Hurry.
Chapter 17
Bastion sat up like a cadaver risen from the dead.
Ulla.
He staggered to his feet with a groan.
His head pounded, and he didn’t know if it was the blood in his ears or the sea that he heard.Fragmented images flashed in his mind: a fall of satin, flesh yielding to claws, a well of stairs.He clutched his chest, expecting to find it torn open.
Instead, his fingers caught on chainmail, cold but whole.
The ache intensified, as if his heart were an anchor moored somewhere behind him.He took a deep breath and willed it to come back, desperate to stow it safely within his ribcage, but it staunchly refused.
Laughter made him freeze, the sound altogether wrong in the night.He reached for his sword and drew it slowly.Ignoring the tautness beneath his sternum, Bastion stalked towards the voices, his grip cold and stiff.
In a pool of hazy lamplight, two men looted an unconscious guard.One pressed a ball of wax into the guard’s nose.
“Think he’ll suffocate?”the pirate grinned.
“Would ye’ stop fooling!The others will be here anytime!”the second groused.He lifted a gold pendant from his chest.“Or should I tell Buck ye don’t want yer share of plunder?”
Bastion roared.The pirates startled as he charged in and cut down one before he could rise.The wax bounced from his hand as Bastion’s blade opened him up.Blood spilled across the battlements.The second staggered back, his eyes like full moons.Bastion stepped over the fallen crewmate and backhanded him.The pirate spun around and caught the battlements, babbling nonsensically as he scrambled to get away.Bastion seized him by the neck and twisted him around.
They grappled, each struggling to get the upper hand in the dark.Bastion tried to snatch the pendant from his neck with one hand while the pirate shoved him away.He kicked at Bastion, succeeding in only pushing off his thighs and arching over the wall.Just when Bastion was about to drop his sword and throw him on the ground, the man toppled over backwards.
His scream vanished amid the roaring waves.
Bastion growled a curse and slammed the flat of his fist against the stone.Furious, he searched the first man, but found nothing.
As he stood and looked out over Moonwatch, the ache in his chest spread.
Ulla, he thought again.I have to find Ulla.
He set off south, keeping low as he crept around fallen bodies.
Just as he stepped into the stairwell beneath the southern watchtower, the sound of scrambling along the wall made him freeze.A dark shape swung a leg over the battlements.Two more rose from the shadows and clapped arms with the newcomer.Bastion retreated into the darkness, watching while they laughed and gloated.More followed from the outer wall.Bastion forced his breathing to steady, counting the men.
Beside him, a crumpled guard groaned.Bastion’s eyes flashed back to the team of intruders.
They were dead silent, predatory attention trained on the guard.With an alarming amount of stealth, they moved closer.Around him, other guards began to stir, but not fast enough.They would be slaughtered before they knew what was happening.Bastion readied himself.
The moment he saw starlight reflected in steel, he acted.
He burst out of the doorway, leapt over the groggy guards, and thrust his sword into the first pirate with a snarl.The man died with a strangled gurgle.Bastion used the surprise to slash at the next pirate and throw him down into the courtyard.
“MOONWATCH IS UNDER ATTACK!”he yelled over his shoulder.
The pirates screamed a battle cry.Bastion leveraged himself against the curtain wall.He kicked and elbowed, and more pirates flew into the darkness.In the chaos, one got inside his guard and pinned his sword arm to the stone.Bastion punched him in the nose and switched his blade to his left hand.
“THE PIRATES ARE INSIDE!”he shouted.
Metal rang out in the night as guards joined the fight.It echoed in his ears so loudly that it wasn’t until a wave of guards surged past him that he fell back and heard the alarm bell overhead.The sounds of battle descended.Weapons clashed, and cries of pain filled the night.Even the sea felt silent.
Across the courtyard, the vivid orange of fire blazed to light.It danced wildly, too much for just a few torches.
“Nesrin,” Bastion whispered.A fragmented memory slammed inside his skull like a bell clapper.
