Page 39 of Royal Guard

I nodded.

“Jakov…not in room,” he croaked, nodding at the room he’d come from.

Shit.I’d have to worry about that later. First, I had to get everyone out. I stumbled forward, hunched low,trying to see through the smoke. This was worse than the barn: the smoke couldn’t escape and we were upstairs, where it was concentrated. “Emerik!” I yelled.

The first roof timber fell, slamming into the floor a few feet in front of us. Flames spread outward and the floor bowed and creaked worryingly under its weight. “Emerik! Where are you?”

He emerged out of the smoke on the far side of the fallen timber, a limp, blonde-haired bundle in his arms.Caroline!She wasn’t moving. Unconscious, or…God, no.

Emerik looked to be in a bad way, wheezing and choking, but he marched on determinedly. He was halfway to us when the timber crashed through the floor leaving a splintered hole ten feet wide. I pointed him towards the back of the house. “Go around!”

Dad and I circled around to meet him. That meant going through the worst of the fire and it was an inferno, flames creeping up the walls and meeting in the ceiling. Framed photos on the walls made popping noises as their glass shattered and the precious pictures inside curled and blackened. My mom’s needlework poem aboutHomewas on fire, dripping hunks of burning thread as it was consumed. We went past my mom and dad’s room and I saw his medal case fall from the wall. Our whole history was being destroyed.Those bastards!

I was worried Emerik wouldn’t make it but when we reached the landing he was there, coughing and choking but still clutching Caroline. His beloved suit was charred and smoking from where he’d protected her from the flames. He might be uptight but he was a brave son of a bitch when it counted.

We started down the stairs. We were on the third step when the staircase gave way in front of us.Shit!It was really bad, now: the air was filled with embers and it was so hot, it felt like we were breathing the fire itself. More timbers were falling from the roof. The whole house was collapsing and we were trapped upstairs.

Dad was coughing too badly to speak but he pulled me over to a window and hauled it open. We were just above the rear porch. He pushed me out first and I helped Emerik get Caroline down to the porch. Then I climbed down to the ground and he passed her down to me. “Dad!” I yelled, looking back at the blazing house.

He barely made it out in time. Tiles and flaming boards were falling from the roof, raining down around him as his ass hit the porch. He didn’t waste time trying to climb, just slid off the roof and tumbled to the floor. I grabbed him and hauled him to his feet. “Dad?”

He was fine. A rush of relief went through me. If anything had happened to him….

Emerik was kneeling over Caroline. The fresh air had brought her around and she seemed to be okay. But—

“Where’s the Princess?” I asked, panic rising in my chest.

Everyone looked around but there was no one in sight. Emerik clambered to his feet. “I’ll help you look,” he wheezed. Then he started coughing and couldn’t stop. He’d inhaled a lot more smoke than the rest of us, saving Caroline.

“You stay here,” I told him. “You did good.” I looked at Dad. “There’s a sniper, somewhere in thetrees, that way.” I pointed.

He nodded and raised his shotgun. “I’ll circle around and take care of him. You save your princess.”

He ran off into the darkness. I spun around and around, searching for her...and finally saw a figure in the distance, silhouetted by the burning stable. I put my assault rifle up to my face and used its scope.Yes!It was her.

But just as I lowered my rifle to run, I saw someone else. A big, squat shape, running towards the stables.Jakov.

I ran. But he had a big head start and the wound in my leg would slow me.

I knew he’d get there first.

28

KRISTINA

I skiddedto a halt outside the stable door. The whole roof was on fire and the interior was a solid mass of white smoke: I wouldn’t be able to see more than a foot ahead of me.

A terrified whinny came from inside. I plunged in.

I had to shuffle through the hay with my hands out in front of me. It was even worse than I’d thought: flaming liquid and bits of timber were raining down from above, threatening to set my nightgown on fire again, and the moving horses cast confusing shadows everywhere. I couldn’t see where I was—

A horse suddenly reared in front of me, its front hooves almost hitting me in the head. It had broken out of its stall but it was as lost as I was and it was liable to kill me in its panic if I wasn’t careful. “Shh,”I told it.“Shh, shh,it’s okay.” I’d slipped in through the side door but the stable had big double doors, too: if I could open those, the horse could get out. But getting to them meant getting past it.“Shh.”It reared againand I had to fall back against the wall. The back of my neck lit up in scalding agony and I screamed and slapped at it, smelling burning hair. I approached the horse again. “Shh.Trust me,please!”

I reached out...and managed to pet it. It snorted at me, uncertain...but it stopped rearing for a second. Heart pounding, I slid past it, lifted the bar that held the doors shut and pushed them wide.

Immediately, the horse shot past: I barely darted out of the way in time. Clouds of smoke followed it and the stable cleared a little: I could see the other horses now, still trapped in their stalls. I ran to the nearest one and started along the line, opening door after door. One by one, the horses ran to freedom. But I could see the roof sagging dangerously. The whole place was going to come down.

I freed the last horse, looked up...and Jakov was standing in the doorway. “Your Highness!” he panted. “Come on!”

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