Atgard didn’t immediately understand what had happened when his horse suddenly neighed and reared up. A burst of flame flared, a shot thundered, and a carmine stream of blood sprayed like a fountain onto the snow. The stallion, screaming wildly, toppled to its side, jerking its head and kicking furiously. Atgard hadn’t managed to pull his leg away in time, and the horse’s flank had crushed his foot. Trying to break free, he howled in pain. Then came a horrific, rising scream of panic, the scream of people for whom this attack was the last straw. They could take no more.

  "Back!" Anzerrat shouted wildly, yanking his horse back and drawing his sword. "Everyone, back!"

  The fugitives choked on their own screams. Anzerrat and his unwilling aide, a cornet from the Fighters’ Guild, wheeled their horses around to shield the others as the refugees stumbled and collided in a rush toward the cover of the rocks near the cliff. Rodrigo jumped from his horse. Norton, in a mad gallop, surged forward, whipping out his sword like lightning. Suddenly, the horses pulling the Nielders’ baggage wagons reared with wild whinnies. Ashley, who had just jumped up, screamed loudly and tumbled into a snowdrift at the roadside. Demetra leaped out of the wagon on her own, not even attempting to stop the frightened horses, and Rodrigo instantly caught her in his arms.

  Norton reined in his horse, raised his sword, and flinched: out of the darkness, like a massive ghost, a goblin appeared on the path. The young man didn’t even have time to feel fear. His horse, snorting madly, veered off to the side, barely saving him from the swing of a curved saber. But three more mercenaries had already emerged from behind the rocks, cutting off the escape route. For a moment, everything paused. Somewhere among the cliffs, refugees sobbed and screamed faintly. Norton struggled to keep his horse from bolting, desperately trying to find a way out. Anzerrat, gripping his sword’s hilt, had stopped as well. Rodrigo stood protectively in front of Demetra, and Atgard, cursing, slowly climbed out of the snow and drew his claymore.

  The goblins hesitated in confusion. Their orders were to target ten armed people on horseback. A crowd of unarmed, terrified refugees would only get in the way—they shouldn’t provoke unnecessary conflict. Their goal was to strike the most important targets.

  "Atgard," Anzerrat rasped, assessing the situation. More goblins appeared from the darkness, quickly encircling the fugitives. "Norton, Rodrigo—over here! Ashley! Cover us! Everyone else—run west, we’ll hold them off! Hey, Cornet, get these people out of here!"

  The refugees scrambled along the rocks. The warriors flanked the battlefield, swords raised in tense readiness. The goblins ignored them, keeping their eyes locked on those who dared stand and fight, having instantly identified the real threat.

  Ashley sprang up, clasped her hands, and raised them over her head. A fiery bloom blossomed between her fingers, transforming into a massive flaming orb. The mountains lit up with a burst that tore through the gloom and struck the feet of the lead goblin. Snow erupted in a sparkling geyser. The assassin, snarling horribly, flew backward, sinking into a snowdrift. The same moment Anzerrat, Atgard, and Norton charged into battle, swords spinning.

  Steel clashed, louder than all other sounds. The fugitives scattered. The goblins didn’t pursue, focusing entirely on the five fighters and on Rodrigo, who was protecting Demetra and didn’t let her out of his grasp for even a moment. Anzerrat glanced around, roared, and rushed at one goblin, locking blades with him in an instant. Atgard lunged at another mercenary, cursing his injured foot. Ashley staggered, deathly pale. The powerful magic was draining her, yet another fireball began forming between her palms.

  "There’s a girl!" one of the goblins suddenly shouted with glee, pointing at Demetra.

  "Back where you came from!" Rodrigo barked. It was easy to fool a goblin by not brandishing a weapon—no one saw a man in a light coat and kimono as a threat. But the goblin quickly realized his mistake when a brutal punch to the gut knocked the wind from him, and he collapsed into the snow, groaning.

  But the assassins reacted instantly. Two more appeared out of nowhere, surrounding the girl and her bodyguard. Rodrigo spun like a whirlwind, delivering blows left and right, deftly deflecting attacks with swords and sabers, only faltering briefly when a third mercenary joined the goblins. Atgard, Anzerrat, and Norton were being forced toward the cliffs by a hail of fierce blows. Ashley fired off another fireball, turning one of the goblins into a massive blazing torch, and amid the clash of swords came a faint, soul-tearing scream.

  Rodrigo suddenly realized he was too late exiting his combat stance when he took a vicious spinning blow to the jaw. The crunch echoed in his skull. He desperately tried to stay upright, but his limbs failed him, and he collapsed into the snow.

  Anzerrat swung his sword, deflecting another attack, and managed to slash his opponent across the fanged face. The goblin roared, spraying blood and spittle, his small black eyes blinded. Norton dodged a saber thrust, shoved his enemy, and struck him across the unshielded left arm, feeling hard bone resist the blade. They were adapting to the fight, learning the enemy’s tactics, matching their enormous, unbelievably fast opponents, and fighting mercilessly, sparing neither foe nor self. But the battle ended as quickly as it had begun—the exact moment Anzerrat and Norton simultaneously raised their swords to finish off two goblins.

  "Hold it!"

  Janus seized Demetra with one hand, knocked the small dagger from her weak grip with the other, and threw her to the ground, face-first into the snow. He straightened up as two goblins quickly bound her hands and feet. Anzerrat froze. His opponent had already recoiled, wiping blood from his eyes. Norton, caught off guard, nearly dropped his sword. Atgard collapsed into the snow, his whole body trembling. His injured leg gave out again, and he realized he could no longer stand. He was instantly tackled, entangled in a strong net.

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  "One more move—and she dies," Janus said calmly.

  "Demetra, run!" Norton shouted. At that moment, another goblin burst from the shadows, swung a lasso, and in an instant had Norton trussed up hand and foot. The boy screamed in pain, dropping his weapon. Before Anzerrat could turn, he too was seized, bound tightly, and thrown into the snow. The goblins surrounded their defeated enemies, breathing heavily and leaning on their muskets.

  Janus looked around, mentally tallying the damage the "Python" unit had taken. Two goblins lay dead in the snow. Not a high price, considering what they had gained. The fugitives from Petista were already far away, and Janus had no plans to pursue them. Doing so would mean approaching the city, and the captain hated cities. He limped toward the captives, turned Demetra over with his boot. She no longer resisted, just lay there breathing heavily, spitting out snow.

  "That’s her, all right," Kerekh rasped, stopping beside him. "I saw her back in the Castle, when she ran from the Master…"

  "So that’s it? It’s over?" another mercenary croaked. "We don’t have to wander through this wild land anymore?"

  "Not so fast, boys," Janus said grimly. "We found the girl. But the others… looks like they got away. The Master said there were ten people, but there were at least a hundred. Now, to earn our pay, we need to find the rest."

  "So what?" one of the goblins grumbled. "Doesn’t make a damn difference to us! No one told us why they’re needed in the Citadel!" He glanced nastily at Demetra. "And the girl’s young… tasty… would go just fine on a spit…"

  Atgard lunged forward, tearing through the ropes binding him with inhuman effort, and before anyone could react, his hands closed around the goblin’s throat. Janus spun instantly and punched the Kald with his powerful fist square in the face. Atgard went limp and collapsed to the ground, while the goblin staggered back, gasping and clutching his neck. Janus turned to him and said smoothly:

  "Listen, Morris, did you forget who’s in charge here? Or did the Master explain the mission better to you than he did to me? Or is there still something that doesn’t sit right with you? We have a clear task, and until all ten of them are in our hands, we’re not heading south—we’re staying in Vaimar. And now…" Janus looked around. "Urkrait is waiting for us in the north with his fighters. So, four of you will take the prisoners—Kerekh, you’re in charge—and the rest will come with me west, toward the city. From there, we’ll try to track the escapees. And don’t kill these ones—under no circumstances. They might still be useful."

  Janus lowered his musket and kicked the unconscious Atgard with his foot.

  "Tie him up again—tighter this time! We need to move, or we won’t make it. Dawn’s coming."

  The goblins pulled out supplies and food from the icy cave where they had spent the last few days. The prisoners, searched and stripped of all weapons, lay motionless in the snow, stained crimson with blood. Rodrigo Antan stirred. Since the moment he had fallen into the deep snowdrift, no one had paid him any attention. His entire body ached, his head throbbed as if struck by a giant hammer, and his vision refused to focus. It felt as if he had been lying there for an eternity. The cold was biting, but the back of his head burned unbearably, and a hot trickle was running down beneath the collar of his kimono.

  Everything swam before his eyes, his stomach threatened to turn inside out, so Rodrigo stayed quiet, moving his hands slightly, feeling himself over. The goblins’ voices echoed from an unreachable distance, and then his memory returned. He could only think of one thing: Demetra was now a prisoner of those bastards. Fighting the pain, he lifted himself up, opened tear-filled eyes, and crawled higher to see the goblins, just dozens of feet away.

  He had no strength left to hide. But when he saw a dead goblin nearby, still clutching a musket, Rodrigo crawled from his hiding spot and reached, with great effort, for the weapon. The goblins, busy packing provisions onto bone sleds, didn’t see the body sprawled in the gloom. Final preparations were complete, and the gagged prisoners were laid among the sacks and hauled away, farther and farther north, into the endless frozen wilderness. Pain clouded Rodrigo’s vision, but he managed to grab the musket with frostbitten fingers, raise it to his shoulder, aim, and fire a shot into the darkness, toward the rough voices of the goblins. He hoped the sound would draw them to him, so they would take him to Demetra, or at least kill him with a shot. Anything was better than slowly dying of cold among these silent, merciless mountains…

  But the bullet flew into nothingness, and even the sound of the shot was carried away by a sudden gust of wind toward the pass. The goblins disappeared into the night, never noticing the lone shooter.

  However, among the mountains, six riders sharply spurred their horses toward the sound of the shot.

  Under the sparkling Vaimar stars, Kairu leaped from his Hellsteed, leaned over Rodrigo’s body, and lifted him. Viggo and Yuf immediately came to help. Joanna suddenly urged her horse into a gallop and rushed onward, following the tracks of the carts and the footprints of the hundred fleeing people.

  "What happened here?!" shouted Lainter, throwing open his cloak and wrapping it around the half-dead Rodrigo. "Where are they? What… what happened to Demetra?!"

  "Wait," muttered Kairu. He brought a flask of water to the bodyguard’s blue lips, and Rodrigo drank greedily, shivering violently. "It was goblins, right?" Kairu asked quietly once Rodrigo released the flask. "They attacked you?"

  "Ambush…" the bodyguard murmured, struggling to form words with trembling lips. "We were crossing the pass… they knocked me out… I tried to protect Demetra… People ran into the forest. Goblins… mercenaries… took Atgard, Anzerrat, Norton… and Demetra."

  Yuff gasped and dropped down beside him, drained of strength.

  "Ashley’s here," said Rita, riding up to them; Remiz appeared, carrying the unconscious sorceress on his back. "We found her among the rocks, she’s unconscious. Kairu, what are we going to do?"

  Kairu said nothing. Rodrigo Antan had already lost consciousness, lying across the haunches of the Hellsteed. The icy wind stung their faces. Rita clapped her mittens together, trying to stay warm, and Lainter moved forward slowly, stunned by the sight of the battlefield. Joanna rode back up, panting from her gallop.

  "The horses dragged the wagons not far," she said. "They’re at the edge of the forest. I hope the refugees didn’t take anything from the supplies, but they probably weren’t thinking about that."

  "Alright," Kairu finally said. "If those goblins managed to take down Atgard, Anzerrat, Rodrigo, and Ashley, there’s no way we can rescue them now with just our forces. We’ll go to Vairad, find a hospital for Rodrigo and Ashley, and then we’ll decide what to do. Either way, we can’t stay here. We’ll have time to track the goblins later, while the trail is still fresh. Now… let’s ride. Rita, lead the way!"

  And, leaving behind the Folkar’s Pass, the travelers pressed forward, toward the western forests, beneath the lightening pre-dawn sky.