34

The snow was falling with more intensity and the wind had picked up. We were close enough to hear some of the men talking, and one of them said something about the cold before heading off in the direction of the rock face. We watched him and a few others walk up a steep path along the edge of the formation and then disappear inside.

There were caves in the rock face. That explained the lack of burning campfires or tents. It was good information to have, although unfortunately, it prevented us from knowing exactly how many men there were. For all we knew there were 500 men living in those caves.

Reinhardt nodded to himself and backed up slightly. It was time for us to go now, there was no doubt about that. It would be best to head back before the blizzard really started, and there was nothing else we could accomplish now.

I started to turn around, when suddenly I spotted two men trudging through the snow not far from us, walking through the trees in our direction. I grabbed Reinhardt's arm and he froze, seeing the men as well. They didn't see us yet, but they were walking steadily towards us, and pretty soon they would see our own tracks in the snow, giving away our position.

We were trapped. We couldn't try to hide from them, and we couldn't try to escape without bringing the entire enemy force on us.

I gripped the handle of my sword and looked at Reinhardt helplessly. He could only set himself and give a grim nod. We didn't have a choice, we would have to take them by surprise and hope that we could kill them without alerting the others.

I got to my feet and rushed forward as the men passed by some trees, giving me a brief moment of time when they couldn't see me. Reinhardt crept forward and braced himself behind a tree, raising his sword. We would get one shot at this.

Just as the two men got close to our tracks, one of them halted and said to the other, "Hey, what is –" Before he could finish, I leaped out from behind them and slashed my blade down on the back of his head, caving his skull in.

The other whirled around in a panic, yanking his sword free, and Reinhardt slipped out and swung his blade down furiously. Their blades clanged together and the man blurted out one terrified warning cry before Reinhardt slashed his blade across the man's stomach, gutting him. He flopped into the snow beside his comrade.

"Hey!" someone shouted from behind us. "Someone's there! Stop her!"

"Time to go!" Reinhardt said.

We bolted through the trees, hearing shouts and yelling behind us. I risked one quick glance over my shoulder and saw at least six men barreling through the woods after us, shouting for more men. But we had a head start, and I had hope that if we made it out into open forest, we could elude them long enough to get away. Reinhardt was ahead of me, and it seemed like they hadn't seen him yet, they had only seen me.

I heard the loud crunch up ahead of breaking branches, and suddenly a figure appeared on the trail ahead of us, a drawn bow in his hands. It was the guard who had been sitting in the tree. He had heard the commotion and come down to investigate.

With a snap, he fired an arrow and it whistled through the air. Reinhardt tried to dodge, but I saw him spin to the side, crying out in pain. I flew past him and covered the space between me and the archer in three steps, swinging my blade at him. He fumbled with another arrow and then threw the bow aside, drawing his sword. He blocked my first attack, but my momentum threw me past him and I spun around, slashing my sword across his arm, crippling him, and then swept the sword back, slicing through his chest.

Reinhardt staggered, holding up his arm, his face twisted in pain. The arrow had struck him right in the forearm of his sword hand and had gone right through his arm. A bloody arrowhead stuck out one side, with the fletching sticking out the other side. He grimaced and ran up to me, snapping the arrow with a groan of pain and yanking out the bloody shaft.

"Come on, I'm okay," he started to say.

"No," I interrupted quickly. "You have to get out of here. I'll hold them off long enough for you to get away."

"What? No, Sasha –"

"They didn't see you, they only saw me! You have to run for it! Get back to Raven Rock and tell them everything! Just go!"

He couldn't help me fight them off with a wounded hand, and it might slow him down. If we both tried to run, I didn't think we could get away from our pursuers now anyway. Our only hope was for Reinhardt to run for it while I distracted them, long enough for him to get away. The only ones who had seen Reinhardt were already dead, so it was possible he would not be followed, at least not immediately.

Reinhardt stared at me painfully, his mouth open, as he tried to think of something he could say. But I didn't give him the chance, I ran off in the other direction, toward our pursuers, leaving him standing there. I didn't look back, I could only pray that he listened to me and tried to escape while I charged our enemies and fought them off for a few short seconds. I had to give him time to escape. I jumped and sped along the trail, spinning my sword in my hand, running into certain death.

"There she is!" one of the men in wolf-skin cried in surprise. I leaped at him, bringing my sword down with all my strength. He blocked the strike, but I crashed into him, pushing the blade down to smash against his face. Then I was up again, spinning in a circle, slashing the sword across another man's stomach, splashing a spray of blood across the snow.

There were too many of them, they surrounded me instantly. But I moved blindingly fast, slashing and cutting, trying to break through, my sword moving like a blur. There were about fifteen of them, all closing in, murder in their eyes, slashing and stabbing as I tried to fight them all off at once. I killed at least two more before there was no room to move, no room to fight. They just squeezed in, until my sword was knocked free.

They came at me with their fists, pounding me down, knocking me to my knees, and then someone smashed me in the back of the head with his sword hilt.

I collapsed into the snow and blacked out.