“We have to get out quickly.”  She said, “They can’t have missed all that noise.”

“How do you plan to get us out?”  Holt asked.

“We will have a distraction when you signal for it.  I figure you can shoot an arrow or something.  The rest of them are waiting outside.”  She grinned at him, “I’m going to take us right out the front door.”

She sat and began taking deep, calming breaths with Shadowsliver across her knees.  Holt began gathering his equipment from racks while she meditated.  The air around her stilled as she slowly breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth.  Glarian’s… no Luftin’s words echoed in her mind. ‘The First Korumn is of the Breath.’

“Are you ready?”  Holt whispered, “What are you doing?”

Callindra opened her eyes and gave him a calm look.  “Please fire an arrow out the window to the alley directly across the square.”  Whatever he saw in her eyes made him swallow hard.

“Right.  I can do that.”  He said, stringing his longbow and taking an arrow from his quiver.  “Tell me when you’re ready.”

She stood in a smooth, languid motion and gently drew the spell from Shadowsliver’s blade.  The last time she’d used this spell was just before she’d seen Jorda murdered by Morde.  Her concentration wavered, but her meditation had served her well and she managed to keep control over the Weave.

Holt moved to the window and fired his arrow at her nod.  It passed through the barred window without even the sound of feathers cleaving the air.  He turned to give her a puzzled look and blinked at her apparent absence.  A moment later, she walked close enough and he could see her again.

“They won’t see us and likely won’t hear us either.”  She said, feeling the calmness in her voice from the magics she had wrought.  “The Winds will shelter me, and you too if you stay close.”

“I thought I knew who you were.”  He said, putting another arrow to the string of his bow.  “I believe I may have been mistaken.”

“Go ahead and ask questions after we’re out of here.”  Said Callindra, “I need to focus.”

Shouts of surprise, explosions and the clash of steel on steel came from outside and Callindra led her friend slowly to the door.  He lifted the bar and followed her through the door and she nearly lost her tenuous hold on the Weave.  Instead of a distraction, her brothers had started a war.

“We’re going to have to fight our way out.”  She said to Holt, cursing in Orcish again and surveying the scene.  “There’s no way we can get through there without them running into us.  I’ll lead.  You put an arrow in the eye of anyone I can’t reach in time.”

Callindra dropped her spell and ran ahead with her sword swinging instead.  Her first blow hamstrung a startled guard and her second cut into the neck of another who was turning to face them.  She screamed in pain as the impact of her sword strikes hit her injured hand and she almost dropped Shadowsliver.  She’d forgotten all about it in the rush to escape.

What she saw in the alleyway where her brothers had been froze her heart.  A horde of Taken with glowing green eyes were being held back by a single figure.  Cronos stood resolute against hundreds, a hand and a half sword in each hand flying in a blur as he cut limbs, heads, bodies and weapons.  Cronos and Kain faced the town guard, but their attacks lacked coordination and their foes weren’t restricted by the walls of an alley.

Gritting her teeth against the pain and her exhaustion, Callindra passed her hand down Shadowsliver’s blade and unleashed a blast of wind in the first and most basic spell she knew.  It slashed through two of the guards and knocked a third to the ground.  Holt fired arrows with nearly inhuman speed and accuracy even while running alongside her.

They managed to punch through the guards to reach the others and a shout from above drew Callindra’s attention.  A rope fell and Reed shouted from the roof top.

“Get the hell out of there!  More Taken are coming from the other side, this place is doomed!”

“Holt.  Go.”  She said, clumsily hacking at a guard with Shadowsliver in her right hand.  He opened his mouth but she glared.  “Putting the archer on the high ground is common god rotting sense.  You can cover us from up there.  Move!”