Encrypted by Lindsay Buroker

voice calm and steady, commanding her
attention. “You can react later. Right now, I need you to watch my
back so we can live through this. Concentrate on that, nothing
else, understood?”
    Before she could nod, four men burst into
the hold, swords leading. A flash of silver streaked toward Rias’s
head. He jerked back, and it split the air between them to land
with a thunk in the wood wall. A throwing knife.
    Rias leaped away from Tikaya and charged the
Nurians.
    “ Curse me.” She tore an
arrow from her quiver. He had almost been killed because he was
trying to keep her from falling apart. She nocked the arrow, forced
her hands to still. React later. Yes. She could do that.
    Rias led the Nurians about the hold, dodging
behind crates and apparatuses, slashing to keep the men at bay, and
evading their attempts to surround him. With agility surprising in
someone so large, he kept them in each other’s way and remained on
the outskirts so he only had to face one at a time. More, he kept
them from paying attention to her.
    Good.
    Tikaya lifted the drawn bow and selected the
man farthest from Rias. She was not going to be the idiot who shot
someone on her own side. The arrow took the Nurian in his chest,
and he lurched backward, hands clutching the shaft. Horror and pain
wrenched his face. Her own heart twisted in sympathy, but she
smashed down the emotion. React later.
    Her next arrow felled a second man even as
Rias sliced the throat of the third. The fourth skidded to a stop,
realizing he fought alone.
    He backpedaled for the exit, and Tikaya had
him targeted, but she hesitated. Even if he meant to run straight
to his captain, how could she shoot someone fleeing?
    Rias lunged after him, and the man jumped
back. His heel caught on a downed comrade, and he pitched to the
deck, cracking his head on a crate.
    Rias dropped beside the man, gripping his
throat, and Tikaya winced and looked away.
    “ Live or die?” Rias asked
in accented Nurian.
    Surprised, Tikaya looked back.
    “ Live?” the Nurian
croaked, eyes darting with fear, as if he did not expect to be that
lucky.
    Rias glanced toward the door, then laid his
sword on the ground while he tore pieces from the man’s colorful
clothing. With quick efficiency, he gagged the Nurian and started
on ankle and wrist bonds.
    “ Who would answer with
die?” Tikaya asked.
    “ Most of my people,” Rias
said. “To live when the rest of your team died would be an
unacceptable disgrace to many.”
    With some vague sense that someone should be
standing guard, she stepped over the bodies to watch the exit.
Another hold stretched before her, lit by glowing orbs hanging from
the beamed ceiling. No one else waited to charge.
    Rias finished the bonds, leaving the Nurian
wide-eyed on the deck, and snatched arrows from partially spent
quivers. When he had a fistful, he joined Tikaya.
    “ I want to take control of
the ship,” he said.
    “ Take control?” She gaped
at the audacity. Surely, the best they could manage would be to run
for the upper deck and leap over the side. But, no, who would find
them in the cold, dark waters? Even if the Turgonians spotted them,
and that was unlikely, they had their own troubles.
    “ We’ll have another fight
when they realize what’s going on.” He held out the arrows, enough
to stuff her quiver, and watched her face. “You’ve got my
back?”
    She guessed at what he was really asking:
can you, a philologist from an island full of peace-loving
academics, keep from collapsing in a weepy heap when I need your
help?
    Tikaya grabbed the arrows and jammed them
into the quiver, angry with herself for that weak moment that made
him question her. “I’ve had it so far, haven’t I?”
    “ Yes.” Rias gripped her
forearm. “You’ve been magnificent.”
    She snorted. Right. He didn’t know how lucky
he was her trembling fingers hadn’t loosed an arrow that turned him
into a eunuch. “Will you still think that if I insist on taking a
side