Rhea stopped ten paces away and her blade stayed down and back with her shoulders set. "Kirin."
He smiled,a small and neat smile. "You made me run more tonight than I prefer."
Rhea's jaw flexed. "Call your men off."
Kirin tilted his head like he was listening for something else. His eyes flicked from Rhea to me, then to Selendra, and then to the charm under my shirt and he did not hide that he saw it.
"You've found interesting friends," he said. "Step away from the boy."
"No," Rhea said.
He looked at me. "Eiji Kagemaru."
My mouth dried. "How do you know my name."
He tapped his temple. "Reports,I read them." He pointed his blade at the floor, not at us. "You carry something that belongs in a vault,you come with me and you will not be harmed."
Selendra laughed. "Lies."
Kirin didn't look at her. "Demon.. You're not part of the offer."
Rhea shifted her grip. "We're leaving."
Kirin sighed. "Then we do this hard."
He flicked his fingers and two soldiers slid forward with shields. Rhea stepped forward to meet them and Vesper palmed a ring and threw it low. It burst under the lead man's feet and he slipped. Rhea cut under the shield rim and the second man shoved at her. She took the push, rolled, and came up at his back and her blade bit hamstring and he fell.
A third bolt whistled from the grate and Selendra's tail snapped and knocked it off course,it sparked and died.
Kirin moved with smooth, fast, deliberate steps. He didn't go to Rhea,he came for me.
He was on me in three steps. I raised my arms too slow and he slid past my guard and hooked my wrist. Pain shot up to my elbow as he spun me and set his blade at my throat.
Rhea froze,Vesper froze and Selendra took one step, then stopped when Kirin pressed the edge.
"Don't," he said. "I like my work neat."
The charm hummed hard against my chest and Alma's voice hit, sharp and angry. "Move your left foot,now!."
I shifted my left foot without thinking. Kirin adjusted with me. The edge bit skin and warm blood ran down from it.
"Be still," he said.
Alma continued to instruct "Kick his knee,back,left,now."
"I can't," I whispered.
"You can,it's your only chance," she said. "Do it now."
I drove my heel into the back of his knee but he didn't fall,he just rocked. Rhea moved on that same beat,her blade flashing and Kirin jerked his head back. The cut took a lock of hair, not his eye and he shoved me forward into her, then slid sideways and reset his guard.
"That's better," he said. "At least you try."
Selendra blurred left and her tail snaked for his wrist. He stepped back and cut at the tail tip and she withdrew, her eyes bright.
More men clanged into the channel from behind us and we were boxed from the front and back.
Rhea put her shoulder to mine. "We break left on three."
Kirin smiled. "No, you won't."
Vesper threw a ring at the ceiling. It exploded in a shower of grit and sand. Torches sputtered,the aqueduct filled with dust and coughs and shouts. Rhea pulled me by the collar and we drove left.
We smashed through a side grate and it tore our skin and cloth. The tunnel beyond was narrower and rougher. We squeezed in, single file. Selendra took the rear. Vesper threw her last ring at the wall beside the grate. It cracked and the stone slid,making the grate jammed.
Kirin's blade stabbed through the gaps and it missed Rhea by a hand. He did not curse. He just said, calmly, "Follow the side vents,they'll choke in the next hundred."
We crawled and the air grew stale,the tunnel angled up and my lungs burned. The charm's hum shook with my breathe and Alma stayed hot and steady in my head. "Keep going,ten more,nine,eight."
We reached a slab pressed at an angle and daylight leaked around the edge. Rhea braced her back and pushed with her legs but it did not move.
"Help," she said.
I shoved my shoulder under the edge and pushed with everything I had left even with the slab scraping me. Fresh air flooded in and we forced the gap wider and rolled out into weeds and cold wind.
We were in a ditch cut along an old road,the road ran east-west. Fields spread gray and empty in both directions. A low farmhouse sat a long run to the east with a thin column of smoke.
"we have to move," Rhea said. "South across the fields."
We ran bent low in the ditch, then climbed out and sprinted. Mud grabbed our boots and my legs wanted to stop but I did not let them. Behind us, the slab thumped as someone inside hit it,the sound grew faint as we put distance down.
We reached a hedgerow and dropped behind it. Rhea checked the road and it was empty and Vesper leaned against the hedge and closed her eyes for two seconds. Selendra put a hand on my chest and felt the charm's heat.
"She's still loud," she said.
I nodded. "Alma's pushing me."
"That is good," Selendra said. "I prefer you when you're not dead."
Rhea scanned the farmhouse. "We skirt it and keep moving, we cannot stop yet."
A rider crested the road to the west,he was alone with a dark cloak and hood up. He saw us even though we were still. He did not draw and he rode straight for us.
Rhea stood. "Get down," she told us.
She walked into the road with her blade low.
The rider reined in ten paces away. He pushed his hood back. It wasn't Kirin,it wasn't a palace man. He wore a plain face and old eyes.
"Captain Voss," he said. "By order of Her Highness, yield the host to custody."
Rhea didn't answer and he reached into his cloak and held out a small iron token with a black stone set in the middle. "You know what this is."
Vesper stepped to Rhea's shoulder and she went pale. "Sanction token," she said. "They can strip your rank if you refuse."
The rider's tone stayed even. "Last call Captain,yield the boy and the witch. The demon can go."
Selendra smiled without humor. "How generous."
Rhea lifted her blade a fraction. "No."
The rider sighed. He set the token back in his cloak. "Then consider this your formal notice."
He whistled, short and sharp and all along the hedgerow, cloaks rose. A full line of fifteen,twenty crossbows were already up, their strings aiming tight.
The rider lifted his hand. "On my mark."
Alma's voice hit my skull. "Call him."
"I don't know how," I said.
"You do," she said. "You did it once,now do it again. Now Eiji!"
Crossbow strings creaked and the rider's hand dropped.