“Nat, you know I love Charlotte but I'm a midwife dammit, not a spy.”
“I know sweeting,” Natalie ran for her own horse swung up into the saddle and galloped after her friends. She ventured a glance behind them, hair whipping in her face. Dammit, they’re right on top of us.
“Faster, love, faster” she urged her horse. Her heart was always in her throat during spy missions but this time it seemed to take a permanent residence, pounding a crazy rhythm that matched her horse’s madcap race through the back streets and alleys of Roseharbor. She grabbed a handful of mane and held on for dear life, following Onlo, Anli and Jules, chancing occasional glances to be sure Em was all right
All they had to do was make it to Jules's house. Jules led the way as he was most familiar with the way out of the city to the outskirts where his family lived.
Her horse, a tall chestnut gelding named Baron, skidded to a halt; Natalie found herself slung forward with unwanted close-up view of Roseharbor’s cobblestone streets, reins dangling, attached to her horse by her hands tangled in the mane and one leg still hanging over the saddle. She pushed herself back off the horse’s shoulder and into the saddle as Jules let out a stream of curses. A dead-end.
“Dammit, I went the wrong way.”
As one, they turned around, the palace guards slowing to a stop and grinning with victory having cornered their prey.
Onlo drew his daggers, deadly sparks of moonlight glinting off the Obfuseltan steel. “Then we will fight our way out.”
Natalie threw her leg over her horse’s withers and handed her horse to Em. She, Jules, Onlo and Anli formed a wall in front of Em and their mounts. She drew her short staff and counted ten palace guards. Four of them. And this was her first fight since the battle in the palace throne room two months ago.
Earlier that spring, while fighting a deadly epidemic, she and Jules discovered they could combine their Healing energies to help Heal people. That summer they also discovered that Natalie’s energy could amplify Jules’ electrical mage bolts. Ordinarily Natalie couldn’t stomach the idea of hurting others, especially using magic from her Isles’ ley lines to do it. She was a Healer, after all. However, finding themselves trapped in the dungeons after trying to infiltrate Roseharbor palace in a futile attempt to remove the corrupt monarchy from power and find Healer Aldworth, the man responsible for capturing and torturing Jules—twice—she and Jules were left with no other options.
The donation took a terrible toll on Natalie physically; the mage bolt that ended the fight and allowed her friends to escape nearly killed her; she had spent three weeks in a coma and every day since recovering.
Or trying to. She still had daily issues with speaking correctly, bone-draining fatigue and head splitting migraines at least twice a month. She had no idea how well she could fight today but the adrenaline surging through her blood gave her hope.
Anli drew her own daggers, the moonlight glinting off of her dark indigo, chin length hair. Jules dropped his hand, palm forward, to his side, the crackling ball of blue mage energy illuminating their foes. Natalie dug her finger nails into her staff.
The guards attacked as one; Natalie picked her opponent, a tall woman with a long brown braid trailing down her back, brown skin, muscles bulging as she swung her battle ax. Deflecting the first crushing blow, Natalie breathed deeply, and let her instincts take over. Eyes on her opponent she twisted and turned, whirling and parrying, dodging and kicking and praying that Onlo's training would be enough.
Natalie heard grunts and cries and it took a moment to realize that they were her own. Her anger at Charlotte’s imprisonment came out with every blow to her Queensguard opponent. One final blow to the head finished the fight.
Balancing on the balls of her feet, she looked for another person to attack. Anli and Onlo had taken down four people and Jules two. Together, they took down the remaining guards.
Panting, Natalie stowed her staff in its holster on her back. “That was close, too close. We got lop—sl—sloppy.” She cringed inwardly as she heard herself fail to say the word in properly. Would her brain ever get better?
“We did,” Jules said. “It's my fault about getting stuck in a dead end, I —”
Onlo held up a hand. “We don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to get to a safe place now. Is anyone injured?”
Everyone shook their heads rolling their shoulders a bit and shaking off some bruises. They hastened to the outskirts of Roseharbor city. Natalie heaved out a sigh, the clip clop of the horse’s hooves echoing along the meticulously trimmed hedges, wrought iron gates and giant houses of neighborhood through which they rode.
They were near their safe house safe house—such as it was. Dread slithered in her stomach and Natalie almost turned her horse around to fight the Queensguard instead of facing Jules’s family.
Acknowledgements
To Sue, who had her eyes on this story from the very beginning. This story became all I hoped it could be because of your feedback. This is me not hugging you.
To my beta readers Erin and Ness who helped make this story even better.
All the love to my Mad Cool Chicks. What would I do without y’all? So grateful for each and every one of you.
To the authors who’ve helped me on my journey: Elise Kova, who is the most amazing, gracious person. And the authors who don’t even know how much they’ve helped: Miranda Honfleur, Emerald Dodge and all the amazing people in 20booksto50K.
And, as always, to my husband, daughters, mother and sister: thank you for all you do for me day in and day out. Having a chronically ill family member isn’t easy. I am grateful beyond words for your love and help.
About the Author
KATE KENNELLY started writing creatively when she was ten years old. She let a bad grade on a creative writing project in seventh grade get her down and stopped writing altogether. Many years later, now suffering from chronic pain, someone asked her “When are you not in pain?” The answer was “When I do creative things.” Kate challenged herself to sit down and write something – anything – for the therapeutic value. Thirteen chapters later, not only was she writing, but she was reading books on writing, watching YouTube videos, learning all she could to try and craft a good story.
In her free time, Kate loves to Irish dance, play fiddle, do yoga, meditate and play World of Warcraft with her book club friends. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters and two rescue dogs.
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