at all good at fighting, Eskir could have thrown the patch knife he was still holding into the boy's face, or at least stood his ground.

Instead, he ran to the other side of the wagon and whimpered, begging for his life. "Please," he sobbed. He tried to say more, but the words caught in his throat.

I grabbed the reins before the horses ran, and with a reach, kicked the attacker's neck from behind, snapping it like kindling. Another volley of arrows came at us, and I scattered them again with my ring.

"I can't take out Stoneguard," I said calmly, leaning against the wagon. "They must have a guard ring of their own."

"What?" he shouted, "How? How many of those rings are there?"

"Six," I said. "One for each of the Royal Guard. The other five were in Senvia when it vanished." At least, they were supposed to be. All of us had been there for Emperor Alaric's speech. Everyone else had stayed to fight. They must have had their rings. I was the only coward who had fled the city.

"If you want to see the sunset tonight," I snapped, "you're going to need to fight."

Eskir pointed over her shoulder, forming a warning shout in his mouth. "I know," I said, and elbowed the human sprinting up behind me. His jaw snapped free from his skull.

Most of them were human. Had they only brought the one Kindred? Was he all they could afford? This wasn't a random ambush, it was planned. And they hadn't come for me while I had been at the inn.

I gave Eskir another glancing look as I deflected another volley of arrows with a pulse from my ring. None of them had been aiming for me. All of them were targeted at the ass end of the man wiggling his way under the wagon to hide behind one of the wheels.

I let go of the horses to dive overtop of the wagon to fight off another assailant. This would be so much easier if they all just came straight at me, instead of running around and trying to get to him.

"No!" Eskir shouted. I had my back to the wagon, and didn't see him climb out from underneath it. He tackled me, forcing me to the ground. We both hit the dirt hard.

"What is wrong with you?" I demanded, and vaulted my feet onto the ground, standing to fend off the next oncomer.

But there was no one else. Aside from the horses' nerves, the clearing was quiet.

Eskir groaned, stood up, and walked over to the wagon to pluck out an arrow that had stuck itself to it. It took him a moment, and he had to readjust and brace himself against the wagon before finally managing to wrench it free with both hands. "This was about to hit you," he said.

I glared at him. My ears were still perked for the faint hiss of oncoming arrows. "You could have died at least three times over in that mess."

I expected him to tell me something I already knew, like he wasn't a fighter or that he was a coward, or even apologise for being a burden, but instead, his eyes lost their focus on me.

Scoffing, I turned back to calm the horses. He wasn't even paying attention anymore.

I reached for my shoulder, kneading away the ache from the man I had punched.

We hadn't lost anything, there was that.

"Just..." I sighed, "don't die."