FLOOD

An Audience to Die For

I shook my head, suddenly panicked. He'd told me if anything happened that I should run and not look back, but I couldn't do this on my own.

Ake glared at me. "You're message is far more important than any of us. Now go. "

I went, turning around to sprint across the snow, gasping for breath. My heart was thundering in my ears. I could hear Gunny and Ake running behind me, just a few yards behind me. I wasn't on my own. Not yet.

A whistling sound made me flinch, throwing myself forward, still flat out sprinting across the snow. A grunt from behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see Ake sprawl forward. There was a long, wooden spear sticking out of his back. In the light of the guttering torch on the snow, a red stain began spreading.

"Ake!" I started to turn back, but Gunny threw herself forward, shoving me so I staggered sideways. "No! You heard him. Run!"

I ran, a sob crowding up into my throat, still looking over my shoulder. Gunny's sword glittered in the torchlight as she held it in the air, and her voice echoed around the dark clearing, "Come out, Bolthur, you rutting coward!"

He was a coward, and he wasn't going to come out. I faced forward again, breath ragged, feet throwing up snow as I ran. If Bolthur had another spear made then Gunny was in trouble, she was a target, waving her torch around like that.

It made me throat dry just thinking about it. Possibly she intended to be a target, to keep his attention off me. That made me run faster, harder. If I didn't get to the palace and relay my message, all the sacrifices that had been made would mean nothing. Kalda and Fiske, Ake and Gunny...

I put on another burst of speed, tears blurring my vision.

Over the tree tops the peeks and towers of the palace grew larger. Now there was a path through the snow, one I'd used many times. Whenever I went out picking berries with Kalda. I was close.

Soon I'd run into parameter guards. There had to be someone nearby.

In the distance, from behind me, came a furious shout. Gunny's voice. It made my blood turn cold, and I hated myself for not turning back.

If Bolthur killed her, I would hunt him down and rip his guts out.

A light glimmered through the trees, and I put on another burst of speed, panting too hard to call out. They would hear me though, they would be listening by now, alerted by Gunny's cry.

Sure enough, as I burst through into the clearing, I found myself confronted by two men with spears. Both guards were young and clear-eyed, and I guessed they were fresh on their shift. "I need help," I gasped out. "Please, I'm being chased."

"By who?" Neither guard moved, and they kept their spears pointed at me, but they both flicked their eyes to the trees.

"His name is Bolthur. He's a safe-house guard." I stumbled over my words, desperate to explain before he came bursting out of the trees, or worse, I found a spear in my back. "He's just killed his commander. I think he snapped!"

Better a believable lie than trying to explain the truth in the middle of all this.

One of the guards, the taller one, nodded at his companion. "You take the girl inside and get some backup out here. Now."