Burning Night: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 12, Part 4: Natalina

The inspector spent only another ten minutes examining the scene before they left, heading towards the tram.

"I'm not fond of the Inspector's tone to the Colonel," Vargas admitted to Natalina, as they followed behind.

"It's a necessity of his job," Natalina replied. "But the sooner he can rule out Redgrave, the better."

Ahead of them, the Inspector's questions took a louder turn as Valen stepped past him.

"Colonel, I want that question answered!" Inspector Effran almost shouted, angrily.

But Natalina found her heart was hammering, when she saw Valen's hand rested on his sword.

Ahead, a group of nine or ten people were having a conversation in the middle of the street, loudly laughing.

All of them seemed to be carrying tools, were dressed in thick clothes, and were wearing heavy boots.

Not the kind of work clothes for a farming community.

"Jasper, Vargas, is the way behind us empty?" Valen asked, loudly.

Calinda glanced behind Natalina, and with a forced grin, said, "group of four, wall construction crew, with odd-looking tools sir."

"Weapons out!" Valen barked. Valen barely finished speaking when Natalina heard the hiss of steel sliding across steel as swords were drawn. "Blitz them. Make sure the civilians make it through. See them to the comm station, four blocks down the road."

"Aye, sir," Vargas said, stepping close to Natalina.

"Follow behind us," Jerome said to her and Arnold. "Run around us on the outside, and keep running once you make it. We'll hold the way, and follow when we can."

Past Valen, the advancign group stopped their conversation and charged.

At the same time, Jerome and Calinda charged at the other four, shortswords in their hands. Both of them moved with the easy confidence of professionals, and their approach took the small gang by surprise.

Jerome had punched his sword into the closest man's chest before he could react, and lunged forward to another. Calinda charged wildly into another, driving him back and knocking him into one of his companions.

Arnold ran into the gap Calinda created and Natalina followed, dashing around and just past the fight. One of the goons, a sickly looking man with long, unwashed hair made a lunge for her, but lost a piece of his hand as Calinda kept their escape route open.

As they made it around, Arnold grabbed a piece of pipe and moved to help them.

But the odds had already shifted in their favour. The man who had tried to grab Natalina now lay on the street, unmoving, and the other two were trying to escape from the fight.

One of them lunged desperately at Jerome, who almost casually locked his attacker's arm before swinging the blunt side of his sword into the woman's elbow. She went down with a groan, before being hit in the head with the blunt side of Jerome's sword, but her distraction allowed the last one to slip past and escape.

Calinda didn't follow, instead keeping herself between the fleeing thug and Natalina.

Natalina finally looked back to where Colonel Redgrave had engaged nearly a dozen others. She wasn't surprised to see that the fight was already over, the old Colonel had been outnumbered twelve to one. She was ready to run, to scream and call for help, but she could only stare in mute disbelief.

The only one standing was Colonel Redgrave.

He was surrounded by bodies, and was holding a small sware of what looked like chainmail, rubbing it along the length of his sword.