The Spell of Rosette - Kim Falconer [171]
Is Jarrod with them? she asked Drayco.
He sneezed after a deep inhalation. No. But the dogs follow. He lashed his tail as he sent the message.
She squinted at the rank of guards and thought she could see wolf shapes in the shadows. She shivered, trusting Kreshkali knew what she was doing by bringing the creatures back. An’ Lawrence touched her shoulder, signalling her to follow him to the right. He sent Clay and Zero to the left. Rosette gave Clay’s hand a squeeze as he strode past. He locked onto her for a moment before letting go.
‘Be safe,’ she whispered.
‘You too!’ He nodded, and was gone.
Jarrod says he’s at the second level now with Grayson. We have to keep moving. Drayco’s voice snapped her back to attention and she followed An’ Lawrence into the building.
Four guards sprang to their feet as they entered the side foyer, two overcoming their initial surprise at the bizarre intrusion and aiming their laser rifles. Too late.
The felines were on them instantly, knocking them to the ground. With swords drawn, An’ Lawrence and Rosette slid across the tiled floor, taking out the remaining pair that was aiming to shoot. One of them dropped his laser and shook his head, his hands coming up.
‘Get him down and tie his hands,’ An’ Lawrence said calmly as he decapitated the guard to his left who had taken the pause as an opportunity. The laser went off, shooting wide, searing through the ceiling lights and down the wall just as the guard’s head rolled past his feet.
The Sword Master flicked the blood from his blade with a snap of his wrist and sheathed it. ‘Up the stairs, quick,’ he directed Rosette before turning to the remaining guard.
‘If I were you, I’d walk quietly to the perimeter. Do you get me?’
The guard nodded and left.
Rosette took the stairs two at a time. Halfway up, a flash of movement in her peripheral vision spun her around, her sword moving silently from its sheath. A guard was about to fire, his stealth getting him an arm’s length from her back—within her kill circle. She dropped to her knee, drawing her sword fully as she did so, cutting in one move. Her blade sliced his body open from his right kidney to his left lower rib. She stood as he tumbled backwards, flicked her blade clean, sheathed it and followed the others up the steps.
It was hand to hand on the next level. Guards were amassing on both sides of the hall, making lasers useless.
What idiot trained these people?
Just be grateful, Maudi. Otherwise, the liquid swords would have us. Watch out!
Lupins were amongst them, going for throats. Rosette slid across the floor, knocking the guard in front of her back with the hilt of her sheathed sword. He slammed into the wall and slumped down, waving his hands above his face. She strapped them together and straightened, pulling him to his feet.
‘Get out while you can,’ she shouted.
Maudi! Drayco screamed in her head. Behind!
She turned to find a laser rifle pointed at her face. The guard was about to pull the trigger when a black mass flew at him from the side; Drayco’s jaws closed around his throat and dropped him with the weight of his assault, snapping his neck before he hit the ground.
‘Rosette!’ An’ Lawrence shouted above the alarms and the clashing of steel. ‘This way.’
They tore down the hall, the blood-soaked nails of the cats’ claws clicking and sliding along the polished floor. Turning a corner, they found Kreshkali with a white-coated scientist at the end of her knife point.
‘It won’t work,’ he was saying to her, his voice shaking along with his limbs. ‘The sensors will pick up the elevated adrenaline in my blood and they won’t respond.’
‘Then we’ll just have to lower your adrenaline level, won’t we?’ She held off his jugular vein with the blunt edge of her knife and injected a clear fluid.
The scientist’s eyes went wide for a moment, then fluttered and hooded. A silly