Bone Magic (14 page)

Tira was
competent with a sword, but she was no expert. Her opponents were
hardened warriors, and she was badly outnumbered. She backed
rapidly down the street, then stepped into a doorway that gave her
at least a little bit of cover.

A goblin darted
in close, Tira's blood glistening on the tip of his sword. She
lunged, stabbing for his wrist, taking advantage of her superior
reach. He twisted back, and a goblin attacked from the other side,
swinging an axe for her knee. She jumped back, her shoulders
hitting the door behind her, then slashed at the goblin with the
axe, driving him back.

The goblin with
the sword moved him, she swung at him, her sword bounced from his
helmet, and he gave her another cut on her injured leg. She lashed
out with a kick, catching him by surprise, and sent him crashing
back, but there were more goblins waiting to take his place. The
one with the axe came at her, and there was no time to dodge or
block.

Something moved
in the darkness, too fast for her eye to follow, and the goblin
staggered, dropping the axe. An arrow jutted from the goblin's
back, and he started to fall. Tira's hand snaked out and she
plucked the axe from under the goblin's falling body. She sprang at
the closest goblin, her sword slashing across as a distraction,
then brought the axe down in an overhand blow that split the
goblin's skull.

The axe stuck,
the handle slipping from Tira's hand as the goblin fell. She sprang
back to her doorway, and another goblin fell, pierced by an arrow
from above. Now only one goblin faced her. There were two more
goblins in the street, both of them watching the rooftops, darting
from side to side to make poorer targets.

Tira realized
she was facing the goblin who had wounded her twice, and she went
on the offensive. He might have been a better swordsman than she
was, but he was distracted and she was ferocious. She chopped at
him with her sword, great swinging blows, and he fell back. He was
always able to block, but she drove him backward. He was retreating
blindly, and she guided his steps. There was a dead goblin behind
him, and she drove him back until his foot came down on an
outstretched leg. He stumbled, and that was when she struck.

She left him
draped across the body of his companion. Another goblin was down,
clutching a shoulder that sprouted an arrow. The last goblin stared
wildly at the roof line, eyes wide, on the verge of panic.

Glass shattered
above Tira, bits of glass and wooden window frame raining down onto
the cobbles in front of her, and Tam came flying out of a
second-story window. He landed hard, coming down on one knee and
both hands, grunting with pain. He straightened his back, pivoting
around on one knee until he was facing the window, and stuck out
his arms as a small child came sailing out the window and plunged
toward him. He caught the child in his arms, a little girl no more
than two years old, and set her on her feet beside him.

He stood, and
Tira saw a woman at the broken window above him, another child in
her arms. The woman threw the child out the window, and Tam took a
quick step to the left, snagging the child out of the air. It was a
little boy this time, even smaller than the girl and crying with
great enthusiasm. Tam plunked the boy down on the cobbles as the
woman put one leg over the windowsill. She had an infant in the
crook of her arm, and she leaned down as far as she could, one hand
gripping the window frame.

An arrow
flashed through the air, coming from the rooftop across the street.
The arrow sailed into the window, missing the woman by inches, and
a goblin cried out. The woman held the infant by one arm, and Tam
stood directly underneath, his outstretched hands a few feet below
the baby.

For a moment a
goblin loomed behind the woman, a knife in his hand about to plunge
into her back. An arrow slammed into the goblin, the fletching
hitting the woman's cheek as the goblin stumbled back into the
room.

The baby fell,
and Tam caught it. The woman slid farther out the window, caught
the sill in both hands, let her feet drop, and hung for a moment by
her fingertips. Then she let go, and landed sprawling in a
heap.

Tira could hear
goblins shouting inside, their feet thumping on the stairs. She ran
across the street, shook the first door handle she came to, and
found it locked. She used her sword to break a window instead, and
knocked most of the glass out of the frame.

Tam came
hurrying across the street, a child in each arm. Tira climbed
through the window, and he passed the children to her. They clung
to her jacket, the boy still crying, the girl wide-eyed and
solemn.

The woman was
next. She was older than Tira, with gray streaks in her long dark
hair. She wore a blue dress with half a dozen bloody cuts in it,
whether from broken glass or goblin weapons, Tira couldn't say. She
held the infant in her arms, and Tam scooped her up, baby and all,
and put her feet-first through the window frame.

Goblins erupted
from the building across the street, and arrows flashed down from
above. A goblin fell, and a goblin woman with a knife in each hand
took an arrow through the top of her foot. She screeched, lifting
her foot and clutching it with both hands without dropping her
knives, hopping around in tight circles as she screamed.

Tam dove
through the window head-first. He landed on his hands, tucked in
his head, and started to roll. He might have come up on his feet if
he hadn't crashed into a display rack.

Tira put the
children down behind her, got her sword out, and stood to one side
of the window. A goblin grabbed the windowsill and started to climb
in, and she chopped at his fingers. The window was wide enough for
two goblins to come through side by side, and it was good that Tam
was back on his feet. He planted his foot in a goblin's chest and
knocked the creature flying back into the street.

The door shook
as goblins pounded on it. "We can't hold them," Tira panted.

"I know," Tam
said, chopping at a goblin and driving him back.

"There is a
back door," the woman said. "I looked out, and the alley is
clear."

"Go," said Tira
instantly. "You can't help us here. We'll hold them off as long as
we can."

"Mystra bless
you," the woman said. "I'll never forget you. Come, children, we
have to go. Narina, take your brother's hand. Toram, you have to
stand up now. Stand up, Toram! Now, come with me. Come on, you can
do it."

Tira kept her
eyes on the window, but she could track their progress by the sound
of Toram crying. He seemed to be winding down, crying less as they
moved deeper into the building.

The goblins
were pressed close against the side of the building on either side
of the window now, out of reach of Elanyn's arrows, not pressing
their attack. The door still shook with blows, however, and Tira
could hear the doorframe starting to crack. As soon as the door
gave way they would be overwhelmed.

"I'm sorry we
didn't get the necromancer," Tam said.

"We're not dead
yet," Tira told him.

The door
crashed open, and a goblin with an axe in his hands came stumbling
in, falling to one knee. Tira skewered him before he could recover,
then turned and fled deeper into the shop. A doorway on the right
had to lead to the alley, so she turned left, Tam right on her
heels, the goblins swarming behind him. She saw a staircase leading
up into darkness and took it.

They stopped at
the first landing, standing shoulder to shoulder to meet the goblin
charge. She slashed blindly into the darkness with her sword, and a
goblin parried. Tam grunted as a sword scraped across his arm, and
Tira knew the darkness was giving the goblins too much of an
advantage. She yelled, "Come on!" and led the way up the next
flight of stairs.

They reached a
long corridor with a single open door at the far end. A faint glow
from the open door was the only source of light. She ran toward it,
the floorboards thumping behind her as Tam and the goblins
followed.

Tira flung
herself blindly into the room, then slammed the door shut the
instant Tam was through. It was a sitting room, unoccupied, with a
candle burning on the mantle over a simple fireplace. Tam plucked a
chair from beside the window and jammed it under the doorknob.

Another doorway
led to an adjacent room. Tira took another candle from the mantle,
lit it from the first one, and went exploring as Tam held the chair
under the knob. The next room was a bedroom with a steep, narrow
staircase leading upward. She sheathed her sword, grabbed the
railing, and started to climb.

She found
herself in a cramped attic room, empty except for some battered
stacks of chairs. The front and back walls sloped inward and met
above her, and a ladder on the end wall led to a roof hatch. She
set her candle stub on the floor, climbed the ladder, unlatched the
hatch, and swung it open.

Elanyn was
perched on a gable not six feet away, bowstring taut, with an arrow
pointed at the hatch. She lowered the arrow when she saw Tira.

"You've poked
the wasps' nest with a stick," Elanyn said. "I can hear goblins
converging from half the city."

Tira glanced
past her. "We'll have to escape across the rooftops."

"It might be
too late," Elanyn said. "They know I'm up here. They'll be putting
archers in the windows across the street soon."

Wood splintered
somewhere inside, and Tira pulled her head in, climbing down the
ladder. She found Tam running up the steep, narrow staircase. He
stopped at the top, and the first goblin came running up. As Tam
and the goblin crossed swords, Tira ran in and booted the goblin on
the side of the head. The goblin rolled backward down the stairs,
and she heard cries from the other goblins on the steps.

Elanyn slid
through the hatch and dropped lightly to the floor, disdaining the
ladder. "We can hold them here," she said. "A thousand goblins are
no stronger than one, on a staircase like this. Tam can keep them
at bay, and I can help." She turned her cool-eyed gaze to Tira. "If
you leave now, you can still find the necromancer."

"But-"

"Two can hold
this staircase as well as three, Tira. If you don't stop the
necromancer, this has all been for nothing."

"Maybe we can
all go." Even as she said it, though, she knew it was hopeless. The
moment Tam stepped away from the top of the stairs the goblins
would swarm into the room, pulling him off of the ladder as he
tried to climb.

Elanyn had her
back to Tira, all her attention focussed on the stairs and the
goblins who were building up their courage for another rush. "Go,"
she said. "Go!"

The goblins
charged, and Tam rammed his foot into the first green face,
knocking the goblin back into his companions. One goblin tried to
wriggle up onto the floorboards from several steps down, and Elanyn
killed him with an arrow.

Tira reached a
hand over her shoulder, counting her arrows by touch. She had nine
left. She took out five of her arrows and laid them on the floor by
Elanyn's feet. The elf nodded her thanks, and Tira gave the two of
them one last look, then turned to the ladder and started to
climb.

There was blood
on the rungs. Tira looked down at her legs. The cuts on her thigh
were bleeding, and now that she looked at them, they stung madly as
well. Blood soaked her trouser leg below the cuts. One boot was
red, and she felt blood squish under her toes as she climbed.

She worked her
way through the hatch and hopped across to the dormer roof where
Elanyn had crouched. Behind her, she heard the elf locking the
hatch.

Tira wanted to
stop and get her bearings, but she was bleeding onto the roof
tiles, marking the spot where she'd come out, making it easier for
goblins to find her friends. So she scrambled upward, catching the
ridge and pulling herself up. She badly wanted to crawl, but there
was no time. She made herself stand, and took a couple of mincing
steps along the ridge.

Wood slid
against wood, and Tira turned her head, scanning the building
across the street. Someone was opening a window. That could only
mean archers.

The roof
dropped away on either side, quite steep, with nothing but a
two-story drop to hard cobbles beneath it. Vertigo pulled at her,
and she started to kneel, wanting to get back on her hands and
knees. But a vision of Sari's undead face flashed before her eyes,
and she straightened. For a moment she stood upright, waiting for
the city to stop spinning around her. Then she started to run.

Every step was
terrifying, but keeping her balance actually wasn't too difficult.
The ridge line was covered in flat tiles, making a pathway wider
than the palm of her hand. If it was at ground level she could have
balanced on it all day without effort. Only the paralyzing terror
of falling made it challenging now. She kept her eyes on the tiles
directly in front of her feet, did her best to ignore the yawning
void in her peripheral vision, and ran.

It seemed to
take years to reach the end of the building, but in could have been
no more than moments. To her right was the street, to the left an
alley. She could hear shouts and running feet from the street, but
only silence from the alley side, so she turned that way, dropping
down onto a dormer roof. She hung by the roof with one hand,
leaning down to peer into the window. The room inside was dark.
There was no way the window would be unlocked, not when a burglar
would have such easy access. She drew the dagger from her belt and
drew her hand back, ready to drive the pommel through the
glass.

The window
swung outward, opening a couple of inches and bumping against her
arm. A voice in a loud whisper said, "What do you want?"