He pointed to the back window. “We have more bolts. We don’t have more time.”
I nodded, then moved to the back bench. The riders were only four or five horse lengths behind us now. My heart waspounding in time to the carriage’s bounce across the landscape, but I kept my eyes trained. I pointed the crossbow through the window, aimed for the closest rider, and pushed down the latch.
The bolt struck the rider’s arm and bounced off, but it got his attention. He bared his teeth and leaned over his horse to push it harder. I ducked out of the way and placed another bolt, forcing myself to stay calm. I’d been in tight spots before, and I knew how to keep my hands steady. Of course, I hadn’t faced down bandits on horseback from the back of a royal carriage, but each day was a new fucking adventure.
I looked back and found him barely two strides behind us, reins in his left hand, sword in his right. I breathed in, breathed out, and fired. The bolt hit its target this time, striking him just above his collarbone. He kept his seat but groped at the bolt, dropping his sword in the process. It hit the dirt with a satisfying cloud of dust.
“You have very steady hands,” Nik said.
“Practice,” I said, and positioned another bolt.
“With weapons?”
“Not exactly.” Although hands were a thief’s weapons.
“They’re aiming for the wheels!” came Wren’s shout.
“Arseholes,” Nik said, pulling me to the carriage’s wooden floor. “Yue! Take care!”
There was an enormous sound of cracking wood, and the carriage shuddered, then tilted toward its side as one of the wheels shattered. Nik and I slammed into each other, then the bench, and were sloshed around like wine in a jar as the spooked horses tried to run from the noise.
“Yah!” Yue shouted, and we ground to a spiraling halt, dirt spraying into the air as the wheels dug into dry earth.
“Yue?” he called out.
“Fine.”
“Horses?”
“Spooked, but fine.”
The carriage shuddered with the concussions of more arrows. Nik covered me as they cracked through the wood.
“You bastards!” Yue yelled. They screamed something back.
“Wren,” Nik called out, “what are they saying?”
“Something in Vhranian?”
He turned to stare at me. “You told me she could speak it.”
“She can. But mostly swear words.”
“Alos teren gorash tesh!” she called out.
“That’s an insult about the size of their…swords,” I said.
“I figured.”
“Stay in the carriage!” Yue called out, the floor shifting between us as she jumped down to join the attack.
Nik climbed to his feet, grabbed a sword from the cache, and unsheathed it as he strode to the door. “Stay here!” he told me, and jumped out.
“A simple trip to Vhrania,” I murmured.
The arrows had stopped, so maybe the bandits had concluded Nik was the only one inside the carriage. That gave me an advantage.
I picked up the crossbow, but the tiller had snapped in the crash. I opened the box and took out a replacement, pulled the string, and placed the bolt. I moved beneath the window, came up alongside, and glanced out. Wren, Nik, and Yue fought on foot; Galen was still on his horse, swiping at bandits with a sword while he led the horse in tight circles.
