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“We have to do it!” I told her, closing her clammy palm in mine. “Jump!”
A hand grasped at my shoulder—
I shrugged it away and leaped into the blackness.
Alan went against my wishes and, at the last moment, sidestepped to line himself up under me. His arms opened in a hug and I shouted, “No!” as my legs made a hard connection with his chest.
Snap!
The sound of breaking bone to our side.
Then a wailing, crying girl.
As Alan lowered me to my feet, the other girl writhed on the ground, grabbing at her ankle.
“Fuck!” I yelled.
A girl who couldn’t run in a situation like this was a dead girl. I knew that.
On the other side of the abbey, I heard the rasps of steel and the grunts of men crying out. Then the steel clashed.
Blood rushed in my ears.
I looked up as a giant shadow cast from the held candle-lantern appeared in the window above us. The guard set the candle down and drew a bow off his shoulder.
I instinctively grabbed at the girl on the ground, still crying and rolling in pain.
“I have her!” Emma yelled, and together we pulled her along.
We aren’t going to make it!
Alan growled, “Here,” and lowered himself onto his knees. “Put her on my back!”
It was a mad dash to get out of sight of the archer. I stumbled forward, all but pushing the wounded girl’s weight onto Alan, and he cupped behind his rear to hold her in place as he bellowed and rose to his feet.
An arrow struck the ground inches to my left.
I swung my bow off my shoulder, nocked an arrow in seconds. The archer in the window gaped.
I fired—
Just as he dipped away, out of sight behind the wall.
Alan jogged downhill with the girl on his back, making slow progress, while Emma stayed beside me.
Foolish girl. I put myself in front of her, aimed at the window, and backpedaled while waiting for a face to show itself. “Come on!” I urged Emma. “Run!”
She nodded and sprinted behind me. I stayed standing, holding my bowstring taut, waiting like a sentinel to guard my friend and my lover’s escape.
A shadow of a face emerged—
I snapped my arrow loose—
It struck the edifice two inches from the aperture’s opening with a spray of rubble. “Fuck!” yelled the man as he disappeared inside, narrowly avoiding it.
I glanced back, downhill. Alan and the two girls were getting further out. They only needed a little more time.
I shot a wayward arrow once more, this time sending it through the window and into the room to scare the guard into thinking twice about showing his stupid face again.
