Rova 21, 4707

The first scream came just as Father Zantus started to speak. Kali, Ameiko and most of the crowd around them turned to see where it had come from when the second scream pierced the air. Ameiko focused on something in the distance, said “Goblin!” and then took off at a full run, darting and weaving through the crowd as a wave of panic rippled across the square from the southwest. Kali called out after her, but Ameiko neither turned nor slowed. Then, a chorus of shouts, yells and howls erupted from everywhere and true panic set in, several people running in any direction that took them away from the festival grounds. Kali lost sight of Ameiko in the chaos.

As the crowd scattered, Kali watched a small, dark shape slip behind a wagon parked next to Savah’s Armory. A small animal of some sort lay in front of it in the street, motionless in an expanding pool of blood. Strange, high-pitched voices—nonhuman voices—joined the cacaphony.

“Dad…?”

“We need to leave. We need to leave now!”

Akmal and Denea started to run but stopped mid-stride just as abruptly and Kali collided with her father, almost knocking them both down. Briefly irritated, she quickly saw what was wrong: a group of six goblins had appeared in the square, one jumping up on to the tables and scrounging for food while the others shrieked at disoriented stragglers.

“Go around, not through!” she heard her mother call out.

Denea grabbed Akmal’s arm and steadied him, then looked directly at Kali. Their eyes met, and Kali nodded. Let’s go! she thought.

As they dashed along the southern edge of the square, dodging scattering townspeople all the way, Kali caught sight of several heavily armed individuals confronting the goblins who were now advancing on the thinning crowd. She thought she saw Sedjwick and Kyras among them, but she did not recognize any of the others (and you could hardly forget, say, a half-orc carrying the largest battle axe she had ever seen). When they reached the southwest corner of the square, Akmal (now in the lead) almost ran straight along the narrow alley between buildings to Shell Street, but at the last second he saw something he didn’t like and yelled out “Right! Right!” and rounded the corner. Denea and Kali followed close behind. The battle in the square sounded fierce and brutal.

Now headed towards Church Street, the Kesk’s jewelry shop straight ahead, Kali glanced over and saw two goblins fall, slain by a pair of sword fighters. A large man and an equally large woman had nearly cut them in half. A priest was tending to a teenage boy who lay dying on the ground behind them.

Where is the town guard? she thought to herself.

Akmal called out “Stop!” just before they hit Church Street. The three of them came to a halt, hearts pounding and breathing heavily.

“What is it?” Denea asked him. Kali recognized the stressed tone in her voice.

“Something large, just past the Cathedral. I do not know what it is, but I see two animal eyes reflecting in the dark.”

Kali saw a glint of steel and noticed that her mother was wielding her dagger, and remembered seeing her draw it while they were running. I didn’t even know she was carrying that. Where does she hide it? She’d only seen her mom produce it like this a dozen or so times and it always gave her chills.

“Are you armed?” Denea asked her husband.

“No,” he replied.

“Idiot.”

“It was a festival.”

A huge ball of fire rose into the air on the far corner of the square. All three turned in unison and saw a wagon engulfed in flames.

“The fuel oil,” Akmal observed.

“More are coming. Can we make it to the house?”

Kali watched as several more goblins descended on the square. The group of would-be defenders—she counted seven of them now—met them head on. There was still no sign of the town guard. A furious skirmish erupted.

“That thing is still there. It is watching us.” Akmal replied.

“We’re probably safer near them.”

The fight in front of the Cathedral was over almost as fast as it had started. In less than half a minute the square was littered with the bodies of slain goblins. One of their wounded—Kali couldn’t see who—was sitting on the steps. Father Zantus had arrived and was reviving the critically injured teenager. The group held an agitated discussion that Kali could not hear, but she was pretty sure what they had decided: to the south, plumes of smoke were rising from the city center and there were sounds of distant fighting. They started moving that way when yet another scream rang out, this time from the northeast, near the city’s north gate. It was followed by the furious barking of a large dog.

“That thing is moving. It is headed towards the White Deer…” Akmal said. Unspoken—he didn’t have to say it because they were all thinking it—was, Next to our house.

The impromptu militia stopped, turned, and bolted up Church Street, running towards the source of the commotion.

“Go!” Akmal shouted.

Kali saw it happen and cried out “Wait!” but it was too late: a goblin sprinted out from behind a water barrel along Junkers Way heading in the same direction as the others, just as Akmal and Denea stepped into the street from alongside the building. Neither saw the other and the goblin collided with Akmal’s legs at a full run, sweeping them out from underneath him. Akmal went down hard onto his side, landing inches from the goblin that had been flattened onto its back, the wind knocked out of it.

Denea reacted first, bringing her dagger down with a sickening thud into the prone goblin’s chest. It shuddered and was still.

Kali watched this all unfold. Something in the back of her head told her she should have been frightened, but she wasn’t. It also occurred to her that, all around her, people had been panicking but she hadn’t done that either.

“Are you OK? Are you hurt?” Denea asked her husband.

“I may have broken a rib when I fell.”

He got up slowly. Denea handed him the large knife that the goblin had been carrying and he took it without question or comment. Up the street, the dog had stopped barking and they could hear another skirmish. From the sound of it, this one was much more fierce than the others.

“Through to Cliff Street?” Akmal asked.

Denea nodded and they moved, crossing the road more carefully this time, then slipping between the jeweler and the neighboring house. When they emerged on the other side they saw one of the town guard laying face down in the street on their left, almost certainly dead. His sword was not drawn and his hand had been clutching his crossbow when he fell. It looked like he had been stabbed from behind while readying his shot.

They went over to him and Akmal bent down to confirm what they already knew.

He added, “It is Garridan.”

Kali was staring at the crossbow on the ground. She looked up at her dad, to the sounds of the fight up the street near their home, and then at the glow from the fires burning in the city to the south.

And then she picked it up.

“Kali.”

She turned to face her father. He was holding something out in his hand.

“The quiver.”

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