Dudo had killed one of his assailants, who lay in the street with his neck obviously broken. Another was rolling on the ground, clutching his leg and moaning in agony. A man with a steel pipe smashed Dudo across his broad shoulders, and then square in the back of the head. The Green Bone’s Steel prevented his skull from being split open but he collapsed to the ground, limp.
Adrenaline and rage flooded into Shae’s brain. She could not believe this was happening. A part of her mind expected more No Peak Fists to appear at any second, to fly to their protection and slaughter these men. But this was not Janloon. These barukan thugs were crude and clumsy in their attacks. Their jade auras, burning with violent excitement, were as wild and uneven as those of untrained teenagers—but there were over a dozen of them.
Shae launched herself out of the car with a cry and felt a rush of fevered satisfaction when her Strength carried her to the nearest barukan in a second and her talon knife plunged into the side of his neck. The man’s eyes were the only part of his face visible; they flew wide with shock. For a second, Shae felt only astonishment. It had been years—more than a decade—since she’d drawn her knife to kill an enemy and she was disoriented by the moment, by the blood and the Perception of the man’s pain. Then instinct took over; she ripped the talon knife straight across with a surge of Strength, severing the carotid artery. “Get Wen out of here,” she shouted at Tako.
Another man grabbed Shae from behind. She twisted and sent a spear of Channeling into his chest. She could tell immediately that the strike was nowhere near strong or precise enough. That one kill had been a lucky thing. Shae was a Green Bone twenty years past her fighting prime. She didn’t have enough jade, she was too old and too slow. The Channeling strike meant to burst the man’s heart only made him gasp and cough violently.
At least he lost his grip on her. Shae tore away from him, sharp pebbles digging into the soles of her feet as she backed up with her talon knife extended. Other men came toward her, emboldened by her failure.
Tako was still firing his gun and throwing Deflections from behind the cover of the SUV and protecting Wen with his life. Shae thought she heard her sister-in-law screaming her name, but if so, the gunfire and the roaring of blood in her ears drowned it out. She glimpsed Tako’s face, twisted with frantic uncertainty. Dudo was unconscious, and Shae was too far away for him to help her without exposing Wen. Abandoning the Weather Man was unthinkable, but his first duty was to protect the Pillar’s wife. Snarling, the bodyguard unleashed a final volley of gunshots that sent the barukan diving behind their cars. Lifting Wen, crying and protesting in his arms, he ran.
The SUV was penned in, but a steep ravine dropped off from the side of the road. Even weighed down with Wen clinging to him, Tako cleared the gully in a single Light bound. Half a dozen masked men gave chase, leaping after him and firing at his fleeing figure, gaining quickly as he struggled to keep sprinting with Wen in his arms. Tako set Wen down on her feet and they ran, the Fist urging her along ahead of him.
Shae tried to follow. As if sucking in a breath with her whole body, she gathered her jade energy and leapt Light over those in her way. In three more steps, she reached the edge of the ravine and stumbled to a horrified halt as another gunshot rang out and she saw Tako go down. He scrambled up again, but Wen had spun around and run back toward him. Shae let out a guttural scream of denial as one of the masked men reached and seized Wen, pinning her arms, and from a distance too close to Deflect, another barukan unloaded two bullets into Tako’s torso. Even from a distance, Shae Perceived the bodyguard’s blinding red agony as he folded at the waist and collapsed into the brittle grass.
Shae turned. Four masked men with guns stood behind her, four across the ravine around Wen and Tako. The man with his arm around Wen’s throat walked back toward her, forcing Wen to stumble along in front of him. Shae could see the whites of her sister-in-law’s eyes, glistening with tears of fear and rage. The man called out to Shae, in accented Kekonese, “Kaul Shaelinsan! You think you’re one tough Janloon bitch. We’ll see how tough. Do you think you can move faster than the bullet of this gun?” He pressed the barrel of his weapon to Wen’s temple.
Shae said, “If you pull the trigger, every single one of you will die.” She was thankful her voice did not come out trembling, but it seemed to her that the world was tilting under her feet. These men knew who she was. They surely knew who Wen was as well. They’d gone to the effort of setting up the ruse with the police officer and they’d attacked with overwhelming force, clearly prepared to suffer casualties. They already expected death, so her threats were not going to make any difference.