'Stay behind me!' he hissed. She looked over his shoulder and gasped. Easily a dozen of the City Guard were arrayed across the large balcony, all of them with crossbows. Elspet was kneeling on the ground with a crossbow at her neck, her head bowed.
The man in front had a different insignia on his uniform than the others; Sela racked her brain to remember the ranks of Unseelie guardsmen. This one was a sergeant, she believed, and the others were deputies.
'Drop the knives and come down the stairs slowly,' said the sergeant. 'You are under arrest.'
'What do we do?' Sela asked breathlessly.
Ironfoot and Timha were directly behind her. 'Surrender!' said Timha. 'They'll kill you if you don't!'
'Avert your eyes,' said Silverdun. 'I'm going to dazzle them with a bit of witchlight.'
'That's not going to give us enough time to get to the yacht,' said Ironfoot.
'Do you have any better ideas?' asked Silverdun. 'My old friend Mauritane can snatch crossbow bolts out of the air, but I, alas, cannot.'
'Let's pray, then, that we can grow back internal organs as well as hands,' said Ironfoot.
'Come down now,' said the sergeant, 'or we will fire.'
'Now,' said Silverdun. He raised his hand as if to surrender, but then flicked his wrist. Sela looked away.
The air around her exploded with light. She shut her eyes, but even so the light shone through her eyelids, splashing smears of blue and red across her vision.
Men below started screaming. Sela couldn't help herself; she looked.
The entire balcony shone as if Silverdun were a sun. The guards were stumbling, clutching at their faces. They cast perfect black shadows on the wall of the house behind them. The sergeant was feeling out in front of him; his face was bright red.
'What did you do?' asked Ironfoot. He was also staring now, as the light began to die away.
'That was a bit of witchlight?' said Timha. 'I've never seen anything like it!'
Silverdun looked down at the scene below him. 'Ah,' he said.
'We need to go now,' said Ironfoot. 'Before anyone else shows up.'
Below, the guards were still scrambling, looking for shelter, terrified.
'You've blinded them,' said Sela.
'He did more than blind them,' said Ironfoot. 'Look at their faces.'
Sela looked and saw the face of one of the guards close up. His skin looked as though it had been pushed into a fire.
'Fall back!' shouted the sergeant. The men attempted to flee.
Silverdun led the way down the stairs. He picked up one of the guards' crossbows and hurried toward the yacht, with Ironfoot close behind. Timha followed, his head down.
Sela ran to Elspet and helped her up. With her head hung, she'd escaped the worst of it and still had her sight, though it was clear she wasn't seeing particularly well.
'Come with us,' whispered Sela.
'I can't,' said Elspet. 'I'll tell them you broke in. My husband is a powerful man. They'll believe me, and I have important work here.'
She grabbed Sela's arm. 'Get him out of here or all this will have been for nothing.'
Sela turned and ran to catch up with Ironfoot, Silverdun, and Timha, who were already climbing on the yacht.
'Come on!' shouted Ironfoot.
One of the guards fired his crossbow at the sound of Ironfoot's voice, and the quarrel lodged in the mast next to him. Silverdun held up his stolen bow and fired back, dropping the guard where he stood.
Sela fled toward the dock. She'd almost made it when she felt a hand on her wrist and she sprawled down onto the wooden floor, the wind knocked out of her. The sergeant had grabbed her, even blind.
'You're not going anywhere!' he shouted.
'Help!' she shouted at Silverdun.
