Nine

"There's no way we are getting out of this." Noor's shaking voice carved through the roar of battle in my ears.

"I've had worse odds," I whispered back.

Noor gave me an incredulous look. "Have you?"

I hadn't, but I didn't want to tell her that. But now at least I had a blade pointing back at them.

Correction, I had three blades.

"We just have to break their formation up," I said, chewing on the bottom of my lip. We couldn't go back the way we came, because we'd just encounter the guards from another angle. And we couldn't climb over the wall behind the infirmary, because there was nothing on the other side but jagged rocks and rough sea.

We'd have to take them head-on.

"I can handle a couple of them at a time, as long as they aren't coming at me at once."

Memories in the training yard flashed through my mind, causing my hands to tighten around my hilt.

But these weren't memories of training with Baba, but with Mazin.

We'd spent hours sparring, either with Baba's other students or just each other. Though Mazin's swordsmanship had needed work, in the end he was the only one who could match me.

Until he'd bested me in our final battle, the one we'd had without swords.

The one where I'd ended up in prison and he had walked free.

"Dania," Noor croaked, fear palpable through her words, "do you think I can take on six guards when I barely know how to hold this thing?"

I turned to her, the memories giving rise to what felt like ancient anger, fueling my movements and solidifying my resolve.

"Not to fight," I admitted, thinking through our strategy, "but as a distraction."

"Oh great. So, I'm the bait?"

"They don't know there's two of us. Just that you escaped from the infirmary, and Thohfsa is dead. Let's use that to our advantage."

"Okay." She nodded, her mouth white. "Just don't leave me to be skewered while you run off alone." She stood, her sword in her hand, looking like she was walking to her execution.

"If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have come back for you."

She gave me a small smile, but it didn't meet her fearful eyes.

I wanted to reassure her, but I didn't know what was about to happen. I knew what my skills were, I knew what I had been trained to do, but I'd never really gone into a fight when I had to worry about someone else—especially someone who didn't have any fighting skills. The best thing I could do was make sure the odds were a little more even.

"I need them broken up. Lure them back here, that will give me a chance to thin them out." If they didn't know I was here, I wanted to use that.

She nodded and clutched the sword in front of her like it was a talisman instead of a weapon.

I took a deep breath, placed the flat of my hand on Noor's rigid back, and pushed her into the awaiting guards.

Shouting ensued, and the scuffle of feet grew closer.

"We have her!" A voice was dangerously close, split off from the rest. Just what I wanted.

"Did you think you could escape?" a guard said, his voice a low growl. "Alone?"

Noor ran back behind the wall, her sword held oddly. A guard came running after her but I was ready. I flicked one end of the double-sided scimitar, slicing his throat in a clean motion.

"She's not alone," I said to his twitching body on the ground.

For one brief moment, I mourned him. Another death on my hands, one that didn't need to happen. But I couldn't afford to dwell.

I was tired. I'd been digging daily on little food and even less sleep. I channeled everything I knew about fighting—everything I learned from Baba and training with Maz.

But in the end, the last voice I heard dictating my steps was my grandmother's.

Never show them your fear. The weak feed from fear.

Another guard leapt from around the corner, and I cut him down without glancing at him. The next followed and met my blade. I unsheathed the talwar and met three guards at once, never on the defense. Each hit was a killing blow, every move an attack. A guard with long dark hair and an eye patch rushed at me, meeting the slam of both my swords.

But he guarded his face with his own blade and pushed me back. He was big—much bigger than I was. I wouldn't last fighting him like this; I needed to outmaneuver him. I sidestepped him but he followed, and two other guards joined. I dove for the soldier on his right, slicing his heel with my scimitar and rolling away as he fell to the floor with a tight gasp. He clutched his foot and moaned like a baying dog. My crossed swords met the curved steel of the taller guard, and I managed to parry his heavy attacks before spinning out of reach. A short guard with a long beard and shoulders corded like thick ropes swung his scimitar with a speed that took me off guard, giving me a shallow cut across the forearm.

I smothered my yelp with a low hiss as he gave a smug smile. The pain sizzled through my veins like cold fire. My face pressed into a fierce mask. To them, I would be impenetrable. To them, I wouldn't show fear.

The weak feed from fear .

The large guard leapt toward me, slamming me to the ground and landing on top of me. My lungs compressed as all my air was snatched up by his meaty body against mine.

A thin smile stretched across his face and he was so close I could see every blackened pore on his cheeks, could smell the strong waft of sweat crawling up my nose. I couldn't move, couldn't fight, and couldn't get him off me.

Panic beat at my chest.

I had no way out.

"Is your plan to kill me with your stench?" I said, hoping he'd lose his temper enough for me to take advantage of. My legs kicked at him, but couldn't find purchase. His broad hand pinned my arms above my head, my swords pressed into the grass, useless.

He raised his sword, the tip pointing directly at my chest as if he were going to stake me to the ground.

My breath caught and I couldn't exhale. It felt as though time froze as he brought down his blade. But as he did, his arms faltered. His beady eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed on me with a heavy thud.

I lay there, momentarily stunned. My palms pressed hard on his shoulders and I heaved his stinking body off me. Noor was poised above him, the hilt of the scimitar in front of her, as if she were about to stab herself. I blinked, my words catching in my throat.

"I thought you said you didn't know how to use a sword?" I said finally, with a thick swallow.

She tilted her head and huffed out a breath. "I'm pretty sure I used the wrong end."

Footsteps sounded behind us, and Noor whirled as another guard came upon us. I jumped to my feet, swinging my scimitar over her head and planting it in the neck of the guard. I tore it out, blood splattering us both.

A moment of weighted silence surrounded us. We walked around the corner of the infirmary and surveyed the damage.

All the guards in the yard were dead.

Noor whistled. "You did it, Dania."

I didn't celebrate. I stifled the urge to grieve the dead and swallowed the bile in the back of my throat. I yanked Noor's arm in my own and dragged her toward the perimeter wall.

"We'll have every guard coming for us in the prison in minutes if we don't get out of here now."

"Didn't you just kill them all?"

I shook my head, counting the number of bodies and running through how many night patrol guards I had counted before my previous escape attempts.

"It looks like we've only been dealing with the night patrol guards, but they've raised the alarm, so soon we'll have every prison guard descending on us. They believe one prisoner escaped. As soon as they see the massacre, they'll be coming."

Noor nodded, and then pulled her hand from mine. "But why are you dragging us to the wall?"

I gaped at her. "So we can climb over it."

Noor laughed, then held up a large gold key ring that glinted in the moonlight. "Who needs to hop the wall when I already swiped the keys to the front gate from Thohfsa?"