Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,65

sorcerer and Eljin were fighting, while Rylan engaged the other guard. Both of the Dansiians were well trained, but Rylan, at least, should have been able to defeat the guard more quickly than this — his injury was slowing him down.

As I forced myself to my feet, Eljin battled furiously with the black sorcerer, swiping his sword at him again and again, trying to keep him from being able to summon more fire or any other abominable tricks, but I knew from my sparring with him that Eljin wasn’t nearly as talented at sword fighting as I was — not without his sorcery to aid him. He relied on using his power too much, and now that it was gone …

The black sorcerer parried his blow with his sword in one hand, while summoning his fire again in the other. They spun around, so that Eljin’s back was to the door. He had nowhere to go.

With a scream building in my throat, I hurtled toward them, lifting my sword. But I wasn’t fast enough. Eljin’s eyes met mine just as I leaped forward. My blade impaled the sorcerer from behind an instant too late, right as he released the fire at Eljin. My friend was trapped. Time seemed to halt for a split second as Eljin’s eyes filled with sadness, and then the fireball exploded against him and the door with a blinding flash and a reverberating boom.

The black sorcerer collapsed forward onto the ground, and I landed on top of him, my sword through his chest.

“Eljin!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet, my shoulder throbbing. I yanked my sword out and rushed toward the burning, gaping hole where Eljin and the door had stood only moments before. “ELJIN!”

I ground to a halt on the top stair, all the air suddenly stolen from my lungs. He lay sprawled halfway down the stairs, his face and body burned, his neck at a horrible angle, his eyes open and unseeing.

“No!” My howl of agony tore through my body. There was a thud behind me and I spun, terrified I’d see Rylan lying dead behind me, too. But he stood there staring at me, his chest heaving, the guard sprawled at his feet, unmoving.

When his eyes met mine, I just shook my head, tears suddenly blurring my vision.

There was a shout from the staircase down the hallway from us — more Dansiians were coming.

We both hurried to the smoking doorway, and I rushed down the stairs to kneel beside Eljin’s body as the tears spilled out onto my cheeks.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” I whispered over and over as I gently closed his eyes. I let my head drop toward him. It was my fault he’d come here — my fault he was dead. I couldn’t let myself think of Tanoori, back at the palace. So hurt already, and now this. Now, because of me, the only man she’d ever let herself love was gone.

“We have to go, Alexa,” Rylan said next to me. “Now!”

The echo of boots on the stones above us forced me into action, even though my entire body was shaking, and I could barely see through the tears. Rylan hurried down the rest of the stairs, and I made myself follow him, leaving Eljin behind. Rylan hit the bottom first and turned down the tunnel, back the way Eljin and I had come. Everything inside me hurt, echoing the pain of my wounded shoulder as I reached the bottom and let myself glance up the stairs at Eljin one last time.

Men in robes stood in the doorway, holding torches and swords. They shouted something in Dansiian, and terror seized me.

I spun to face Rylan, who had paused, waiting for me. “Run!” I shouted.

We took off blindly down the tunnel. In the fight, he’d lost his torch. Rylan had longer legs, and even though he had that slight limp, he started to outdistance me. When he noticed, he slowed his pace slightly.

“No!” I yelled. “Go! Just go!”

I could hear the Dansiians behind me, swarming into the tunnel. Rylan picked up his pace again. I pushed myself as hard as I could, but the one meager meal Akio had brought me last night was all I’d eaten in days, and I’d already been weakened before that by all our mistreatment over the course of our captivity. I was too slow, and I knew it.

A sudden blinding flash of light was the only warning I had to throw myself to the