Riding down the roads in full Seeker gear was bound to get her in trouble, but Rose couldn’t waste any more time.  The mages in the pits were getting weaker, if they hadn’t already been given back to their covens.  They wouldn’t spend another night in chains, if she could help it.

At least she had surprise on her side, when she barreled into the make shift prison camp on the outskirts of Harbortown.  Rose cut down one guard and launched herself off Atalanta on top of another.  Ten more guards spilled out of tents and the alarm was sounded.  Perhaps stealth would have been the better way to go.  She engaged another guard, slicing across his chest and stomach before jamming her dagger into another’s throat.  Circling around the pit, Rose saw that there was no way she was going to get the latches open with eight men bearing down on her and more on the way.  Whistling for Atalanta, she broke off running and climbed into the saddle without slowing down.  The remainder of the guards gave a half-hearted chase and then let her go.

Well, that hadn’t worked out the way she planned.

But at least she got an idea of how the camp was set up.  She’d have to do it with stealth and cunning instead of brute force.  Casting a healing spell, she winced as the minor injuries she took closed up.  One of the guards had got in a lucky shot with his elbow and her ribs throbbed.  They did send out a patrol after her, but she made herself and Atalanta invisible when she heard the hooves and they passed right by. 

Riding back to the prison camp, Rose watched the patrols and timed them.  They would be more vigilant at night, expecting an attack.  Sliding off her horse, she walked up to the pit, making sure that her feet didn’t leave any prints in the sand or the grassy areas around it.  Guards walked by within ten feet of her, but they didn’t notice that the locks on top of the pit were being slowly released.

Opening the cover was going to cause a lot of commotion and she was going to need a distraction.  Creeping over to the command tent, Rose eavesdropped on the conversations until she found some helpful information.  A fleet of Solace ships, flying diplomatic flags, were approaching Harbortown.  The town had already sent out a few ships to intercept them and find out what their purpose was.  It had been too soon for them to arrive if this was in response to what happened with the elementalist—unless magic was involved.

Rose rolled her eyes.  While it was possible, even probable, that Solace had scryers watching the goings on in other places, they couldn’t mobilize a fleet this close across the Great Sea in a few days. Although, if the guards believed they could, she might be able to put this to her advantage.

After a few hours, Rose tried her idea.  She cast an illusion of a large water elemental hovering over the city.  It was ridiculous to anyone who knew magic, but anyone who did was currently in an earthen pit.  She was surprised that it took a good ten minutes before any of the guards noticed.  But when they did, Rose couldn’t have predicted their panic.  They scattered like frightened geese.  Half of them ran away from the town, and the other half ran towards it.  They broke like unseasoned soldiers and completely abandoned their post.  Rose waited a long minute to make sure this wasn’t a trap within a trap, but all was clear.  She hurried over to the pit and pulled up on the heavy lid.

“Come on,” she said, using magic to completely remove the cover.  Her illusion of the water elemental flickered and disappeared. “Shit.”  She still wasn’t one hundred percent.  It should have been easy to do three spells at once, but as she looked down at herself, she was also completely visible.  And from the sound of things, the guards were coming back.  Tying a rope around one of the heavy rings that locked the pit, she tossed it down and helped the mages as they climbed up.  “Hurry,” she urged, but they were too weak and slow.

She recognized the first horseman as he came thundering up.  “Shit.”

It figured that it was Bret. He must have made a beeline to the town and had been by the docks waiting to catch her if she tried to board a ship to Solace.  She could run, but then the mages were doomed.  Rose had to buy them some time.

“Run,” she yelled at the mages and then stalked towards Bret with her sword drawn.  “Fight me, coward.”

Bret jumped off Duke and pulled his sword as he ran towards her.  Rose dodged his powerful heavy swings, dancing around him and teasing him with small cuts.  She didn’t want to hurt him.  Her goal was to tire him out while leading him away from the mages.  Unfortunately, as she backed away towards town, the returning soldiers passed by them and worked on collecting the escapees.

“Were you looking to free the war mage?”  Bret grimaced, swinging to take off her head.

“All of them,” she panted, ducking under another blow and scraping her blade across his forearm.  It snagged on his bracer and backhanded her in the mouth.  Her head snapped around and she staggered.  “Fucker.” She spat blood and gave him a deep gash in his thigh in response.

Roaring, Bret increased his attack and she could no longer just toy with him.  He wasn’t getting tired.  He was getting deadly. She would have to end it.

“You couldn’t leave it alone for two more days?” he snarled.  “Solace is arriving to take them to safety. Now, you’ve ruined everything and I’ll see that you pay for that.”

“Two days, too long.”  Rose just missed her arm being taken off at the elbow and kicked out at him, catching the side of his knee on his injured leg.  It was his turn to reel and stumble.  She sliced at his hand, a deep cut that made him drop his sword.  He needed healing or he’d never hold a sword again.  He went down on his knees and held his hand.  The fight was over and he knew it.  All she had to do was disappear, change clothes and heal his hand.  It was that simple.

“End it,” he snarled.

“I plan to.  One way or the other.”  Then Rose turned her back on him.  Which was stupid.  She knew better.  The dagger he threw at her that planted between her shoulder blades reinforced that.  She went down.  She might have maimed him, but he had killed her.

Rose screamed when he yanked the dagger free and kicked her over onto her back.

“Now, let’s see who you are.  You son of a bitch.”  Bret wrenched the mask off her face.

“I didn’t know,” she said, gasping in agony, coiling up at the pain. “That you...”

Dropping to his knees, Bret held her. “Heal yourself.’

Rose tried, but her eyes fluttered and the blackness was consuming her. “Could throw with...”

“Rose, please.  This can’t be happening.”

His anguished voice came from far away.

“Your left hand,” she finished in a whisper.

“No.”  His agonized wail was the last thing she heard.