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mass chaos in the square as people shoved each other in
panic.
    A crack pierced the air. A fine mist sprayed
Shea’s face as the man holding her dropped to the ground. A hole
the size of her thumb marred the side of the man’s head.
    A sob of relief left her. Witt and Dane had
come through.
    She spun and ran up the platform’s steps, not
even pausing when a villager carrying an ax appeared. Another crack
split the air. Red blossomed on his chest. He fell back; Shea leapt
over him. There were two more cracks, and then Shea was alone on
the platform except for the four captives.
    “Shea!” James struggled against his bonds,
his body working frantically to get loose. Cam dangled limply from
his wrists.
    Shea pulled a knife from her waist as Dane
picked off anybody who got too close.
    Say what you will about his whining, the man
came through in a pinch.
    “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” James pleaded as
she cut him loose. “I didn’t know.”
    “Let’s not worry about that right now.”
    Her adrenaline thundering through her body,
Shea sawed through the last of the rope, pulling James free. She
shoved a knife in his hand and pushed him towards Cam.
    “Get Cam loose.”
    He stumbled, nearly dropping the knife before
reaching over Cam to work at the ropes.
    Shea drew another knife and went to work on
the nearest stranger’s hands. She flinched each time Dane picked
off another villager but kept at the rope.
    “Powerful weapon, that,” the whiskey-eyed
stranger observed.
    Shea grunted in agreement as he pulled free
and moved on to the next man.
    “Shea,” James shouted. “Come on. We have to
go.”
    She cast a glance around as she sawed. Horses
had reached the square and were now stampeding past them, shaking
the platform as they rushed by. Where did he think they could
go?
    “Thanks,” the last man said rubbing his
wrists. “We’re in your debt.”
    “Don’t thank me yet. We still have to escape
this gods be damned, shithole of a village.”
    How exactly they were supposed to do that,
she hadn’t worked out. Yet.
    “What do we do?” James said in panic as he
hobbled up to her. With Cam’s arm slung over his shoulder, James
was supporting most of the man’s weight.
    Horses still raced past them, but the herd
was thinning. Shea didn’t know how Witt managed to get so many to
stampede, but as a distraction, it worked amazingly well. The only
problem was that now they couldn’t get off the platform without
risking being trampled. Soon that wouldn’t be a problem, but the
villagers who had sought shelter in the neighboring buildings were
already poised at their doors, ready to recapture the men she’d
just released.
    One of the strangers tapped her on the
shoulder. “Is he with you?”
    Shea squinted at where he pointed.
    Was that Witt at the rear of the herd,
driving a wagon?
    Yes.
    She couldn’t believe it, but it was.
    As she watched, Dane swung down from his
roof, to a shorter building before leaping into the wagon bed and
climbing onto the front seat next to Witt.
    She grinned and clapped the man on the
shoulder.
    “Prepare to jump.”
    “In there?” James asked, wild eyed. “While
it’s still moving?”
    “It’s not like they can stop and wait until
we get comfortable.”
    “They’ll slow down, right?”
    Shea ignored the question, instead stepping
up to the edge of the platform and gesturing for the rest to join
her.
    “Jump right before the wagon reaches you,”
the man she’d freed said.
    James and Cam balked. Shea shoved them into
place. There wasn’t time for fear. They needed action, not doubt.
The stranger with the whiskey-colored eyes tugged Cam’s arm from
James while his friend put Cam’s other arm over his shoulder,
sandwiching Cam between them.
    “Shea, this is madness. We can’t make that
jump,” James hissed at her.
    She took him by the arm. The wagon was
seconds away, Witt’s face focused and determined as he barreled
down on them.
    Shea looked James in the eye.