Broken Prince (The Broken Ones) (2 page)

The noise of the crowd echoed off of the buildings
behind the stalls, making it difficult to decipher anything specific. At least
for her.

"Kei, what's going on? Can you hear?"

His gaze darted over to her for a moment before he
stopped walking. The others noticed and they moved off to the side, out of the
way.

She could tell Kei wished she wasn't there. He wanted
to talk to the others, at least at first, before saying anything to her. She
scowled at him and managed to keep herself from swatting him. He rarely treated
her like a child. Him doing so now both irritated and worried her.

"Tell me," she demanded angrily.

After a moment of silence, and many exchanged looks
between the men, Bo answered, "There is an army marching on the city."

She stared at them in shock.
Stupid, stupid men!
"Then why are we still here?" Her voice came out many octaves too
high.

"It was just recently spotted. We should have
time–"

"Rot!" She cut Bo off before he could
finish, grabbing Kei roughly by the arm and pushing and pulling and dragging
the lot of them to get them moving again.

Panic quickly began winding its way through her. She
wouldn't be trapped in a city under siege again. If it happened, and the city
fell...she didn't want to think of it, but couldn't help herself. Would they
all be killed? Her breath caught in her throat. No, not killed, death would be
a waste. They would be sold. Like the last time.

Last time...

She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting the
skittering darkness which tried to overwhelm her.

"They're closing the gates!" The fearful
panic in the voice of whoever yelled spread through the crowd.

People screamed. Some ran, some stood frozen in shock
or terror.

She became one of the frozen, her mind refusing to
believe. It had happened, they had become trapped here. An arm encircled her
shoulders. She looked up, not surprised to see it belonged to Prince.

"We will be fine," he said softly.

She shook her head wordlessly and let him lead her off
the street. They wound their way through streets and alleys until they came to
a quiet deserted spot between two old decrepit buildings.

Stopping beside Prince, his arm still around her, she
could only stare off blankly into nothing. The fear choked her. The spiraling
panic continued to worsen. She couldn't breathe.

"We can leave our gear here," Bo said,
removing his pack and tucking it into the shadows. "It would be best if we
weren't noted to be obvious travelers and mistaken for spies."

Cain looked over at her. "We'll find a way out.
Don't worry."

"Kei, check the main north gate and see if there
are any other gates on that wall," Bo said.

Kei nodded. He'd been a scout before, he knew what to
do.

"Cain, take the west wall, I'll take the east,"
Bo continued, scratching the old scar down his face absently as his mind quickly
made plans.

She looked up suddenly. They were all leaving her?
Shaking her head frantically, words lodged in her throat. She
looked up at Prince.
Don't leave me!

He acknowledged her mental scream with a slight
squeeze. "I should stay with Aro."

Bo stared at her a moment before nodding to Prince. He
turned to Cain, "We can do the south wall as well, meet us at the gate."

Cain nodded.

Without further discussion they set out. Kei turned to
her, pulling her out of Prince’s embrace to hold her in one of his own. She
held him tightly, struggling to calm down. "Be careful."

He kissed the top of her head. "I will." He
ran off, quickly disappearing into the shadows.

Staring after him, a shudder ripped through her. She wrapped
her arms around herself, wishing Prince would hold her, comfort her. At the
same time she knew better. It wouldn't help. He would say everything would be
fine and she would try to believe him. In the end, whatever happened would
happen.

She turned when Prince moved and watched him sit down and
lean against one of the building walls. Frowning, she hesitated a moment before
joining him. He looked so tired, so worn out. Concentrating on worrying about
him instead of the fighting she knew would soon come helped calm her panic.

* * *

By the time the men returned, the sun had nearly set,
staining the sky with pink and red. Kei followed Bo and Cain, making her wonder
if he had gone to meet with them at the south gate.

"So what's the word?" She leaned forward,
trying to read how things had gone from the expressions on their faces.

"Gates are all too well guarded," Cain
answered.

"Even the smaller side gates," Bo added with
a scowl. "Men are patrolling the walls. The streets as well. Civilians
have been ordered to stay within their homes."

"Rot it," she muttered. It made sense, but
didn't help them at all.

"From what we heard there is a small army setting
up camp outside the south gate," Bo said. "Kei will see what he can
find out tonight."

She looked over at Kei in alarm. "You're not..."
She stopped when he shook his head.

"Darkness doesn’t hinder my sight much," he
reminded her. "I'll be able to see from the walls."

Letting out a deep breath, she nodded.

They ate, the men talking in whispers about the city’s
few defenses, the soldiers they had seen in the streets and lining the walls.
Darkness fell and they grew quiet, resting in the shadows, waiting for the city
to go to sleep.

She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her
forehead on her knees. Squeezing her eyes tightly against threatening tears,
the sudden urge to hit something rose within her. Knowing she was being
irrational didn’t lessen her spiraling emotions. Falling apart in such a
situation was the worst thing she could do, yet she couldn't seem to stop
herself. No wonder they treated her like a child.

A hand settled on her shoulder. Knowing it to be
Prince, she shrugged it off and leaned away so he'd understand she wanted to be
alone.

Her thoughts circled uselessly in her head. She tried
to calm herself, to regain control and be rid of the insane fear and panic haunting
her. At some point she drifted off to sleep and dreamed of the Dragos, Damon.
He smiled at her, taunting, asking over and over again, "Are you broken?"

When she started awake she saw Kei had already left.
Clouds drifted in the night sky causing the faint light of the stars and moon
to wink in and out. Leaning her head back against the stone wall, she rubbed at
her eyes. Waiting, not knowing if he was safe, left her trembling inside.

Kei returned, his face grim. His appearance didn't
help lessen her fears. The others gathered close around him as he sat on the
ground beside her.

"There are at least two thousand," he said, getting
straight to the point.

She grimaced. Even though the number didn't come close
to the size of army which had taken Kingsport, it remained large enough under
the circumstances.

"I saw about a hundred horses. Soldiers are geared
up the same as the ones here." He raised a hand when Bo and Cain both
began to ask questions. "They have a battering ram, were setting up a
cover for it by firelight."

The others quickly began questioning him and she
stared off into the darkness, listening absently to his responses. The ram
changed everything. She hadn't seen the south gates. However, the northern one
had been wood. It wouldn't hold long. The men quickly came to the same
conclusion. The city would not face a long siege.

She listened to them make vague plans based on
assumptions and possibilities. Having nothing to add, she remained quiet until
they ran out of ideas and decided to get what sleep they could. Prince and Kei
curled up to either side of her and she closed her eyes obediently, wondering
if sleep would come, wondering if she even wanted it to.

Prince slipped his arm over her waist.
We are
worried about you.

I know.

We will escape the city. You do not need to worry.

She sighed and nodded but didn't reply. She didn't
really believe him, but didn't want to argue. She didn't want to hear him lie.

Chapter 2:

How to Escape
an Army

Morning brought more clouds and sticky heat. Eating
quietly, everyone tried not to look as tired and cranky as they felt. They went
through their packs, discarding the few items they didn't need, mostly extra
articles of clothing and a few odds and ends. Soon they would need to fight and
run, and the lighter their packs, the better.

She clutched Avery's sweater to her chest, not wanting
to part with it, irrationally thinking she would forget him.

"Aro."

She looked over at Kei. Sadness clouded his face. He
raised a dagger and lightly tapped the tip to his forehead. Avery's dagger. She
still had hers, too. Smiling a little, she nodded, hugged the sweater one last
time, and placed it onto the pile of items to be left behind.

They each attached water skins firmly to their belts.
Packs were put on, tested for balance, sometimes contents adjusted. The skins
and packs would be a hindrance in fighting, but they couldn't leave them
behind.

"Remember, our first priority is to get out of
the city," Bo said, helping Cain adjust a strap.

"And evade the enemy army," Aro added with a
grimace.

"Yes, so head directly for the fields." Bo
looked at her specifically. "Understood? Don’t turn back for anything."

"I know. We’ve been over this."

"If you are followed then…" Prince looked at
her expectantly.

She wished they’d stop treating her like an idiot. Her
ears worked, she had been listening. "Run for the woods. If separated, meet
there along the boundary."

She didn't like the plan. It was too haphazard, too
ripe for disaster. The odds of something going wrong were so high it made her
nauseous. Tactics had been one of the subjects in her tutoring. Her brain
didn’t want to work though. Fear and thoughts of battle drowned everything else
out. She simply nodded and listened carefully. The boys were seasoned soldiers
after all. She trusted they knew what they were doing.

Kei left to scout ahead and returned quickly, silently
guiding them through streets quiet with fear and anticipation for the battles
to come. Occasional shouts echoed from the walls to the south, causing them to
pause and listen.

Trying to remain calm, she followed slowly, worrying
her lower lip. Eventually Kei led them to a narrow alley. They followed him in
and then through a broken boarded up door of an abandoned building. Treading
carefully on the rotting floorboards, she squinted in the faint light peeking
through the boarded up windows. The rooms were empty and the walls in the
process of being torn down.

Kei turned and motioned for them to be silent before
proceeding up a narrow flight of stairs. The room they entered had little light
as well, just enough to make out the gaping holes in the floorboards. Prince
drew her aside against a wall and pointed for her to stay there.

The men took turns peeking out the cracks in the
boarded up windows. Kei gestured her over. Carefully, she made her way to his
side and bent to peek through a crack.

Their building stood close to the outer wall, only one
street over from the main street leading to the gate. The window however, gave
a view of the main street between the buildings. She could see part of the
wall, men patrolling it. Other men were gathered in a rough formation in front
of the gate. Waiting.

Something would happen soon. Hopefully they were now
close enough to take advantage of it. They continued to watch, and to wait.

Shouts from the walls indicated the attackers were
approaching. She smiled a little when she heard the soft whoosh of hundreds of
arrows being released, followed by the faint screams of the dying from beyond
the walls. The morning dragged on with much of the same; shouting, taunts from
both sides, and volley after volley of arrows shot into the enemy ranks. They
settled back to wait, listening carefully to orders shouted as the day passed
into night.

The next day she heard the first strange noise shortly
after noon. Before her mind could make the connection, Bo supplied the answer, "They
have the ram at the gates."

Grimacing, she shifted position slightly, getting the
cramps out of her legs. She couldn't believe how quickly things had progressed.
"How long?"

"Not very," Bo answered. "The gates
aren't strong. A dozen or so good rams should take it down." He looked
over at her. "You ready?"

"Wither me," she muttered. No she wasn't. She
nodded anyway and faked an encouraging smile. It wouldn’t help to have them all
worrying about her.

Cain stood, watching her for a moment, his forehead
crinkled in worry. "Let's move."

They quickly left the building, not bothering to be
quiet or to hide while running through the streets. They were on the east side
of the city and so met no soldiers along their path to the smaller eastern
gate. Nearing it however, they began to meet a growing number of civilians
until their path became blocked altogether.

Cain cursed, running a hand through his short hair in
frustration.

She took the opportunity to catch her breath and
actually look at what had caused the sudden masses to block their path of
escape.

Hundreds of people, from the elderly to young mothers
with babies, crowded the streets around the closed eastern gate. Soldiers
guarded it, others stood upon the walls above. Civilian men fought against all
of them. She wasn't certain if the people were aware the southern gates were
about to be breached, or merely looked for any chance to escape a city under
siege. Either way, it would work in their favor.

Both Cain and Bo continued to curse.

She smiled and smacked Bo's arm. "This is good,"
she told him when she got his attention. "Let them get the gates open.
We'll go with the flow and escape unnoticed."

He grimaced at her, but did stop cursing.

She watched the soldiers resist until it became
apparent they were fighting a losing battle that would only end with the loss
of their lives. The crowd had quickly grown more restless, more frantic. When
the soldiers finally stepped aside, a loud cheer rose up. Men lifted the bars
and pushed open the wooden gates, nearly being trampled when the crowd surged
forward.

They moved with agonizing slowness as people poured
into the main street from side ones. Nearing the gate, she noticed her men had
formed a circle around her. Kei walked before her, Cain and Bo to either side,
Prince behind with a hand resting against her back.

She rolled her eyes. They continued to protect her.
With all the people, she wondered if their plans had changed.

No. Run for the fields. We will be with you.

She glanced back at Prince and smiled slightly as they
moved slowly forward.

Screams ripped through the air, shattering her tenuous
calm. The crowd surged forward then stopped abruptly. She clenched her fists, standing
on her toes trying to see, wondering what happened.

"Some are trying to come back in," Prince
said from behind her.

She looked back, wondering how he knew, before she
realized his height did indeed have some advantages.

His face became grim, his perpetual frown back and
dark brows drawn together over his eyes until the crowd moved forward again.

She lowered her head and moved with it, trying not to
think about what could have happened to those who blocked the way.

Finally they passed through and she stumbled as the press
of people suddenly disappeared. Some ran north, others darted ahead. Others
continued to scream.

Someone swore. Excessively.

She turned to Cain and then followed his troubled gaze
to the south. Dozens of horsemen bore down on the crowd, not far behind came
more men on foot.

"Wither me," she gasped out.

Survival instructs overcame panic. Immediately she
took in her surroundings. A long stretch of flat ground before her eventually
dropped down into a gentle hill. The fields didn't begin until the ground leveled
out once more. The distance between her and the fields actually wasn't too
great, unless hundreds of people blocked the way and enemy soldiers pressed to
attack.

Everyone drew weapons and moved quickly toward the
fields, pushing people out of their way while keeping an eye on the approaching
horsemen. It quickly became evident they wouldn't reach the hill before the
enemy arrived.

The horses didn't slow, but plowed through the crowd,
the riders slashing left and right with their swords, cutting down everyone in
their path. Each rider also had bows or spears in cases at their sides. She
didn't even want to think of the damage they would cause.

Too slowly, the hill drew nearer. So did the men on
foot. The horsemen were nearly upon them. Looking around at her men, she saw them
already spreading out around her. Kei's eyes began glowing faintly, already up
to orange. No one appeared to notice.

Swords clanged and the screaming took on a different
tone as both civilians and the city’s soldiers fought the horsemen.

Cursing under her breath, she braced herself for the
fight to come, twirling her daggers in her hands. Time rushed forward and the
enemy surrounded them. Instinct and training overtook everything else. She
fought, spinning and ducking, striking where she could.

A man rushed her, sword swinging wildly in a strike that
would remove her head if she didn’t move. Bending to the side, she sprang
forward to meet him, barely missing the sword. Too close for him to stop her she
thrust upward at his chest. Flinging himself back he barely evaded her blow. He
failed to see the old man slide an equally old sword up into his back from
behind.

Aro nodded to the old-timer before looking around
quickly. She’d become separated from her men. She had expected it. However, her
gut twisted not knowing where they all were and if they were safe. The horsemen
passed, moving on to attack those escaping north. Footmen took their place.
Some on horse turned back for another round.

When she finally found a moments respite, she turned,
searching for everyone. Kei remained close to her side, eyes red and claws
fully extended, covered in blood. Cain fought one man a short distance to her
left. She found Prince surrounded by four men, pushed back nearly to the gates.
For some reason, she nearly smiled seeing he still wore the stupid floppy hat.
Then she noted he wasn't faring well and fear streaked through her.

"Help him! Please," she begged Kei.

He regarded her a moment before nodding once, sharply,
and bounding off.

"They'll be fine. Go! Go!" Cain gestured
wildly with his free hand, his opponent dead on the ground behind him.

She spun around, searching for Bo. She couldn't see
him anywhere. Her heart sank. Cain screamed at her again and with a growl of
frustration she sprinted down the hill, dodging those in her path, until she
finally entered the corn.

Barely slowing, she looked quickly behind her and saw
Cain followed her, slowing only to sheath his sword and glance behind him.

"Run! They're following," he cried, putting
on a burst of speed.

She ran, frantically pushing corn out of her way,
trying to ignore the sting of the stalks and leaves smacking her face, bare
hands, and arms. Glancing back again she saw a rider appear behind them. Cain
had closed the distance between them and would soon pass her if she didn't
speed up.

She did, panic rising with the thought of the horseman
catching them. If he did, he meant to kill them. At least she didn't have to
worry about becoming a slave again.

The frantic beating of her heart drowned out the sound
of the horse behind her. The absence of sound scared her even more. She didn't
know how close the man chasing them was.

Running until her lungs burned and her legs ached she
found herself beginning to slow. Gasping for breath, she gritted her teeth
against a stitch in her side.
Certainly the horseman had given up by now?

Cain made a strange sound and cursed behind her. She looked
back to see him stumbling, hands grasping at an arrow through his chest.

"Cain!" She skidded to a frantic stop and
ran back to him, stumbling in her haste.

Reaching his side, her fingers fluttered hopelessly
around the arrow as she searched his face. Avoiding her eyes, he grasped her
arm and dragged her through the corn until he dropped to his knees, unable to
go any further.

Gasping out curses, she pressed clenched fists to
either side of her head, trying to keep calm and to figure out what to do. She’d
never dealt with such a serious wound before. Her brothers had never come home
from practice or fights with arrows sticking out of them.

"Pull. It. Out," Cain grated through
clenched teeth.

"But it will bleed–"

"Out! Now!"

Not hesitating again, she quickly moved around behind
him. Taking the shaft in both hands she sucked in a deep, shaking breath and
snapped off the fletched end. His body jerked and a hiss of pain escaped his
lips. Scrambling to hurry, she knelt in front of him again and grasped the
point which had gone all the way through his chest. Bracing one hand on his
shoulder, she clenched her teeth and pulled.