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His son looked at him and then back at his group.
“Well, then, what would you suggest we do?” Matthew, one of the members of the group with Pascal, yelled back.
Frederick answered, “Take the women. Round them up for protection and get them under the trees, where they’ll have better shelter from both the flying beasts and the rain. We’ll take care of the monsters.”
Several other groups of Warriors joined them on the hill.
“Okay,” the one called Chris said as he nodded. “Ladies, come with me. Head over to that hill. We’ll keep you safe while they do whatever they are going to do.”
Like sheep being herded by a dog, we moved as a group toward the hill while the flying beast—I liked the description—swept in and out of the party location. So far, they hadn’t hurt anyone, just messed with the furniture, so what was happening?
I whirled around. The Warriors huddled together to discuss their plan. We stayed under the trees and…Oh no.
I spotted one of the ritual ladies, frozen out in the open. Mouth hanging agape, she stared up at the flying beasts and didn’t otherwise move a muscle.
“Hey,” I called out to Pascal. “A woman over there needs help.”
He stared for a moment and then started running toward her. The beast noticed him moving. With a swoop, he spat fire at Pascal, who darted out of the way only to have the tree next to him go up in flames. Everyone gasped, and the rest of his group ran after him.
“Oh, I hope they’ll be okay.” Caroline took my hand.
I nodded, because I did, too, but I had to admit, it wasn’t a great showing on their part.
“See?” Jayne looked at me. “Very cocky. Nothing to show for it.”
“What are you doing?” This time, it was Truett who yelled at them. Still, no one had gone for the woman. Well, fine. If no one else would get her, then I would do it.
I let go of Caroline’s hand and stepped away from Jayne. “I’ll be right back.”
Luckily for me, the flying things seemed utterly occupied with trying to catch the group of dashing Warriors. That’s good. I stayed behind the trees, out of the way of anyone noticing my movement until I absolutely had to dart across the field to get to the frozen woman.
Then I ran full speed. I was fast, always had been. Maybe the nobility here didn’t have to run often, but we did. Tornadoes could happen at any time, and you didn’t want to get caught outside when they showed up to destroy things. Once, I outran a herd of goats that had not been happy to see me when I stumbled upon them one night. I knew how to run.
But my shoes were not helping.
I kicked them off as I ran. Barefoot and wearing a ballgown wasn’t conducive to running, but I grabbed onto the woman’s arms. “Come on. You can’t stay here. It’s not safe. Come.”
She seemed to blink into reality, staring at me for a second. “You’re Sloane.”
“That’s right. I’m Sloane. Come. Please. Now.” I pulled her along with me. She was older and slow, and I didn’t know how long we’d have until one of the flying beasts decided to shoot his flames at us. I hoped we could get back to safety in time.
An arrow shot above our heads, and I glanced back to see Oliver holding the bow. A rope was attached to the arrow, and it hit the beast. Although the arrow itself didn’t break the skin of the creature, the rope wrapped around the beast.
He’d clearly done this before.
Frederick grabbed onto Oliver’s back and together they pulled the beast to the ground. Cheers sounded as other Warriors took down the other beast.
The rain put out the fire on the tree, and in seconds, although I still held the woman in black against me, it was as though the whole thing had never happened.
People laughed and the men were shaking hands. Well, almost all of them. The young Warriors weren’t part of the group, and I seemed to have gotten a lot of attention from Oliver, Truett, Frederick, and Charles.
The last one walked over to me. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Excuse me?” I steeled my spine.
“I asked you a question.”
I gritted my teeth because, although I hadn’t been struck dumb in my run across the field, I couldn’t think of a less than rude response.
