Free For Want of a Fiend by Barbara Ann Wright Page A

heard a crash. The sound of someone crying out in pain echoed down the stairway. A rush of heat billowed downward, and a flash of light brought the dim stairway into stark relief.
    Starbride resisted the urge to rush up the stairs. She pressed her sleeve to her mouth and crept through the smoke. More yelling came from above and another cry of pain. What had Katya gotten into?
    Someone ran up the stairs behind her. She lifted a pyramid, but Freddie slid to a stop on the dimly lit landing below her, hands raised.
    “What’s happening?” they asked at the same time.
    He hurried to her side. “I followed a woman through several streets. Took me forever to figure out it wasn’t Maia. Why did you come in alone?”
    She almost smacked him. “I’m chasing Katya.”
    “Katya’s in here?” He pulled his mask out of his clothes and slipped it on.
    “Upstairs, by the noise.” More smoke drifted down the steps. “We have to hurry.”
    He took the lead, but she kept her pyramid out. Light flickered from the third floor, a sure sign of fire. Now there were more voices, more footsteps. Pennynail and Starbride flattened against the wall as people hurried past them, all of them dressed in filthy rags or leather ensembles not unlike Pennynail’s. Starbride tried to peer into their faces.
    “Katya!” she shouted. “Brutal! Maia!”
    Several members of the fleeing mob took a cue from her and started screaming. She and Pennynail continued their climb.
    Brutal’s huge form emerged from the smoke. He kept two people at bay, both of his attackers with cloths tied around their noses and mouths. Pennynail drew a dagger and leapt to Brutal’s side. Starbride slipped past them and ducked to stay near cleaner air.
    The hallway was on fire; the flames nearly blocked access to one of the rooms. Starbride peered inside it to see a figure against the wall, almost on its knees. It shook its blond head and coughed. A long rapier glittered in its grasp.
    Starbride fixed her hood around her mouth and nose, kept low, and dashed past the flames.
    The air moved over her head, as if something just missed connecting with her skull. She tossed her flash bomb over her shoulder. It struck something and shattered in a burst of light. She skidded to a halt as someone cried out.
    Darren backed away, his face recognizable even with his fists pressed to his eyes. She saw it sometimes in her nightmares, asking how many times he could cut her before she screamed. He waved his sword blindly. Starbride ducked out of the way and hurried to Katya.
    When Starbride touched her shoulder, Katya tried to swing her rapier, but she seemed unsteady, staggered even. Starbride batted the blow away. “Hold on to me!”
    The flames in the hallway crept up the walls. Katya draped an arm around Starbride’s neck. Starbride covered Katya’s nose and mouth and led her past the flames.
    In the hallway, someone rammed into them. He gave way as easily as a bundle bag of sticks. “Keep hold of me,” Starbride said to Katya. “I won’t let you go.”
    But more people dashed from the rooms like rats. “Brutal!” Starbride tried to yell above the screams. “Pennynail!” Someone grabbed at her ankle, some poor soul who’d fallen in the press. Starbride jerked her leg loose, but she couldn’t offer the fallen person help, not while supporting Katya. Her stomach turned over at having to leave a person under so many feet.
    A cry of pain sounded from up ahead, and then Brutal moved through the mob. They parted for him like the tide, occasionally smacking against him and then rolling to one side or the other. He reached for Katya and hauled her over his shoulder.
    “Hang on to my arm!” he cried.
    “Wait, wait!” Starbride clung to him and looked for the fallen person who’d grabbed her, but there were so many people, too many panicked faces, too much smoke.
    “Now,” Brutal yelled. Starbride had to go with him or risk joining whoever was on the ground. Katya’s rapier