Rune Stealer

Wounded

"Shit," swore Jhestan as he ducked away from the broken pieces of the arrow I had stopped from piercing through his brain. Soldiers in silver uniforms flooded into the ballroom form the alcove where the throne sat. Archers lined up on the balconies; their bows hoisted up and drawn back.

"Saints," I cursed at Jhestan, Brynley, and Toril as they all stood stupidly as if waiting to die. "Fight, you idiots!" They all shook their heads, as if to clear the fog in their brains, and fought.

Zyn and I ducked, weaved, and sliced at the soldiers with our knives doing well to dodge the arrows flying at us. Toril, with help of his speed rune, zipped past the arrows and cut down many soldiers with his twin swords. Kian sparred multiple soldiers at once, doing well to to use the arrows to his advantage and used the silver soldiers as shields. However, it was Jhestan I was worried about; the big guy swung his axe around chopping down soldiers like they were wimpy trees, but he was a big target.

My arm stung sharply and my attention was pulled away from Jhestan. The cloth on my shoulder was ripped and a deep cut from an arrow oozed warm, crimson blood. I cursed in Haichan pulling my attention back to the fight. I racked my brain quickly, trying to think of a way we could get out of this. We were fighting in a bloodbath and if we didn't get out, it would soon be our graves.

Out of my peripheral vision I inspected the boys. Their clothing was being sliced up but nearly missed arrows also. This cuts marked red on their skin and the shimmering sweat of exhaustion was showing on their brows.

Neither Jhestan, nor Kian were blurting out orders on how to escape the ambush and it didn't look like they were going to either; they were too busy with the fight.

"Jhestan," I yelled over the clamor of the fight. Jhestan's attention twitched to me for a split second then back to the soldier he was fighting. "Move towards the door and break it down!" Two large blades were thrusted my way and I spun and ducked past them, then turned on my heels to slice the necks of the soldiers whose swords they belonged too. I pushed past the falling bodies to see if Jhestan had done what I ordered.

"Jhestan," I screeched when I saw that the captain still stood where he had before. "Go, now!" For a second, I thought I would have to persuade the man, but to my pleasure, Jhestan began moving towards the door. "Toril! You cover him!" Once again, the short man hesitated, but once he saw Jhestan moving, he quickly sprinted over to cut down the arrows flying towards his captain. "Everyone else, move towards the door!"

Jhestan carved a path for himself in the direction of the door by swinging his axe at the other men, more recklessly than strategically. A sigh escapes me when I saw Kian and Brynley slowly following Jhestan and Toril to the door. However, my breath caught when I couldn't catch sight of Zyn.

Frantically, I twisted around to look for Zyn, but a hilt of a sword connected with the soft spot on my temple. I was sent flying to the ground and I hit it with a crack of my shoulder. Black spots invaded my vision and I struggled to lift my head off the ground. I felt a fist grasp a ball of my hair and push my face back down and ground my jaw into the wet floor of the ballroom.

"So you're the golden girl?" laughed a dark voice. "You're a valuable gal." He yanked on my hair, pulling me up as he leaned down so that his lips were nearly touching my ear. "I wonder how much a man would pay to fuc-" The dark voice was cut off by a gurgling choking sound. I blinked, willing my vision go back to normal, but when I looked up, I saw Zyn looming over me with blood stained crescent moon knives. Laying on the ground next to me was the man that knocked me down; he had a red, leaking line gouged in his throat.

I sat up and gave Zyn a grateful smile and he returned it with a twitch of his lip. For a second there, the walls of his mind were painted with the color yellow, but it was just for a second.