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.There are certainly more of them out there, thought Magda, sooner or later they’ll rush us all atonce.They had been lucky: Magda had killed her man, and the one Cholayna had kicked, thoughpossibly not dead, had at least had all the fight knocked out of him…The door burst open, and the room filled with men, yelling like so many demons.Camilla ran thenearest one through, and Magda found herself fighting with her knife at close quarters.Cholayna was inthe center of a cluster of them, fighting like some legendary devil or hero, kicking with frequently deadlyaccuracy.Magda’s next opponent ran in over her dagger and drove her backward, off-balance; she felthis knife slice into her arm and kicked out wildly, then slammed her other elbow into the base of histhroat and sent him flying aside, unconscious.She could feel hot blood trickling down her arm, butanother bandit was on her already, and there was no time for pain or fear.One of them, running toward the horses, literally stumbled over Jaelle; he bent swiftly with his dagger,and Magda flung herself on him from behind, shrieking a warning.She pulled her knife across his throatwith a strength she had never imagined having, and he fell, half-beheaded, across Jaelle—who woke,staring and mumbling uncomprehendingly.As quickly as that, it was all over.Seven men lay dead or unconscious on the floor.The rest hadretreated, possibly to regroup, Magda did not know which or, at the moment, care.Jaelle muttered, plaintively, “What’s going on?”“Cholayna,” Camilla ordered, “get into your pack, try to get one of those pills of yours down Jaelleand Vanessa! That was just the first onslaught, they’ll be back.”Jaelle blinked and Magda saw her eyes come into focus.“We were poisoned? Drugged?”Cholayna nodded, imperatively gesturing for Jaelle to swallow the stimulant capsule.Forcing it down,Jaelle exploded, “Damn them! They had the nerve to haggle with us over the price of the food and wine,too!” She got out of her sleeping bag, tried to haul Vanessa to her feet; then gave it up, and grabbing upher knife, Jaelle came to join Camilla.She still looked groggy, but the stimulant was taking effect.Magda thought, We were lucky with the first fight, and Cholayna is one hell of a scrapper forher age! Nevertheless, there’s no way the four of us — even if Vanessa could be waked in time—we can’t kill off an entire village! We’ll die here… But was that so, she wondered; now that thevillagers knew the women would be no easy pickings, could they bargain for their lives? Looking atCamilla’s face, she knew the swordswoman would entertain no such notions; she was prepared for afight to the death.What other defenses did they have?They would probably rush them all at once.Magda was aware of pain now in her wounded arm, andher head was beginning to throb.The man Camilla had gutted began, unexpectedly, his terrible moaningagain; Camilla knelt and quickly cut his throat.Cleaning the knife on the dead man’s ragged coat, Camilla stood up, fingering her sword.Magda feltshe could almost read her mind, knowing the mercenary’s code of honor.Camilla was more than readyto die bravely.But I don’t want to die bravely , Magda thought.I don’t want to die at all.And I don’twant Cholayna’s and Vanessa’s lives on my conscience if I don’t! Is there any alternative —?Then, with a dreadful sense of déjà vu , she saw a face peer round the door, as if they had returnedto the very beginning of the fight.Think, damn it, think! What good is it having laran if it can’t save your life now!A bandit rushed at her, knife upraised.She struck hard, felt him crumple away under her—but theywere outnumbered.Desperately she reached out with her laran , remembering an old trick; suddenlyseeing, like an image painted behind her eyes, the fireside at Armida, and Damon telling them about abattle fought with laran , long ago.Jaelle! Shaya, help me!Jaelle was fighting for her life with a bandit in a red shirt.Magda reached desperately, wove animage, saw the bandits recoil; above them in the barn a demon wavered, no Darkovan demon but anancient devil out of Terran myth, with horns, tail, and a mighty stink of sulphur… The line of men brokeand surged back.Then Jaelle linked with her, the minds of the freemates locking into one; and suddenlya dozen fanged demons armed with swords faced the bandits.The villagers faltered again, fell back yetagain, and then with a howl, turned and ran.Some even threw down their weapons as they went.Vanessa chose that moment to sit up.Staring about the barn with bewilderment, she saw thedemons, emitted a strangled squeak and buried her head in the blankets.The stink of sulphur still lingered.Cholayna ran quickly to Vanessa, urging her to get up.Camillasaid, “That ought to hold them for a while! Not for long, though.Let’s get out while we can!”Swiftly they scrambled to their horses, Vanessa still shaking her head and mumbling dizzily.Magdachecked her bleeding arm.Nothing, she supposed to worry about; though blood was still oozing slowlyfrom the cut.If a vein was severed , she told herself, it would be a steady flow, and if the artery hadgone, I’d have bled to death already.She tore a strip from the bottom of her undertunic once she’dclambered into her saddle; she tied the tourniquet swiftly, anchoring it with her teeth to keep both handsfree.Clumped together on their horses, chervines on lead reins, they moved toward the door.Jaelle said,“Wait—” and Magda felt the touch of her laran , “let’s make sure they don’t get in here for a good longtime… ”Magda looked over her shoulder at the face and form of the Goddess, dark robe glittering with stars,jeweled wings overshadowing the dark spaces of the barn, her face haloed and her eyes piercing,sorrowful, terrifying.She did not envy the villager who tried to use that barn again, even for an innocentpurpose.Where had she found the image in her mind? On the night of that first meeting of theSisterhood?They rode together out of the barn into the wind and blowing snow.A few villagers huddledtogether, watching them go, but made no move to stop them.Maybe they still saw the demons she andJaelle had created.All at once, Magda was fearfully sick and dizzy.She held to her saddle with both hands, trying toavoid falling from her horse.Her wounded arm—the same arm she had scraped raw in the fall, sherealized for the first time—stung with pain, and her head throbbed as if every pulse of her blood were aseparate stone hurled at her forehead; but she clung to the saddle, desperately.The important thing wasto put as much space as humanly possible between themselves and that miserable, damnable village.Shetried to hang on with one hand and pull her scarf over her face to protect her eyes a little from thestinging wind—without much luck.She bent forward, huddling her face into the neck of her jacket, ridingin a dark nightmare of pain.She hardly heard Camilla’s voice at her side.“Margali? Bredhiya ? Are you all right? Can you ride?”I sn’t that what I’m doing? Would it make any difference if I said I couldn’t? she tried to say,irritably; but her voice would not obey her
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