What is she doing? “That’s Ziva,” I say, pointing to her.
Temra shakes her head. “I’m the little sister. That’s Ziva right there.”
As we start talking over each other, the commanding soldier’s voice silences us. “I’m not amused,” she says. “And I have no problem taking you both so that Kymora can deal with you herself. Let’s go.” The surly soldier looks out over the last of her force. “One of you, kill the boy. We don’t need him.”
Petrik’s face goes still, and Temra and I scream our protests. I try to free myself, try to go for a weapon, for Petrik, anything.
The guard holding our weapons walks toward a row of saddled horses I hadn’t noticed before, tied to the trees along the road. The soldier nearest Petrik draws his sword.
“Kellyn,” I say, twisting my head toward him. “Please, don’t let this happen. You’re better than this. You have to be.”
But the mercenary doesn’t even turn at the sound of his name. He watches as the guard advances, an unmoved look upon his face.
Petrik says something to the advancing soldier while holding up his hands. I can’t hear what he says, but there’s no shame at all in trying to bargain for one’s life.
The soldier about to kill him rears back his weapon, preparing to thrust.
I close my eyes. I can’t watch this.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
I flinch as I hear it, the sound of a weapon sinking into flesh. A cry escapes my lips, but a strange sound comes out of Temra’s.
Was that … a relieved laugh?
My eyes fly open. Instead of finding Petrik skewered, I see Kellyn with his longsword plunged into the soldier’s gut.
That can’t be right. He left his longsword with us. And he was standing right next to me two seconds ago.
He still is.
My neck turns from one Kellyn to the next, trying to make sense of it.
“The cotton spinner,” I whisper. She’s somehow made a mask of Kellyn’s face. I knew something was off about the Kellyn next to me. He’s not tall enough to be Kellyn, and he’s leaning with all his weight on one hip. I’ve never seen the mercenary do that before.
Temra hears my words and puts it together herself. Then she shouts, “Took you long enough!” to the real Kellyn.
“I had to figure out which way you went. Thanks for leaving me behind!” He draws his sword out of the stomach of the man he just killed. “You could have yelled for me or something. Let me know someone was taking you aw—”
His eyes land on himself. Kellyn tilts his head to one side, then the other. “That’s uncanny.”
“You failed to mention you had a twin,” Petrik says from beside him.
“I don’t.”
“Don’t just stand there!” Kymora’s commanding guard says. “You five, take care of the boys!”
The rest stay behind to watch over Temra and me: their precious cargo. The others sprint for Petrik and Kellyn. Petrik holds up his fists, as though he has any clue how to use them in hand-to-hand combat. Meanwhile Kellyn brandishes his longsword.
“They’re outnumbered,” Temra says to me.
“I know.”
“They’re going to die.”
“I know!”
“Do something!”
What am I supposed to do? I’ve got a soldier in red on either side of me, pinning my arms. Temra has twice as many guards surrounding her. Trained soldiers everywhere. Horses behind us. Weapons on every side.
One of Kymora’s men is holding all our weapons, about to attach them to the horse just a little to my right.
I’m terrified. I know these men will hurt me if I try to break their hold, but I have to try. For Petrik.
For Kellyn.
The guard at my right has a bastard sword sheathed at his waist on the left. I wedge my knee between the scabbard and his leg.
Then I jerk it upward as hard as I can.
The guard gasps and wheels backward from the pressure of the pommel digging into his stomach. At the same time he releases my arm, I place the flat of my boot against the guard on my left and shove.
And I’m free.
I know it’ll only be a second before the guards respond, so I race for the horse. I snatch Secret Eater, feel its horrible weight in my grasp.
And with all the strength I possess, I throw it, scabbard and all.
As soon as it leaves my fingertips, rough hands grab me, yank me back, but I watch the sword fly. It spins in a circle through the air, sailing over heads, traveling faster than the running guards.
Until it lands far to Kellyn’s left.