Sea of Sighs (Empath Book 2) by Dawn Peers

side. Eden wondered coldly what would happen next, to the
lord or land that stood in the baron’s way. Sevenspells, it seemed,
would be the ones to find out.

11
     
    Quinn screamed, her
shrill shriek piercing the night air.
    The sudden noise did not deter her attacker,
and the sword continued in its deadly arc towards Quinn’s prone
body. At the last second, she rolled out of the way, hearing a
whistle as the blade whistled past. The blade made a dull thud as
it impacted with the ground by her ear. Trying to roll farther
away, Quinn became tangled in her bedroll. Her arms thrashed as she
struggled to free herself before another attack came. Her voice had
woken Ross, however, and the giant chamberlain was already
scrambling to his knees, sword in hand and eyes darting around to
find their foes.
    Maertn was awake as well, but his eyes were
full of shock, and it was clear he didn’t know what to do next.
Kicking down on her bedding, Quinn finally freed herself. She
scrambled away on her hands and knees before the next blow could
come. She twisted to her feet, and saw with horror that they were
being faced down by three of Baron Sammah’s silent mercenaries. No
wonder they hadn’t heard them coming. Luckily, Ross was no court
pushover, and as a veteran of the wars, was a force to be reckoned
with. He barrelled into the attacker who’d gone for Quinn first,
tackling him to the ground and beating at the man’s face with the
hilt of his sword.
    The mercenary crumpled at the blow, though
the other two ran in quickly to take his place. Evidently, they had
hoped to murder them in their sleep. If this was the case, why just
Quinn? Why not all three of them, at once? Three mercenaries for
three victims?
    Whilst Quinn was relieved they’d made such a
basic mistake, she could tell something didn’t ring true. Sammah
did not make errors in judgement, and his instructions were never
so lax. The two remaining men charged straight for Ross,
recognising immediately that he was the only thing that stood
between them and their prey. Quinn gulped as she saw Ross grab the
fallen mercenary’s own sword, holding one weapon in each hand, he
twisted them both expertly. She’d never seen an ambidextrous
fighter before. Ross was making it look like child’s play. With
only a brief hesitation, the two mercenaries darted at the
chamberlain. Ross met them with a cackling laugh that sent shivers
down Quinn’s spine. That noise would have been enough to petrify
anybody on the battlefield, but it didn’t deter the men; trained
since childhood to bear arms and follow the bidding of their sworn
master.
    Their own silent onslaught would have given
most men pause, but set against the berserk laughter of Ross, it
made an odd scene. He parried their thrusts with ease, though Quinn
could see that he was being driven back, not able to fight forward
on two fronts. They had to do something to help. She shouted
to Maertn, looking across to see him still wide-eyed and
open-mouthed. Quinn squealed in frustration. She looked around
their destroyed camp, desperate to find anything she could use to
help Ross before he was brought down. Finally, her eyes settled on
the dying embers of their campfire. One long branch still stuck out
the end of the fire, and Quinn remembered that Ross had been using
it to stir the last of the flames. The end of it was starting to go
grey and white with ash, but there was still enough heat for it to
be a threat as well as a distraction.
    Quinn grabbed the cool end of the branch,
darting around their camp to try and flank one of the men. They
were so focused on Ross that they didn’t notice her move, and
didn’t hear her coming. Not really knowing what she was doing,
Quinn ran at them with a yell, raising the branch high, and swing
it around in an arc at one of the mercenar ies’ heads. Not tall enough for a powerful
swing that high, Quinn missed, but she did drop the branch as it
impacted against the mercenary’s shoulder.