"Thieves!" hollered a Legion of Steel Knight, the lead of the growing pack approaching from Dhamon's direction.
"We're gonna get trapped in the middle!" Rikali spat.
"Your sword…" Maldred warned the dwarf again.
"Put your own sword away," the guard retorted. "Thieves!" The dwarf feinted to his left, but Fetch was quicker, jumping to block the guard's path. The small man twirled the hoopak ahead of him to keep the dwarf at bay.
"I'd prefer not to kill any of you," Maldred said ominously. His voice was deep, rich, melodic, almost hypnotic. "Your deaths would not profit me." He lashed out with his foot, tripping one of the dwarves who was trying to get up.
The approaching crowd was only a few hundred feet away now.
"Pffah!" taunted the guard in front of Fetch. He thrust the sword at the small man and grumbled when it was parried with the hoopak. "Maybe I'd prefer not to kill you-or your tiny monster!" He spun to his right, avoiding a jab from Fetch and ending up in front of Maldred.
"I'm warning you," Maldred cautioned.
The dwarf ducked beneath Maldred's sword and made another attempt to get around the big man.
"Mai!" Rikali was bouncing back and forth nervously on the balls of her feet, looking up and down the street and appraising the charging mobs.
"I'm sorry," Maldred said to the dwarf, a tinge of regret in his sonorous voice. "Truly." He drove the pommel of the sword down hard on top of the guard's head. There was a disturbing crack, and the dwarf fell and lay still. Maldred turned his attention to the other weaponless guard who had finally struggled to his feet. The big man intended to repeat his peaceful offer, but Rikali darted in front of him and thrust out with her knife. The guard sidestepped her, though the blade cut through his jacket and fear made the color drain from his ruddy face.
Maldred nodded significantly to the one who continued to blow the whistle. Stop that ruckus, he mouthed. At the same time, he kept an eye on the crowd that would be upon them in a moment. "I said I'd prefer not to kill you."
"Thieves!" A Legion of Steel Knight was shouting orders. "Catch them!"
The dwarf facing Maldred growled. He spit out the whistle and risked a glance at his dead companions- Rikali had just finished off the unarmed one. He fumbled for the sword at his waist, tugged it free and drew back. "There's too many of us. We'll stop you!" Then he ducked beneath the swing of the big man's blade. Too late, the dwarf realized his opponent was a master. Maldred's sword swept wide and down in the opposite direction, and the guard's head fell with a dull thud.
"Hurry!" someone hollered. The crowd was only a few yards away.
"Yes, hurry," Rikali said.
"Where're the horses?" Dhamon gasped as he grabbed the leather sack and slung it over his shoulder. He parried the swings of the first Legion of Steel Knights who'd reached him.
"Mai didn't bring any horses," she answered, as she, too, engaged one of the Knights. "Rode our last ones out ‘til they were all but dead and thought we'd get some new ones here. You know I like a little shopping now and then."
"Wonderful," Dhamon said. He was besieged by Knights and looking for openings. He found one and swept his sword past one man's guard, cutting deep into his leg. The Knight dropped to his knees, hands pressed against his thigh.
The others were equally beset.
"Surrender!" someone hollered. "Surrender and you'll live!"
"That man! He has the commander's sword." This from a Legion of Steel Knight.
"Kill him!" A gravelly dwarven voice. "Kill the thief!"
"Guess surrender's not an option now," Rikali said.
Dhamon was exchanging blows with two dwarves.
"I'd prefer not to kill you," Maldred announced to the dwarves who had reached him.
"Don't be so polite," Rikali shouted to the big man. "I repeat, let's kill ‘em quick and be on our way-before even more come." She gathered the hem of her cloak in her free hand. In one fluid motion, she danced forward and whipped the cloak about the sword of a charging dwarf. At the same time, she thrust up with the knife into a Knight's vulnerable neck, whirled, and slashed at another dwarf, cutting through his tabard and deep beneath. "Look at the lights bein' lit about town, Mai. Can't you hear all the voices? Everyone's wakin' up! These odds are ugly enough, but in another few minutes they're gonna be too ugly to handle. There's lots of Knights around. Do somethin7!"
Dhamon drove the pommel of his sword down on the helmeted head of a dwarf, denting the metal and stunning the man.
"Yeah, do something, Mai," Fetch parroted.
The big man growled deep in his throat and instantly dispatched two in front of him, spraying the crowd with blood. Those next in line backed up and held their swords in front of them in an effort to keep him at bay and take better stock of the situation.
