Chapter 10 #2
“We’re outnumbered,” Ezra snarled. He sprinted toward the other side of the road.
More shots sounded and the thundering of hooves. Five additional mounted men charged at them from their position across the road—blocking any means of escape.
Trapped in the road, Jessica, Ezra, Rhys, and Tej whirled around as the Guardians swarmed from all directions. Everywhere was noise and confusion and the terrifying gleam of sabers slicing through the air. The only tack anyone could take was duck and weave to avoid being hacked apart by the blades.
One of the riders rushed at Ezra, saber swinging.
Ezra ducked beneath the blade’s cutting arc.
He drew a short blade from his belt and leapt across the back of the horse.
As he jumped, he slashed at the saddle’s girth.
Without the strap attaching the saddle to the horse, the saddle slipped and fell, and the rider fell with it.
Ezra was on the man in an instant, jamming his blade between the Guardian’s ribs. The rider jerked before sprawling in the road.
In one movement, Ezra picked up the fallen Guardian’s longer blade and began to sprint toward Jessica.
She lost sight of him when three mounted Guardians surrounded her.
The sweat-flecked, stamping horses were on every side, blocking any path, hemming her in.
She whirled in circles, yet everywhere she turned, the Guardians were there.
The horses’ churning legs kept her from ducking beneath them.
She pushed at one of the animal’s flanks, but it was too big, too heavy.
A gloved hand reached down. She tried to slap it away, yet it grabbed hold of her. Jessica snarled as the Guardian tugged hard on her arm, sending pain shooting through her shoulder and down her body. She thrashed. He was too strong, and held firm.
Air slammed out of her body as she was hauled up and pulled across the horse’s front. She hung between the rider and his mount’s neck. He held her down, one hand pressing hard on her back, preventing her from wriggling free.
From her higher vantage atop the horse, she could see Ezra whirling and dodging Guardians’ saber attacks as he tried to run toward her.
Beyond him, Rhys and Tej stood back-to-back while mounted Guardians circled them, pinning them in place.
Difficult to assess in the confusion, but there were easily thirteen Guardians remaining, their numbers far greater than the highwaymen.
In moments, Ezra, Tej, and Rhys would be overwhelmed—and the Guardians weren’t interested in capture. Only the deaths of the three wolves would seem to satisfy them.
Jessica grabbed the reins of a nearby horse. She tugged hard, bringing the animal about, turning it away from Ezra and the others. As the horse wheeled, she shoved her heel into another steed behind her. She rammed her elbow into the horse beneath her, crying out, “Hyah!”
Chaos spread through the Guardians’ mounts. The beasts spun and whinnied and reared.
Jessica continued to shout at the animals, urging them to bolt. Despite their riders’ attempts to control them, the horses turned and began to run down the road, through the village. Townsfolk retreated into their houses and shops to avoid being trampled by the confused beasts.
One Guardian remained, positioned between Ezra and the edge of the forest. Using his stolen sword, Ezra stabbed upward, piercing the rider’s chest. The Guardian pitched off his saddle to collapse on the ground.
From her place atop a running horse, Jessica glanced back to see Ezra, Tej, and Rhys looking back and forth between her retreating form and the shelter of the forest. Bouncing, jostled, she gestured for them to run to safety. Agonized expressions darkened their faces.
They had to see. There was no winning here.
After one final look at her, they turned and sprinted into the woods. Shadows swallowed them.
Ezra, Tej, and Rhys were gone.
A handful of Guardians gained enough control of their mounts to try to ride in pursuit of the highwaymen.
Yet, at the edge of the forest, the horses reared.
Despite the riders’ attempts to kick their mounts into submission, their horses refused to enter the woods.
With shouts of frustration, the Guardians brought their mounts around and joined their compatriots as they raced through the village.
Jessica lifted her head to see the coaching inn whip past, and a mail coach just pulling in. The Guardians didn’t stop. They kept on riding, taking her farther and farther away from any plan she might have once had. Away from Rhys. Tej. Ezra.
They were safe, at least.
Held down as she was, she could do nothing but surrender to the jouncing, nauseating ride down the road and out of the village.
She lost sense of time, the road unfurling beneath her.
The sun was at its lowest point, moments before setting, when the Guardians finally slowed, then stopped.
Oyster shells crunched beneath the hooves of the winded horses.
She gasped as the man holding her down swung from the saddle and released his grip.
Her head spun as she was pulled off of the horse.
She and the Guardians assembled in the curved driveway of a large three-story, brick-fronted manor house, built in the heavy style of a hundred years ago, with ivy crawling up the walls.
A few lights shone in the mullioned windows, and torches blazed in front of the house, casting shadows across the weighty facade.
She clutched at the saddle to stay upright as she faced her captor. A heavy golden insignia hung from a chain around his neck. Icy blue eyes regarded her.
The Guardian tugged down his mask to reveal a face of sharp features, the scar bisecting his eyebrow and down his cheek only highlighting his cold handsomeness.
“Jonathan Page, I presume,” Jessica managed.
“Miss Colfax.” His voice was as frigid as his face.
“What is this?” A genteel but cutting voice sliced through the dusk as a man strode out of the manor. “You were supposed to kill them, not capture the jade.”
Jessica’s swimming gaze leveled enough for her to look upon the face of Sir Harold Mowbray. He held a glass of wine, which he sipped at before tossing the remaining contents into the crushed shells covering the driveway. Her former employer regarded her with disgust.
“She was in the way, Sir Harold,” Page explained bitingly.
The baronet rolled his eyes. “Leaving her alive was an unnecessary complication.”
“Shall I kill her?” Page asked the question as blandly as if he was asking if the baronet wanted minted peas with his roast pheasant.
Jessica tensed her body. She would fight until there was no blood or breath left in her.
Mowbray snapped his fingers. “Bring her. Take her upstairs.”
Icy fear spread along Jessica’s spine as two Guardians flanked her, grabbing her arms. She struggled against them, but their grips were too tight, and they hauled her inside.