After a frozen moment, Loran redoubles his efforts on Smith’s manacles. Docilely put themselves back in their cages? Not likely. Not even for a notorious assassin.

  Better plan: get everyone out as soon as godsdamned possible. A quick glance around reveals that Artemis and Orion are both free, as is Catches-leaves. The rest remain imprisoned. Loran doesn’t like his odds.

  “I won’t repeat myself,” the voice echoes again, its tone harder than before. Loran ignores it, working frantically – if The Shadow wants him to stop, they’ll have to come here and make him. “Five, four, three, two-ah!”

  There’s a thump behind him and a ferocious snarl fills the air. Loran twists around briefly to see what’s going on. For a moment, he’s unable to make it out – it’s a writhing mass of black in an environment that is already dim. Then part of the blackness pulls away from the rest of it. He sees the outline of a familiar head – and the golden eyes that are set into it.

  “Lathani!” he breathes and the eyes briefly shift to him.

  Unfortunately, that was a bad move – the moment all eyes have been drawn to the nunda, the shadowy mass she’s sitting on blurs further and vanishes. The nunda snarls angrily and starts turning her head one way and then another.

  Pack-leader is coming, she tells them through the Bond network. Loran feels the spike of joy and relief among his companions at the news – and smug satisfaction from River.

  For himself, he is surprised by how relieved he feels, though he can’t deny his nerves. But since The Shadow is clearly not yet dead, he focuses on his task – getting free of their chains can only help the situation.

  “Alyna!” he prompts when he sees that her hands have stilled and she’s scanning the shadows nervously. She sends him a quick look and then returns to her task, her fingers shaking. Inwardly, Loran curses – her nerves are going to slow her down significantly.

  Behind him, it’s eerily silent apart from Lathani’s snarling and occasional yelp of pain. Loran can’t help but take a few glances behind him as he continues working on the samurans’ chains, making slow but steady progress. What he sees is confusing more often than it is informative, but it seems that Lathani has some sort of affinity with real shadows and is using that to find where The Shadow is hiding and seek them out.

  But the assassin isn’t taking it lying down; strikes gouge into Lathani’s hide more often than they miss. Loran is unable to tell whether Lathani is managing to land her own strikes, though the occasional grunt from The Shadow indicates that there have been some successes. But regardless of who’s winning, it’s a distraction from what Loran and Alyna are doing. As the flames flicker by, padlock after padlock clanks onto the floor.

  Slowly, the waters turn in their favour. Each being that Alyna or Loran releases is a warrior on their side – the others don’t have to rely on weapons like Loran as they have their own natural ones. It’s not only the nunda now who leaps for The Shadow as soon as their hiding place is revealed. And without the manacles, the magical abilities of the beasts are released.

  The escapes of The Shadow are becoming narrower and narrower.

  Perhaps the assassin realises this, because they abruptly change tactics.

  Loran is working on Iandee’ locks – he insisted on being the last of his brethren to be freed.The next thing he knows, there’s a blade against his neck, its sharp kiss a hair’s breadth from his skin. He freezes.

  “Stop!” the voice calls sharply. Loran doesn’t dare turn to look, but he hears all movement cease. “All of you: back to your cages or I’ll slice him open,” the assassin threatens.

  Loran! multiple voices call in the Bond network. For a moment, they’re in a stalemate, no one willing to move for fear of things escalating.

  Loran’s mind races. How does he get out of this?

  The next moment, Iandee leans forwards and snaps at The Shadow. He’s obviously too far away to actually hit his target, but the attack makes The Shadow flinch; the blade twitches.

  Taking advantage of the assassin’s moment of inattention, Loran acts. The blade is at his throat so he throws himself backwards, into The Shadow’s legs. The impact makes his injuries scream and does very little to disrupt the assassin, but the moment of distraction and removing himself from the line of fire is enough.

  Everything becomes confused once more as blackness settles over Loran and blocks his vision; when it clears and he can see again, The Shadow is nowhere to be seen. And then he spots their hand, sticking out from a pile of beasts. The dagger that had been to Loran’s throat is lying near him. He grabs it and tucks it into his belt – he’ll be able to use that better than some chains.

  Though tempted to watch the events, Loran returns to attacking Iandee’s chains.

  Finally, the lock unhooks and Loran lets out a sound of victory – this is the last of the chains. Looking around as Iandee rids himself of the links, he sees that Alyna has done the rest. They’re all free.

  Lathani growls in victory herself as she lunges forwards. But it’s quickly followed by an angry snarl.

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  The attacker got away again! she complains petulantly. Loran tenses and looks around wildly – clearly The Shadow is a very slippery customer. That’s not surprising of an assassin. That none of them have yet died is more than a little unusual, though.

  Loran presses himself against a box to protect his back, keeping his eyes looking in all directions. His new dagger is clenched in his left hand; he’s dropped the wire now all the locks are open. Alyna sidles sideways and huddles next to him, obviously hoping for safety in numbers.

  Lathani leads the hunt, only needing a few moments to be able to detect where the assassin has hidden this time. To everyone’s frustration, The Shadow slips through their paws again and again. Oddly, they don’t try to repeat the same tactic of holding someone at knifepoint again, and Loran doesn’t think it’s because The Shadow doesn’t have any more knives. Maybe it’s because it was the closest the assassin came to being properly caught.

  Something’s wrong.

  Why hasn’t The Shadow killed any of them? All they’ve done is threaten, throw a few strikes around, and play a game of mila and rous – with themself as the rous. Someone with a serious enough reputation to have Alyna running scared should be capable of far more.

  Then it strikes him like a lightning bolt – the previous conversation he heard between Dexil helps to put it into clearer focus.

  The Shadow doesn’t want to hurt us. The thought flashes through Loran’s mind. There’s little evidence to prove it, but he’s abruptly certain he’s right. Which means….

  They’re trying to delay us! he shouts mentally at the rest of the group. There must be reinforcements on the way! We need to get out!

  He hooks his right arm around Alyna’s waist and pulls her with him, his stomach clenching. He knows Dexil – the man always has a get-away plan. It’s one reason why he’s never been caught by the lawmen. And while Loran would normally expect the hostages to be abandoned while Dexil and his closest escape, The Shadow’s actions point to something different.

  His companions understand his concern immediately through the Bond.

  Lathani, can you make sure this human doesn’t strike at us from behind? River asks briskly.

  I’ll do more than that if I get the chance, Lathani promises darkly.

  Good. Everyone else, come together, River continues. Loran, you’re travelling in the middle with Smith and Enchanter. Loran wants to argue with her but, honestly, it’s probably the best option.

  They come together quickly. Alyna isn’t entirely comfortable being in the middle of a group of beasts, and Loran senses that his companions feel the same way, but the needs of the situation are more urgent than their unease.

  Seeing that he’s limping and struggling to move, Smith presses herself close to Loran and takes his right elbow. He keeps his dagger in his left hand.

  That The Shadow is trying to delay them becomes even more obvious as they start moving towards the door. Boxes fall in their path, forcing them to find another way around, arcs of invisible air strike the ground in front of them and make them pause. Any attempts to strike at the assassin in return are fruitless, and Lathani becomes more and more frustrated as The Shadow slips away from her claws again and again.

  But it’s working – the door is in sight.

  And then it slams open of its own accord. The brief moment of anticipation that Loran feels rising from his companions is cut short: the figure that fills the doorway is very clearly Dexil and not their master. Next to Loran, Alyna starts trembling.

  Loran senses his companions preparing to pounce. Dexil might look powerful, but he’s only one man, and most of the beasts here are Tier two. And he’s surely not as slippery as The Shadow.

  “What’ve ye been doin’ Shadow?” the man demands, sounding more aggrieved than alarmed. “Ye were supposed te make sure no one came te release them!”

  And then Dexil starts stepping down the stairs fearlessly, and his companions are revealed. Loran curses quietly, now understanding his lack of concern. He doesn't recognise all of those accompanying the boss, but those he does recognise are all Classers. Thieves, thugs, and even one mage. The waters have decidedly turned again – even without taking The Shadow into account.

  “A little rous of yours had already come to start nibbling at their bonds,” The Shadow tells Dexil, appearing out of the shadows, standing on a box not far from the stairs.

  “Who?” Dexil snarls, his eyes scanning the frozen group arrayed before him.

  Loran feels Alyna cower against his side as Dexil’s hot gaze fixes itself on her.

  “Alyna. I should’a known. I’ll deal with ye later.” Alyna lets out a whimper and shivers even more.

  Loran ignores the pain of his wounds and instead wraps a hand around her shoulders, glaring back at Dexil. Fear is there, yes, but he finds that anger far outweighs it.

  “You’re not going to touch her,” he threatens.

  “Really, boy? Ye an’ what army are gonna stop me?” he asks dismissively.

  “This one,” Loran replies savagely, desperation giving him confidence. This works, or they’re dead.

  Not needing any more signal than that, his companions surge forwards and start the fight anew. Because even if the odds aren’t in their favour, Loran is damned if he’ll just give up now. And his companions are of the same mind.

  Seeing the charging beasts, Dexil just grunts and holds a hand out in front of him. A shimmering shield appears before his eyes; he crouches down behind it and then runs forward, using his descent down the stairs to add more momentum to his strike.

  Catches-leaves and Iandee run forwards to meet him, each grabbing a box on the way to act as shields.

  The impact is a loud explosion of shards of wood. Loran ducks, pulling Alyna down with him. His ribs protest strongly, as do the various bruises and gashes he has all over his torso. But when he feels the clatter of wood splinters against his back, he figures it’s worth it.

  As he straightens, he sees the two samurans braced against Dexil’s shimmering shield. The crime boss pulls back for a moment and then shoves forward, pushing Catches-leaves and Iandee off balance. On Dexil’s face is an unusual expression that Loran struggles to decipher. It almost looks like surprise.

  Whatever it was, it’s gone a moment later.

  “Thims, get the teleportation circle up and runnin’. Lon an’ Dan, protect ‘im. Everyone else,” he gives a malicious, blood-thirsty grin, “let’s teach these beasts why they should’a just stayed nice an’ safe in their cages.”

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