Cabin Fever (Attn: Kyn, Lor, Cora & Ed)

[_Kynwric_]

"If you can separate Narusha and Tessien from the guards somehow, that would be ideal. I'd rather not have to kill all those guards to get to their boss..." He left the unspoken 'but I will, if that is what is necessary' off the end of his sentence. He glanced to Edana, "You want Him, or the guards?"

[U4ea]

Edana blinked for a moment. Kynwric was actually asking her which battle she wanted to fight? That was new. She turned it over in her head. "Loraine needs to go after the girl, who will be more heavily guarded. She'll need you close," she looked down at her mug. "She's exhausted and I can't fight them all. I can buy you time, though."

 

She looked back up at Kynwric, a feeling of dread sinking in her gut. Had she just signed her death warrant? "I'll take him, you take the girl and get out as fast as you can."

 

~Edana

[_Kynwric_]

Kyn nodded, speaking Edana first. "You kill him. I'll hold off the rest. Lor, you get the girl..." What could possibly go wrong... he could hold off a dozen men in a narrow street. Now they'd see if Edana was as good as he thought she was.

[U4ea]

Kill him? she hid her gape behind a look out the window. She didn't say anything to that, just nodded. No one needed to know she was about to be cut down in the middle of the street.

 

~Edana

 

"So, we're going to get up here?" Loraine asked, looking out the window to peek at their view. "I can do a bit from here."

[_Kynwric_]

"You just snatch the girl off her horse and inside, wife. Leave the rest to Edana and I. If we're lucky we'll take care of the Lord and the rest will scatter... then we can make a break for it."

[U4ea]

Loraine felt her lips twitch, both at his orders and calling her "wife." Was he considering this a heart and home moment? She didn't argue, though she did point out, "You're no good to me dead, husband."

 

~Loraine

 

Edana smiled at Kynwric's tone as he talked to his Aes Sedai and her answering quip. Yeah, she'd die to keep these two together and wouldn't think twice about it. She couldn't tell them that, though. "Looks like our que," she interrupted, nodding at the carriages making their way up the street. She stood and dropped a pouch of coins on the table, nodding at the pair of them. "I'll find a spot across the street and wait for your signal."

 

Edana straightened her hilt at her hip and crossed the street, sliding easily into a shadowed alley that allowed her to see both the tavern and the street from the docks.

 

~Edana

[_Kynwric_]

"Shadowspan haven't killed me, this little fop and his lackey's aren't going to succeed now." He responded to Loraine, and then rose also from his seat to make ready. He eased his sword in its scabbard, preparing and stepped out into the street a few moments after Edana had. Stopping the carriages in their path and looking up at the driver. "Watch where you point that thing, you daft rube, you nearly ran me over." He kept his eyes a little further down road, and heard the first two guards turning their horses about to see what the hold up was.

[U4ea]

Loraine watched him walk out into the road, wincing as the carriage drew to a stop. She rose, leaving her hood up, and stood at the window, searching for the girl by feeling her out. She found her in the second carriage and moved out of the tavern, staying along the edge of the building until she was even with the door to the carriage. She watched everyone leaning out the windows on the other side to see what was going on and twisted a weave around the door, pulling it open almost silently. The girl was bundled between two men, her eyes wide as she saw Loraine. Lor waved at her, urging her to make a run for it and twisting weaves the girl knew, already.

 

~Loraine

[U4ea]

Edana watched the pair work, identifying the carriage Loraine was moving towards and positioning herself on the other side of it. If she was guarding the girl, she'd put the best blade they had there. Edana's target was inside that carriage, too.

 

She eased her blade from the scabbard a bit, staying in the shadows, as she watched Loraine pull the door open. She held her breath as the girl pushed out of the carriage door, landing on what Ed could only assume was a weave on the other side without hurting herself. The men inside leaped to their feet and the door slammed on the other side. They pulled on it as Loraine and the girl disappeared in the other side and Dana nodded. The Aes Sedai had that covered, which left her with...

 

A large shape leaped down from the carriage, on the opposite side and Edana cursed. He'd been on the top, not the inside! She bolted from the shadow, dodging horses as she hurried after him. She was faster and caught him within a block, leaping on him to tackle him to the ground. She rolled as he hit the ground and bared her blade as she squared up against him. Kynwric could handle the rest of them, they had to buy Loraine time.

 

The blade master rise to his feet, his hands at his side. "Didn't you learn anything from the last time, girl?"

 

"Yes, I did," she quipped, her lips twisting into a smirk. "I learned that you sold that pretty sword to a low life who preys on little girls and that your shoes are too big. Please tell me you don't buy into that whole size thing with feet..."

 

He rolled his eyes at her and turned his back to look for Loraine. So, school yard antics weren't going to do it. She sighed. "Alright, hard way it is."

 

She stepped towards him, drawing his attention back to her. "You should run while you can, little girl."

 

"I've fine all the running I'm going to do," she let the Spring take her irritation away, drawing her blade into a ready stance. He drew his blade free and his expression sneered at her. Then, he launched himself at her and she she countered, losing any trace of caring about forms as they melted together. She fought him off, gritting her teeth as he used his larger frame to beat her sword down.

 

Her arms ached, but she fought back. If she died too fast, he could still go after the girl. She gasped as he scored a short on her arm and another on her thigh. Anger poured through her and she fought to feed it into the Spring. "I am not dying, yet!" She muttered, pushing him back and attacking. She pushed him all the way to a fountain that splashed in a square behind him. He leapt on the side, his said arching from an even higher position. She scored a sht on his thigh in a form she vowed to call hacking through the weeds if she lived to tell this tale.

 

He stumbled and she pressed through, unwilling to give up that small advantage. He stepped into the fountain, it's calf high water slowing him down. She jumped in, too, her sword bantering with his as their blood fell in the water. Her arm weakened and she muttered inwardly. Fighting him twice in one day was just exhausting! Sweat stood on her brow and his, too, though she barely noticed, either. The water drug on her boots like lead weight and that's when it all cleared.

 

She'd been training herself to do this. She'd been fighting in puddles waiting around that palace. She'd picked sparring matches with Kynwric on the ship. Water.

 

She smiled with that realization and let her training kick in. She shifted her weight on her feet to make the drag smaller. She moved in long arcs to keep from breaking the movement of the water around her legs. She dodged with her upper body, mite than her legs wherever possible, covering by forcing him to move his legs, instead.

 

He was getting tired, she felt it in his hammering swings. She pressed through, backing him against the statue in the center of the fountain and forcing him to adjust himself for it, leaving her free to swing at him.

 

Then he lunged at her and she swung to deflect it, knocking the blade aside in a round swing not unlike unfurling the fan. She countered, swinging the blade back and catching him across the chest. He fell back, holding on to the statue and leering at her. "You think you can best me, girl?"

 

Edana was breathing heavy, her arms aching and her body tired. She didn't allow his words to affect her, just did ready for him to move again, gathering her strength for what she knew was the end. For the first time, she wasn't sure who was going to be standing in a few minutes and that made her feel better about it.

 

She hadn't been an easy fight.

 

There was that, at least.

 

He raised his sword at her, pushing away from the statue as he stalked towards her. He swung it in a high arch, aiming for her head. She sank to her knee and drove her blade into his side, a growl of exertion screaming from her lips. Her eyes widened and she looked up. His blade came for her again and she shoved harder, knocking him off balance in the water. He landed with a splash and the water turned red around him. She sank her other knee to the bottom of the fountain and panted.

 

On her knees before him, she watched until he stopped moving, her limbs heavy and sounds filtering through her senses. The splash of the fountain, the voices and cries from the people who had been watching. Her eyes moved over their faces, disbelief warring with horror at the carnage before them.

 

She'd done it. She'd survived!

[_Kynwric_]

Kynwric moved to intercept the guards, trusting Edana to finish the bodyguard. He set himself in the narrow space between carriage and building on the side of the carriage Lor would be taking the girl from. He swung his shield to the fore, let the men in front of him spend their energy and cut them down, it was hard work, but it was work done with a minimum of effort. Once Lor had that girl out of sight he could feel the emotions change and began to slowly back up, that's when he felt the pressure to his front slacken, with a quick glance over his shield and another to his rear he saw Edana on her knees with her sword driven through the other man. He disengaged from his foe, feeling their morale sag and began to run towards Edana. "On your feet girl, and don't forget the heron-marked sword. Its yours now."

[U4ea]

Edana looked up at Kynwric, numbly. She heard his words, but it didn't filter through, immediately. Her eyes moved from the heron-marked sword to the dead man still wearing her sword. Get the sword, time to go?

 

She pushed herself to her feet, her hand curled around the hilt of the foreign sword as she approached her fallen for. With a grunt, she freed her sword from him, and turned to Kynwric.

 

Still in a daze, she turned to follow Kynwric. "Loraine get the girl?" She asked as she stepped out of the fountain and a part cleared before her.

[_Kynwric_]

"Aye, now snap out of it and get back to business before that mob realizes there still only two of us." He said, then pulled her down an alley and around another corner, working his way to the back of the inn they'd just been in moments ago. "Loraine should be in the stables with the girl and the horses."

[U4ea]

Edana nodded, still numb as she slid her sword home and tucked the other, heavier blade into her belt on the other side. It affected her stride, but then again, she was so tired she could happily fall in a heap and sleep for a month. She shrugged him off, waving that she was right behind him. "Go, I'll cover your back. I'm right behind you." 

 

She turned, backing down the alley and glad for all the time she'd spent walking backwards with the trainees teaching them to swing their sticks without hurting themselves. If she had to think about what her legs were doing, she'd have fallen on her backside, for sure. No one was following them, thankfully, and she heard a creak telling her they'd reached the stables. Once inside, she pulled the door closed and turned, her hand on the hilt of her own sword, just in case they'd stepped into an ambush. 

 

Seeing only the small Aes Sedai and the even smaller girl sitting on horses by the other door allowed her to breathe. She climbed a bit awkwardly into her saddle, pulling her cloak over her shoulders to hide the blades and her flame colored hair as she waited for them to start moving.

[_Kynwric_]

Kyn made his way up the alley, but he was continuously checking over his shoulder to make sure Edana stayed on her feet. He could feel the tension Loraine was trying to hide under that mask of serenity, but he wasn't buying it. He made sure everyone was properly astride their horses, he climbed onto his own. "Let's move, and no stopping for anything or anyone until we're clear of this light accursed city." Then he pulled his cloak over his head, and led the way out of the stables. 

[U4ea]

Loraine knew she'd have to tell him about getting into this stable, but she wasn't doing it right now. It had been enough to scare the poor child on the horse next to her within an inch of passing out before she got onto the horse and, truth be told she wasn't sure the girl wouldn't bolt as soon as they were clear. Loraine was exhausted in a way she hadn't been for years, something had happened to Edana, if she had to guess and Kynwric was just as tense as she was. No one said a word as they both ducked their heads and left the stable, hoods up on their cloaks and ears and eyes peeled for every breeze-blown leaf. She leaned over the neck of her horse and clung to him as they snaked their way out of the city, the clamor of noise up one street or down another alley, altering their path until they were safely outside the city. 

 

She let Kynwric lead the way, keeping her attention on the horse carrying the girl for any sign that she was going to shoot off another direction. 

 

~Loraine

[_Kynwric_]

Kyn slowly led them through a winding warren of back alleys, tight roads, slums, and other undesirable neighborhoods, ever alert for anything that might do them harm, it was nerve wracking, moving this way and trusting a strange horse to keep them moving without faltering. There were a few scares, a cat that nearly spooked his horse, and a guardsman who, while uninformed, was good at his job and had required a swift boot heel to his nose to keep him from prying too closely. It only really took about half an hour, but it seemed like much more and they were at the outskirts of town and escaping the urban confines for the no less friendly, but less hunted, forests. 

Kyn pushed through the woods for more than an hour, just to make it harder for any pursuit to determine the direction they'd gone, but eventually he made his way onto the road back to Caemlyn, and then Tar Valon. 

[U4ea]

Loraine had rarely been more relieved to see the shining walls of the Tower rising in the distance than she was right then. Usually, she was filled with dread, for walking back into those walls put a bevy of responsibilities and requirements on her that weren't present while she and Kynwric were away. She'd been day dreaming about their little house in the Two Rivers for at least a day before catching sight of the Tower. She'd distracted herself with talking to their new recruit, trying to allay her fears about their journey and about her future in the Tower. She was pretty sure once she'd delivered the girl to the Mistress of Novices, she was going to collapse on her bed and not come out for three days!