“I didn’t know.”
He shook his head, as if shaking the memory off him. “It happened years ago.”
The child’s cry echoed again from the burning hut.
“But we can stop them now,” I urged.
“Listen to me, Dania, raiders are savage.” Maz clutched my shoulders, his long fingers digging into the meat of my arm. “They don’t care who they kill or hurt. They only care about themselves. If they get the best of you, you won’t be standing anymore.”
“Then I won’t let them get the best of me, will I?” I stood, swirling my sword in my hand. I knew what the consequences would be if I didn’t try, and I wasn’t prepared to live with that.
I jumped to my feet and headed to the hut, the child’s screams growing louder. The two men stood outside laughing, one picking at his teeth.
I didn’t hesitate. If I did, they might call for help. And I didn’t need to have battle experience to know I wanted to take on as few of them as possible.
I lifted my sword and swung it, slicing the calf of the first raider who held the sack.
He screamed and dropped the bag, clutching his leg. His friend whirled on me.
He was young, that was my first thought.
Barely older than Maz and me. Much too young to be raiding villages and killing children. He wore a square cap that was graying and frayed, and clothes that hung from him like limp sacks. His sword was rusty, as though he didn’t take care of it, though the blood smeared across it looked far more ominous than my gleaming, too clean talwar.
He smiled, as if his fellow raider wasn’t howling on the ground, grasping the slashed tendons of his bloodied leg.
“Have you come to fight us, little girl? What fun this will be.”
He lunged for me, but I was ready. I pivoted and arched my blade behind me, slashing his outstretched arm.
He released a startled cry. “Bitch.”
“Thought you would come up with better names to call me after I made you bleed.” I nodded to the blood running down his arm.
“Village girl, there won’t be anything left of you by the time we are done.”
The other raider was standing now, his own bloodied sword poised toward me. “You can’t take both of us on alone.”
“She doesn’t have to.”
Maz’s voice was deep behind me, and I hated admitting that it felt like a gust of wind in the desert, lifting me up. We’d never been on the same side before, not really. We’d trained and battled and bloodied each other over and over again. But now, I felt it. I knew he wouldn’t let me fight alone.
“How touching. Two village children we can slaughter today.”
As if we’d done it before, as if we’d practiced a thousand times, Maz and I both walked around the raiders, winding around them like a dance.
I crashed against the younger raider, meeting his blade with deft strokes. Adrenaline was trapped in my throat, and with each successful parry, I felt bolder, more sure. This was no different from the trainingfield, where I dominated. The raider had been in battle before, but I was better trained, and it showed. I managed to land another hit on him, sliding my sword across his shoulder, and then again catching him in the side. He howled and became more erratic, and my confidence grew. I had him, and I was going to make sure he never raided another village again.
But as the smoke from the burning house thickened around us, the child’s cry rent the air.
The boy was still in the house.
My footsteps faltered and I missed the next strike. The raider’s sword caught the edge of my hand, and I yelped as the blade bit against my skin, the blood welling up.
“Dani!” Maz shouted as he fought with the injured raider.
But my momentum was lost. The young raider advanced again, his confidence buoyed. The screaming surrounded me. If I didn’t get the child, he would be dead.
But if I didn’t meet the blade of the raider in front of me, I would be.
