The Death Dancer was saying something else but so softly, Safire couldn’t hear it. She shifted, trying to listen. But as she did, the board beneath her creaked.
The air turned immediately cold as the room below plunged into silence.
Safire froze as a soft thud echoed—the sound of two chair legs lowered to the floor. A heartbeat later, between the crack in the boards, two watery brown eyes peered into hers.
Safire rolled back just as a knife surged up between the boards, narrowly missing her face. When she turned to look, the blade was so close, her breath fogged the steel.
“Come out, little spy,” Jemsin called up to her.
Safire jumped to her feet as a loudthump!resounded, followed by the crack of breaking wood. The board between her boots splintered and lifted, letting light shine through the slit and into the crawl space.
The man barked an order. But Safire didn’t hear what it was—she was already running.
Through cobwebs, kicking up dust, tripping over things in the dark, Safire did not care that her racket could likely be heard throughout the entire inn. Quickly, she lowered herself into the storage room and jumped down from the stacked crates.
The moment her boots hit the floor, she swung open the door...
And ran straight into the person standing beyond it.
“Oof.”
Nimble hands grabbed her arms. Safire flinched, glancing up into two green eyes flecked with gold.
The air shifted around her.
Illuminated by the glow of the lamps was a small, slender girl. Her pale, messy hair was knotted at her neck and she smelled like the sea.
“Now where are you running off to?” The Death Dancer smiled as her fingers reached to pull down the sandskarf hiding Safire’s face. Before she could, Safire flicked out the hidden folding knife in the toe of her boot and kicked her in the shin, embedding the sharpened metal point deep into her flesh.
That smile vanished as the girl cursed, reaching for her leg.
Safire rammed into her shoulder, knocking her off balance. The girl stumbled backward into the wall. But as Safire whirled and moved for the locked door leading out into the hall, the girl was suddenly before her again, blocking her way.
She moved so fast. It was impossible....
Safire stepped back, drawing two knives.
The girl’s green eyes flashed. She stood like a wild cat now: lithe and dangerous. But she carried no weapons. At least none Safire could detect.
Safire’s sandskarf obscured her voice as she said, “Get out of my way.”
“Show your face and I’ll think about it.”
Safire threw the first knife. It thunked into the door next to the girl’s head.
“That’s your first and only warning.”
The girl touched her ear, where the blade had grazed the lobe. Her pale brow folded into a bewildered frown.
Safire readied the second knife, keeping her eyes on her opponent.
“You’re trapped, sweetheart,” the girl said as footsteps rang out down the hall. Jemsin’s pirates were on their way. “There’s nowhere to go.”
Safire spun, looking to the window. It was small, not to mention two stories off the ground. But she’d rather take her chances with the window than the pirates outside the door.
She needed to warn Asha. Needed to get to her before Jemsin did.
As soon as she started for the window, though, the Death Dancer was there. Blocking her way.Again.
