Then I heard the clip clop and neighing of equinwings. There was no mistaking the hiss that came with their whinny. I hadn’t realized the winged horses lived on this planet, since it was so cold. They were flying beasts of burden or war steeds, and typically kept to greener pastures.
“Shh... shh…” I commanded, swooping Zaya around and down, ducking into a crouch, putting her behind me. She was breathless, but silent, instantly.
I reached out telepathically, to any being in the nearby area, and was assailed by thoughts. It was amazing how open the minds of Vailstorans were, but they had no knowledge of how to put up blocks. Four different thoughts were pinging clearly, at least four others a bit muffled by the first.
“Wonder if they have any food. I’m tired of this hard bread shit.”
“Still smoke coming from the fireplace.”
“No sign of tracks leading to the north.”
“If it’s Lady Zaya, I’m going to be up for a promotion.”
“Shit,” I said under my breath, then tapped my forehead. “It’s someone looking for you. At least eight of them.”
Zaya’s face went white and she clutched my hand. The look of trust in her eyes was enough to make me die for her.
The equinwings were restless, neighing into the cool air, sharing snorts and stamping their feet at being held up outside the cabin. If these men were trained in any way, they would send a couple around to the back of the cabin to see if there was a back door or escape window. Those men would see the woodshed and then Lady Zaya they were hunting.
I quickly moved Zaya into the woodshed. Her eyes roamed around it for the first time. I hadn’t told her it was a relative armory. They lit up when they noticed another little bow, weighted strong enough to kill a man, or at least go through any heavy coat he might be wearing and pierce him.
I took it down from where it hung high on the wall and gathered another quiver of arrows from her. “You’re skilled with this?”
“I am still learning, but I am pretty good already.”
“Have you ever had to shoot at another person? Or even a moving target?”
“Moving targets, yes. People, no… But… I’m not going back with them, Cartari.”
Her eyes flashed fiercely as she spoke.
“Ok. I want you to get up on top of the roof of the cabin. Hide behind the fireplace. Don’t reveal yourself to be there until I’ve killed at least five of them, okay?”
She nodded solemnly.
I caught her hand as we exited the woodshed. I crushed her mouth with mine, making her gasp when I let her go. “Also, don’t shoot me.”
She smiled and pushed me on the shoulder, scampering away and up the snowbanks to reach the roof. I quickly whisked away any sign of her footprints with a shifting of snow.
All my personal weapons, and the extras I had gotten from the woodshed, were in the cabin still. Out of reach and therefore, useless. However, there were plenty of others in the woodshed.
I grabbed up a handful of arrows and a stack of throwing shivs. They were so slender and thin, they were practically spikes. Maybe they were spikes, I don’t know. Would pierce through a man good enough for me.
I sprinted away from the woodshed and into the redwoods just as I heard the front door of the cabin bashing inward. They could have used the handle. No need to break it down… Assholes.
Then I was on the far left side of the cabin, shielded in a snow-covered grove of bushes. The shivs lined up off my right shoulder, hovering there, ready to slice through the air.
I let them fly.
Three had pierced through throats, slicing jugular veins in a properly irreparable fashion, before the others realized they were under attack. Their equinwings dashed to the side as the men fell from their saddles, grasping at their throats. One of the others reared his equinwing up in such a way that the dart sliced the equinwing along the neck, just barely, enraging it, and then sank into his chest, straight through the heart, and the horse galloped away, dropping her dead rider as she took flight through the trees. The last man who had remained outside the cabin managed to evade all my thrown knives. He kicked his horse into gear and she lunged around the cabin, to put it between me and him.
“He’s out here! He killed some of us! He’s out--” The man’s warning cry to those in the cabin was cut off by a gurgling, wretched cry of alarm, and his equinwing rose into the air, the rider hanging from a stirrup, hands trying to pull an arrow from his throat, but it was fully-shafted through. He may have been alive when he hit the ground, but the fall certainly killed him.
I looked up at the roof. “Nice shot…”
“Sorry… I know you only killed four.” I had worried how she would respond when faced with people who would kill me and steal her, but her thought was flawless, no fear, unflinching. And her aim had been true.
“No, that was good. Now, stay hidden.”
“I will.”
I was out of throwing knives. There were three men left and now they were hunkered down in the cabin. Their equinwings stood where they had left them when they dismounted, a little on edge from the dying, gasping, or dead men around them, but still there. So I luffed up a flurry of snow and wind and flung it at them.
The animals took flight, springing into the air, and flapping their giant, batlike wings, to soar away, quickly disappearing.
“Your steeds are gone,” I called to the house.
There was a moment of rough shuffling from inside. Then, “We have your weapons, charzbos.”
So, they knew I was with her. Or, they knew we had escaped prison together and I
