Crown of One Hundred Kings (Nine Kingdoms Trilogy #1) - Rachel Higginson Page 0,38

of relief, I watched Oliver leap out of the way of the debris.

My body continued to hang uselessly while the man holding me worked to pull me to safety. I wasn’t that heavy, but I weighed enough to fell a weaker man. When I looked up, Arrick was staring back, straining against my weight and the forces of gravity working against us.

Growling something unintelligible, he began to lift. His feet slid against the slick wood until he planted them against the carved ridge and gradually brought me to safety.

At last, his actions garnered attention from his men and soon three and then four other soldiers rushed to help, grabbing all kinds of limbs and parts of me to drag my helpless body over the side of the walkway.

I collapsed on the heated dock, struggling to catch my breath.

I could have been crushed.

Impaled.

Snapped into a hundred pieces.

By the time I’d gathered my wits and managed to stand up again, Arrick had already jumped back into the fray. I owed him my gratitude, but now wasn’t the time.

I staggered over to the nearest cluster of men, desperately working to open a door. The window had been boarded shut with thick planks. The men had given up on the window, choosing to pick the lock on the door instead.

This I could help them with. I might not have the brute strength needed to pry stakes out of thick wood. But I did have hair pins.

“Move!” I shouted at them over the roar of the furnace around us. Surprisingly, they did.

I crouched in front of the lock, recognizing the royal detail and craftsmanship. It would have been impossible to open without a key. Unless you had older brothers who had been making you break into royal wine stores since you were old enough to carry something back.

I pulled a hair pin from my braid and tried not to touch the scorching metal as I worked the heavy lock. But my fingers, knuckles and palms burned as I brushed against the metal more than I would have liked.

I struggled to breathe through the smoke and tried to ignore the hysterical screams from inside the building.

I closed my eyes and forced it all to fade into the background. I focused on my brothers’ instructions. I pictured their bright eyes teaching their little sister something forbidden so that they had someone to blame their mischief on. I remembered their laughter, their cheers when I finally picked my first lock. I remembered dragging wineskins from the cellars to my giddy brothers waiting in the hall. I remembered my father’s fury when he found out what they had done. And my mother’s laughter as Father relayed what had happened later that night.

I let ghosts lead the way and memory guide my fingers until at last, the lock snicked free. I leaned back with a garbled breath of relief. The men grunted their approval, pushing me out of the way as they kicked in the door.

I followed them, gasping at the bodies on the floor. Some lay unconscious on the ground, their faces frozen in agonized masks. Others screamed or clung to each other as they waited for death.

A dozen people had been locked inside this dress shop and if we hadn’t come upon them, they would have died here, crumpled in clumps on the floor.

Clinging to each other, hopeless, miserable, and trapped.

They would have burned alive.

The soldiers immediately started pulling bodies from the room. They scooped up villagers with impressive strength and tossed them over their shoulders.

I couldn’t lift adults, but a small child caught my eye. He lay tangled in a heap next to a woman that had to be his mother from the way her limp fists gripped his curly hair and her body lay over his protectively. His pale little face fell with a listlessness that made my heart gallop in my chest.

I rushed to them, stepping over grown villagers and the rebel soldiers working to save them. I grabbed the tunic of the man closest to me. “I need help!” It was Eret.

I pointed to the little boy and his mother. “I’ll get the child.” I paused to cough and gasp, desperately needing clean oxygen to clear this lightheadedness. My fingers curled into his shirt. “You get the woman!” I ordered him.

He nodded wearily. The smoke took its toll on all of us. For a second I worried that this giant of a man didn’t have the strength left in him to carry a woman