Mai’s second night in Gansu began as her first had, with preparations for sleep. If she had night clothes to change into, the process would have been longer, but with the status quo, all she had to do was get into bed. Her clothes were incredibly worn by now, and she made a mental note to bring that fact up to Broken in the morning.

Mai looked over at him. He was by the window again, the window, large enough that he could break through it, and fall on the stone below. Mai wasn’t even sure what Broken could see, as night had fallen, and only torchlight illuminated the square, torchlight from the Minsu camp. Broken’s armor and weapons were neatly piled in a corner of the room, by the bed, revealing for the first time what was underneath, a light-colored tunic.

Mai got out of bed. “What’s so interesting about the window?” she asked Broken, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“The frame is not important,” he said. “What is important is what can be seen through it. And look…”

Mai looked through the window. Four soldiers were walking away from the Minsu camp, and seemed to be heading straight for the Emerald Singer.

“What do you think they’re after?” she asked.

“Conventional wisdom would say they want drinks,” said Broken, in an odd voice. “But look closer.”

Mai did, and as she looked, Broken spoke again. “They are in formation, and they are determined.” Mai saw this was true.

“So?” she asked.

“Wait here.” Mai’s hand fell away from Broken’s shoulder as he quickly left the room, closing the door behind him.

Mai watched the soldiers go into the Emerald Singer. Something about what Broken had said made her feel frightened.

Broken reappeared a minute later, with a huge axe in his hands. He was very careful to close the door behind him, and lock it.

“Where did you get that?” asked Mai, and Broken set the massive thing under the bed.

“When we were having dinner, a drunken woodsman left his axe in the corner of the common room, and said he would be back for it later.”

“And you just took it?”

“Yes,” said Broken. “We may need it.”

“For what? You’re scaring me.”

Broken said nothing. Instead, he positioned himself by the door.

Heartbeats later, someone knocked. Mai became aware of herself breathing heavy, with fear anticipation. Why would soldiers be after us? But she already knew the answer. Broken had told her. Even Varsis had told her.

“Open up,” came a voice.

Broken unlatched the deadbolt, but not the chain. Through the crack peered part of a soldier’s helmet. It surveyed the room, and focused on Mai.

Mai wanted to hide, or at least do something, but fear would not allow her to move.

“Is there something you want?” asked Broken.

“I am here with three of my men, boy,” said the soldier. “Open the door. You do not want to stop us.”

Broken has to do something, Mai thought. He has to do something! He can’t just let them kill me! Since Varsis, a part of her had changed. She no longer wanted to die. Broken showed me hope, and after that, I can’t just lose everything!

“I see I’m involved in something that doesn’t concern me,” said Broken. “I’m opening the door.”

As Broken closed the door, and began to unlatch the chain, emotions flooded Mai. Betrayal. Anger. Hurt. Fear. But through all of that, came the sensation that if only she had trusted Broken, things would not have ended this way.

It’s not like Broken has a choice, thought Mai. He can’t take on four soldiers.

Broken opened the door, and Mai saw all four of the hulking, leather armor clad figures with helms, wearing yellow armbands.

“Good job, boy,” said the lead soldier to Broken. “Now, run along. You won’t want to see what happens to your little whore, here.”

Broken’s hand slowly slipped from the handle of the door, and he began to take a step out, even as the lead soldier started to push past him, to get in.

That moment seemed eternal.

But it was not to last.

Suddenly a whirlwind of action, Broken stepped back into the room, tripped the lead soldier, and quickly shut the door and bolted it.

As the other three men started to pound on the door, their leader got to his feet, already within.

“You’ll regret this,” said the soldier, throwing his helmet to the ground, revealing an angry, unshaven face. He spit a bit of blood onto the floor.

Broken faced off against him, seemingly unconcerned about the pounding on the door. As the soldier started to draw his sword, Mai backed away, and Broken charged.

Broken moved so fast it was blinding, striking with his open palms, and knocking the soldier’s hands away from his sword. As the soldier tried to shove Broken away, Broken gutted him with a fist, then, as the soldier doubled over, kneed him between the legs.

As the soldier fell to the ground in pain, clutching himself, Broken turned back to the door, and bolted it. He grabbed the bed, pulled it up on it side, and moved it against the door, as an additional barrier.

Then, slowly, Broken began to arm and armor himself, from the neatly folded pile he had placed in the room.

“You wouldn’t try to save her, if you knew who she was,” grunted the soldier, from the floor, still writhing.

Broken shoved his sword and scabbard into his belt, now fully ready for combat. He picked up the axe from the floor. “I know exactly who she is,” said Broken. “I made an oath to protect her. And I never lie.”

The soldier on the ground seemed to be gathering himself for one final exertion, but Broken kicked him savagely in the head, knocking the man into unconsciousness.

“Princess!” he said, and Mai remembered that she was still alive. “Keep that door closed!”

Mai did not think of arguing. She ran over to the door, and, around the upturned bed, pushed on it with all her strength. The door shook, and shuddered, and when a sword point broke through part of the sturdy wood, Mai let out an involuntary scream.

Further into the room, Broken hefted the axe, and it seemed he was going to hem the unconscious soldier’s skull in two. “What are you doing?” she screamed. “He’s already dealt with!”

With all his strength, Broken chopped down…but not at the soldier. At the bare floor. Wood splintered and broke apart as Broken chopped at the floor, again, and again, and again.

“I’m getting us out of here,” said Broken, using his hands to shovel away bits and pieces of newly unattached wood. He then hacked and hacked again, until he reached the supports.

In only a minute more, there was a hole in the floor. A way out.

“Get over here,” said Broken.

Mai did not need much encouragement to abandon her post. The door was now so thoroughly hacked up by the soldier’s blades, that it looked as if one more shove would break it apart.

And surely enough, when Mai was halfway to the hole Broken had made in the floor, the door broke apart. Actually, Mai didn’t think ‘broke’ was the best word to describe what happened to the door.

In truth, it exploded.

Bits of door flew everywhere, sending splinters everywhere. Mai felt her arms and legs get cut, and was glad her back was turned.

As she reached the hole, Broken tossed the axe aside, and picked her up. Over his shoulder, Mai could see the three remaining soldiers, and then she was pushed through the hole, just as one of the soldiers took a slice at Broken with his sword.

As Mai fell through the hole, splinters fell with her.

The floor was not thick, and in but a moment, she found herself falling from the ceiling of the inn’s main room, arms flailing violently.

Mai landed hard on a table, cracking it open. The startled group of people sitting around the table scattered, and Mai found herself lying on the dusty floor, two halves of table around her. Her dress was covered with whatever liquid those at the table she had broken had been drinking. A growing circle of startled inn patrons came to stand in a circle around her, muttering to themselves, and pointing up at the hole she had fallen from.

Mai, disoriented, struggled to get up, as a kindly old woman, or something that looked a lot like one, asked if she was all right. Everything was swimming, and Mai saw things in double vision.

She staggered to her feet, blinking, and things started to clear, when Broken fell from above. He landed lightly on his feet, with one hand out for balance, and was accompanied by both a spray of wood, and a screaming, falling soldier, who landed with a wet thunk on the stone floor, with nothing to catch his fall.

Mai looked up. The hole looked quite a bit bigger than it had before. She thought she heard, from above, one of the remaining soldiers shout to head down the stairs and finish the job. She turned to Broken.

Broken stood. His breathing was steady, too steady to be normal in a situation like this. A long cut stretched from beside his left ear, to his chin, maring his otherwise handsome face.

He looked at her, brushing himself off as if they had all the time in the world. Then he grabbed her hand, and said, “Let’s run.”

And they ran. Time functioned normally once more. The door to the inn was slightly ajar when the reached it, but Broken kicked it all the way open. Then he turned, racing along the outside wall of the inn. Mai could hear the shouts of the soldiers behind them, and could plainly see more breaking off from the main Minsu camp to pursue, even as passerby on the dark street stopped and stared. Above them all, the starlight sky shown bright, and in an odd moment, Mai found herself finding in the heavens, the outline of Slepan, the Weaver.

But then it was back to the running. Even as Mai ran as fast as she could, she still found Broken’s grasp on her hand to be what dragged her onwards. She panted as they turned the corner, still hugging the side of the Emerald Singer, and glanced back to see Minsu soldiers chasing after them, in numbers much greater than the mere two that had emerged from the inn.

Broken pulled open an unlocked door, leading to a back wing of the Emerald Singer. It lead to a stable, where a lone attendant was feeding the dozen or so horses housed. Broken leaped over a cart with feed that the attendant was pushing, and Mai brushed around it, the side of the cart burning her, as Broken rushed ever forwards.

The attendant headed to the door, sensing this was not a place to be. Just then however, banging came on the door, which made the man rethink his position, and search for somewhere to hide.

The banging continued for another moment, until one of the soldiers realized the door was one to pull, and then the soldiers flooded the shadowy room, screaming at Mai and Broken to halt.

Even as all this continued, the horse in the open stall that the attendant had been working with became frightened by all the loud noise and running. It charged out from its open stall, and into the group of soldiers, barreling through them, until one cut it down with a sword.

And Mai and Broken ran. Broken looked through the cracks of every stall as he passed, until finally, he stopped at the last stall. Mai stared at the rapidly approaching soldiers, but through the corner of her eye, inside the stall she could see white Aruith.

Broken drew his sword, and it was an eerie sound to Mai’s ears, for she knew he was not going to put it away again until it was covered with blood. Broken hacked, not at the chain that held the door closed, but at the very doorframe around it. Two cuts was enough for Broken to rip the door open with a single bare hand. “Aruith!” he shouted, and the horse rushed to him.

Broken leapt up upon the horse, and pulled Mai up behind him. She franticly clutched Broken’s waist. She had never ridden a horse before, and it was a disorienting experience.

And then the soldiers were upon them.

It was as if a great wind had rushed through the open door, causing the lanterns to flicker. Mai felt the rushing air around her, and all she could see was flashes, as each time she closed her eyes, she held them shut for an extra moment.

Mai could see Broken trying to cut a path through the soldiers. Blood flew.

Eyes shut. Eyes opened.

Aruith reared up on his hind legs, and Mai would have fallen, had she not been holding onto Broken’s waist in a death grip.

Eyes shut. Eyes opened.

Aruith landed on the ground, seemingly with a screaming soldier beneath the horse’s feet. Around Mai, the soldiers stepped back, then surged forwards.

Eyes shut. Eyes opened.

Mai saw a halberd slicing through the air, barely missing her shoulder. As she screamed, she realized Broken had cleared a path through the men. Aruith raced through the opening.

And they were free.

The mass of soldiers was still right behind them, and other men, who had stayed back when the battle was joined, still littered the stable.

But Aruith galloped past them all, and out the stall door.

In the streets, there was chaos, or near enough, with a ring of soldiers forcing commoners to stay away from the stable, even as the commoners shouted that they had a right to know what was going on.

Some of those soldiers turned just in time to see Aruith break through their ranks. Others never had the chance. Before they could look back, Aruith was already forward.

The commoners on the streets had no desire to stop a speeding horse, and stepped back, to give Aruith room, even as they looked on. Mai even thought that some of them were clapping.