A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp Page B

everyone out!”
    Without waiting for a reply, Egil sprinted across the common room toward the front doors, chin tucked, shoulder braced for impact. He hit one of the double doors like a battering ram. Wood splintered and metal shrieked as the impact cracked the door, the frame, and pulled the hinges out of the jambs. The door and priest slammed into a man on the other side of it and all went down in a jumble.
    Egil punched the man in the face, as good as a hammer blow, and the man went still. Nix supposed they could kill him later.
    “Go!” Egil shouted back at Nix, as he scrambled to his feet, kicking the downed man as he rose. “I’ll get water!”
    Nix nodded and bounded up the stairs. Already several of the workingmen and -women had their doors open and stood sleepily in the doorway. Smoke was leaking up from the common room, fogging the corridor.
    “Fire!” Nix said. “Get out!”
    Nix’s words spurred them into motion and most of them hurried directly downstairs in their nightclothes, wide-eyed and muttering in alarm. Some turned as if to go back into their room.
    “No!” Nix said. “There’s no time to grab anything!”
    Nix sprinted down the hall, slamming his fist on doors, shouting.
    Kiir and Lis and Tesha came out of their rooms in their nightdresses, coughing, hair mussed.
    “Fire!” Nix said, to head off questions.
    “Gods!” Kiir said. She clutched the small harp charm of Lyrra she always wore on a chain around her neck.
    “Get out!” Nix said. “Right now!”
    Kiir and Lis ran past him, Kiir brushing his hand with hers as she went.
    “I’ve got to check the rooms,” Tesha said. “Make sure everyone is out.”
    “Hurry,” Nix said.
    While Tesha started throwing open doors and shouting into the rooms, Nix ran to Merelda and Rusilla’s room. Before he reached it, the door opened and Merelda emerged into the hall, her eyes frantic. She saw Nix and her shoulders sagged with relief.
    “I can’t lift her, Nix!”
    “Aye.”
    Nix ran past her and into the sisters’ room. He scooped Rose out of the bed and carried her out. He came out into the hall to find Tesha still checking rooms.
    “Tesha!”
    “A few more,” she said. Sweat pasted her dark curls to her forehead.
    “I’ll help her,” Mere said. “Get Rose out. Go.”
    Nix hesitated, but went. He couldn’t do much with Rose in his arms and he couldn’t put her safely down. Smoke rolled up the stairway. The common room glowed orange with flames. He heard shouts and exclamations from below. Coughing, he staggered down the stairs.
    He reached the bottom just in time to see Egil bull his way through the front doors, each of his arms wrapped around a catch barrel of water. Lis and Kiir and one of the workingmen whose name Nix didn’t know lurched out from behind the bar, each holding a sloshing hogshead of ale.
    The fire had consumed two tables and chairs but hadn’t yet spread all that much. Egil tossed one barrel of water onto the blaze, then the other. Flames hissed and died. Smoke filled the room. Kiir, Lis, and their co-worker heaved their hogsheads onto the flames, killing even more of the fire.
    “Keep it up!” Tesha shouted from up the stairway behind Nix.
    She and Mere stood halfway down the stairs, their faces and clothes sooty.
    Kiir and Lis and Egil and the second man made for the bar for more of Gadd’s brew. Nix could see they’d have the fire out soon. Wanting to get Rose out of the smoke, he carried her toward the front door.
    He saw the man Egil had flattened rise to all fours under the remains of the door. He looked around, eyes wide, and clambered to his feet.
    “Shite! Egil!”
    The priest turned and saw the same thing Nix did. He reached for a hammer, but had neither on his belt. Nix ran for the door, still carrying Rose, and Egil came after.
    “Stop him!” Nix shouted. “That man! Stop him!”
    He reached the door to see the man shove one of the girls to the ground and sprint off down an alley off