Page 42 of Swordheart
She’d barely stepped around the hedge when a shadow loomed up before her.
“Mina!” cried Halla, backing away. “There’s someone here!”
“Good,” said Mina. Her voice sounded different suddenly: sharp and irritated, without a trace of fear. “Took you long enough to show up. I thought I’d have to walk halfway to Archon’s Glory.”
The figure grunted and stepped forward.
It was a man. He was taller than Sarkis, though not as broad. He had a very large knife in his hands, the sort used to gut deer.
“Um,” said Halla, eyes fixed on the knife. “Mina? Is this a friend of yours?”
Mina gave a loud, derisive snort.
“I’ll be having your money now,” said the man.
“You what?” said Halla.
“Your money,” said the man. “Give it to me.”
“My… oh gods! Are you robbing me?” She wheeled around and stared at Mina. “Wait, you came out here with me so you couldrobme?”
“Not real quick on the uptake, are you?”
Halla flushed with embarrassment. Here she’d been thinking about being a great traveler, and she couldn’t even get robbed correctly.Traveler.She was a country bumpkin who’d been to a real city three times in her life. What was she thinking?
The man gestured with the knife, and fear rushed in and joined the embarrassment. “Give me your money, there’s a good girl,” he said, advancing on her. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I don’t want you to hurt me, either!” said Halla, backing away. “But I don’t have much money, and I need it. I’ll starve!”
“Not my problem,” said the man. He gestured with the knife.
“Get the sword, too,” said Mina from behind him. “It’s probably worth something.”
“No!”
Halla had almost forgotten the sword.
For one instant she thought,Maybe it would be better to be robbed than to let Sarkis see how stupid I just was,and then good sense prevailed. She grabbed the hilt over her shoulder and tried to claw it free. “Sarkis! Sarkis, help!”
At the same moment, she tripped on a tree root and fell over backward.
The sword struck her across the back, knocking the wind out of her.Please, gods,she thought, as the man loomed over her,please, please don’t get knocked back in the sheath—
“Stop there,” said Sarkis softly. The edge of his sword lay across the back of her attacker’s neck.
The man froze.
“Step back,” said Sarkis. “And you, madam, you may think you’re being very sneaky with that knife, but I’ll have his head off if you take another step. Halla, are you hurt?”
“Fine,” squeaked Halla. She had no idea if she was hurt or not. She very much wanted all of this to not be happening.
“Please don’t kill me,” said the man with the sword against his neck. “I wasn’t gonna do anything. I swear. I’ll go.”
“Where the hell did you come from?” hissed Mina.
“Don’t care,” said the man with the knife, staring straight ahead. “Don’t care. I’ll leave. Sorry to have bothered you.”
“Drop the knife,” said Sarkis. “At your feet, not on her.”
