Skah cackled and held his stomach.

“What?! Where did you see him?” Safira asked urgently.

“Heehee! He flew over the wall!”

“Guards. Search out the gardens and raise the alarm! Do not let Zaim escape!”

The guards rushed away with three remaining to protect the princess.

***

Yuko landed in a splash. For a few moments, he flailed about, trying to find which way was up. His head was spinning from his fall. He gulped in water and he grew frantic. He saw light sparkling through the water and he swam towards it. His head broke the surface of the water and he spat up water and gasped for air.

He shook the water from his head and looked around. He was in a small pool. He had been fortunate that he hadn’t landed on his head.

He coughed again and wearily swam to the edge and grabbed hold of it. For a moment, there was only the sound of the breeze in the palms, the soft lapping of water, and the quiet song of a bird.

There was a shout from further in the garden.

Did they see me? He thought. His stomach churned and he winced.

Another shout, this time from up by the palace.

He sank his head lower in the water and blew bubbles.

Did they really see me?

“Don’t let him escape!”

Yep, they did. He tried getting out of the pool but his vision swam. He hadn’t recovered from his fumble yet. He took a breath and let himself sink into the depths.

He could hear the muffled shouts grow louder. They neared and he saw shadows cross the light.

His lungs begged for air.

A shadow blocked out all the light above him. Its head looked this one way, then another, then it looked down.

The shadow cried out and jumped away.

Ah, that’s right, he thought, the water is clear.

Yuko twirled in the water, planting his feet on the bottom of the pool in a crouch. He whisked his knife from his sheath. He heaved with all his strength and sliced the water in front of him with his knife.

He burst out of the pool and sliced the man’s wrist in one motion. He felt his feet land on the pool’s edge and he struck with his other palm into the man’s chest. The soldier tumbled backwards, dropping his sword.

Yuko ran as other soldiers cried out to their fellows and raced after him.

Yuko’s head whirled a little and he narrowly avoided running into the trunk of a tree. If his hunch was right, they would have put the sword into the armory.

His wet feet slapped against stone as he ran up a path along the edge of the pillars of the palace.

Two guards came rushing at him from the front. He brandished his knife in a backhand hold.

The first one swung at him, he sidestepped and diverted the sword with his blade. Then he jumped up and kicked the guard behind the first with both feet. As they fell together, he caught the neck of the first guard in the crook of his elbow.

The rear guard fell to his back and Yuko rolled as the first guard fell on top of the rear one.

He gained his feet again and ran. He turned into the pillars suddenly and into the palace. He took a roundabout way as he caught glimpses of running guards through the gaps in the pillars.

He rounded the last corner that would take him to the armory and was met with two lines of soldiers blocking his way to the door with swords drawn.

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He hesitated in his run for an instant. Behind the guards, the wall had frost all over it and the door. Even a hundred feet away, Yuko could feel the biting cold. The door, he knew, was made of solid wood.

It was a gamble, but he picked up his pace into a dead on sprint. He swerved to the side and grabbed a spear from its rack. With it held in front of him he charged the soldiers. In their haste, they only had swords, one of them would be impaled before they could land a hit on him and the captain in charger knew it. And Yuko knew the captain knew.

At the last moment, the captain yelled out an order and the guards parted in front of Yuko. The guards on the ends retreated and cut off escape from either side.

Yuko charged through the gap, raising the spear like a staff and deflecting the sword swipes at him from the side. Then, he was through their ranks. He quickly lowered the spear and struck the metal lock as hard as he could with it.

The frozen lock shattered and Yuko barreled into the armory room.

The guards shouted at him, but he didn’t pay attention to them. Something was covering a tarp in the middle of the room.

Yuko’s quick breathing came out in a fog. He hurriedly approached the tarp and struck it with the butt of his spear. The tarp fell away like ice and revealed the blade of Yuko’s sword and a man holding it.

Yuko shattered the man’s hands in its death grip and snatched up the sword before it fell.

He tossed the spear aside and strode out of the armory.

The guards backed away.

Yuko smiled. “What? No one is willing to challenge me?”

The guards watched warily from a safe distance, but didn’t seem afraid.

A numbness started to creep into Yuko’s toes and fingers. The sweat and water on his hand had frozen to the sword’s handle already.

He quickly sheathed the sword, but couldn’t pull his hand from the handle.

The guards watched him.

He took a step forward, towards the line of soldiers. They didn’t budge. He took another step. They brandished their swords.

Yuko gulped.

Three of them rushed him.

Yuko waited until the last moment, then lunged forward and slashed, drawing Adhiam and sheathing it just as quickly.

The guards tried to turn, but their stomachs were already frozen stiff. They toppled over and light cracking and crinkling could be heard when they struck the floor. Their flesh giving away like ice before a hammer.

Yuko felt the hand clutching Adhiam’s handle grow stiffer. His wet skin frosted.

A couple more soldiers edged closer while some of them fetched spears.

Yuko took a deep breath and the frost on his skin fell away like snow. With a glance he took in the faces of the soldiers surrounding him. There was a couple of them close together that kept their position, but kept glancing at what Yuko had done to the first three.

Yuko turned suddenly and charged them before the others could return with the spears.

The guards blanched, but their training kicked in and they blocked the first few of Yuko’s blows with their swords.

Yuko felt twinges of pain in his hand with each blow. The sword felt clumsy in his grip and he had to bring both hands to support his frenzied strikes.

The two guards backed up from Yuko’s onslaught. Their swords sustained many blows before, with a great heave, Yuko struck them and shattered the now-frozen blades.

Before they could react, Yuko slashed through their stomachs and pushed past them.

In the few seconds that he had fought them, the other guards had closed in behind him and had swung at him in the very moment he pushed past the two guards.

He quickly sheathed Adhiam. Now both of his forearms were feeling stiff. It had been too easy for him to forget how much he had relied on his thick clothing to stay warm, especially when the blade was uncovered.

He ran past pillars with guardsmen closing in from every side. Some were running at him from the front, he turned to the side and met some coming from that direction. He stopped and planted his back against a pillar as guards from all over the palace surrounded him.

He feinted in one direction and they backed away, widening the circle. The circle didn’t weaken though. More soldiers from the back filled in the gaps.

Yuko’s breathing came heavily. He was trapped and running out of time. His teeth chattered. It was now or never. He would risk breaking the sword like so many before it, but he had to test its level of strength sometime.

He charged at the line again and swung Adhiam in an arc. Instead of shattering, like he had expected, Adhiam’s blade held as it cut halfway through the blade of a soldier’s sword.

Yuko gave a sharp yank and the soldier’s sword shattered. Others came from the side and Yuko blocked their strikes. He felt his arms grow stiffer with each passing second.

Yuko’s clumsy strikes could be parried by the soldiers now. They felt the advantage and pressed their attack. Yuko shattered sword after sword but had to give ground as he was pressed back to a pillar again. Soldiers with spears took the places of those whose swords had broken.

Yuko cleaved the heads off the spears as they were jabbed at him. The chill spread through his limbs slower as the exercise warmed him.

Then, suddenly, the spearmen parted for soldiers bearing…buckets of water?

Too late, Yuko realized their plan. He dodged to the side as the first one threw their load at him. He cut the spears blocking his way as another spray of water landed on his back and instantly started to freeze.

The spearmen backed away as Yuko struggled to detach his bare feet from the water frozen on the ground.

His breath came quicker as he panicked. It fogged and drifted slowly away.

Another splash of water soaked him and froze solid, as effective as irons around his legs and arms.

More water was splashed on him. He struggled with all his might against it. The ice cracked and shards fell off him. The ice was immediately replaced by another splash of water.

His vision was icing over now. He stared as the guards parted for Safira and she leveled a cold gaze upon him as if she were freezing the ice herself.