A Burning Sea by Theodore Brun (snow like ashes series TXT) 📗

She was about to call Yana’s name when several shadows peeled away from the bushes.

‘Stay where you are!’ exclaimed the sentinel. ‘Declare yourselves!’ But even before he could level his spear, two of them had sprung forward. There was a hack, a groan, a ripping noise, and the sentinel slumped to the pavings without another murmur, blood puddling quickly around his lifeless body.

‘The perils of protocol,’ said a voice that chilled Lilla to the marrow. ‘It does so slow one up.’ Katāros stepped out of the gloom and peered down at the sentinel’s leaking corpse.

‘You,’ Lilla scowled. ‘What hole did you crawl out of?’ She glanced over her shoulder for an escape but the other men had already circled around behind the women. The eunuch smiled, his face pale as the moon. He was dressed in soldier’s garb and looked altogether different. Manly. Almost war-like. The others were dark, but all were armed with swords.

‘Lilla.’ Anna clutched for Lilla’s hand. ‘What’s happening?’

‘This is the man who betrayed the city. He’s a traitor.’

‘You murdered Alethea,’ snarled Gerutha. ‘She was innocent, you bastard. They were all innocent.’

‘Please,’ he scoffed, ‘who is ever innocent, really?’

But he must have been shocked when Gerutha didn’t pause to answer; instead she stooped and snatched the sentinel’s fallen spear. She had drawn it back and was within an eye-blink of plunging it through the eunuch’s chest when one of his comrades darted in front of him and knocked the spear aside easily, then drove the point of his sword into Gerutha’s side.

‘Grusha!’ cried Lilla.

But her friend had already fallen to the ground and lay quite still. Her killer now levelled the bloody point of his sword at Lilla before she could move.

‘Enough of this foolishness, we have little time,’ snapped one of the other men, with a hard-lined face and an air of authority. ‘Which is Leo’s daughter? I hope for your sake, eunuch, that it was not her.’

Katāros seemed to have recovered from his shock. ‘Abdallah al-Battal, it’s my pleasure to introduce to you Basílipoúla Anna, daughter of Basíleus Leo, third of his name.’ The eunuch took a languid slap at the princess’s rump with the flat of his sword, making her squeal.

‘Bind her then.’

One of the Arab underlings spun Anna around and tied her wrists. She was shaking. ‘What do you want from me?’

‘Nothing too taxing. Your company will suffice.’ Katāros smiled. ‘Now your father has had his little victory, we shall see what he’s willing to concede for you. Speaking of which. . .’ he tossed a leather purse through the air. Yana caught it. ‘Thirty solidi. As agreed.’

‘You treacherous little bitch!’ snarled Lilla in Norse.

‘On the contrary,’ smiled Katāros. ‘She has been most loyal.’

‘We’re wasting time. We need to get her to the boat.’ Abdal-Battal seized Anna’s arm but the princess cried out and started struggling. The Arab casually punched her in the stomach and she doubled over, gasping at the affront to her person as much as the pain.

‘Gently, my lord, gently,’ urged the eunuch. ‘Precious goods and all that. . . What with this other one?’

The Arab turned his pitiless eyes on Lilla. He raised his sword-point, pricking under her chin, forcing her face from side to side. ‘This one is of some value, I think.’ He snapped another order in a language she didn’t understand, and soon she was bound as tightly as Anna.

‘And that?’ Katāros pointed at Gerutha lying on the ground.

‘Leave her. She’s finished.’

‘No,’ cried Lilla, stretching for her friend’s body. ‘Grusha! No!’ But her captor clamped a stinking hand over her mouth and pulled back her head.

‘Enough,’ said Katāros smoothly. ‘We go that way.’ He pointed south. ‘We must hurry.’

‘And me?’ asked Yana, her voice a husky bleat. ‘What shall I do?’

The eunuch cast her a last disdainful look. ‘Whatever you damn well please.’

The hallway was silent as a grave. The oil lamps on the walls had long guttered to darkness. Duties had been neglected. Most of the guard would be on the sea walls, or drafted into the defence of the Land Walls and not yet returned, and the servants were out celebrating in the squares and streets like everyone else.

Erlan’s eyes were well accustomed to the dark but there was an eerie feeling seeping through the deserted palace like a bitter perfume. He arrived at Lilla’s quarters and without knocking went inside. It was dark there, too. The curtains moved like a murmur in the night air. Quickly he went to the heavy silk drape that divided the rooms and threw it aside.

The second room was as empty as the first.

He cursed. They could be anywhere in the palace for all he knew. His heart sank with disappointment. It had taken all the will in him to haul his half-roasted carcass up there. Now he was at a loss what to do. He was about to lie down on the bed when he heard a soft, low whine.

‘Aska?’

Beyond the bed, a familiar shadow rose. But the dog didn’t come to him. Instead he dropped his head and whined again. Erlan hobbled around the foot of the bed and saw Aska prodding his long nose at another shadow stretched out beside the bed. He dropped to his knees and pushed Aska aside, seeing at once that it was a woman. And then he recognized the streak of white in the fan of black hair. He rolled her over and swore.

Gerutha’s abdomen was glistening darkly. He put his ear to her mouth. She was alive but her breathing was dangerously shallow. Where was Lilla? Where was anyone? He snatched a pillow and eased her away from the side of the bed, then lay her head upon it. His hands were wet. He looked down. Blood. A lot of it. ‘Grusha, can you hear me? Gerutha?’ He gently moved her head from side to side, trying to rouse her. ‘Grusha, it’s me, Erlan.’

She uttered a soft moan and opened her eyes. ‘Erlan. . . I knew that you