The Claimed: A Clash of Copper and Gold

Chapter 19: The Three-Legged Lion

I whipped around to see three guards barreling down the stairs toward me. Their heavy boots flopped on each step, bodies bobbling like overgrown toddlers. In another situation, I might have laughed.

Instead, I snatched up Tibo's sword and prepared to kill or be killed.

The first guard lost his footing on the same crooked step I had missed, and his sword flipped to the side as he attempted to rebalance himself. In that one crucial second, I speared my sword up under his ribcage toward his heart. Metal scritched against bone as he flopped down onto the sword. I planted a palm on his chest for leverage as I yanked out the blade. Then I leaped down the remaining three steps to evade the swinging sword of the second guard.

The second guard lurched forward, hitting the ground beside me with a grunt. His blade flashed out across my vision, and I raised my sword just in time to stop it from reaching my neck. The scraping metal so close to my ear raised goosebumps on my arms.

If I died, Makash's rule would remain unchallenged. Finny would be orphaned. And Niako would be killed — or worse.

I swung hard.

The guard parried, but the force of my blade pushed his own back toward him, slicing into the side of his face. An innocuous white line formed from his temple to his chin before blood erupted, trailing down his face like tears. With a scream, he lashed out again.

I raised my sword once more, and this time, the blades met in a deafening screech of metal against metal. When his blade slid free, I let mine fall toward his legs. The sword hit his shin bones and carved a path down toward his ankles. With his balance offset by the blow, his next swing missed me entirely. I brought the blade around to swing across his neck. His flesh yielded to the sword like a knife through butter, and his head toppled off his body. The body stood stiff for one moment, almost as if confused, before dropping to join the head.

As his body landed, I turned toward the third guard, who had bypassed me to attack Niako. Niako still lay on the floor, but he had managed to survive the first few seconds of attack by kicking out at the guard.

The guard raised his sword high, ready to plunge it into Niako. Before he could finish, I thrust my blade up through the small of his back.

The guard made a sound halfway between a bubbling stream and a retching cat as he slipped to his knees. Then he collapsed to the floor beside Niako.

I scanned Niako's body as I sheathed my blade. "You alright?"

He glanced at the guard beside him and then up at me. "Yes, I just... I didn't help."

"You stayed alive. That was good." I offered a bloody hand. "Now let's get out of here."

For two seconds, he only stared at me, but then he reached up and clasped my hand. I jerked him to his feet and slipped an arm around his waist to drag him forward, stopping in front of the ladder leading to the trapdoor.

"Can you climb this?"

"I can try."

He grasped both sides of the ladder and set one foot and then the other onto the first rung in painfully slow movements. When he tried to lift a foot to the second rung, his entire body began to tremble. My own muscles twitched in response.

"Niako, I am going to touch you. Please don't panic."

Then I laid my hands on his hips to steady him. He stiffened for a moment before continuing his ascent. I shifted my hands to his thighs when his hips left my reach, trying to keep the touch brusque and ignore the lean muscles moving beneath my hands.