Free Prince's Fire by Amy Raby Page B

mouth, and someone seized her from behind. She tried to scream, and then to bite the hand, but her attacker held her so firmly she couldn’t get her mouth open. She struggled and kicked backward at him. He dodged each blow and pulled her tight against his body. His clothes were wet.
    Nearby, two more attackers had grabbed Rayn. They appeared to be a pair of the
Goshawk
’s sailors. One of them grappled with him from behind, with a hand clamped over Rayn’s mouth, while the other assaulted him from the front, punching and kicking. Rayn was big, and he fought like a brindlecat in their grasp.
    I want to let the woman go
,
she projected into the mind of the man who held her. No effect. He was probably a war mage, given how easily he’d dodged her blows.
    She threw confusion spells and suggestions at the men attacking Rayn. Nothing stuck. The sailor who’d been punching Rayn pulled a knife from his belt. He raised it to strike, but then suddenly shrieked and dropped it. The hilt glowed red-hot, a shining beacon on the cabin floor. The sailor went back to bludgeoning Rayn with his fists. He slugged him again and again. Rayn struggled in the other man’s grip, twisting his body this way and that, managing to dodge some of the blows.
    â€œGet the knife,” snarled the sailor holding Rayn.
    â€œIt’s on fire,” gasped the other.
    The one holding Rayn glanced at Celeste. “Get rid of the girl.”
    Adrenaline surged, and Celeste fought harder, but to no avail. The man who held her was stronger. He dragged her across the room, kicking her feet out from under her when she tried to plant them on the cabin floor. What was he going to do? He couldn’t use the knife.
    The cabin window loomed ahead of her. Through it she saw the sea swirling dark gray in the moonlight. The sailor who’d been slugging Rayn disengaged, ran over, and hauled the window open for his companion. Oh, gods—were they going to throw her out of the ship? She flailed desperately in her captor’s arms.
    As the other sailor returned to help with Rayn, the cot hanging next to him erupted into flames. The sailor jumped back with a terrified yelp. The cot’s ropes parted, and it dropped to the floor. A wave of heat and sparks flew at Celeste as the flames ignited the floorboards and snaked across the room.
    Celeste’s captor shoved her at the open window. She caught the edges of it with her feet and braced herself.
    Noise behind her—a swinging sword. Atella was in the cabin now, shouting and wreaking havoc.
    Her captor gave her another desperate shove, and she resisted. Then he kicked her foot away from the edge of the window. Her other leg buckled. She fell forward sickeningly and found herself flailing in the open air, hurtling toward water.

8
    R ayn had a chance now that Atella was fighting by his side, but it was hard to keep his head where it needed to be. The image of Celeste struggling and being thrown out the window had seared itself on his mind. Next to him, Atella fought two men at once, leaving him a single attacker, the man holding him from behind, who was trying without success to wrestle him to the ground. How could Celeste survive in the open ocean? Even if she could swim, the water was freezing cold.
    He flung himself forward and down, tossing the attacking sailor over his head. The sailor hit the cabin floor and grunted as the impact knocked the wind out of him. He flailed, and as he tried to rise, the fire caught his ankle, and he screamed. Atella was holding her own against the other two sailors, who were obviously war mages in disguise. One of them held a sword. Rayn called fire into the hilt. The man screamed and dropped the weapon, and Atella skewered him on the end of her blade.
    Celeste was going to die out there if he didn’t help her.
    Rayn leapt over the screaming sailor and the line of flames, ran to the window, and dove through it headfirst.
    He fell two stories before