Page 36 of Pawns of Fate

“I’m sorry,” Lyla said as Rose dusted off her skirts. “I shouldn’t have yelled. I just… that was very close. If I’d been a heartbeat too late…”

The commotion had caused the entire library to gather, and now their assigned guards were on the way. The pounding footsteps grew closer, and Rose realized Lyla’s bonnet had fallen off during the scuffle. There was no mistaking her for a maid now.

Ava ran up to them first.

“Lyla, you threw a knife into a shelf of books,” she whispered. “I don’t think the Ojoh are going to be very happy about that.”

Rose hadn’t even realized that Lyla had thrown a knife at her attacker, too. Things had happened so quickly. She supposed the bonnet was a moot point.

Lyla brought both of her hands to her face. Rose hugged her and used her aura. Things were about to get complicated. They all needed to use their heads right now.

“You really are too kind for your own good,” the shadow mage whispered.

The girls turned to face their guards.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“A shadow mage tried to abduct me, and my maid saved me,” Rose declared. There was no point in lying now.

The guards exchanged a confused look.

“We’ll pay for the book,” Ava added, cheerfully drawing out the knife and handing it to Lyla, who rolled her eyes and reluctantly turned it over to the guards.

“Let’s go back to the house. We’re going to need to speak to the commander about this,” the older of the two guards said. Then he added, “Will your maid be compliant?”

“Of course she’ll comply. We have no intention of breaking the treaty,” Rose replied.

The guard scratched his head. “We’ll still need to tell the commander about this.” He motioned to the crowd gathering around. “He’ll hear about it either way. Your maid will have to come with us once we’re back at the house.”

Lyla bristled, but Rose elbowed her and confidently replied, “Of course. We understand.”

The guards exchanged more wary glances as the crowd around them continued to grow. The pressure of so many onlookers must have gotten to them, because they decided not to press the issue any further.

The girls nodded and followed them out of the library. Rose’s heart sank. She may have just ruined everything and sparked another war between the Ojoh and Sharps, all because she couldn’t wait to get her hands on a book. What a lady of House Sharp she was turning out to be.

LYLA

“You need to get here.” Syzman’s voice tugged on the back of her mind as she marched through the streets of Uddedin.

“Not now.”

“It’s important.”

Lyla eyed the guards. They were less than useless against him . She had to stay vigilant. They had to make it back to the house, had to make it back to the safety of the wards. Even he couldn’t get through her wards.

“Lyla.”

She ignored Syzman and scanned the crowds—well, more like clusters of people. The monster sightings and attacks on nearby settlements had the whole city on edge, but this was a suspiciously small number of people.

“Lyla, please.”

“Syzman, I can’t. Whatever it is, I’m in deep shit here.”

“What happened?”

“It’s him, Syzman. And he almost got Rose.”

It was Syzman’s turn to go silent for a minute.

“Truthfully, Syzman, I could use you here if they can spare you. Perhaps Nicholas, too, since my cover’s blown.”

Still silence .

Lyla did feel a tinge of regret. She wanted to help them with whatever it was, but she couldn’t leave. “Use the scrolls.”

It was then that Lyla heard the screams and noticed the crowds of panicked citizens running straight for them. If Syzman replied to her, it was lost in the ensuing chaos.

ROSE

“We’re leaving! Now!” Lyla shouted, attempting to grab the arms of both women with one hand and wield her knife with the other.

Bewildered, Rose looked around, but their guards were already lost in the crowd. Whatever was happening, Lyla was their only protection now.

“We’re teleporting out of here,” Lyla yelled over the rising sea of panicked citizens. She tugged on Rose and Ava’s arms again.

Rose acquiesced to the demand. Ava, however, was frozen.

“I’ll follow you! Grab her!” Rose shouted as more people ran past, bumping into them. The oranges, reds, and yellows of the Ojoh’s hair no longer reminded Rose of peaceful autumn leaves. It felt more like she was being swept up by a fire.

“We have to get to an alley or a back road. Someplace where no one will interrupt the spell,” Lyla shouted as she attempted to drag Ava anywhere more safe than the middle of the road.

Desperate to stay close to her friends, Rose grabbed the back of Lyla’s skirt.

Her eyes darted around, looking for a place that matched Lyla’s requirements.

They were in the market district. Several produce stands had already been turned over by people’s eagerness to escape whatever was coming.

The screaming was getting louder somehow, which Rose hadn’t thought possible.

It didn’t escape Rose’s notice that the threat seemed to be coming from the direction of their house, but she tucked that thought away for later. Right now, she needed to help Lyla find a quiet space.

“There! An alley!”

Lyla dragged Ava along while Rose pushed, but their progress was slow.

To Rose, it looked like Lyla was about to just carry Ava.

That might have been faster, given how paralyzed with fear Ava was and how many people kept bumping into them as they made their way across the street while everyone else frantically ran down it.

The stream of panicked villagers grew thicker around them. One person squeezed and stumbled between Rose and Lyla. Rose lost her grip on Lyla’s skirt.

“Ava, Lyla!” She screamed.

Lyla turned around and yelled something. But another person, then another, squeezed between them. Rose couldn’t hear her.

“I’ll follow you!” She yelled, but now, a whole crowd separated the trio. Rose couldn’t even see Lyla’s lavender hair above the chaos. Still, she tried to make her way to the alley. Lyla and Ava would surely wait for her there.

Rose had almost made it when someone shouted, “Troll!”

Even more panic erupted as the crowd, which had previously been flowing in the same direction, albeit haphazardly, tried to change course. Strangers collided; families separated; parents screamed for their children. Rose had never seen such madness. It paralyzed her like it had done to Ava.

But none of it compared to the fear that rushed through her when Rose saw the troll itself.

Large as a carriage, with skin the color of forest moss, eyes redder than blood, and fangs larger than her fist jutting up from its lower lip, the troll looked at home in the wildness overtaking the city.

A small, red spell circle sat on its chest.

Odd. Trolls weren’t intelligent enough to use magic, from what Rose understood.

She shuddered as the monster turned toward her. Its face, far too small for the troll’s oversized body, shone with an insane delight.

The troll strolled down the road, smashing a few shop windows with its club and lunging at any citizens who had the misfortune of being too close. Trolls were notoriously slow, so everyone had evaded its grasp thus far, but Rose wondered how long that statement would remain true.

Rose spied a small boy hiding behind an overturned cart of produce. With a glance back at the lumbering giant, she noticed the troll’s gaze lock on the child, too.

Her body moved before her mind could catch up. She’d probably get them both killed, but she had to try. She couldn’t let the child be taken by a monster. Her arms outstretched, pushing him out of the way just as fingers, each thicker than a loaf of bread, wrapped around her waist.

The troll’s hand covered her entire midsection. Rose tried to scream, but only inhaled the putrid smell of rotten flesh as the troll squeezed. The pain caused black spots in her vision, and she realized that she was about to die.

A purple blur moved behind her. The squeeze loosened. The metallic scent of blood filled the air, and the troll bellowed with rage.

Rose fell to her knees. Someone helped pull the now severed hand off of her body.

“Are you alright, Lady Rose?”

“Lyla!”

“At your service.” Lyla winked, then turned to face the troll. It bore down on them, but Lyla kicked it away with just one leg, sending it crashing into a nearby shop. The troll was massive, yet Lyla pushed it away like it was nothing more than a minor annoyance. How was that possible?

Lyla quickly checked Rose to make sure she didn’t need medical attention. Rose saw that the mage had rolled up her sleeves. Purple spell runes gave a faint afterglow on her forearm.

“What kind of magic was that?”

“Metaphysical magic can increase a person’s speed and strength.” Lyla helped Rose up, then turned her attention to the troll, which was thrashing about in the middle of the road, blood spurting out of its wounded arm.

A different set of runes lit up on her arm, and Lyla chased after the troll. Rose decided not to watch the gruesome fight, fascinated as she was with Lyla’s magic abilities. She needed to find the child and escort them to safety.

A low, pain-filled rumble echoed through the street.

Rose heard a loud thud and imagined Lyla was almost finished with the troll.

She continued her search for the child, then saw a woman with a tear-stained face run and pick up a small boy from behind a barrel.

The little boy threw his arms around the woman, and Rose heard him yell, “Mama!”

Well, her heart would know a little relief today. A tiny smile crossed her face.

Lyla returned, wiping blood off her knives with blankets or clothing taken from one of the shops the troll destroyed.

“We need to hurry. Ava is just around the corner. The troll’s attack scattered the villagers and gave us enough space for the teleportation spell. Hopefully, it was worth all the mana I used to kill it.” Lyla looked mildly concerned. “Can you walk?”

“Yes. You severed the hand before it could do any real damage.”

“Thank the gods. Let’s go.”