When Safire looked harder, she realized it was a young woman.
She froze, staring as the club swung down, again and again. The sight sent a memory slicing through her. In an instant, she was back in Firgaard. Barely fourteen years old. Curled up on the mosaicked tiles of the palace floor....
The dark shapes of Jarek and his soldats stood over her, their boots finding their marks in her stomach and back, her shoulders and legs. Places people were less likely to notice the bruises. With every blow,pain burst through her. But she would rather the blows than the names they called her. Horrible, disgusting things. The same things they called her mother.
And then, like she’d stepped right out of an old story, Asha was there, dressed in her hunting gear, splattered with dragon blood. Her black eyes were wild as she gripped her throwing axe in one hand, screaming at them. Screaming things twice as horrible as the things they’d screamed at Safire.
Raif spun on his heel, grabbed Safire, and drew her—and Eris along with her—out of that quiet alley faster than she could draw breath. The crowd hummed around them once more. But the past had Safire in its claws, and it wasn’t done with her yet.
Dax stood behind Asha, the storm in his eyes belying his calm demeanor, suggesting he wanted more than anything to draw his weapon and join his sister. Instead, his knuckles tightened around the hilt of his undrawn sword as he stood between the soldats and the two girls at his back, using himself as a shield.
Raif took her arm this time, jolting Safire out of the memory. “Keep walking.”
It didn’t matter that her cousins came to her rescue, though. The next day, those soldats returned to their stations, waiting for the next moment to strike. And if they didn’t return, others just like them did. But that was never the part that stayed with Safire.
The part that stayed was Asha and Dax, coming to her aid,always.
Who did that woman have coming to hers?
“She needs our help,” said Safire.
“Trust me,” said Raif, staring straight ahead. “That woman’s beyond our help. Just keep your head down and walk fast.”
“I’m with Raif on this.” Eris’s solemn gaze met hers. “That woman is as good as dead. You will be too if you interfere.”
If that’s true, thought Safire,then someone needs to stop them.
Handing Eris’s rope to Raif, she turned back, pushing through the crowd. Someone growled at her to get out of the way. She heard Raif yell for her to stop.
And then she was in the alley again, the market bleeding away as she strode toward the circle of Lumina. The one with the club was so involved in his brutal game he didn’t see Safire until she stepped between him and the woman lying bruised and broken on the ground. Safire caught the club in the palm of her hand.
It should have hurt badly. But all Safire felt was her own swelling rage.
The Lumina’s pale blue eyes widened in shock. The others stood frozen, staring.
“You dare interfere with the law of the empress?” said the soldier before her, trying to wrench his club from her grip. With a muscular frame and a strong jaw, he was the type of man she would have called handsome in other circumstances. But then, these types often were.
Safire’s fingers tightened, holding on. She tried to summon Dax’s calmness, even as her whole body shook. “Surely there’s no crime that calls for such a wicked punishment.”
His gaze raked up and down her. “You’re clearly not from these parts. So I’ll be generous with you, girl. If you walk awaynow, you’ll suffer no consequence.” He nodded for her to go.
For the briefest moment, hesitation flickered in Safire. Perhaps she was wrong. Perhaps the woman at her feet was responsible for some truly heinous crime. Safire was a guest in Axis, after all. She shouldn’t assume she knew better than the soldiers who lived and worked here. More than this: stirring up trouble would sabotage Dax’s visit. It might prevent him from getting the help he needed for the scrublands.
She was about to stand down when a terrified voice cut through her thoughts.
“P-please, miss....”
With her hand still gripping the Lumina’s club, Safire glanced to the young woman below her. This close, she looked very young. Perhaps as young as Safire. Her arms trembled as she rose to her knees. Her left eye was swollen shut, and Safire could tell her arm was broken. When her right eye met Safire’s, it shone with tears. “Don’t leave,” she whispered. “They’ll kill me.”
It was what Eris said:That woman’s as good as dead.
A shiver rushed across her skin. The day Dax made her his commandant, she swore to defend those in need of defending. No matter what this woman’s crime was—if she was indeed guilty of any—the punishment should never be a beating to the death.
And if Dax were here, he would agree.
Safire drew herself up to her full height. Wrenching the club free of the soldier’s grip, she said to the young woman at her feet, “Run.”
In response to her defiance, several blades were drawn at once.
