They came to another set of stairs, this leading down into the courtyard, where the chaos hadn’t quite reached, but confusion marked the faces of the Resei and other staff tending to the gardens. Wil pulled his hand free and rushed over to where a Resei knelt next to a small garden. The boy sat under the shade of the thin trees that lines the courtyard, next to a set of bushes and stringy weeds. A sickle and pruning knives lay abandoned next to him. Wil picked up a pair of billhooks, inspecting the two iron blades and wiping free the shards of bark.

  ‘You should get out of here,’ Wil told the Resei, then turned the two blades over in his hands. When he noticed Tseren staring, he shrugged. ‘I’m not going out there bare-assed.’

  Tseren regarded the other tools as the Resei around her shuffled upwards nervously, glancing at the noise descending down from the tower. She missed her sword. She’d be lucky if she was ever allowed to hold one again.

  No matter how far she ran, the accusation surrounding the missing princes and princesses, sons, daughers, and however the twins were classified, that would follow her until she was trialed. Until she was dead.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  Why hadn’t her powers worked?

  ‘Hey,’ Wil clicked his fingers in front of her face. ‘Panic later. We’ve got to move.’

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the massive doorway, the one they’d arrived through, that would lead them into the opening foyer of the palace then down a long set of stairs to the bridge crossing the moat. As easily as Tseren could picture it in her mind, she saw red puffs of air bleed out of the huge iron doors. She pulled Wil to a halt, then stopped a Resei girl as she made to follow them.

  ‘Is there another way out of here?’ she asked the young girl.

  The Resei’s eyes creased in confusion, then the great doors blew open, and the Red Guard marched through. Heat drained from Tseren’s body. She’d never seen a Red Guard in person, but the magic, the power radiating off them as a bloody, mist-like aura was enough to freeze her limbs in place.

  She was going to die here.

  *

  Wil had never seen a Red Guard before, but the stories told him enough. He never thought he’d see one, much less all twelve of them marching towards him. The bronze armour had been sprayed and coloured with red dirt, shining like blood under the hot Mediterranean sun. Helmets with domed face guards covered their heads, marked with the three eyes of Vawae etched along the forehead and three metal beams streaking back from the sides like sun rays. Tabards of dusted bronze hung out from under their breastplates, and at their hips were asymmetrical xiphos swords, wrapped in fine leather scabbards.

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  The knight next to him had paled. Her king had called her Tseren, but Wil wasn’t sure if it was her name and he was afraid to ask. If anyone assumed his name was “puppy” because of Heddwyn, he’d probably leap into the ocean.

  Heddwyn vanished from his hands. Right in front of him. Of all the people he could have run for – his mother, his father – Hedd had grabbed him and held tight. Now he was gone.

  Wil shook himself. ‘Is there another way out of here?’ he asked the Resei. He then shrugged off his cloak and passed it to the kid. ‘Cover the uniform and come with us.’

  The Resei gawked, then reached out and took the coat with shaking fingers. She then turned and bolted across the courtyard. Wil cursed and rushed after her, with the Knight Tseren close on his heels.

  A shout followed them into a new part of the palace, and Wil turned to see two of the Red Guard had broken away and were now rushing after them. The Resei shrieked in panic, and quickened her pace. Wil pushed harder, panic seizing his own mind, but the smaller girl was much faster.

  Tseren overtook him at the same time the Resei reached a servant’s door. She squirrelled into it, but by the time Wil reached it, gravity swung it closed with a heavy thunk. He swore. The two Red Guards behind them were gaining fast, but as he pulled the door open to follow the girl, a gauntlet covered hand pushed it closed behind him.

  Tseren reacted before Wil could, pouncing from behind and ripping the helmet from the Guard’s head before swinging it into the side of his head, sending him careening sideways. The second Guard pulled his sword free, but she used the helmet to block it, and Wil smashed the butt of the shears into the face of the first as the man rightened. He pulled the door open, only for the second Guard to push it closed again, and Tseren smashed the helmet down once more, this time on the Guard’s outstretched arm. The man growled in pain an annoyance, his other arm knocking the helm from her grip. Wil tossed her one of the blades as the first descended on her, and Tseren plucked it out of the air easily and caught the smaller dagger of the first Guard as it came free of his baldric. The second pulled free his own dagger and lunged at Wil, who parried it easily.

  The first punched Tseren hard, knocking her head back, which the woman returned with a punch of her own to his neck, sending him gagging. The second lunged at Wil again, who braced until the man was on top of him before ripping the servant’s door open and catching him in the face. Again, then again, and with one final strong punch to the head, the Guard went down. Wil pulled the door open fully, and turned back to Tseren at the same moment the dagger drove deep into her shoulder.

  Tseren screamed, and the noise turned from pained to blood-curdling anger as she ripped it out and lashed out, driving it deep into the Guard’s neck.

  Wil froze as the Guard collapsed onto his unconscious companion, gurgling and choking as he reached up and pulled the blade from his neck. Blood sprayed across the floor as it gushed from the new hole, quickly followed by a strange red mist that puffed out with his rapid breathing. The strange red air turned to fine tendrils that bled out like ribbons, then began interlocking over the wound, stitching it back together. The gurgling noise in the Guard’s throat stopped as he sucked in a deep breath.

  ‘Fuck me,’ Wil whispered. His legs were screaming at him to move, move, move, but he couldn’t stop staring. He’d never heard any story of the Red Guard’s doing that before.

  Tseren shook off her own paralysed shock, then darted towards the still recovering Guard and unhooked his scabbard from his belt. As she straightened, Wil finally snapped into clarity. He grabbed Tseren’s arm, ignoring a shriek of pain as the injury pulled, then dragged her through the servant’s door.