Dauphin walked quickly up the street. She gripped the hilt of her sword to keep her hands steady. Though she was no stranger to death, the Imperial Guards were well known for their prowess in battle.
She saw them coming towards her, armored and muscular. Realizing that no sensible girl would wish to be caught in their path, she made it appear that she was trying to conceal herself in the shadow of a nearby house. The guards paid little attention to her. She breathed a sigh of relief as the last few ranks passed her.
Then suddenly her plan exploded into infintesimal fragments. She saw a bearded, sneering face she recognized - and worse, Morkan obviously recognized her.
"Dauphin!" he snarled. "It's their girly captain!"
The guards turned in surprise, but at the sight of Morkan drawing his sword and advancing on her they joined him, blades at the ready.
Dauphin cursed inwardly. Pressing her back to the wall, she drew her own weapon and screamed through the mind-link, Delpheus, get over here now!
The guards closed in on her. Without waiting for them, Dauphin lunged forward, beneath one man's guard, to thrust her sword into his gut. He screamed as she ripped the blade out and then there was nothing but chaos. Dauphin dodged a sweep at head height to kick a man heavily in the shin, punch another in the face and decapitate a third. A guard blocked her stroke and she kicked him in the groin before whirling to ram her sword into the rib cage of a man behind her. The sword grated on bone; she tugged harder, trying to free it from the suction of the dead man's flesh.
Swinging the weapon around, it bit into a man's neck, and blood spurted everywhere. Elbowing another man in the ribs, she hooked his feet out from under him but his weight bore her to her knees as he fell towards her. Shoving him aside, she blocked one stroke aimed at her head but was powerless to defect another which crashed down onto her shoulder, splintering her collarbone.
With a wordless howl of agony she thrust her sword upwards into the grinning face of the man above her. Blood showered from his ruined visage as he screamed. Suddenly Dauphin's vision exploded in crimson bursts as a pair of heavy hands tightened around her throat. Choking for breath, her mind growing numb, she pulled her knife from her boot and slashed desperately at her adversary. He roared with the pain and hurled Dauphin from him. Flat on her back a heavy boot drove into her ribs; she tripped the man and they grappled on the ground. His hand forced her head backwards; she bit him till the blood came and hooked at his eyes with the fingers of her uninjured hand.
Injured, half-strangled, Dauphin knew that if help did not come she would die here, in these muddy streets, within a minute. Where, in the name of Faire herself, was Delpheus?
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