Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) (21 page)

She had no way out. No room to move. No room to jump.
She was boxed in, and she knew she would have to confront her
assailant. Before she knew it, it was happening.

He was right outside the door now. His footfalls had
stopped and she could hear his heavy breathing on the other side
of the door. She grabbed the long wooden shaft of the coat rack
with one hand, listening for the other man, and it sounded like he
had given up trying to get in, but was still waiting, pressed against
the door and listening. His breath sounded excited...he knew what
was about to happen.

“Hey girl,” the first thug hissed through the door she had
wedged shut. “Time to die.”
Catelyn began to wonder if he wasn’t right.

Catelyn stood in the small room, frozen with fear, the two
young girls trembling behind her, clutching the frayed ends of her
tunic. Outside the house, Catelyn could hear the roaring of fire
spreading, and knew it was only a matter of whispers before the
building she was in would be engulfed in the Purge. Catelyn
prepared herself to fight, something she preferred not to do, even
when the odds weren’t stacked against her as they were now.

The man who had circled around was now turning the
handle and pushing the door open. She heard the girls
whimpering, as the door eased open. With no obstacle between
them, Catelyn was able to get full sense of the man. She knew he’d
been heavy, judging from the sound and the impact of his footfalls,
but when the door opened, she could hear how he filled the doorframe, blocking out sound from behind him, and how hard his
heart was pumping to move blood through his body, and she could
tell he was massive. She heard a wet rasp as the huge man licked
his lips.

“Well, well, three little doves. Two of them all ready for
later.”
Catelyn could hear the lust in his voice, and she knew he
must be taking in all of them, but clearly taking a perverse interest
in the naked girls cowering at her back.
Catelyn could hear the confidence in his voice. He knew
that he had the upper hand, and he was looking forward to doing
whatever he wanted with the three of them. He took one step into
the little room, and it felt to Catelyn as if the entire world had
closed in and all that existed were the four of them.
The man was in no hurry and Catelyn’s mind raced, trying
to think of a way out. He knew there was no threat here, and he
seemed to feel no urgency at the approaching inferno. She
estimated his weight at about two hundred stone, possibly more.
Even if she managed to land a blow, she knew it would have no
effect on someone so massive. And she couldn’t sense a way to slip
past. She was well and truly trapped. She felt her heart racing like
it never had before, and her knees grew wobbly in sheer terror.
“Warren!” the big man shouted, presumably to the other
man at the door she’d wedged closed. “Do you want me to save you
one of these delicious treats?”
“The youngest!” the man named Warren hissed from
behind the door. “What about you, Jaff?”
She heard the monster named Jaff lick his lips again.
“None of ‘em weighs more than a sack of stones, soaking
wet. I’ll need all three to satisfy me.” Catelyn could imagine the
leering grin behind the vile words he spewed.
At the thought of this man doing whatever he thought
would satisfy him with the girls in front of him, Catelyn tried to
control her fear, steeled herself as much as she was able and
decided to roll the bones and gamble everything on a daring play.
She had no other choice, really.
She issued a challenge, her voice wavering.
“You little boys couldn’t handle me together, much less
one against one.”
Catelyn realized that it wasn’t strictly the best move to
antagonize them when they already held all the cards, and she
knew it wasn’t even the best insult of their manhood, but Catelyn
was desperate. She hoped that at least her quip might sting his
pride, and plant a seed of anger. Something told her this man
would not fall for any such ploy, but what choice did she have? She
wasn’t simply going to give in and let this man have his way with
them.
“Oh hoo! Warren, did you hear that? The older one with
the redhead has some spunk! I’m going to enjoy bobbing her on
the tip.”
Warren put his nose to the crack and whispered “Red
head? F’real? Oh, that gets me stewing! Are you red down there
too, sweetmeat? I bet your cunt is craving what I got right here!”
Jaff laughed at his friends japes, and Catelyn realized that
they were enjoying toying with her. She couldn’t tell if these men
were guards of the Dane’s, or Imperial soldiers, but it didn’t really
matter.
Thugs were thugs.
Based on their calm demeanors, especially given the
imminently lethal situation they were all in, Catelyn assumed that
they must know of a fast way out. That fact lit a spark of hope
inside her, but she didn’t fan that hope into flame just yet.
Catelyn heard Jaff relax his stance somewhat, but he was
still blocking the only exit from the room. It seemed he was
content to wait for Catelyn to make a move, just as she was waiting
for him to commit. Hoping for an opportunity, or a mistake on his
part. Unfortunately for her, Jaff knew that.
He might be huge,
Catelyn thought,
but he’s clearly no
idiot.
Catelyn was so focused on the situation in front of her,
that she almost missed the little hand of Elexia inching its way
along her cocked arm. The slightest pressure on her elbow clued
Catelyn in, but it was not a finger that she felt, but something cold
and hard. Catelyn feigned a step forward, and as she had hoped,
Jaff reacted, planting his feet wide to cut off a run for the door.
She heard him cluck his tongue, chiding her, and she
backed off once again but the feint had accomplished her real goal.
As she returned to her original position, she reached behind and
palmed what the girl had been trying to give to her in secret.
She clutched the object in her hand, and within a breath
she knew what it was. A nail, just longer than one of her fingers,
and covered in rust, judging from the roughness of it. She hadn’t
sensed Elexia pick it up, nor even move, and she wondered where
the girl had gotten it. Not that such details mattered right now.
What mattered was how she might be able to use it. It was long
enough that if she could get it into his eye, or ear, or ram it into
him somehow, that it might stun him long enough for the three of
them to get past him.
Catelyn didn’t want to have to hurt anyone, but she
decided that whatever vows she had made to herself, she was now
in a situation where it was her life or his.
“This one has got the fire, Warren,” Jaff called once more.
“She just tried to take a poke at me, I think”.
Warren guffawed from his place behind the door, and
replied “Well Jaff, you’ll just have to poke her right back!” and he
laughed hysterically at his own twisted humor.
Jaff laughed slightly as well, but not to the point of
distraction. Catelyn knew that he was the more dangerous of the
pair. As big as he was, and confident in his own abilities, he was
still careful. Catelyn grudgingly had to admit that she couldn’t
underestimate this man.
Jaff however, was beginning to show signs of impatience.
His breathing was shallower, his heart increasing its rhythm.
“Listen girl, I’d love to play with you all night, but at the moment
we’re on a timetable. And the Emperor doesn’t exactly appreciate
tardiness.”
She heard the motion before she felt it coming for her. He
planted his feet, raised his arms and took a step towards her.
Catelyn let him come.
When his hands were almost closed upon her upper arm,
she moved. As quickly as she could, she swatted her arms towards
his ears, hoping to clap her fists over his eardrums, trying to shock
him with the impact, and possibly even burst an eardrum. But Jaff
was faster than he seemed, as she had feared.
He managed to get his shoulders up, and knocked her
hands off their trajectory, smacking the side of his head. Both the
hand with the nail and the empty hand limply caromed off his bald
head, barely registering any impact on the big man.
He grabbed her wrists now and she was wracked with pain
as he squeezed with all his strength. She felt as if her bones would
snap like twigs at any second, and she could not do anything other
than cry out. Despite the pain, she still had cupped in her left palm
the long, rusty nail. But it would not be long before the pain forced
her to release it.
The two girls, surprising Catelyn, rushed from behind her
and tried kicking the massive beast in the shins. She tried to warn
them away through clenched teeth, but they wouldn’t listen. Jaff
lashed out with his thick leg and she heard them both topple to the
ground, crying out in pain.
Catelyn was forced to do the only thing left to her. She
flung her head forward, cracking her skull with all the force she
could muster against his nose. She felt a crunching shift and,
although dazed by the impact, she knew she had done some
damage, and she was satisfied to hear a grunt of pain. Although his
hands softened, they didn’t release her wrists. She had stunned
him, and she would never get another opportunity, so she leaned
forward, opened her mouth and bit down hard on his nose, tasting
blood. She held nothing back and felt her teeth sink into the flesh
and tissue around his nose.
Finally, he let go to try rearing back with a punch, the
other hand going to his nose to staunch the blood flowing down his
face now. Catelyn knew that this single blow would end the fight if
he landed it, and with one deft motion she flipped the nail around,
now holding it between her middle and fourth fingers, the broad
base resting on the meat of her palm.
Before his fist landed, Catelyn weaved under his reach and
popped up just to his right side. When he sensed that he had
missed, he reached out to grab her, but this time it was too late.
She slammed her fist up, with the rusty nail protruding from it like
an extra finger, into his face, just above his right eye. He hadn’t
made a move to block her punch, having assumed that such a futile
and desperate punch wouldn’t have fazed him.
He hadn’t seen the finger-length spike of rust-covered iron
nestled between her fingers. She let go, and could see that the
spike was now buried halfway into his skull, piercing his brain,
causing him to drop dead on the spot like a monstrous puppet
whose strings had just been cut.
As Catelyn coldly listened to Jaff’s heart stop, his
breathing cease and his lifeblood leaving through the gaping hole
in his face, Warren shouted from behind the opposite door.
“Jaff? What happened? What’s going on?”
When no answer came, he shouted “Hold on, I’m coming.”
Catelyn’s instinct for survival took over. She reached out,
grabbed the two girls off the ground by the hand, and rushed them
out the open door. She crossed the hallway and rounded the
corner, opposite to where she expected Warren to appear at any
breath. She was frantically searching with her bubble, trying to
determine where the two men had been off to when they’d
happened upon her and the girls.
They were too confident; they must have known a way out.
She just needed to find it. Catelyn briefly considered staying to
confront Warren, now that the odds were more even. Maybe she
could catch him by surprise and force the information from him.
But she’d already pushed her luck in the confrontation with Jaff,
and her favor with the Divines, to have survived this night as far as
she had.
She moved around and then felt a tugging on her pant leg.
Catelyn stopped. It was Sera.
“Catelyn, we can’t leave yet.”
Catelyn felt her stomach drop.
“What is it now? More men?” Catelyn pulsed her bubble,
but she couldn’t detect anyone else in the nearby vicinity. In fact,
she couldn’t detect Warren, either.
Strange. Where have you gone?
thought Catelyn.
Sera simply said “We can’t go outside. We’re naked.”
Catelyn nearly laughed at the absurdity of the statement,
but then heard the serious tone in the girl’s voice. This really was
of great concern to her.
Catelyn bit back an angry reply and said instead “If we
don’t leave,
now,
Warren and whoever he works for will find us,
and kill us. We’ve been lucky so far. That won’t happen again.
Modesty is a small price to pay for your life.”
The girls, however, would have none of it. They both began
to fuss, the way young children do, and Catelyn considered for the
barest moment leaving the pair of them behind. Then, she had a
better idea. She let go of them, undid her black tunic and scarf
until she herself was naked from the waist up, and tore strips of
cloth from them, fashioning rags for each girl to wear. Catelyn felt
the heat from the fires outside on her bare skin, and she knew time
was running short.
“There. Now we’re all indecent to some degree. Let’s go,”
was all she said, and this seemed to mollify the girls, as they made
their way down the hall in the general direction that Warren and
Jaff had been headed before their confrontation.

Five whispers later, Catelyn’s world had turned to fire. The
full contingent of soldiers from the Empire had finally reached the
Dane’s estate, and although they had thrown in the accelerant
earlier, only now were they beginning to toss torches and other
sources of flame through the windows and onto the roof. Catelyn
had expected Warren to come upon them at any moment, but his
footsteps had never reappeared. She assumed that he had assessed
the situation and made a hasty retreat.

And then came the sounds of clattering, followed by the
eruptions of chaos as the soldiers outside began to throw the
torches and fire pots onto the roof and in through the windows,
igniting the estate. The heat pressed in on her like a wall, and the
smoke began choking her immediately. Catelyn scrambled to the
ground, wishing that she hadn’t needed to give her scarf to the
girls. She pulled the girls close and yelled for them to come with
her and not let go. She crawled backwards toward the entry room,
with her holding onto Elexia, and Elexia in turn holding Sera’s
hand.