Shadow War - Deborah Chester [135]
Somehow she had fought off the attack of the shadows, and she had searched until she found men to help her. She was far from helpless, and he valued that more than he could describe.
Besides, above all else, she was empress sovereign, ruler of this land after the emperor himself. She could not be lost, must not be lost. She represented order and stability. Along with the emperor, she was the empire. And as such, she constituted its most precious resource.
But why was he the only one who realized it?
Caelan’s anger boiled hotter, and he quickened his pace until she was almost running to keep up.
“Please,” she said, panting.
His gaze flicked to hers. “Your pardon,” he murmured, and slowed down for a moment, only to unconsciously speed up again as his sense of urgency grew.
He had seen the panicky chancellors milling around; had seen the emperor protest one last time, then give in to their entreaties with an expression of bleak despair. Even now the man was probably mounting his horse at the stables, seizing his final opportunity to escape this carnage, with no thought at all for the wife he was leaving behind.
Not once had Elandra’s name been mentioned in all the chaos. Not once had Caelan overheard the emperor ask about her. Was the man that shallow, that selfish, that he could forget her?
Caelan’s fingers tightened on hers. It was insupportable, this cowardice, and he vowed that he would not let the emperor abandon her.
“Hurry,” he urged her when she flagged.
She nodded, looking pale with fatigue, and quickened her pace obediently again.
They hastened down a flight of stairs and rounded a corner, only to come face to face with a small band of roving Madruns.
Caelan plunged to a halt so abruptly the empress bumped into him. He ignored her, ignored how she involuntarily clutched at his sleeve with a tiny gasp.
Dismay surged into his throat like sour bile. He hadn’t heard these three, hadn’t even sensed them. Were they shielded within some kind of spell, that they could pass like shadows?
They looked equally startled. The Madruns wore heavy leather breastplates and loin straps. Their bare legs were black with dried mire to the knees, and their weapons and arms were splattered with blood and gore. With their filed teeth and red eyes, clustered there in the gloom of the badly lit passageway, they were creatures from a nightmare.
Everyone stood momentarily frozen; then the Madruns’ gazes fell on Elandra, and they grinned.
The primal lust in their savage faces enraged Caelan. He shoved the empress back from him, hard enough to almost overbalance her, and faced them with both his sword and dagger drawn.
Gathering up her skirts, Elandra scrambled back up the steps to give him maneuvering room. He had one last glimpse of her white, fearful face before he gave all his attention to the Madruns.
They shrilled out war cries and attacked together, three against one. Undaunted by the odds, Caelan threw his dagger, quick and hard. It hit its target in the foremost man’s eye, quivering there as it penetrated his brain.
Screaming, the Madrun fell back, momentarily blocking the progress of the other two. Caelan charged them, swinging his sword up and across in a swipe that just missed decapitating the one on the left. Following through with his swing, he aimed it at the second man, who ducked and stumbled back with a howl.
Caelan stepped back in a half-pivot and parried the sword of the man on his left, now bleeding copiously from the wound at the base of his neck. Caelan hopped nimbly over the body of the fallen Madrun and forced his opponents down the stairs with a brutal, driving attack.
The passageway was too narrow for him to use his sword to its fullest extent. Hampered by the close quarters and lack of sufficient maneuvering room, he had to adjust his swing to avoid nicking his blade on the stone walls. However, neither could the Madruns circle behind him the way they so obviously wanted. He knew well their pattern of attack fighting: outnumber, surround, and maul.
The Madruns were equipped with shorter swords,