Markus’s knees were stiff. The moon was sinking and the appointed hour was passing. He could feel irritation rising, like a shout in his throat that wanted to get out. He was fed up with crouching behind packing crates every night, waiting for that girl to show up. The guard tonight had provided only a little entertainment. He’d been sure this would be the night the Firebrand would show. Hadn’t they been predictable enough? It was almost time to make off with the goods that a few of the men, in contradiction to all normal rules of burglary, were piling into a wagon as slowly as they could.

There was a shuffling step behind him, and Markus swung around. He hoped his fury showed on his face. Judging by the way the other man took an involuntary step back, it did. It was one of the new men, those thugs the Firebrand had spanked for ganging up on a man at the docks.

“She ain’t coming,” the man said in what he probably thought was a whisper. “You promised we’d get revenge on the Firebrand.”

Markus took a long, deep breath, readying himself to respond in an actual whisper. Before he managed it, however, three quick flashes split the darkness on the east side of the docks.

The other man crouched down on the other side of the packing crate from Markus, looking, as Markus was, to the south, which was where the prearranged signal flashes had indicated the Firebrand would be. He was a thug, but he wasn’t a complete idiot.

Markus spotted her, a dark silhouette against the stars, running lightly along a warehouse roof. She dropped out of view to the street below when she neared the three men by the wagon. Markus knew this would make the men nervous, and rightly so, since they couldn’t see her.

“Hold,” he whispered. “Hold.”

He breathed a sigh of relief when the men by the wagon continued their work, pretending not to know she was coming, and no other men came out of hiding.

“Drop everything!” Her voice, high and loud, sounded across the dock at the same moment as she appeared again, standing on top of the wagon load with her fist raised above her head.

The three men jumped back. Markus was sure they were genuinely startled. He hadn’t seen her climb into the wagon, and he’d been watching for it.

They set down whatever they were holding and raised their hands. They were all newcomers. The girl had no way of knowing that the men she had encountered before were waiting in the wings for their second chance. She didn’t know that raising their hands was the signal to strike.

~

The men set their crates down on the ground and raised their arms. Unlike the bandits and bullies she had encountered before, these men didn’t seem to even be contemplating defying the Firebrand. So easy! Didn’t it simplify matters nicely that her reputation had preceded her? Kiri took a step forward, ready to order the men away, but something was off. One of the men was smiling widely, leering at her, really. Moved by some instinct, or maybe she saw something out of the corner of her eye, Kiri looked away from the burglars.

Something was moving towards her, fast, out of the darkness. A man. And another. Kiri turned right and left, but they were coming faster than she could get their bearings. They were everywhere! She opened her now-quite-hot hand at the three men in front of her, who were at least close enough together she could get them at once. They were knocked to the ground with a forceful blast of lightning. Immediately Kiri clenched her hand into a fist again, as hard as she could. She hopped down from the wagon, even though it took her closer to one of the men. There wasn’t any direction that didn’t. Her only chance to escape this net was to run before it closed tight.

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The man in front of her was holding a knife. If she let that stop her it would only mean the others could catch her too, so Kiri ran straight at him. Her hand was already hot with held-back lightning. The sound of running feet was all around her, and out of the corner of her eye Kiri could see other men, and the glint of other knives. Kiri opened her hand when she was nearly in arm’s reach of the man, but he took it with a grunt and a hardening of his whole demeanor. He stumbled, but kept coming. He did not seem terrified of her, like everyone before had been. This one was brave enough to face the Firebrand.

Caution seemed suddenly to be a good idea. Though her hand was tight-balled into a fist again, in the bare second it would take to reach the man, there was not going to be enough power in it to deter him. Dropping her headlong charge, Kiri spun on her heel and danced past him, just dodging a swipe of his knife. The spin gave her a momentary glimpse of the men running up behind her. Her heart leaped into her throat when she recognized some of the faces despite the darkness. The bandits from the Standing Stones! Fear sent her running full out. It must be her imagination, brought on by terror. But then another man she recognized stepped out from behind a crate, blocking her escape. It was not her imagination.

He wasn’t the worst one, not him. But this was one of the faces from her nightmares, the man who had been on the other side of the knife that disappeared. Her steps faltered. She heard herself gasp..saw a smile spread across his face...her terror must be plain to him. Kiri squeezed her fist a little tighter, then opened it as quick as she could, all fingers pointing stiff at the smiling man.

The lightning arced from her hand, struck him in the chest, then exploded along its whole length, splitting the air between them. The boom was deafening. The bolt shattered into a million pieces, striking everyone around it. The force of the blast spun Kiri when it hit her, and knocked her to the ground, on her stomach, facing back towards the men chasing her. They were staggered, too, but there was no time to waste. Kiri struggled to her feet as quickly as she could and turned back towards the man who, no longer smiling, was also getting unsteadily back on his feet.

Snicking a slim blade from a sheath at his waist, he came at her. She resisted the urge to back up, instead watching the blade carefully, looking for a chance to slip past to safety. There were no other men behind him that she could see. Once she was past him she was sure to outrun them. No one was coming up closer behind her, either. The men behind seemed content to leave her to this man who seemed to have been able to, at least partly, turn her power back on her. Against him, she surely did not stand a chance. Kiri knew that her speed and agility was her last best hope. Among this maze of packing crates, no one else would be able to leap and climb as fast as if they were on a flat open road. She licked her lips, watching the weaving of the blade.

He lunged suddenly forward, aiming for her heart. Kiri dodged, quick and neat, to the side. Her hand darted up as she dodged, gripping his wrist. Immediately a jolting pain shot up her arm, causing her muscles to spasm and her fingers to lock even tighter on his arm. At the same moment, he sucked in a breath and opened his hand, dropping the blade. Their eyes locked together, inches apart. Kiri knew the shock and pain in his wide eyes was reflected in her own. With some effort, because her fingers didn’t want to open, she threw his wrist away from her and launched herself on to the top of the shipping crate behind him. When she dropped back to the ground on the other side she heard a shout and the sound of the men on the other side surging towards her. Kiri ran full tilt across the docks, dodging behind crates wherever available, hoping to lose them in the darkness. The sound of running feet was falling behind. She was getting away.

Unfortunately she was not the only one to notice that she was going to escape. When she took to the rooftops near the edge of the river, for a moment she was silhouetted against the sky, and one of the men threw a knife with shocking speed and accuracy. It sliced across her thigh, was thrown into a spin by the glancing blow, and skittered along the tiles of the roof. Kiri dropped immediately to her stomach and crawled to the edge of the roof out of view of the docks. She dropped back into the street and nearly fell when her right leg didn’t want to take her weight. Forcing her leg to cooperate, she ran, long after she’d left her pursuers behind.