Timoth and Alum drew their swords, Tadruk his twin daggers. I grabbed the boy who’d raised the alarm. He tried to wriggle away but Alum stilled him with a dominating hand on his shoulder.

The black-clad soldiers responded in kind, drawing their weapons. Their disinterested approach was replaced by a wary encircling. We had to get out of there before we were surrounded.

‘Do we portal out?’ Alum asked. I appreciated him deferring to me, though it felt strange in a combat situation.

‘That’s a last resort,’ I replied, and turned to Tadruk. ‘Which way to the archives?’

He pointed directly past the soldiers. That was definitely a no go.

‘Cover me,’ Timoth said, and with no further elaboration he sprinted off down a side street. A dozen soldiers broke into a sprint in pursuit, but that still left us with well over thirty to deal with, and Alum our only serious combatant.

‘Where are you going!?’ I asked.

‘Just cover me!’ he shouted back over his shoulder.

I tried not to panic. If Timoth was cornered he could always portal back to Trackford. I had to worry about the rest of us.

‘Is there another way out of here? A tunnel, or a hidden alley?’ I asked the boy.

‘Whore,’ he swore at me. Alum raised his sword hand in a violent arc.

‘No, I want to keep him with us for information,’ I explained. ‘Let’s back up a bit. We need to stick around and draw as much attention as possible to make space for Timoth.’

‘Good idea, Saemara,’ Alum said. He passed the boy to Tadruk. ‘You take him so I can lead.’

‘We should get out of here now,’ Tadruk said, nevertheless acquiescing.

‘No one asked you,’ I said.

For her part, Regeda had gone white. I put a hand on her shoulder to stir her into action and the five of us retreated carefully back the way we’d come. When they realised what we were doing one of the soldiers charged us, but Alum effortlessly swatted his spear aside and beheaded the poor chap in one mighty swing. The others were reluctant to break formation after that, and continued pursuing us from at least a couple of spear lengths away.

‘Prince, ahead,’ Tadruk alerted Alum to a pair of soldiers who’d managed to get ahead of us in an attempt to cut us off.

‘Not a problem. Just keep moving,’ Alum said.

He ran quickly ahead of us and slaughtered the two soldiers in only a few seconds before resuming his position as our rearguard.

‘They do not seem very well-trained,’ I commented.

Alum shook his head. ‘Their spears are ill-suited for a skirmish, but if we are encircled by a shield wall we will be lucky to kill any of them even if we fight to the death.’

Dozens of onlookers watched us as we continued our retreat through the settlement. Many followed just behind the soldiers, wanting to see how events unfolded. We would be spoken of across all Halivaara after this. There was no more hope of getting out unrecognised: once Ioran heard our descriptions, he’d know exactly who had infiltrated Vizonia.

Eventually, we were pinned beside the Torak and animal pens by a unit of a dozen soldiers who’d come from the other direction. The great fence of the pens trapped us on one side, and further buildings on the other.

‘Into one of the buildings?’ Alum asked me, but I shook my head.

‘Timoth needs time and a distraction. Can you think of anything better than those beasts?’ I nodded my head at the Toraks.

‘You can’t be serious,’ Tadruk interjected. ‘That goes beyond playing with fire; more like swimming in an inferno. We should cut our losses and portal back to Trackford.’

‘There’s no rush to do that,’ I told him. ‘But you’ve given me a good idea… Let’s get to the stable and gather some hay.’

The others looked uneasy but moved to our left, towards the stable that bordered the pen. Like the other Vizonian buildings it was constructed entirely of wood, including the flat roof. Tadruk hovered over the boy, who was still mumbling insults under his breath. Alum closed the open gates into the building. Regeda and I set about stacking hay and firewood against the wall.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

‘We need flint,’ she said to me.

‘Does no one have any?’ I asked, but no one did. ‘Blasted Vizonia and its eternal daylight; a single oil lantern would be of such use here… Tadruk, leave the boy and find us something we can start a fire with. Make haste.’

He nodded and immediately leapt out a window. The stable gates shook heavily as something thudded into them. I could hear the soldiers shouting outside.

‘The gates won’t hold for long, you’d better hope he hurries,’ Alum said.

There was a row of four Vizonian shields along one of the walls and he’d appropriated one of them for his off-hand. Regeda and I busied ourselves preparing a great bonfire.

Suddenly the gates burst open, revealing a swarm of soldiers who immediately formed a line and raised their overlapping shields. They approached slowly until they reached the gate, but once they were through and Alum backed off, they reformed the line along the length of the stable wall.

‘I think it’s time to portal out, Saemara,’ Alum said.

Tadruk appeared just in the nick of time, his entrance through the window taking him directly onto a hapless soldier who was crushed into the dirt. Instead of flint he carried a lit torch and, taking in the situation in an instant, cast it into the bonfire. The soldiers backed away from it, breaking their formation, and they moved increasingly quickly as the flames spread throughout the stable. Their officer screamed at them to charge us before the flames took the building, but they were too distracted to advance in a line and Alum hacked clean through the guard of the first man to approach, slicing a deep gash down the length of his ribcage. They were even less eager to approach after that, and the officer changed his tactic.

‘Surround the stable! We’ll burn them out!’

I grinned. That was exactly what I’d been hoping for. The soldiers filed out in a panic as one entire side of the stable went up in flames, filling the building with smoke. It was already hard to see more than a few metres and Regeda was coughing violently. We moved up against the window on the far side of the stable, a window which contained no glass and thus permitted us to breathe the outside air.

Through it, we could also see the situation outside. The horses and donkeys were panicking, but the soldiers paid them no heed. This was where we needed a bit of luck for my plan to work. Stablehands appeared and tried to calm the animals, but the fire was too much for them. I doubted they’d ever seen so much as a bit of rain before, let alone their home going up in an inferno. I couldn’t see much of the Torak pen from here but it was my hope that the panic would spread to it. The wooden fence did not seem like it was ready to be tested, with the Vizonians instead relying on the docile nature of the animals and the training of the beasts. I’d bet everything that they hadn’t been trained to stay calm amidst a panic and general furore.

I was right.

The first I knew of the pandemonium I’d created was through the shouts of soldiers, suddenly fearful. Some of them ran past the window, ignoring their officers’ orders to remain in position. Then a Torak charged past, its blue eyes now a fiery red as it burst through the fence ringing the horse pen. The officer finally called for a general retreat, but by then it was too late. The soldiers were in absolute disarray, the animals fleeing in every direction, and the Toraks charging into everyone and everything in sight with their great shoulder spikes, including each other. It was chaos out there.

‘The window,’ I said, and the men lifted me and Regeda though it before clambering through themselves.

The nearest soldiers saw Alum and doubled their speed, not wanting to be caught isolated. I couldn’t blame them; now I was outside, I wanted nothing more than to portal back to Trackford. The red-eyed Toraks were a fearful sight in full stride, moving at the speed of a horse at full gallop and the ferocity of a thunderstorm.

‘Surely you do not intend to return all the way to the archive from here?’ Tadruk asked.

I shook my head and braced myself for some resistance to my most ambitious suggestion yet. Taking a deep breath, I said, ‘We can return to Trackford - but we’re not going alone. We’re taking one of them with us.’

I pointed at the nearest Torak. The others gaped at me like I’d gone crazy. Who knows, maybe I had.

‘Saemara, we’ve followed you this far, but-’

‘I am your Countess!’ I interrupted Alum. ‘My orders are not subject to your whims and fancies. I say we’re taking a Torak back to Trackford, so we’re taking a Torak back to Trackford.’

They looked at each other, which I considered a bad sign for my authority. I had hoped they would hop to it. The best solution I could think of was to distract them for long enough that my authority would lapse back into easy assumption.

‘I propose we lure one of them into charging us and open a portal at the last minute,’ I said to that end.

‘Sounds good to me - you can do it,’ Tadruk replied sarcastically.

‘Actually, you make the most sense, so watch your mouth,’ I warned him. He did make the most sense, being the most disposable member of the party aside from maybe Regeda, who couldn’t summon portals.

‘How do we lure one of them? They seem as wild beasts right now,’ Alum asked.

‘I think it’s easier that way,’ I replied. ‘I don’t have a clue how to get the blue-eyed ones moving, but when they have red eyes they seem to charge anything within sight. All we have to do is stand close to one of them I think.’

‘I will do it,’ he answered. ‘I suggest you and Regeda return to Trackford and summon more soldiers in case those already there are insufficient to contain the beast. The assassin can watch my back until I’m ready.’

I nodded in agreement, though it pained me to see Alum take up the most dangerous task. I’d always known it would have to be him, but the chance to study a Torak in Trackford was too good to pass up. If we could find a weakness, we could severely weaken Vizonian military might.

I opened my portal and gestured for Regeda to pass through. Before I followed, however, I briefly kissed Alum on the lips and looked him in the eye.

‘You’d better get your portal open in time,’ I told him.

‘Get out of here, Saemara. Get those extra soldiers. I’ll handle the Torak.’

I nodded and, with one last glance at my husband, I leaped through my portal. Instantly, I was transported back to my room on the fourth floor of The Erick Tfaeller Chambers. Regeda had already ordered the sergeant of the guard to summon more men and I reinforced her order.

‘What now?’ Regeda asked.

‘Now we wait.’