Page 99 of The Noble Servant

“God, give me the strength of Samson to push open this door.”

“God, please don’t let us have to spend the rest of the day in here.”

“God, send Your mighty angels with their fiery swords to rescue us.”

“God, give Lord and Lady Thornbeck wisdom to find us.”

“God, how long before a person goes mad from not being able to see a thing?”

Magdalen squeezed his shoulder.

“I think I hear something.” Magdalen crawled up a step andbeat on the door. Steffan joined her. They pounded for a few seconds, then stopped and listened.

“I hear someone.”

Steffan heard it too—footsteps getting louder.

They both beat on the door and yelled. More noises, like something heavy being dragged overhead. A few moments later, the door was yanked open.

Hands reached down.

“Who is there?” Steffan demanded, holding Magdalen behind him.

Alexander’s face appeared in the opening. “It is I.”

Steffan lifted Magdalen up and let his cousin take her by the wrists and haul her out. Moments later, Alexander’s face reappeared.

“Make haste. My father’s guards are coming to kill you.”

Loud footsteps sounded on the stairs. Alexander was holding a knife. Steffan took it from him, then glanced around. He leapt to the pile of old junk that had been stored in the room and snatched up a large table leg. Magdalen did the same.

“Magdalen, get behind me.”

Two guards appeared in the doorway.

“You are not supposed to be here,” Alexander said to the guards. “Go back downstairs.”

“We take our orders from Lord Hazen. Step aside.”

Steffan hid the knife and table leg behind his back. The guard pushed Alexander out of the way and unsheathed his sword. Steffan stepped forward.

The guard swung his sword, and Steffan swung the table leg, slamming it into the guard’s wrist while sidestepping his blade.

The guard yelled and dropped his sword. Steffan snatchedit up. He glanced behind him. The second guard was lunging for Magdalen. She screamed and ducked out of his way, holding the broken table leg out in front of her.

Steffan went cold all over at the menacing look on the guard’s face. He could not let him kill Magdalen. He leapt across the room, yelling as loud as he could to draw the guard’s attention. But the guard ignored him and raised his sword to strike Magdalen.

Steffan would not be able to reach her in time. He threw the knife that was in his other hand. It flew across the room and impaled the guard in the back.

The guard stopped, his sword in midswing, and slowly turned around. He took a step toward Steffan, then fell forward.

More footsteps were coming up the stairs. Lord Hazen’s voice echoed from the stairwell. “Kill them! Now!”

Magdalen jumped toward the window, opened it wide, and yelled, “Help!”

Alexander ran to the guard who had fallen, took his sword, and he and Steffan greeted the first guards who appeared in the doorway and started beating them back, striking furious blows.

As he fought, Steffan was able to lift his foot and kick one of the guards in his groin. The guard fell backward into the men behind him, and they all fell down the spiral staircase, at least a dozen men. Steffan went after them.