Excerpt: Lost, Unfound

I fought my way through the black-clad easterners, striking out at those who blocked my path if their eyes were dark, and defending myself against those few whose eyes were not. I made few attacks on these latter, merely held my own and spun around them almost as swift as the nasciave spun within my hands, leaving them battling the Kin behind me as I plunged through the crowd in search of Arilae.
I had only a guess of where she fell, and I know not what the Nightsmen thought of me, who spun her crystal deathstone shards and shouted as I fought, an endless stream of truth-seeking. "She lives," I called as my nasciave tore through the veiled face of the man before me. "In front of me. I will reach her," as I stepped over him and blocked a sword-thrust with the reed between my hands. My attacker's eyes were brown as any among the Kin, yet his lids were pale bronze and wide, and I cut him only across his wrist and ankle, pushing past him as the blade fell from his fingers. "She lives," I cried as my push knocked him off-balance. "Still in front. Closer now." I dropped swiftly to one knee and stabbed the next man through his chest as he charged me, pivoting on my foot so I spun as I rose, my nasciave pulling free and circling in a wide-arc that kept those to either side of me at bay. "She lives!"
A grey blade cut into my left hip, slicing my khais to almost its last thread, though it held fast within my wound. A gloved hand struck my head from behind as I extinguished the darkness in the swordsman's eyes, pushing me forwards so that I tripped over the body that fell at my feet. My nasciave swept my closest assailant's feet out from under him, and I rose even as he toppled, though when I glanced behind me I saw not the one who had struck me, only bodies and the Watchers locked in battle with the men I had passed.
"Arilae!" I called through the cacophany of shouts and screams, and for my own ears, "I will reach her. Closer now."
A quicksilver Nightsman stabbed at me, and as I arched my back to avoid his thrust and sent the sharp crystal end of my nasciave towards him, he reached out and caught the reed with his other hand, mere inches from his shadowed eyes. "It is I who kills you," I acknowledged, and kicked him hard in his belly as I released my nasciave for the heartbeat necessary to deflect the second thrust of his blade-arm.
I caught my weapon as he dropped it, and stabbed him through the throat as he lay prone. It was then I saw Arilae, her khais-clad body lying motionless against the wall of the Narrows, her face turned away so that I could see nothing of her features beside her dark hair, matted with dust.
I paused then, blinking away a tear as I growled, "She lives!" and turned to strike down the two young Nightsmen who attacked me as one. The end of the Narrows stood only ten strides away, and the innumerable Nightsmen stood like a dark wall at its threshold, sending yet more of their number into the passage. Spears flew and men died, and I reached Arilae at last, ignoring the bloodstains on the rock above her and the fall of Nightsmen around me. I had no illusions that I could carry my high-sister and continue to wield my nasciave, so I grabbed her instead by the hand and screamed at her to rise as the surviving Nightsmen bore down on us.
Her head turned towards me, showing her bloody lips and bruised cheek, though her eyes were closed to my Sight. Another spear flew from the Reeds above and another Babylonian fell. "You live!" I screamed at Arilae again and I pulled her up by my left hand. Her head rolled back a moment as her shoulders lifted from the ground, but I was rewarded at last by the faint tightening of her fingers around my own, and she groaned aloud as her head rose and her brown eyes opened.
I left her then, sitting upright with the cliffs for support as I spun to face the closing Nightsmen. My cheek ran wet with tears as I spun the crystal shards above my head, and the first man to enter its arc died screaming. The second attacked before I could resume my nasciave's spin, and I barely managed to disarm him before he charged heavily into me, knocking us both down amid the bodies and dust. My weapon was trapped between us, so as his hands sought my throat I plucked the darkness from his face with my fingers.
His scream filled my ears, silenced a heartbeat later by the crunch of a cudgel against his head. Strong hands pulled his weight off of me, and I climbed quickly to my feet and gripped my nasciave as best I could in my slick fingers. Jeroth struck out at the next Nightsman with the stone club in his fist, sending the man flying. I nodded my thanks to the Watcher, and glanced at Arilae, revealing her risen to a crouch, still supported by the wall and a vague look in her eyes.
"I will carry her," Jeroth shouted as we each struck down another assailant. A flight of spears pierced the wall of Nightsmen, and for a moment the stream of new attackers ceased.
"No," I called to him as I stepped back to Arilae. The pounding in my head and the gash in my side both clamoured for attention, but I pushed them back as best I could and helped Arilae to her feet. I looked back to Jeroth and the Babylonians, and saw a slender figure step from the Nightsmen towards the Watcher. Across the paces, I could see the light in the newcomer's eyes. "We must run," I spoke into my high-sister's ear, and clutched her hand tight as I turned my back on the Narrow's mouth, and supported Arilae as best I could over the bodies sprawled across our retreat.
Kaden and Jayla met us halfway down the Narrows, blood shining in the daemon-light from the scrapes and cuts that adorned their skin. Jayla moved quickly to Arilae's other side, and I grabbed Kaden by the wrist as he moved to step past us, his eyes on the east. "We run," I told him quickly, and as he opened his mouth to protest, I interrupted him. "Jeroth dies. We live. I am sorry."
We moved forward, not waiting to hear his reply though I trusted the shade in his wearied eyes. The bodies were thickest just beyond, and not all were of the Nightsmen; for several heartbeats I wondered which Reeds and Watchers had fallen, then I recalled whose eyes I had seen on our arrival, and guessed no more.
My ears were full of the groans of the wounded and dying, and the shouts of the Babylonians behind, yet I heard the last call of Jeroth before he fell against his assailants. "The Ghan!" repeated the mountains as we stepped over the last of the bodies and held Arilae between us as we began to run. A dark-eyed Watcher whom I did not recognize met us at the Narrow's end, newly summoned by the elangul and his stone cudgel in hand. I had no answer or greeting to the shadow in his face, only gratitude and shame that his sacrifice would add to Jeroth's and see us safely to the west.
There was movement in the passes above us, where the Reeds fled also now their spears were spent, then my eye flooded with tears and I could make out nothing save the blur of Arilae beside me. I blinked them away, and found my high-sister's features locked in a grim frown as she lent what strength she had to her legs. We ran not near as swift as we might have done fresh and uninjured, and I almost passed Caeryla as we turned another bend and she guided us up a shadowed path to the south, yet the Night was wearied and sore with casualties also, and its shouts of pursuit soon faded to howls of frustration and then silence.