The man stepped closer to her and dropped his bloody sword onto the carpet. A spark of hope ignited in her chest but was immediately smothered as he pulled a dagger from his side sheath instead. “This is the last time I say it. Step aside.”
Vanda raised the heavy sword, aiming for the gap between his armor and his helmet, but he was fast, so much faster than she was. He caught her weapon over her head in his now-empty sword hand, and a sharp, painful force shoved Vanda backward. She looked down and gasped at the dagger buried in her side, his hand still closed around the hilt. He loomed over her, their bodies close. The pose was jarringly intimate, a horrific parody of a dance.
“Please. He’s just a boy,” she whispered again. She shuddered, and suddenly her muscles could no longer keep her upright, releasing the sword and her weight at the same moment.
He caught both her and her weapon, tossing the sword aside and leaning her against the wall by the closet, his dagger still embedded in her flesh.
She was sitting in a growing pool of her own blood. So much blood. Too much blood. How much blood was there in a person?
The knight stepped over her and opened the closet door. He froze for just an instant, then slammed the door closed again and spun to her.
“Where is the boy?” he snarled, feral wrath lacing the words. He was animalistic. Savage.
Vanda giggled. Giggled? Oh. This must be what hysteria felt like.
“Too bad you already killed me,” she said, laughing again. “Now what are you going to do?” She’d bought Mattis a few moments. If he’d been wise and quick, he’d be down at the bottom of the hidden stairwell by now, maybe even outside the wall and running for the village. It might not be enough, but it was all she could do.
Her killer’s empty hand flexed. It occurred to her belatedly that there was more that he could do to her, and maybe goading him wasn’t wise, but he must have decided there wasn’t time. He barked out an order to tear down the walls, which was unexpectedly discerning, and the men began smashing furniture against them and slamming at them with their shoulders.
Vanda’s vision was growing cloudy. She was lightheaded and thought perhaps she should lie down before glancing at the ground and remembering exactly why she was fading out of consciousness.
