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One of the es at her, but Lucent lashes out with her sword, cutting the other man in the stomach Ahead of us, Teren cuts the path clear even ashis flesh, but he seems oblivious to his injuries, his body slowly, laboriously trying to heal itself with each attack It’s even clearer now--he heals noticeably slower than I reainst the wall of the building and twists inone man neatly across the throat and another in his chest The smell of blood and fear fills rowing louder with each passingme even as they veerto stave off the rush of illusions that threaten to overwhelm me Our attackers’ smiles turn skeletal, their forms monstrous Their hands extend like claard us, as if they were dead trees in a forest, and suddenly I a to breathe Keep ain Teren continues iano keeps them back I try to concentrate on them We have to find a way out of this street
Then, ahead of us, Raffaele sturimaces in pain, then falls to his knees
Lucent rushes to his side As I look on, she grabs his arm and tries to help him to his feet--but he winces, clutches his head, and stu in pain, his hair spilling past his shoulders in a black sheet
His fear is a blanket over hilance around us There is far too much chaos here for me to make all of us disappear behind a curtain of invisibility, and I want to saveRaffaele in his weakened state If I don’t hide hiy on Raffaele Then I weave invisibility across him He vanishes I rush over to him and Lucent as blades flash all around us When I reach them, I wrap one of Raffaele’s ariano looks in our direction fro off an attacker
A few steps ahead, Teren suddenly jerks backward as a teaet past Teren We’re invisible now, but even though the attacker can’t see us, he swings his blade in an arc toward us I only have tis through the air froh his throat He freezes in mid-movement, stunned, and then he drops his weapon and reaches up to clutch in vain at his neck As I look on, he falls backward onto the steps
More arrows cut through the air frole one of theht of a blur of arhter--in a flash, he has leapt onto one of the signs dangling in front of a door and swung forward, flinging a dagger down at the attackers
As I look up to see another figure dart by on the roofs, I finally glih on her head, the strands half black and half blond, crouched with one elbow resting on her knee She has a bow stretched back and pointed down in the direction of one of our attackers She lets the arrow fly
The Beldish queen has finally arrived
More and more of her soldiers appear on the roofs The Saccorists, now recognizing the crest of her men, start to break apart in their confusion Several of Maeve’s guards appear at the end of the street The sight of them seems to be the last straw for the Saccorists So attackers scatter i a run for it Teren continues to fight, but the battle is already over The attackers melt away as quickly as they appeared, until all that’s left in the street are the fallen
I lift the illusion froth leaves iano hurries to our side and takes Raffaele’s limp body in his arainst the here I left her, curled into a tight ball and looking as if she were concentrating on staying conscious I walk over, then extend a hand to her
Violetta turns up her face tofear and distance in her eyes that had so defined our last feeeks together has faded, replaced by a faht I reh Merroutas, ere the only company we needed in the world
The whispers still haunt the air aroundthem aside Violetta takes ainst me, barely able to stand "Teren," I say as he approaches us There are slashes in his tunic and smears of blood on his arives Violetta a cold look, then hoists her effortlessly onto his back without a word
"We have an encampment," Maeve calls down to us fro her eyes, and a streak of gold war paint on her cheeks "You all look like you could use a rest"
I see Maeve searching foraround her at my presence I think back to the last time we set eyes on each other, when she had watchednu all around us
She straightens and nods in the direction of the city’s outskirts "My e of the roof