Free The Healing Wars: Book III: Darkfall by Janice Hardy

I’ll show you.”
    “No, stay here.” The soldier turned to the guard. “You, too.”
    “Don’t have to tell me twice.”
    The soldier raced out. Aylin glanced out the door, concern wrinkling her brow for a moment, then it was gone. She heaved a sigh and dropped both hands onto the back of one of the chairs.
    “You really saw the Shifter?” the guard asked.
    She nodded fast. “I did! Nearly scared me to death. It was the flames that made me look over there. Blue, can you believe it?” She gripped the chair back.
    The guard made a face. “Blue?”
    “Blue as the sky. Look—” She tipped her head toward the window next to her. “You can see them from here.”
    The guard went to the window. Aylin lifted the chair and smashed it down over his head. He groaned and slumped to the floor.
    “Hurry, we don’t have much time,” Aylin said, stepping over the unconscious guard. “It won’t take that soldier long to figure out there’s no one by the blacksmith’s.”
    “Do they even have a blacksmith?” I said.
    “I have no idea, but I figured farmers have horses, and horses need shoes, right?” She pulled out some lock picks and knelt by the cell door.
    “When did you learn to pick locks?”
    “Quenji taught me.”
    The lock snicked open.
    “You’re both geniuses.” I slipped to the guard’s side and placed a hand on his arm.
    Aylin pushed her hair back. “I didn’t hurt him much, did I?”
    “He’s fine. He’ll have a headache and some bruising, but it’ll heal on its own. Where are the others? Is Lanelle still here?”
    She rolled her eyes. “Barely. They’re at the docks. Quenji got us a boat.”
    “What about Soek?”
    “He’s in a building full of soldiers. I don’t think we can help him.”
    “We can’t just leave him here.”
    Danello put a hand on my arm. “Nya, she’s right. We have to warn Geveg. We can’t lose any more time. If we stop the Duke, we save everyone.” He picked up the guard’s sword and cracked open the door. “No soldiers, but there’s a lot of people out there. They look pretty angry.”
    “The Undying hurt someone,” Aylin said, “an older woman. People are complaining.”
    The familiar dread came back. Undying didn’t care for those who complained.
    “Keep Nya between us,” said Danello, slipping out. “Less chance of her being spotted that way.”
    We stayed close to the buildings and out of the yellow circles of the streetlamps. The marsh folks were gathered in front of the traveler’s house, yelling and shaking their fists.
    A woman cried out, and the crowd parted not far ahead. Soldiers emerged, their eyes scanning faces as they passed. Behind the soldiers, an Undying. Danello and Aylin closed tighter around me.
    “Everyone line up over there,” the Undying said, pointing against the side of the market building.
    “We don’t have to listen to you,” one man shouted.
    The Undying drew his sword and marched toward him. The man held his ground, but apprehension flickered across his face.
    “You’ll move, now ,” the Undying said.
    “I’ll move when someone who isn’t eating from the Duke’s table asks me.”
    The Undying backhanded him, sending him flying into the crowd. People screamed, some shouted, others charged the Undying. He braced himself but toppled under the surge of bodies.
    The soldiers drew swords and charged into the mob, blades slicing randomly as they cut through. More screams, and the Undying rose out of the pile, his sword dark with blood. He thrust it at the closest person, a woman who’d been trying to help another. A man with her plunged a knife into the Undying’s hand, but the Undying yanked it out and stabbed him with it. A moment later the Undying’s wound was gone, healed and pushed into his armor. More Undying stalked into the crowd. One was huge, towering over the heads of everyone. Another was small, cutting through the crowd with quick sword swings.
    “They’re going to kill them,” I said,