Page 73 of The Goblin Twins
The woman glanced between the other two guards. One was young, maybe Lai’s age, that he knew was An-Kaa-rai’a, and the other was a large, older half-goblin that he recognized as Hin-Ni’rae. Both Hin-Ni’rae and Hin-De’rra had been members of Courage Garrison under Hi’jan when he was a Captain. Hin-Ni’rae turned to Shi’chen. “Captain Er-Ha’sen, you are under arrest. Release the Emperor, and we will be merciful.”
“I do not want to fight you, Hin-Ni’rae,” Shi’chen said, hoping the warning in his voice was enough.
It was not. Hin-Ni’rae thrust his spear at him, and Shi’chen deflected it with his short sword, the sound of the blade against the wood sounding much too loud in the stone corridor for them not to be heard. Hin-De’rra turned to the young guard. “Go alert the Commander!”
An-Kaa-rai’a turned to run, but Lai suddenly threw the dagger he had had at En’shea’s throat, catching the young man in the back of his calf, the blade embedding deep in the muscle. An-Kaa-rai’a hit the ground with a cry of pain, and Shi’chen glanced over to see that Lai already had another dagger in his hand, poised to throw if needed.
Hin-De’rra moved to block both the injured guard and the stairs downward, her spear angled to be more of an obstacle than a weapon. Shi’chen cursed silently to himself as he heard several pairs of feet approaching on the stone steps from below. Hin-Ni’rae suddenly stabbed at him with his spear, and Shi’chen narrowly avoided it. “Go!” he said to Lai, pointing upward. Lai took off for the stairs, dragging En’shea along with him. Shi’chen ducked another swing of Hin-Ni’rae’s, darting forward to slash at the man’s mid-section with his blade. He did not intend to hit him, but his movement had the desired effect of throwing Hin-Ni’rae off balance to stumble into Hin-De’rra’s path, which distracted them both long enough that he could turn and bolt up the stairs after Lai to the top level. He realized with dread in his stomach that while there was an escape from the former courtroom, it would take time to open it, and they did not necessarily have that as the pounding feet came closer.
They reached the fifth level, the entire room wide open, with the gaping view and the precarious slanted stone of Traitor’s Ledge at the far end. Shi’chen glanced around, spotting the hidden wall panel to the left side. “If we can get that open, it leads down to the cellars.”
Lai sprinted over and planted his shoulder against the panel. It did not move. Shi’chen tossed En’shea to the floor and moved to help him. The panel still did not move, and he felt a stab of panic in his stomach. The panel was heavy, but both he and Lai should have been able to move it easily together. “It must be blocked,” Lai said, turning to Shi’chen with wide eyes.
Shi’chen swore under his breath, giving one last futile shove at the panel that remained as solid as ever. His eyes met Lai’s. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice barely above a gasp.
Lai gave him a small smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’re not dead yet, Your Highness. I guess you’ll get to show me what you can do.”
Shi’chen blinked, then gave him a small smile in return. “Don’t worry about me.”
Lai smirked and drew his rapier from his side, the blade catching the sun that streamed in through the open wall at their backs. “I don’t.”
And then the guards were in the room. Hin-Ni’rae and Hin-De’rra were at the front, and three more guards that Shi’chen recognized from Courage Garrison were behind them. They immediately fanned out, and Shi’chen realized they were going to try to flank them and push them back toward the open wall. He was not about to let that happen. He rushed forward, ducking a slash from one of the spears and swiped at the back of an unprotected calf of one of the guards, causing him to stumble.
Quick as a flash, Shi’chen leaped behind him to stab him in the back, making a conscious decision at the last moment to angle the sword away from any vital organs, the blade sinking downward into the man’s shoulder. He jerked the blade back up, realizing somewhere in the back of his mind that he had never actually stabbed another living thing before and that it was harder than he expected.
A short sword was coming at him from the guard next to him, and he pushed off the other guard’s back into a flip out of the way, landing just as the ring of blade against wood signaled that Lai had met with an opponent. For just a moment he was grateful that Lai was a trained fighter; he could not worry about him right now. He dodged another swing of the short sword, then moved over to kick up the spear the guard he had stabbed in the back had dropped. He sheathed his sword, then spun the spear in a fierce attack, knocking the guard’s sword from his hands with a sharp clatter. He swung the spear around, catching the guard across the face with the handle, knocking him down. He swung the spear again and stabbed downward in rapid succession, into the guard’s torso, opening up several wounds in multiple places. He wanted to feel guilty about it, but he couldn’t right now.
Lai was up against Hin-De’rra and Hin-Ni’rae. Shi’chen looked around for the fifth guard, seeing him crouched over by En’shea, removing the gag from the Emperor’s mouth. Before the guard could untie En’shea’s hands, he threw the spear, catching the guard in the back, and the man slumped forward with a grunt. Shi’chen grabbed his sword again from his belt, rushing Hin-De’rra who was attacking Lai, dodging around her spear attack to deliver an elbow strike to her solar plexus, causing her to stumble back, choking for breath. He was vaguely aware that several more guards had rushed into the upper room, and a sword met his with a clash that made his teeth clack together.
He was starting to recognize that while he was trying very hard not to actually kill the attacking guards, many of whom he had known all his life, most of them were not taking the same precautions with him. And they would have no qualms about Lai, whom they did not know, nor did they know what his skill level was, as they had not watched him fight. He realized that would make Lai a much more appealing target than the former prodigy Captain of Honor Garrison.
Shi’chen delivered a sharp kick to the ribs of the guard coming at him, then turned to find Lai in the midst of three guards, including Hin-Ni’rae. He started toward his friend, but two other guards swooped in, and he had to duck into a slide under their swords coming at him, catching one of them across the back of the ankles with his blade, and then stabbing backward into the back of the knee of the other, sending them both to the stone floor with severe, but non-life-threatening, injuries.
Lai had managed to drive back two of the three guards enough to give him room to at least face off with Hin-Ni’rae, but the older half-goblin was taller and had a longer reach both with his arms and his spear and was doing quite an impressive job of keeping Lai from being able to reach him with an attack, even with his rapier. He started toward Lai again, but the two guards Lai had pushed back suddenly turned to him, and Shi’chen was forced to contend with them.
The next moments happened almost like he could see them suspended in time. Hin-Ni’rae lunged forward, turning his spear to hook it around the guard of Lai’s rapier, and suddenly the rapier was out of Lai’s hand, the force of the pull sending Lai to one knee. Shi’chen thought that Hin-Ni’rae would either strike down with his spear, or drop it and pull his short sword, but instead, the half-goblin tossed aside the spear and sprinted forward, catching Lai around the throat with both hands and lifting him off the ground. Lai grabbed for Hin-Ni’rae’s hands around his throat, but the bigger guard had a firm grip, and he suddenly took a few steps to the side so Lai’s feet dangled at the edge of the slanted stone ramp of Traitor’s Ledge.
“No!” Shi’chen yelled, suddenly aware that all the fighting had stopped, and everyone was looking at Hin-Ni’rae or En’shea, who was on his feet, his hands still tied behind him.
“Throw your weapons down, Captain.” En’shea’s voice was deadly calm, the echo of it bouncing off the stone walls around them.
Shi’chen’s eyes tried to catch Lai’s, but the half-elf was struggling against Hin-Ni’rae’s hands. En’shea glanced at the guard and inclined his head toward the opening. Hin-Ni’rae suddenly thrust Lai out the air, only his hold on the young man’s throat holding him in place. Lai gasped around the hold, his boots scrabbling on the slick stone, trying to find purchase.
“No!” Shi’chen gasped again, taking a step forward, but stopped when Hin-Ni’rae gave Lai a warning shake.
“This is your only chance, Cousin. Throw down your weapons, or he flies like a bird,” En’shea repeated.
“Don’t do it,” Lai rasped around the hold on his throat.
Shi’chen ignored Lai’s words, bending his knee and placing the short sword on the ground. He gave it a slight shove, so it slid out of his reach across the stone floor.
En’shea watched with dispassionate eyes, his lips quirked into a small half-smile as he looked at Shi’chen. “You surrender?”
“I do,” Shi’chen said, holding his hands out, palms up, from his sides. “Let him go.”
En’shea raised a brow. He turned to Hin-Ni’rae. “You heard him. Let him go.”
The guard glanced at En’shea, then at the half-elf still gripped in his hands, his toes straining to grip the slanted stone ledge, his hands simultaneously holding onto him to not fall while also trying to pry them off his throat. “Yes, Sovereignty.” The next moment, he released his hands so Lai’s toes hit the incline. Shi’chen barely had time to register Lai’s boots skid on the sloped stone before he disappeared into the blue beyond the stone window.
