Amidst the warband

ZEPH

I tore through the Keep’s shadowed halls and carved a path into Karich’s warband like a storm through brittle forest. The two ammo boxes I’d grabbed before ascending the keep now lay abandoned somewhere near its kitchen, their contents spent in a strategic flourish. These rookies thought I’d burned expended myself. Now, they crept from their holes, hungry to claim an assassin's head. It was better this way. I wouldn't have to track them down one by one; I'd have no need to look over my shoulder.

“Wretch!” My revolver Applause's butt crashed into a helmet, crashing it like a gong. These weren't spearmen, they were rattled, dented toys that needed to be put back on their shelves.

“Karich!” I fired down the central corridor, “You lily-livered cur! Are you hiding from me?”

A spear tip flashed from a side corridor. I ducked and swept a boot through its wielder’s legs; she dropped to the floor with a thud that wrinkled my nose.

Too easy. I moved like liquid silver through the chaos, my limbs quicker than my thoughts. The patter of my heartbeat began to rise, pushing the world into a narrow tunnel. Thump... thump... No. Not now. Not here. Thump-thump.

Boot clomps, shouts, and my speeding pulse; each was a layer in the symphony that rose around me.

Why now? My teeth clenched. Years had passed since I’d heard that damned beat. I couldn’t afford to lose focus here, not when the biggest score of my career was within reach. Not when my mark was close enough to taste.

I whirled like a barn-toppling tornado of silver, black fabric, and sweat.

My strikes came faster now, busted jaws, shafts smashed from hands, helmets pounded like war drums.

Rhythm consumed and dragged me back to that place and time. Each collision shook my body; each blow was a note in that song I'd forced myself to forget. My head whipped from side to side, and my vision narrowed to a point.

No! I threw myself from it and saw him.

White porcelain, red eyes, and a jeering blue smile. A mask and a halberd.

There'd been no prickle on my neck, no discordant pause in the music to let me know.

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A flash of steel sliced the air, and cold bloomed in my left shoulder. My blouse pulled tight to cling against my chest, and I staggered.

“The Ace?” His voice was calm and measured, “I expected more.”

“How?” I gasped and dropped into a stance, trying to defend myself. My shoulder pulsed, a sickening warmth spilling down my arm.

“What was that?” the predator asked and tilted his head.

“You heard me! How'd you get so close?” I stammered, retreating one, two steps. He didn’t follow; his red eyes were inscrutable, he had me trapped.

The music vanished, drained from my chest along with my resolve. I breathed ragged and lunged, Applause arcing to knock his spear aside, to close the gap and end this.

His spear’s point pulled ahead of me. Too fast.

No, he wasn't quick; my hammering of heart-beat told me that. I was slow, ploddingly slow. I couldn’t slip past that blade.

We danced. He led. I tried again and again to switch our positions, to no avail. I tried to taunt him, but it fell on deaf ears.

Rising from a forced dip, my eyes locked on the polearm's tip as it raced toward my center. Thankfully, my hips held onto a vestige of melody. They yanked to life before my mind could catch up. They spun, and ran.

My boots thundered around corners, through a maze of halls. Warm fluid slicked my side. Ragged breath burned in my throat.

“Rhody!" The words ripped out my mouth like sandpaper, “I need ammo!”

Nothing.

“Rhody!”

Still nothing. And then—

A scream.

The acolytes scream.

My stomach twisted. “Damn it...” I circled about toward the sound. Toward her.

My vision narrowed, not in that razor-sharp, keen-eyed way I’d come to rely on. This was the edge of a blackout; it felt like grasping at sand.

Shit.

I gave up my rescue and stumbled toward the nearest door. It slammed shut behind me, and I threw the bar.

I ripped off my blouse's sleeve, twisted the fabric around my trembling hand, and pressed it against my shoulder.

Thump-thump. My heartbeat pounded like war drums in my ears.

The room was small and suffocating—an interior chamber, no windows, a bed shoved into a corner, and an armoire dominating the opposite wall. My eyes darted, searching for an escape.

Thump-thump. Something flickered in my peripheral—a distortion on the floor. I turned the pinprick of vision I had left to it and my chest tightened. The bedpost against my back kept me from toppling as I pushed the black bandage tighter against my wound. A crimson trail pooled along the floor.

There it was again. That ripple. A subtle, unnatural movement along the stone and mortar surface.

Thump-thump. It grew larger, and shifted—smooth stone became… hair? And then—eyes. They didn't waver. Whatever this was knew what it wanted.

“What the hell?” My voice cracked, and I pulled my leg.

But I was slow.

The gray face, not unlike Rhody's, surged from the floor. Its mouth, I swear that jaw unhinged before it clamped onto my calf. Its teeth felt like falling ten feet barefoot onto gravel. Fire shot up my leg.

“Gah! What the hell!?” I kicked out with my free foot, landing a solid blow. But it was like kicking a boulder. My boot rebounded with a jolt as I tore from the bed.

Before I could comprehend what was happening, I was knee-deep in the floor. The liquid stone wrapped me like an icy lake.

“No!” My voice pitched higher as the ground rippled, pulling me down inch by inch.

I thrashed, reaching for anything to stop the descent. My shoulder burned, but the sharp ache dulled as the rest of my body sank into the numbing expanse. My head went under, and the room slipped behind the black of a cloudy midnight sky.

I would not go out like this!

My right hand held tight to Applause. The barrel caught on something solid—the liquid floor above? How was that possible? How was any of this possible? I tried to pull myself up, teeth gritted, muscles tensed, but the weight beneath me was too much. The thing, no, the girl's grip on my leg broke with a snap. When she struck the ground, the whole room trembled.

My arm was caught; the ceiling above me had solidified and cinched around it.

The girl, her skin was glistening wet rock. She rose into a crouch like a feral creature, broken chains hanging from her arms. Her eyes gleamed with ley light.

"Stupid bitch!" I spat, "What the hell did you just do?!"