I dropped to the ground to escape the next strike, hoping either my breath or Samuel arrived in time for Isav’s next attack. From my prone position, I caught the swish of skirts as Yasmine rounded the end of the table and raced straight for the closest window. She thrust it open, as if she meant to escape into the night, and I tried to call a warning, but my lungs weren’t cooperating.
But Navid had followed close behind her, and he drew his sword, advancing on her menacingly. She fell back from the window, reaching out with her arms placatingly.
His weapon dipped, his eyes jumping over her shoulder to where Adara must be, further back than me. But just at that moment, a figure leaped through the now open window beside them.
The purpose of the open window served, Yasmine’s meekness dissolved. She lunged at Navid, despite her lack of a weapon, reaching for him with clawed fingers. Esai, the new arrival, drew a sword of his own, hurrying to join her in the attack.
Adara screamed, and the household guards surged forward, shaken from their shocked immobility. Three of them converged on Navid, one seizing Yasmine from behind while the other two faced Esai.
Only Rek and Benjamin were left to face Jerome, but the captain’s blade spun and slashed so fast, the three of them dancing around each other at such speed, that it would have been difficult for anyone else to intervene.
Scuttling backward while I took in the rest of the room, I collided with something solid. I had reached the far wall.
Isav continued to advance, moving more slowly now that he had me cornered. Samuel had never arrived, caught in a press of crying, screaming servants, who were all trying to flee the room at the same time.
But Adara appeared, a short dagger clasped in her hand, her feet in a fighter’s stance, and a determined look on her face.
Admiration filled me. She had continued her training in my absence. But Isav was taller and stronger, and his reach was longer than Adara’s. She wouldn’t be able to protect herself.
“No,” I tried to cry, but it came out as a wheeze, my body still recovering from the winding.
The sound was loud enough to attract Navid’s attention, though. With the assistance of two more swordsmen, he had already disarmed Esai, and the guards were in the process of binding his hands.
His fight over, Navid had sheathed his sword in order to usher out the servants on his side of the room, as Samuel was doing on the other. But he spun around at my gasping cry.
Taking in the danger, he raced for us by the most direct route—across the table. Scattering dishes, glasses, and food in all directions, he slid across the width of the mahogany wood, catapulting straight into Isav’s side.
Navid knocked the older man away from Adara, and the two men went down in a tangle of limbs and flashing knife.
“Navid!” Adara screamed, rushing toward them.
A grunt from the other side of the room sent my attention flying back to Rek, Benjamin, and Jerome. Their blades still flashed in a dizzying bout, the two younger men circling the older, lunging for every opening. Jerome fought with a grim determination, bringing every bit of his experience and skill to bear.
I wanted to run to Rek, but any interruption could prove fatal. Instead, having finally recovered my breathing, I ran to Adara.
She was kicking Isav’s back as he tried to untangle himself from Navid and push up off the floor. Navid was also trying to get loose, but blood was seeping from one of his arms at an alarming rate.
Isav’s attention suddenly focused on the floor at a point halfway between the fight and me. I followed his gaze and saw my knife lying where it must have landed after being flung from his hand.
He tried to lunge for it, but I was faster. Scooping it from the ground, I gripped the hilt in both hands, and steadied myself on my knees, the blade tip pointed toward him.
His body stilled, but his eyes still flashed, jumping from me to Adara as if searching for an escape. But one of the guards appeared in our line of sight, the longer blade of his sword now steady as it pointed at Isav.
The thief still hesitated for one final moment before letting out his breath and slumping to the floor. I risked looking up in time to see Jerome block Benjamin, only for Rek’s blade to slide in and flip Jerome’s from his hand.
All the fights were over.
I rocked back on my heels, breathing freely at last as Samuel finally thrust the final servant out of the room and arrived to help the household guard arrest Isav. But a moment later, I jumped to my feet.
“Yasmine!” I cried, looking around. “Where’s Yasmine?” Had she slipped away from the guard trying to hold her and made her escape after all during the chaos of the fighting?
“Over here,” said a voice of vindictive satisfaction.
I hurried over to peer out the opened window.
Yasmine had made it outside, but someone had followed her. In the light that spilled out from the room through the row of windows, I could see Yasmine lying in the dust of the darkened courtyard, Nyla sitting on her back.
I made a whimpering sound of relieved amusement, but it must have concerned Rek.