Chapter Twenty

Ambush

MELODY

"What's going on?" Melody asked when they had climbed out of the basement and were back on ground level.

Jade looked grim, while Deirdre's face was unusually pale. "Deirdre and I were on the lookout. We saw one of the rebels coming back in a hurry. He said he was tipped off by someone who saw a group of soldiers coming over the bridge into New Town. They were headed over here."

"You think this is the First Imperial Guard?" Elsa glanced at Melody.

Melody nodded. "We'll hold them off." She turned to Jade. "You and Deirdre help the insurgents evacuate the people. Elsa and I will deal with the First Imperials."

"Right." Jade hurried off to find Deirdre.

Elsa watched as Melody bent down to undo the flap on her backpack which she had stowed in a corner of the room. "You sure the two of us will be enough?"

"Tou handled the whole wave of skirmishers back in the forest." Melody assembled her recurve bow. "Surely you're not afraid of the First Imperials?"

"No," Elsa said. "But we might be in over our heads here."

"No time to doubt ourselves now." Melody finished assembling her bow and slung the quiver over her shoulder. "We just need to power on through. Innocent lives are at stake here."

In the distance, she heard the sound of a door being forced open, the hinges of the ancient door screaming their arrival, followed by the thudding of heavy boots on concrete.

"They're here." Melody said, standing up.

"We should split up. This place is too big to cover together." Elsa started off down the hallway. "I'll cover this end."

Melody started off in the opposite direction. She walked out towards the main hall where they had first entered, and sure enough, the door had been kicked down. The hall was empty though, and the hall led to a few different passages which opened out into different rooms in the building.

She took off down one of the passages hoping that it was the right one, and hastily ran through it while keeping a close lookout for any hostile presence. Turning the corner, she saw one of the soldiers with his back to her, prowling down the hallway with his musket levelled.

As quietly as she could, she crept up behind him and with one hand, rammed the riser of her bow into the small of his back and with the other, covered his mouth and tackled him to the ground. Melody slammed the bow into the side of his head, knocking the soldier unconscious. She left him lying in the hallway and continued on down the passage.

This passage grew narrower for some reason, and soon it could barely fit two people walking abreast. She hoped that she wouldn't run into any resistance here. Just as soon as she thought it, she turned another corner to notice another of the soldiers standing in the middle of the passage. This one was dressed differently though. There was no standard muddy red uniform, but he was covered in black, with a hood over his head. A strange feeling overcame her.

She frowned and she crept forward slowly, careful not to make a noise. He was standing in the middle of the passage, but he wasn't armed with a musket or a rifle. He had a black recurve bow in his hand and a quiver on his back, and he was aiming an arrow straight at the back of one of the fleeing insurgents.

Her heart skipped a beat when she realised who it was. With everything in her, she fervently hoped that she was wrong.

"Stop!" she called out in a loud voice.

The man heard her, and lowered his bow a little, allowing the civilian enough time to escape out of sight.

"Turn around slowly and drop the bow!" Melody said, trying her utmost best to keep the nervousness out of her voice. "Do it now!"

The man complied and turned around, but still gripped the bow in hand. When Melody came face to face with the man, her heart sank.

"Prometheus." Melody said through gritted teeth.

The mercenary wore a different mask now, most likely because she had broken his last one during their last fight in Swynvort over a year ago. The mask looked more sturdy now and was probably lined with some strong metal of some sort to provide a thin sheet of armour. His eyes were barely visible, concealed by small dark grey screens that covered the eye holes.

"You." His voice was deep and mechanical, like it had been before. "I remember you."

"You should." She made herself sound confident, though she didn't feel that way. In fact, she was actually nervous which was rare. She had thought that having fought the masked mercenary to a standstill the previous time, she would be ready to face him again at any given time. Now, she was realising just how wrong she was. "I beat you."

"That's not how I remember it." Prometheus said, taking a step towards her. "I remember breaking your arm."

Melody instinctively touched her left elbow where it had been broken before, and the memory of the pain rushing up and down her arm and setting her nerves on fire made her flinch a little, though she quickly tried to conceal it in the presence of her enemy.

"Only because you were desperate to get away." Melody retorted, standing her ground. "I had you beaten and you broke my arm out of desperation."

"And do you wish to settle the score now?" Prometheus' voice was calm even as he slowly advanced towards her.

Melody gripped her own bow tighter in hand as he approached. Keep calm, she told herself. You've proven you can beat him before, you just have to do it again. This was easier said than done though, and she knew it. The last time they had fought, it had been in a stairwell which had given her some room to manoeuvre.

This time, they were in the worst possible place for a fight. A cramped passageway that literally gave her no room to duck and avoid a head on attack. It didn't seem to faze the mercenary though, as he approached with bow in hand, gleaming from the sunlight that was pouring in through the stained window glass.

She took a deep breath and launched the first kick. Prometheus fended it off with ease and returned with one of his own. She moved her shoulder sideways and back and could feel the wind brush against her skin as his leg narrowly avoided dislocating her shoulder.

Crouching low, she went for his legs. The last time, it'd worked well as she had jammed an arrow through his calf. Apparently he remembered it too, and sprung backwards before she could deal any damage. He nocked a black fletched arrow and shot it straight at her. Using her bow, she swiped it away in time and returned with one of her own arrows. It was going to be almost impossible to miss at this range.

The mercenary caught her arrow in mid air and hurled it back at her, pointed edge first. Melody dove low and the arrow flew over her head. She was too slow to see Prometheus charge at her with a running knee, and took the full force of the hit.

Her head spinning a little, she rolled backwards to put some distance between herself and Prometheus, and got up. She blocked another running knee and threw her weight at him, knocking him backwards. With the mercenary slightly off balance and before he could get the chance to steady himself, she lunged forward with her bow, attempting to land a downward blow to his kneecap.

He fended it off, but she tried again, this time with a fist to the ribs. He somehow managed to fade sideways and steady himself on the wall. She drove the bow towards his head, but he moved again, letting the riser of her bow crash against the concrete wall.

Prometheus grabbed her hand and twisted the bow away from her. In the altercation, Melody used the distraction to launched a boot into his midsection, throwing him off guard. He fell to the ground, and she kicked his own bow out of his hand.

However, she had forgotten how quick he was, and was too late to react to a hand grabbing her leg and jerking it back while she still had one leg above the ground. Off balance, she hit the ground back first, and quickly scurried backwards as Prometheus drew the trademark katana from the scabbard on his back and advanced toward her. It was still stained with blood and the sunlight shining on it just highlighted the bright red marks that were still left behind.

Getting enough distance between herself and Prometheus, Melody got to her feet and managed to press herself against the wall as Prometheus attempted to cut her down with his sword. She danced away and got behind him, placing both hands around his waist.

Heaving with all her might, she threw herself backwards and forced the mercenary off his feet together with her. She sent him crashing to the ground back first, and attempted to get on top of him to knock him unconscious. Grabbing the collar of his armour-padded jacket, she balled her fist and clenched it tightly. One swing was all it was going to take.

Unfortunately, in the time she took to wind up, Prometheus leaned upwards and crashed his masked temple against her own, sending disorienting waves of pain radiating through her skull. He threw Melody off him and got up swiftly.

Blinking hard, the images in her head went from double to single but just in time to see Prometheus charging straight at her. She swung at him, which would have theoretically been impossible to evade due to the cramp space, but he faded and leapt against the wall, high above her desperate swing. Launching himself off the wall with the same momentum, he drove a fist into her collarbone and landed, barreling into her midsection and forcing her back against the wall.

The breath knocked out of her, Melody forced herself to ignore the pain. She sent two straight edged chops to his back with the side of her palms and drove a knee into his stomach, shoving him away from her long enough for her to get her breath. She narrowed her eyes and rubbed a bit of blood off her cut lip. This was harder than she remembered.

ELSA

"Get in there. Quickly!" Elsa hurriedly ushered the last of the civilians into a room and scurried in herself. She and Charlotte had faced a couple of the First Imperials together, and were working together to help evacuate a few cornered civilians out of harm's way. However, there were more soldiers than she had realised.

Instead of engaging the soldiers head on and putting the civilians at risk, she had opted to focus on getting them to safety. The downside of the place they were in was that there were too many winding passages and rooms that made the whole building more of a maze than an industrial factory.

Elsa hurriedly bolted the door and when she was sure that no one was looking, put her hand on the bolt of the door, freezing it over slightly and inconspicuously with thick ice to add some resistance should the soldiers try to burst in. Anything to hold off the First Imperials for a little while longer and to buy them more time to escape.

"The window's jammed!" Charlotte grunted, ramming her healthy shoulder into the glass pane.

You got to be kidding me. Elsa hurried over to the window to help Charlotte. The civilians murmured amongst themselves, looking fearful. With all her might, Elsa tried to undo the catch on the window's seal, her fingertips growing white with the strain. She stepped back, giving up. Like Charlotte had said, it was jammed. It was futile.

She had an idea. If only she could freeze over the glass, it would be incredibly easy to break it and help everyone escape out of the window. But no, she couldn't. No powers. She couldn't blow her cover in front of so many people. Glancing around desperately, Elsa wrecked her brains to think of something. There has to be another way out.

Thudding boots outside the door signalled the First Imperials' arrival, and the flimsy door rattled viciously. Elsa glanced at the panicking civilians. She held the power in her hand to take them all out in one fell swoop, but yet she couldn't. This was pure torture. The door stopped rattling and a shout came from outside it. Then an eerie silence.

A crash came, blowing the door clean off its rusty hinges. Elsa shot a quick glance behind her shoulder and saw that the civilians were all huddled up in a corner of the room, pressed tightly against each other. Charlotte had given up fumbling with the window and had drawn a knife.

As four soldiers stormed into the room with muskets levelled, Elsa watched as Charlotte hurled the knife at the first in line. The blade wedged itself in the man's skull and he went down. The other three fanned out into a loose order, forming an arc around the civilians and two of the soldiers aimed their muskets at Charlotte.

Elsa could hear the pounding in her chest as she watched the two soldiers cock their weapons. They were about to shoot her dead. She had to act. Her mind raced as she imagined what the worst could come of revealing her powers and came to the conclusion that it was nothing compared to the guilt of standing by and watching someone die when she had the power to stop it.

All that took place in her head was but a split second, and small, cold gusts of snow whirled around her hands inconspicuously till two icicles formed in her palms. Without a second thought, she hurled the two icicles at the two muskets that were aimed straight at Charlotte, one jamming the barrel of the weapon and the other knocking the musket clean out of the soldier's hand.

The soldier who still had his musket pulled the trigger and with the icicle stuck in the barrel, the barrel was unable to withstand the pressure and burst into flames. The sudden explosion threw the soldier off balance and he fell to the ground, dropping his musket and screaming.

Elsa could see out of the peripheral of her eye that Charlotte was frozen in shock, unable to come to her aid. Nevertheless, now that she was using her powers, the remaining two soldiers weren't going to be much of a match for her. Before the second soldier could pick up his fallen musket, Elsa aimed her hand at him and a stream of ice hit him like a freight train, causing him to crash against the wall and the impact knocked him unconscious.

By this time, the third soldier had turned his attention away from the innocent civilians to her, and she found herself staring down a musket barrel, locked and loaded. She raised her hand as the trigger was pulled and smoke billowed from the barrel where the lead ball rocketed out. Halfway through its trajectory, the lead ball froze and slowed, till it lost all momentum and crashed into pieces on the ground.

As the man was too stunned to react, Elsa lunged forward, snatching the musket out of his hand and with the other, formed ice around her own wrist and smashed it against the side of the soldier's cheek with all her might. The soldier fell to the ground heavily and Elsa dropped the musket on top of him.

She turned to find Charlotte still frozen in place, staring at her with her mouth gaping open, lips moving ever so slightly.

"Elizabeth," Charlotte finally broke the silence. "You're…a sorceress."

Before Elsa could say anything, the wall beside her burst inwards and crumbled, with two figures bulling through the wall and sprawling unceremoniously into the room atop the pile of rubble.

Elsa stepped backwards, waving away the cloud of dust and disintegrated plaster as her eyes slowly made sense of what was happening before her. The quiver on the girl's back and the quia green jacket marked her as Melody, but the other one…

Blinking, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. Elsa stared hard at the second figure who was hooded, clad in black from head to toe without any sign of skin, a quiver on his back and a black bow in hand. There's no way. It can't be.

The two fighters struggled to their feet and the one in black had his back to her. He brought his bow down against Melody who parried with her own bow, and the two struggled to gain the upper hand over each other, obviously worn out from prior fighting.

"Stop!" Elsa launched a quick blast of ice which knocked both bows out of the fighters' hands and stunned them momentarily.

The man in black whirled round to see where the ice had come from and a masked face looked straight at her. She could almost sense the astonishment on his face behind the mask as he stiffened.

Melody took the opening and landed a solid blow across his head with his own bow, knocking him to the ground.

Elsa hurried over to the fallen man and crouched before him, wide eyed. Janus De Vesques lay before her in a daze, but he recovered long enough to glance up at her and she guessed that he was equally dumbfounded to see her. A boot landed across the jaw of his mask and he went down again, face in the dusty concrete.

"Stop! He's beaten!" Elsa cried and turned to Melody who had delivered the finishing blow. She looked taken aback that Elsa had defended their enemy.

"Elsa, what are you doing?" Melody wiped blood from her nose.

She didn't respond, instead getting to her feet and looking around. The civilians had emerged from their corner and were beginning to murmur in low voices amongst themselves. Charlotte stepped forward.

"There," she pointed at the fallen man in black. "That's their leader."

"Prometheus." Melody grimaced.

Elsa remained silent. Janus De Vesques. All this time, he had been working with the Empire? It hadn't occured to her when the insurgents had mentioned the man in black. She couldn't believe it.

"We must dispose of him. He's the biggest threat to the Insurgency and the people of Denmark!" Charlotte demanded.

Elsa quickly grabbed his bow and bent down to drag the masked mercenary to his feet. In a daze, Janus complied and staggered. With her one free hand, she twisted his arm behind his back and forcefully shoved him towards where the door used to stand. He didn't struggle. "Get moving."

"What are you doing?" Melody called after her, still confused by what was going on. She too looked bruised and battered from the altercation.

"What Charlotte said," Elsa said quickly. "We need to get rid of him. I'll take care of it. Don't worry, I'll be back."

Her hand still pinning his wrist behind his back, she pushed Janus out of sight of the others and led him down the hallway that opened up to the rear of the building. Keeping up appearances, she roughly pushed him outside to where the old docks were.

Glancing round, she made sure that no one else was watching. When she was convinced that they were alone, she released her grip on Janus and he staggered round to come face to face with her.

"Elsa?" His voice was low and mechanical like she remembered.

"Janus." She crossed her arms. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" He stared into her eyes, probably surprised to see that she was wearing tinted glasses now. "You can't be here."

"This isn't about me." Elsa said a little fiercely. "Why are you in Denmark? You're working for the First Imperials?"

Janus shook his head. "Not working for. A while ago, the Empress of Exon hired me to be the Captain of the First Imperial Guard."

"So you went from working for the Pilgrim to working for the Empress?"

Janus looked away. "It's not what you think."

"Take off the mask." Elsa said firmly. "Take it off and look at me."

He was hesitant at first, and then seemingly remembered that she had seen his face before. Pulling back the hood to reveal his brown, tousled hair, the mercenary undid the catch on his mask and removed the metal from his face. As she had remembered, a long scar ran across his left cheek and he looked at her with tired eyes.

"You're not going to kill me." Janus' natural voice was a crisp baritone.

"No."

"Why not?"

She shook her head. "I can't."

"I thought so." He said quietly.

There was a silence that reigned for a moment as they both stared at each other, eyes locking and refusing to disengage.

Elsa decided that it would be her that broke the silence. "Help me, Janus."

"Help you?"

"Stop all this and help us. Those people," she gestured at the building where they had come from. "They don't deserve to be oppressed. The Empire needs to be stopped. You know this is wrong."

"It doesn't matter what I know."

"Yes it does." Elsa said firmly. "You can make the right decision, I know it. I've seen you do the right thing. And this…this is just wrong."

"I'm a mercenary." Janus sounded guilty. "What do you want from me?"

"To be better than this. Help me stop the Empire from taking my home too."

Janus looked confused for a moment. "Your home?"

"The Empire is going to march on Arendelle too. It's only a matter of time before they attack."

This revelation seemed to do something to Janus, though he hid it as best as he could, even without the mask. He shook his head. "You need to leave. Please. Before it's too late."

"I'm not leaving till we take down the Empire."

"You don't understand." Elsa could hear the slight panic in his voice, which was unusual for the stoic mercenary.

"What don't I understand?"

"She's a monster." Janus hissed. "She's ten time worse than the Pilgrim ever was."

"You're talking about Empress Tal Yin."

Janus nodded, his eyes betraying fear. "She's not going to stop. You can't go up against her and expect to walk out of there alive like back in Swynvort. The Empress, she's insane. Both she and General Kane are going to conquer the continent and they won't let anything stand in their way."

"Let me worry about the Empress and Kane."

"No, it's not just that."

"Then what?"

"The next time we run into each other, I might not be able to let you go." Janus said quietly.

Elsa bit her lip.

"If the First Imperials run into the Insurgency again, there won't be anything I can do to protect you." He continued. "You have to get out of Denmark before it's too late. Please."

"I can't." Elsa placed her hand gently on his right cheek. "I made a promise. I'm sorry. We're not leaving until we stop the Empire. Please, Janus. Help me."

"I can't." It was Janus' turn to apologize. "I'm sorry." He pulled away from her touch, quickly donning the mask and hood again.

"Don't." Elsa pleaded. "Please."

"I have to go." His voice was low and mechanical once more as he gazed at her through the emotionless mask.

Janus turned and walked away from her, leaving Elsa by the old docks as she watched him turn the corner and disappear once again.

Author's Commentary:

There's so much going on here. The rematch of the two archers, Elsa having to make the decision to reveal her powers, and her tense reunion with the fearsome mercenary Prometheus, or as she personally knows him, Janus. This definitely won't be the last we'll see of the mysterious mercenary.

For those who haven't read Book 2 "The League of Sorcerers", I urge you to read that one first. It introduces us to the character of Janus (Prometheus) for the first time, who will have a big part to play in the later part of the story.

Oh, and do leave a review :) I'll greatly appreciate it!