Ash and soot swirled around in the melting-hot air, clogging the throat and making the eyes tear. With a crackle, flames licked the walls, their hungry tongues stretching to the ceiling.

Drip. Drip.

Like sparkling scarlet beads, blood tricked along the blade, falling on the ground where a small puddle slowly started to form.

“W-why?”

With a muffled thud, a dagger rolled on the floor. A trail of red appeared in the corner of the woman’s mouth as she coughed. Her eyes turned huge as she convulsively gripped the hand holding Red Dawn’s hilt. The sword had pierced her entire body, its tip protruding from her back.

“Y-you didn’t… even… hesitate to stab… me! Your wife!”

“You might look and sound like her,” squeezed Noah through his teeth, “but you’re not Lorelei. Your steps are much too heavy, witch.”

“M-my… steps…”

A low hiss came from the woman’s mouth. She was laughing.

“You… truly are… a beast!”

Noah didn’t answer. He swiftly pulled out his blade making the woman shriek in pain. Her legs wobbled and she crashed on the floor much like a puppet with its strings cut.

The sound of rushing feet came from the entrance as the rest of the knights barged in. What they saw made their hearts freeze. In the middle of the room stood their lord, sword in hand, and in his feet lay the lifeless body of the duchess in an ever-growing puddle of blood. Scarlet drops still rolled down from the lowered blade.

“By the Gods! What have you done, my lord?” Lucas exclaimed, unable to accept the ghastly scene before his eyes. The rest of the men too just stared in horror.

“This isn’t her, Lucas. It’s an imposter.”

Noah squatted down. His hand roughly tore the front of the woman’s garment. Nested between her breasts lay a little pendant, but its sparkling white surface was now smeared with the rusty color of dried blood. In addition, a familiar long lock of brown hair was tied around the amulet.

Anger and fear filled Noah’s chest. He grabbed the twin-drop, snapping its cord.

“This does not belong to you, witch!”

At that very moment, the whole body of the woman blurred and slowly began to change shape. On the left side of her chest, the sign of an open palm started to fade back in.

“Damn Red Hands!” Lucas cursed.

Pendant in hand, Noah stood up and, for the first time in many years, didn’t know what to do. This was their last lead. Without it, finding Lorelei would be almost impossible. On top of that, he had just killed their only witness. Noah squeezed the twin-drop so tight that his fist started trembling.

“Search the house for any more Red Hands. I need them alive.”

“But the fire…”

“Search. The. House!”

After barking his orders, Noah stormed out.

The fire was intensifying. The young man could feel the scorching blaze on his face. Part of his mind quivered in fear, remembering the pain of his own burning flesh. Yet he didn’t shy away. His chest filled with hot choking air as he took a breath.

“LORELEI!”

The shout echoed throughout the house. Before it could even die out, Noah was running along the soot-filled corridors, crashing doors open and calling his wife’s name. Suddenly, his ears caught a sound, so minuscule that someone else might have missed it. It was a rhythmical knocking against wood and a muffled “Help!”.

Noah rushed towards the sound, hope rekindling in his heart. Reaching another locked room, he didn’t even pause his step.

“Stay away from the door!”

The old wood stood no chance before the speed and force of the assault. With a clang it flew open, clearing the way for the knight to storm in. Stepping in the stuffy little room, Noah’s eyes widened. There were around ten women huddled inside, their frail bodies barely covered by short thin undershirts, and all of them had the ash-white hair and frightened blue eyes of a mixed-blood binshi. The man felt his stomach turn at the site. Calling them women was wrong. They were still children, the oldest being seventeen at most, yet he suspected what their fate had been from William’s report. These were the flowers of the night, meant for harvesting by the clients of this illegal brothel.

With Noah entering the room, the girl closest to the door shrieked and crawled back to her friends. Utter terror was written all over her face.

“Don’t be afraid,” Noah tried to sound calm and made a step forward. “I am not going to harm you. Come now, we all need to get out before the fire burns this place!”

Instead of calming down, all the girls shrank back from him, huddling even tighter together. Their gem-like eyes were staring unblinkingly at him. This made Noah realize what kind of a grotesque image they actually saw – face disfigured by a huge scar; skin as dark as tree bark; sword still dripping blood in his hand. On top of it all, swirls of black smoke engulfed him, making him look like a fiend who had just crawled out from the depths of hell.

Behind his back, he heard his men approaching and signaled them to remain outside. With no second thoughts, Noah sheathed his blade and prepared to approach the girls again, when a tiny cry startled him.

“Highness!”

Shoving the binshi aside, a small figure darted towards him before the others could stop her. The girl’s little hands clasped around his waist as she cried and stuttered.

“Y-you came, h-highness! Y-you r-really came for us! W-why a-are you so late!?”

“You… Anuk! You are Anuk, right?” Noah lifted the sobbing child in his embrace. “You were with Lorelei, right? Is she here too?”

The girl shook her head.

“T-the bad men beat h-her and t-took her a-away. T-they beat m-me too. T-they s-said t-they’ll g-gauge t-the lady’s eyes out i-if I try running away again. Highness, I w-was a g-good girl! Didn’t r-run. P-please, s-save the lady! Please!”

“It’s alright, little one! The bad things are over.” Noah hugged her tighter. “I’ll find the lady. It’s a promise. But now you and your friends need to get out of here. Lucas, take her.”

“No!” Anuk screamed louder, her hands wrapping around his neck. “Please, d-don’t g-go away!”

A loud crash echoed somewhere close by. Most likely the supporting beams were starting to give out. The fire was raging even stronger, threatening to engulf the whole building any minute now.

“Go!” Noah shoved the child into Lucas’ arms. “Get out, all of you, or you’ll die!”

As if awaking from a deep slumber, the girls finally rushed out, guided by the knights. Noah was the only one left behind. The smoke choked him and burned his throat, and yet he ran in the opposite direction of the exit.

“LORELEI!”

He ran, and coughed, and shouted, and coughed even more. The ash flying around was stinging his eyes, making it almost impossible to see.

Suddenly, Noah felt someone pulling his arm. He flinched and spun around, only to see Gregor’s worried face. The twins were just behind him.

“It’s time to leave.” The binshi protected his mouth from the soot with his sleeve. “We’ve checked as best as we could. There is no one else left in the house.”

“Lorelei?”

The silence of the three was an answer on its own. Noah’s fists balled. He turned his back to Gregor, but the knight’s hand held him tight.

“Come to your senses! She isn’t here.”

“I know.”

The answer came quietly. The man’s clenched palms relaxed as his shouldest slumped forward. With a slight nudge, he freed himself from his friend’s grip and pulled out the blood-smeared twin-drop from his chest pocket. His hands shaking a bit, he tied the broken string and hung it around his neck.

“We were so close, Gerash. But we still failed.”

“Stop wasting time, … monster duke.”

A tired broken voice overcame the roaring of the flames and startled Noah and the three binshi. The twins quickly drew their daggers and pointed them at the unexpected intruder. Leaning against one of the walls stood a woman. Her skin looked pearl-white against her dark disheveled clothes. Long locks of hair fell around her pale face and shoulders, partially hiding the red mark over her exposed left breast. Behind her, a trail of red marked her path.

The woman lifted her chin at the twins.

“Didn’t they teach you… not to point a weapon… at a dead person…”

“You!” Noah pulled out his sword but the woman lifted her hand.

“You can kill me… twice. But then… you’ll never find… your wife.”

The man hesitated for a second, but his blade remained unmoving.

“Speak.”

“In the kitchen basement… at the very far end… there is a secret passage.” The woman moistened her lips. “Pull the lantern hook. The tunnel leads… beyond the city… wall. They left minutes… before you barged in. You can still catch them.”

“Why are you telling me this now?” Noah’s mistrust was fighting for dominance with the newly rekindled hope in his heart. Red Dawn’s tip touched the ground.

“Because…” the woman smiled widely, revealing her bloody teeth, “I want you to kill… that silver masked bastard. He used my body… my love… my soul… then tossed me to die. I was a fool… a monster… more… than you could…ever be. Gods, … I atone… I will… wait… in… hell… for… him…”

Her body slowly slumped down, cold and lifeless.

The four remaining people just stared at her, incapable to move for a brief moment. With a clang, Noah’s blade slid back in the scabbard. Then he dashed out, the three binshi right by his side.

“We should call the others,” Gregor suggested while dodging some burning debris falling from the ceiling.

“Not enough time. The place is about to collapse”

Noah took a sharp turn and ran down the creaking stairs that were now more flame than wood. The fire singed his clothes and hair, the hot air burned his lungs, but he didn’t feel a thing. He was a beast on the hunt and the target was right before of him.

Storming in the smoke-filled kitchen, they saw the still open latch on the floor. The Red Hands had been careless or maybe thought that the fire would cover their tracks.

“If that woman lied…” said Rish furrowing her brow.

“…. this will be a death-trap in just a few minutes,” concluded Rasha.

“Yes,” Gregor also didn’t look pleased. “Let me go…”

Before he could even finish, Noah had already jumped in.

“Argh!” The binshi gave out a frustrated groan and turned to the twins. “You two better stay…”

Swift like mountain rabbits, the girls disappeared into the hole.

“Mother Above, why don’t they ever listen?!”

With a heavy heart, the shaman followed them down, cursing along the way.

***

The underground tunnel was stuffy and narrow, twisting and turning so that one completely lost sense of direction. From time to time, the tips of tree-roots protruded here and there from the walls, but thick wooden beams crisscrossed the tunnel, keeping the tons of earth from caving in.

Quick steps echoed in the darkness, followed by the weak, yellowish light coming from a lantern. A group of people was rushing through the narrow passage and one of them was carrying a long sack over his shoulder. However, on a closer look, it wasn’t a sack he was hauling but a person’s body.

Lorelei chewed on the gag in her mouth and tried to remain conscious. Being carried like a bag of potatoes didn’t help ease the pain of her aching body. Besides all her bruises, there was a prickling sensation at the left side of her chest, getting sharper and sharper with each step her kidnapper was taking. Twisting her bound hands as much as she could, her fingers touched on a long-forgotten item – her brooch! It was a miracle that after everything the pin had remained safely tucked in her bosom.

“Shtop shquirming, bish, or I’ll fukin’ shnap yer armsh!” Bigs’ lisping voice brought terror into her heart. The thug roughly shook Lorelei’s body, making her almost drop the small piece of metal from her numb fingers as her head painfully banged against the ceiling.

“Quiet! Hasten your pace!” the binshi shaman who was walking at the front together with the masked man hissed. “Damn, this tunnel is taking forever.”

“It’s more than a mile from the mansion to the outside of Yalda’s walls. Next time, your turgan should find a better location if he wants to do business.” The masked man retorted in a low tone. “Hopefully, you have prepared enough spare horses.”

As the shaman was about to say something back, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“They’ve found us!” His voice sounded a pitch higher than usual. “The ghosts I left to guard the entrance have been purified!”

“What?”

“I-it’s not my fault! I had no more drals. W-what should we do now? Use that thing…”

“Enough! You want to kill us here?” the masked man shut him up. He turned to the three people making the rear guard of their group and a sword suddenly appeared in his hand. “You go back and slow them down. The rest – make a run for the exit! Hurry!”

Hastening their pace, Lorelei and her kidnappers left the three reluctant men behind. Not long after, the tunnel was filled with shouts and the clanging of weapons.

Dangling over Bigs’ shoulder, Lorelei could only think about one thing – help was so close but with each step the thug took, it was getting farther and farther away. Instinctively, she knew that once they exited the tunnel and mounted the horses there would be no chance for her to escape. Her swollen fingers clenched around the brooch, feeling its long, slightly bent needle.

Without thought or hesitation, Lorelei gathered all her strength and thrust the pointy iron into the man’s neck. The thug howled and dropped his prisoner on the ground, clutching his bleeding wound.

Ignoring the pain in her arms and knees, Lorelei gathered herself up and darted away, thankful that her captors had bound only her wrists and not her legs.

“After her, you imbecile!” The shriek of master Argente filled the tunnel.

Without looking back, Lorelei ran. Legs shaking, feet slipping, she ran for her life. The gag made it so she couldn’t even get a proper breath of air, but she still ran with the last burst of energy that hope and desperation could squeeze out of her body. Her senses, heightened by the rush, told her that the thug was closing in. Before her, the clanging of weapons had suddenly quieted down.

‘Dear Gods! Just a bit more! Just a few more steps!’ Lorelei prayed desperately. She could feel the fingertips of her pursuer touching her shoulder, just about to grab her. ‘Help!’

A silver flash flew past her head. There was a moan followed by a gurgling sound, and then there was silence. Before being able to comprehend what was going on, Lorelei collided with a sturdy obstacle that had appeared right in front of her. Giving out a muffled scream, she thrashed and kicked as two iron arms wrapped around her body.

“Lorelei! Calm down! It’s me! It’s me!”

She couldn’t see the man’s face, but there was no need. This was a voice she could recognize anywhere. A large gloved hand carefully removed her gag, giving Lorelei finally a chance to take in some much-needed air.

“M-my l-lord!”

Gasping for breath she could only mutter two words before the tears drowned her voice again. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder, unable to stop her sobs. Despite the hard chainmail, right now his embrace felt like the most comforting and warm place in the world. She was safe in his arms.

His grip tightened a bit and he gently rocked her, as he would a little child.

“Hush, it’s over now. I’m here. All is fine now.”

She knew that. She wanted to thank him, to tell him how happy she was, to ask him how he found her. There were so many things she wanted to say, but why wouldn’t the words come out? Why wouldn't the tears stop flowing?

Still holding her, Noah moved a bit. Immediately, Lorelei’s fingers dug desperately in his surcoat.

“What’s wrong?” He sounded perplexed and genuinely concerned. “Are you injured? Does it hurt somewhere?”

She just shook her head trying to squeeze out some coherent words from her clogged throat.

“D-don’t… l-leave…”

“Silly girl! I didn’t fight through water, fire, and death just so I can leave you. Like it or not, you are coming back to Ildemar with me.”

After saying that, Noah lifted her up and cradled her as if he was holding a baby.

“Gerash, lead us out of here. All of you, stay vigilant. There might still be enemies lurking.”