“Okay, which way now?” I cast about for a moment, having to lean into the wall somewhat as I fight to regain my breath, working on adjusting my grip on my sword while my fingers are more numb than I’d like. Fuck, this is hard work. The armour’s not heavy, but the wear of … gods, I don’t even know how many days on the go are starting to hit me now, and we’ve been going pretty hard in here. And I was knocked out less than a day ago too, I’m impressed enough I’m still standing.

Kesla takes a moment to give the body draped across her shoulder a little nudge to improve its lie, but I doubt she’s any happier with it now. She gives me a glare as she ponders for a moment, having to crane a little as she’s slightly doubled-over under the weight of the corpse of Lady Vezrim’s late son. Never mind the blood that’s been steadily leaking through the white sheet she took the time to wrap it in before we left the room in the brief lull we managed to carve for ourselves. It’s running down her armour now, painting it in a much more gory colour, and I suspect she’s pretty unhappy about that too.

“How the fuck …” She grimaces, looking away now as she sucks in a deep breath, and I think she might be counting in her head now. Then when she looks up what I can see of her expression’s more considered, and I wonder if maybe she’s backtracking her reaction a little. “Sorry. I just … I don’t know this place, not really. Just some o’ the downstairs, and even then that was just once …” She looks away again, and I’m sure I detect some bitterness now.

“Hey, I get it. You care about this family. I understand what that woman means to you.”

She watches me for another long moment, sifting her stance somewhat to accommodate the substantial load she’s having to bear, and finally nods. “You’re right. I’m sorry again.”

Setting my jaw, I turn away for a moment to look around again, judging where we are now. I’ll admit, I didn’t expect this place to be so complicated when I saw it from the outside – it’s a big house, but I wasn’t expecting all these corridors and rooms inside it, I thought it’d all be much more big and open. I’m worried that we’re entirely lost now. “Well I don’t … Naru mentioned something about a library, right? You didn’t go there did you?”

“No. We saw Thura’s office, mainly. But it’s over in the farthest wing, where the fire is. I don’t think we’re anywhere near it right now.” She narrows her eyes, I can just see it under the helmet. “Are we? You don’t smell smoke do you? That we might be close?”

Again I take a little sniff of the air, but honestly I don’t think there’s any need. Never mind that I don’t pick up on anything like that, not really, I still don’t think we’ve covered enough ground to have blundered that far off course. “No. Mostly I just smell … well, death. And … you know …” I shrug.

“Those things.” Kesla nods, baring her teeth now. “Great.”

We carved our way through all the things that were coming for us, those strange unsettling meat puppets that must have been animated by the shadows, enough that my blade ended up generously smeared with second-hand blood and … I don’t really want to think what else. I caught a fair amount of spray myself too, my wrists once again a gory mess, and I can see Kesla’s gotten generously splattered too for her own part. My sword’s grown conspicuously clean since, though, which I’m trying hard not to think about too much right now.

Damn it … I knew we should’ve just gone back the way we came in, instead of trying to follow the others. The fact we’re in such an entirely unfamiliar place seems to have proven a major stumbling block. “Well we can’t just stay here …” I growl under my breath, looking around again. Finally I push myself away from the wall and take a few leaden steps further the way we’ve been heading, starting to creep a little now as I approach the corner ahead. Letting my eyes adjust to the relative gloom ahead while Kesla’s inexplicable new hovering light remains behind.

On the left the new corridor runs down maybe twenty paces before branching off into another junction, but I can see a little light from down that way, suggesting it’s running along one of the exterior walls. Hmmm … turning back, I look the other way, but after a dozen paces this corridor just turns at a strange curve into what looks like a staircase. Leading up, it seems, I can’t quite tell. There’s a door just across from it, but there must be a window in it because I can see light coming through that too. Not a lot, likely little more than candlelight, but … it’s interesting.

I’ll admit, I’m a little tempted by the mystery, but instead as I step out I start backing towards the other stretch of corridor. “This way. Might be a way out here.”

The way Kesla’s jaw tightens suggests she’s frowning, but she still straightens up a little before rolling her shoulder one more time to readjust the lie of the body and following, reaching up with her shield-strapped hand to take hold of the stiffening legs for support. I wait until I know she’s moving steadily before turning back, heading for the light.

That thought puts another in my head now, and I find myself looking down at the sword in my hand. I saw how matter-of-fact Kesla took it when she saw her sword start to blaze with this strange holy fire, so clearly this is nothing new to her. So she knows how it works … “How long’s this going to last for?”

“What?”

“Krakka’s god magic. With our blades.”

“I’m not sure. It’s always been around an hour before, but … well, he never made so many do it all at once before. Could be less.”

That brings me up short, and she has to scuttle a little in order to keep from stumbling as she realises I’ve stopped again. “You mean this could just … go away?” I click my fingers. “Like that? No warning? Any minute?”

“Maybe, I don’t …” Again it looks like she’s frowning at me under her helmet. “I don’t know how this works, Shay. I ain’t a bloody cleric. And I don’t know how long we been at this right now … but yeah. Maybe. So maybe just stopping for a chat ain’t the smartest play right now. What d’you reckon?”

Narrowing my eyes, I give her a look, instead of giving her the cutting remark I’m tempted to deliver. Then I turn away and start walking again, not bothering with whether she keeps up this time.

The junction ahead opens out and I slow again before I reach it, moving close to the wall on the right before chancing a look round the corner. I was right, there are windows along the wall here, running in both directions, big ones. Clear too, almost bafflingly so. Now I’m looking out into the grounds beyond I can see the far wing some way down, growing bright now as it’s starting to burn in earnest. And it really is spreading. Worse, looks like we are making our roundabout way in that direction too …

“Shit …” I mutter under my breath. “Definitely not that way, then.”

“Prob’ly not.” Kesla sighs, close at my side now, looking past me as I turn to her. Taking in the view. Glancing past her, I see the corridor continue into the gloom some way down in the other direction, and while it might turn into a wider space beyond I just can’t be sure, not looking at it now.

“What do you think?”

She looks at me for a beat, and her eyes seems wider now, more earnest, I think. “Seems pretty obvious, don’t it?”

“After you this time, then?” I venture, trying a cocky half-smile that feels like it fails miserably. When she just looks back at me, a little more blank under the face-guard this time, I let loose a sigh and just step around her, mindful not to push past while she’s carrying this load. She’s right, after all. If anything jumps out at us, better if I’m in the lead right now.

Even so, as I move, I’m getting a bad feeling about this route. It’s the right way to go, I’m sure of it, if we want to get close to where we came in this must be the path, but … I don’t know, something is niggling at me. Making me tense my grip on Ashsong’s sword.

Eventually I move close to the open wall, looking out through the next window as we pass it. Down into the grounds at large, which seem to spread impressively far for such an enclosed estate in the middle of a rich part of the city like this. The walls are so distant now, somewhat screened by strategically planted trees and bushes, and the lawns expansive. It’s a drop from here, but … I don’t know, now I’m looking it doesn’t seem that high. “You think we could bust one of these pen and get out this way?”

“What, just shimmy down a drainpipe? You think that’s gonna work?”

“It’s not that far down, we could just drop.” I turn back to regard her over my shoulder. “You’re in good enough shape for that right now, aren’t you? Even after …” I stop myself before I mention what happened out on the docks. Concerned it could trigger her.

The way she cocks her head looking back at me suggests she’s just quirking a brow at me now. “What about the body?”

“Shit … you have a point there.”

“Just keep it in mind.” she mutters low as we start moving again “It’s a sound idea in theory. If we gotta think fast …”

“Yeah.” I breathe, somewhat unconvinced by my own plan now. “Maybe.”

A little further down I realise some of the doors ahead of us are standing open, which puts another wary shiver up my spine. That might not mean anything, but … I don’t like it. Not with everything else that’s gone on tonight. “Keep your wits about you.” I hiss low over my shoulder.

Slowing my progress as I approach the first open door, I move close to the outside wall again, wanting to open up space as I approach. Tensing, I adjust my grip again and turn to my side, presenting towards the door now in case I have to defend myself, then I take a breath before stepping closer, narrowing my eyes again.

It looks like another bedroom, albeit a smaller, more modestly appointed one than Lady Vezrim’s elder daughter’s, but I still have to take a chance nudging the door open the rest of the way to really see. I only step forward enough to be able to put my head through quick, whipping round to check it at speed. Nothing I can see, so I let the breath out again, but still back up carefully. “I think we’re okay.”

Even so, I still move close to the wall across from it as I continue, Kesla following my lead as she passes after me. I’m somewhat crabbing sideways now, looking ahead to the next open doorway, and as I draw close to it I can’t help raising my sword at the ready, just in case this time there’s a surprise.

I barely catch the movement through the corner of my eye as something surges out of the open doorway I just passed, streaking straight for Kesla. She reacts in time to turn into it, bringing up her shield as she does it, but she must’ve forgotten about the load she’s carrying as her movement makes her stumble, the shift in her weight overextending with her current centre of gravity different from what she’s used to.

The first thing I notice is the smell of this thing, at once familiar but also subtly different. On first inspection it seems like the same kind of meat puppet we were dealing with before, but … it looks heavier somehow, and as it slams into Kesla, her shield bearing the brunt of its charge, I see why. There are pieces of ragged, sheared metal mixed in with the mismatched flesh and bone forming it, broken pieces of armour and the weapons of the guards the shadows must have felled. Like they’re adapting … shit …

I’m reacting too, turning back to intervene, but I’m too late to stop Kesla from rocking back from the force of the blow. She manages to twist at the last and get her feet under her enough to keep from stumbling, but as she shifts her weight again her shoulder still connects full-force with the window behind her, and under the weight of the body and all that armour it just gives. The overlarge pane shatters in a large, jagged hole around her and the creature keeps pushing, clearly intent on shoving her clean through, forcing her to shove back to stop it. Unfortunately the body fares less well in this exchange, slipping free into empty space …

I don’t try anything fancy with the urgency of the moment, simply powering a hard, two-handed cut through its centre of mass as I turn into it, but maybe my timing’s off or perhaps it just … I don’t know, this one might be tougher than the ones we’ve fought so far. Either way, my blade cuts through without meeting much real resistance with another loud, wet hiss from the heat, but the thing doesn’t come apart like I expected, indeed it barely even reacts to the damage as it keep pressing its attack. As if it’s shrugging it off.

With a growling snarl that sounds like equal parts angry determination and shaken frustration, Kesla adjusts her footing again and barges it with her shield, harder this time, likely hoping to unbalance it, but it’s just got too many … limbs, I guess. It sways back a little but manages to hold its ground, and almost in the same beat it snaps out one of its other appendages, a particularly nasty-looking wide sliver of jagged steel driven through the core of it. She simply reacts like any skilled swordsman would, ducking under while parrying with her sword, and swats the strike aside as she goes. Already winding up to follow through …

As I draw back for my own second strike I feel the hairs on the back of my neck prickle, and I know better than to ignore my paranoia right now, instead turning fast and hard while I adjust my footing. In time to catch another one of these things tumbling out of the next open doorway further down, not making any pretence at stealth now that it’s all kicked off but just coming right at me. It’s a great flailing jumble, a cartwheeling bundle of flailing ropy limbs sweeping towards me, and it’s already making a full-blooded charge, intent on catching me before I can prepare myself.

So I don’t bother trying to ready a defence, instead jumping to the side as it tumbles in and running at the wall, stepping up as I reach it to push off and twist in the air. Just as this twisted construct lumbers through the space where I was, clearly not quick enough on the uptake as I dodge and counter. I swing Ashsong’s sword up over my head as I hurl myself forward and bring my other hand up to catch the hilt, tucking my legs under me as I start to drop while I cock my weapon high. I wait until the very last before hacking down hard with both hands, using my weight as much as my strength to power the cut.

This thing doesn’t have a chance, between my flawless execution and the blazing hot steel in my hands this attack pans out to perfection, my stroke severing it into two halves just in time to sweep Kesla’s attacker’s limbs out from under it. Then the blade keeps on going, biting deep into the floorboards before wedging tight.

Shit … you may just have overcooked that one, genius.

Trying to yank it free does nothing, it really is stuck fast. Cursing under my breath, I plant my feet and tighten my legs under me as I crouch good and low, ready to try and lever it up from below instead, just as I hear the sloughing sound of another one approaching on my blindside while I feel that wary niggle again. Biting down hard on my curse this time, I shift my footing instead as I turn into it, tightening up my stoop as I reach behind me, fishing for the blades strapped in the small of my back instead. Hoping Krakka’s spell really did manage to work on these too as I look up to see what’s coming this time.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Fuck … whatever these things even are, they’re not messing around anymore, there’s three coming fast all at once. Even as I slip my blades free I feel my heart pounding in my chest, the chill running through me while I feel my limbs start to turn to jelly even as I fight to stay tight, realising I’m in some seriously deep shit. If I can beat all of these with just a pair of knives it’ll be a bloody miracle.

Tightening a little more in my wary crouch, I grit my teeth and adjust my grips as the first one gets scary close, and I’m starting to count down in my head now waiting for it, wary of how this might go. I can still hear sounds of violence behind me, I don’t need to look back to know Kesla’s run into more trouble than just the one that initially attacked her, likely getting hounded as bad as I am now. I don’t know, maybe they were all summoned by the sound of breaking glass?

When it’s within five feet of me I lunge forward myself, cocking my right-hand blade low ready to strike as I make a feint to the left, hoping that these things really aren’t any smarter than what we’ve run into so far. They’re fast, and they’re strong, and they hit hard, but they’re not tactically sound like the kind of trained fighters we’re both used to. So I make my move and hope it’ll react exactly how I’m planning for.

Taking the bait, it lashes out with a tendril while shifting its weight in response to my perceived attack, just in time to completely miss me ducking aside and then whipping around to carve a long, deep groove up through its trunk. My flashing blade hisses loudly as it bites deep and spills cold black blood into the air but I fight the urge to spring back, suddenly faced with the fact that I’m having to get a lot close to inflict damage. I follow through immediately, lunging with the left to carve two shorter, shallower underhanded cuts across the gutting stroke I’ve already landed, then I pull back two steps to open ground between us. As I watch it falters, the massive opening I’ve just torn through it gaping wide and spilling all kinds of overripe awfulness that I don’t want to think about onto the carpet … but it doesn’t drop, not like a regular living opponent would after inflicting that kind of damage on them.

Damn it, it’s like I thought. This isn’t going to work. Not like this. “Kesla?”

She doesn’t answer, I just hear her grunt as she continues to carve away at whatever she’s facing. I don’t have a chance to repeat myself, anyway, the torn creature just twists and contorts into a fresh, more jumbled shape and slithers at me this time, while the other two seem to be jostling behind it, as if waiting for an opportunity to get past in the tight confines of the corridor.

Taking one last step back, I plant my back foot as carefully as I can before tossing the knife in my right hand at the entity as it surges towards me, the flying blade striking true and tearing through the suddenly distended whippet-thin torso. The force of the blow’s enough to yank it back but not knock it down, but I’m already moving. After twisting my foot I shift my weight onto the other and snap it up under me, timing it as well as I can without really looking, and the first I know I’ve actually pulled it off is when my heel bangs into the hilt of my sword. Hard enough to tug the blade loose enough to shift, at least …

The upper half of the creature’s so-called body is all but hanging off by an inch thick flap of skin, which does nothing to hinder it as it just cracks like a whip and snaps forward again, twisting low to the left as if intent on catching me under my side. But I’m already ducking aside as I stoop to grab my sword and yank it free with a dull pop, so instead of striking like a snake it just snaps in empty air above me, and the jolt is enough to tear through that last little piece of connective tissue. I’m already skipping aside again as the top half of it thumps down behind me, and I’m uncomfortably aware that it’s still writhing and very much … well, not exactly alive, but …

“Kesla!” I try again, a little more insistent.

At first she just snarls, on the back-end of a heavy, dismembering slash, then snaps through tightly gritted teeth: “I’m a bit busy at the moment, Shay!”

“Yeah, I get it!” I jump back as the twisting thing at my feet tries to grasp at me, and in my revulsion I cut down hard, cleaving through the floor as well as the mishmash of flesh and bone. “We’re getting swamped!”

“I am well aware!”

This time it’s my turn not to respond, I’m too busy jumping aside as the remaining piece of the first creature lunges up at me like some kind of horrible disfigured hound. I swing an underhanded cut up through it with my sword and keeping moving, deciding to use my surroundings now as I turn my next step into a jump and step up onto the wall beside me. I push off hard and then immediately tuck my feet under me, already reacting as the next one make its own leap towards me. I respond to that with a good hard kick to the middle of it, trusting the momentum I’ve built up launching myself will give me some added brute force.

The resulting impact is a little jarring when I make contact, it’s more like kicking a soggy but still solid lump of half-rotten wood than a side of meat, but I still hit home as hard as I hoped I would. The motley construct is already airborne, and it’s got nowhere to go but sideways. Right through the window …

This crash is bigger, but then the object breaking through’s a lot bigger too, and it’s moving, the flailing tentacles of flesh and steel trying to stop it but ultimately just taking more glass with it. These puppets have been notably silent so far, aside from the unpleasant meaty slithering sounds, but it lets out a squeal now, although I can’t begin to fathom if it’s fear or simple frustration. If these things are even capable of emotion, I mean I wouldn’t have thought that would be possible here.

My landing is less graceful than I’d like, but as I stumble when my first foot touches down and my back meets the wall just below the now-smashed window, it turns out to be an unexpected blessing. The third construct lashes out at me as it finds its own path’s been opened up, while it’s still got some ground to cover, so if I’d kept my footing when I landed I might well have caught that full in the face. Instead it cracks over my head and catches one of the edges of broken glass, and at the speed it’s going this just sheers clean through the clumsily knitted flesh, severing the tendril on contact. No scream this time, I notice, but it still drags what’s left back as if in shock, its progress slowing as it slews sideways into the wall.

The timing couldn’t have been better, I’m still recovering myself. I shove myself off the wall and finally manage to plant my feet properly as I rush it while it’s floundering, letting a snarl build in my throat as I come because I know it’s well aware I’m here. It’s already starting to flail anyway, and I tighten down lower as I move, whipping my offhand knife up as I go to cut through the first tentacle to swipe close and shearing right through it with another hot sizzle. Already priming my sword under-arm as I come, concentrating on my target even as I can sort of see past it that there’s at least two more coming now. Maybe they heard that second breaking window …

Whatever, I’m already moving to intercept before this first one can get itself in order again. I let go of my knife as I come in, trusting it to stick fast in the floor given the hot blade, and come in low from the side as I start to wind up another underhanded stroke with Ashsong’s sword. One of the tendrils flails for me but it’s wild, uncoordinated, and I duck it almost without even having to break stride, so when I plant my feet at last I’m in just the right spot. I put my full force into my swing as I grip the hilt with both hands, and cut upwards.

Inside I’m thanking Corvina that her holy fire’s still blazing through the enchanted steel as the torso parts with barely any resistance at all, cleaving in half at a diagonal angle as I grit my teeth and let out a feral growl. I don’t stop until I’ve carved clean through the big trunk, and as the lower half tumbles away, quivering, I’m already twisting the blade overhead to bring right back down again on the rest as it drops.

Which means I’m wide open when another tentacle strikes out at me, catching me square in the chest. I’m sure it’s a desperate move from the still vital upper half as it drops, but it was impressively timed all the same, and I think it must be like getting struck by one of Yeslee’s arrows. The only reason it doesn’t lay me open on the spot is Hurrig Stormshield’s miraculous enchanted armour. Even then, I’m still knocked clean off my feet.

When I drop it’s with all the grace of a sack of potatoes, and the floorboards creak loudly under me from the impact as it sends a hard jolt up through my lower back and I go sprawling. I’m not quite rattled, but … oof, that bloody hurt even so, I can already feel the pain welling in my chest despite not getting cut. No doubt there’s going to be one mother of a bruise waiting for me when I finally get this armour off later. If there is a later for us …

As it is, I’m astounded I still have the sword in my hand, but as I look at it now I see something that makes my breath catch so much worse than anything else could – it’s just a glimpse, I could almost have imagined it but I know my luck’s nowhere near that good. The bright hot light in the blade falters, just for a blink, the strange crystalline metal darkens for a beat before catching again. Fuck … that’s a flicker, I’m sure of it. Kesla said we might not have much time left with this imbued magical effect. Now I’m seeing the proof for myself.

“Oh gods … Kesla?”

She doesn’t answer me, and I don’t have a chance to turn to check on her because I can already see what’s left of the meat puppet I’ve been fighting rolling over as it works on twisting itself into a fresh shape with its newly-denuded mass. Ready to come for me again. Shit … I don’t have time for this. I roll over onto my side and start to push myself up, and my back subtly complains at the effort after that fresh hit it just took. Great. I manage to get one knee under me and drag my sword up again, gritting my teeth tighter than ever as I lean into the nearest wall, preparing to force myself upright.

“Kesla! DOWN!!! BOTH OF YOU, DOWN NOW!!!”

I’m still turning as she moves behind me, and I’m too slow realising that she’s responding to the shout, but she’s not dropping. Instead she’s coming for me –

Of course she is, I’m still slow on the uptake as Kesla barges into me and even without all her momentum I think she’d still be heavy enough on her own to bear me right down onto the floor. First we bounce off the wall, but even so as she wraps her arms around me we’re both sprawling as I hear someone, whoever it was shouted I suppose, speak something I feel more than hear. An incantation, then, and now I recognise Tulen’s voice as the air seems to erupt directly overhead.

No, not that … something catches fire as it’s blown right over us now we’re down and out of the way. The flames are bright and almost blisteringly hot as they engulf the mass, while it seems to writhe in the air as it tumbles. Screaming, too. The sound’s almost enough to blow out my eardrums, it’s so horrible. I can’t help gasping out a wordless, pained protestation at that …

What was another one of these meat puppets hits the floor and rolls, the surviving piece of the creature I was fighting barely jumping aside in time to avoid getting bowled down but it. Blazing like a beacon now, and suddenly it’s getting uncomfortably warm in here as well as a good deal brighter. If the smell wasn’t nightmare fuel it could almost be beautiful to me, at least under the circumstances.

She shouts twice more, and Kesla just presses me down a little more firmly as two raging streams of strangely alive, swirling fire arc through the air overhead. The first catches one of the advancing constructs full-on and it essentially explodes as it’s knocked back, but the second barely misses the one behind, instead bursting on the wall beside it so it’s merely showered with blazing sparks instead as the wood and stone explodes. There’s a loud pop as the window just above blows out too, raining shattered glass, but most of it misses the puppet as it tumbles away from the blast, screeching that same high-pitched howl in very clear pain.

“Come on, we have to go.” Tulen’s gentle tone surprises me. Then Kesla starts to shift her weight and I can move again, finally able to look up as I start to roll onto my side, and I see the young wizard standing over her, already reaching down with her hand gripping her arm as she helps her up.

When I catch sight of Dumoli thumping up behind her looking winded, I’m starting to push myself up onto my knee, but he’s already stumbling, looking like he’s about to pass right out on the spot. Kesla shifts instantly to his aid, and I find myself twitching too, seeing him falter seeming to put my heart in my throat, but in the same instant I catch sight of movement in the other corner of my eye and I remember my unfinished business.

The remaining half of the puppet I cut in two must have been taking cover while all that was going on, but it’s recovering now as it comes at me fast, either intent on finishing what it started or just drawn to perceived prey still down on the floor. I don’t bother rising up any more than I already have, instead dropping back onto my haunches as I claw my sword up, and while it’s not flickering again I swear it seems less bright than it was before. Like it really is failing now fire’s starting to burn out of it. But it’s still there for now …

I keep it low to the floor as I wait for the attack, and it just comes in like it wasn’t expecting anything else, so when I make my lunge at just the right moment, whipping my blade up hard, it runs right onto it. I manage to cut a foot up into it but then I hit a chunk of imbedded steal and it jars badly in my hands, making me snarl an angry curse as I twist the blade instead and just turn my cut sideways and tear it out hard. Instead of cutting it in two I just manage to cut it open, but this time the wound’s significantly bigger, a good deal of what’s inside spilling loose to rain down on the floor as it starts to falter. What’s left to rear back is little more than a hollow shred of what menaced me, and its howl is a god deal thinner and much less impactful.

Getting one foot under me after all, I draw back onto it as I bring my sword round, ready to respond if there’s another attack, and I can feel Tulen stepping up beside me, readying her own sword … but after swaying in place for a few moments the empty shell finally just shudders, and then crumbles at last, flopping onto the floor and this time remaining still.

For a moment I feel relief start to build in me that I’ve finally killed that thing, but then I remember the one that Tulen missed, wounded but not dead, and when I look up I see it starting to recover itself, crouching low some distance down the corridor. Now conspicuously moving away from the flames that are already starting to catch and build behind it.

“We gotta go.” Kesla growls, and when I turn as I start to push myself up again, I see she’s crouched there, holding Dumoli up as he leans heavily into her hands. He’s holding his hammer, but it’s propped on the floor in front of him like he has no strength left to heft it anymore. Well that’s just great. “Du, can you move?”

The swarf blinks at her, and it’s clear enough to me that between still healing from his wound and all this running around he’s ready to drop. “Oh … shit, I don’t know if I can. I feel like my side’s on fire.”

Looking down at the sword in my hand, I see it flicker again, and this time when it blinks out entirely it doesn’t come back. “Shit …” I cast about for a moment until I find my discarded knives, one lying a few feet away while the other’s still stuck in the floor where I left it. They’re still glowing, but they look a good deal dimmer than before. Sheathing the sword, I reach down and pluck up the first before stooping to try and pry the second free. It sticks for a moment, but after a good hard twist it finally springs free. And then it flickers too before going out too. “Shit!” I repeat, a good deal more perturbed now.

“Shay, are you –”

Raising the last lit blade in my hand, I look at it for a moment and try to will it to stay bright, maybe even grow a little hotter again. I’m just about to offer up my own prayer to Corvina, figuring it can’t hurt, when it just splutters out too, and then I realise that all the light there is here now is the flames and the little glowing globes hanging over Kesla and Tulens’s heads. I turn back to her now, and I see her sword, lying on the floor at her feet, is as cold as my own now. “We’re out of time.”

Kesla glances down at Hedred and mutters a low, breathy curse I don’t quite catch. “We have to go.” She looks at Krakka again. “Snap out of it, old man. I need you to move.”

“Well we can’t go that way.” I look back down the corridor where the puppet’s stopped moving now, but then it seems to have finally succumbed to the fire that’s already starting to engulf it. The flames are building fast now, rendering the corridor entirely impassible now. Turning back, I look past the others. “We should … shit.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly do that right now …” Tulen stops herself too late to keep from looking a little bit of a fool, her cheeks darkening instantly, but she must catch what I actually meant quickly enough as she turns to follow my gaze.

There are more of them coming the other way, and it looks like a lot. Or maybe not, I can’t really tell any more, not with these things in particular. But it looks like enough.

There’s only one choice left, then. And I fucking hate it. “Oh for … we have to jump out of the window.”

Tulen’s eyes grow very wide now as she turns to look to the gaping hole in the glass beside her now. “What? But I can’t … it’s too high, surely … we can’t just –”

“Shit, she’s right.” Kesla reaches down and drags Hefdred up, then straightens up, keeping her other hand on Dumoli’s shoulder as much to prop him up now. Then she glances out there herself, frowning deep for a beat, then turns back and lets out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, um … I’m really sorry about this.”

Dumoli frowns too. “What for? I don’t understand –”

Letting go of his shoulder, she instead takes up a big fistful of the back of his gambeson and steps back fast, dragging him along with her in the same instant. By the time he realises she’s actually throwing him all he can do is squawk in clear, shocked indignation, and he doesn’t even try to hold onto his hammer as she literally just tosses him right through the big empty gap in the window.

All that Tulen and I can do is just watch, my mouth falling open just as wide as hers. I can’t believe she just did that.