Page 78 of Broken Fate
“She’s no threat!” someone shouted. “Leave her be!”
From the other side of the street, someone shouted their agreement.
Something came flying out of the crowd, striking one of the guards. It was a piece of garbage. The barrier broken, the crowd began throwing anything they could at the guards, pelting their silver armor with rocks, debris, food, anything they could grab or had on them.
The proud guardsmen slowed, hands on their sheathed weapons, looking uneasily at the crowd of increasingly agitated shifters.
“Oh, just kill her already!” Arcadus shouted over the cacophony.
The guard nearest to the crowd on my life drew his sword, aiming to fulfill his Alpha’s commands. Someone in the crowd stepped just a bit more forward from the rest.
“Cowards. She’s not a danger!” he shouted at the guard.
Already uncomfortable with the situation, the guard reacted to the perceived threat as his training dictated. The sword came up and around. He didn’t strike the shifter, but he did point the sword in the direction of the crowd.
That was a mistake.
Until that point, the crowd had been restless but neutral. By threatening them, that single guard had managed to turn the situation into one where the crowd became enemies. And they knew it.
Shock and anger spread like wildfire. Shouts were redoubled, and heavier things were thrown. One stone, the size of my head, slammed into a guard's armored shoulder, spinning him around and dropping him to one knee from the blow.
The guards on the other side of the street from the sword wielder reached for their swords. Out of the crowd, a hooded figure pushed the nearest guard as hard as he could. The armor-clad shifter didn’t see it coming, and he fell to the ground, tripping one of his comrades, who also fell.
A roar of laughter went up from the crowd.
My eyes darted back to Arcadus just in time to see him turn and shout for more guards.
Knowing what would happen next, I drew back, away from the gate, drawing the guards away. Meanwhile, the carefully placed members of the rebellion that had accompanied us to Arcadia continued to stir up the crowd against the guards.
“Get back!” The panicked cry from the Beta rose over the general din.
Crack!
The sound of Andracis’ whip was followed by a cry of pain.
As one, the crowd surged for him. They avoided the Alpha, but their anger had been sufficiently stirred, and to see one of their own hurt sent them—courtesy of the members of the rebellion who had been pushing them—over the edge.
I turned and ran as bedlam erupted in the streets outside the palace gate. Arcadus was calmly calling for more guards while the crowd was shouting its anger, the fear thattheymight have been the ones to suffer the reprisals propelling them.
Ducking back into our safe house, I went into the tunnels below the city, where Kiel, Andi, Praksis, and a dozen of the rebellion’s best fighters were waiting. Kiel had a cloak on and a scarf around his face, while Andi wore a mask over her upper face. Most of the others sported something in between, all designed to keep them anonymous.
None of them wanted to be the cause of more reprisals if their identities became known.
“Ready?” Kiel asked.
I nodded. “So far, so good up there.”
Kiel’s eyes flashed with blue fire. “Let’s go, then. We’ve only got one shot. Let’s make it count.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Booted feet thudded across the stone and splashed through thin layers of water. Breaths came in even, measured huffs. The occasional sniff or cough could be heard, but most of the sounds of our group were drowned out by the din from the streets above.
People shouting at one another, calling directions or obscenities. The more inarticulate howls of rage and frustration as someone did something that another didn’t like. The occasional clang of blades. Heard above it all were the calls for calm and order as the guards tried to restore the balance.
The crowd wasn’t having it. Egged on by certain members within, the mob mentality was taking over, and the guards, by the sound of it, were being forced, if not back, to hold their positions.
“I didn’t expect it to work this well,” I huffed under my breath, glancing at Kiel.
