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[color=baa7c7][i]Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine…[/i][/color]

Though she was only counting heartbeats, each one felt like an eternity, even longer when punctuated by the crunch of dirt and stones or the approaching rustle of grass announcing the bandits’ presence. The men’s own words paled in significance to their steps in Lienna’s ears: a word could be carried on the wind, but each footfall was itself a threat of increasing urgency. 

And they were approaching faster than she’d like; when their hoofbeats grew loud enough to distinguish multiple different horses, and even worse, when she heard the riders [i]thump[/i] to the ground off their backs, she knew her time was almost up. She could hear them breathing now, and even see the tops of some of their heads over the carriage walls—but she was lucky. It seemed they didn’t notice her yet. But her naive hope that they might be satisfied with a look around was dashed as she saw them moving to the back of the carriage, jiggling the latch on the door opposite her hiding place. 

She held her breath. 

The latch clanked, and the hinges creaked as the door began to lower. Lienna drew her bow, only waiting until the bandit’s head was visible before making her move. 

“Wh—?!” The bandit’s cry of surprise was cut off when the arrow hit his face, knocking him to the ground and making the carriage door fall with a [i]BANG[/i] along with him. Then, everything was a slew of shouting. Lienna could scarcely keep track; her bow was pulled from her grip by someone reaching over the side of the carriage, and two more assailants began clamoring into the carriage after her, swords drawn. Fuck, so much for that plan. There was no time to fight; she abandoned the bow, blindly grabbing for the nearest weapon with one hand and the wand in her belt with the other. Time seemed to slow as she clutched it, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to focus on what Michail had told her. [i]Concentrate into it.[/i]

To her surprise, the wand did as it was meant to: the slightest push of magic and a fog erupted around the carriage, halting the bandits’ advance for a second in a flurry of curses and coughs. Lienna didn’t hesitate; with the advantage of cover she was sure would be brief, she felt her way back up the front of the carriage, groping through the fog to climb up over the driver’s seat once more. The carriage shook with the flustered footfalls of blinded men, and using the cover of their clumsiness, she dropped to the ground as quietly as she could manage, doing her best to keep the carriage between her and where she thought the bandits were. 

But she couldn’t stay still for long. At least one of them had been around the side of the carriage near her, and the others quickly realized it was empty and disembarked. Squinting at the weapon she’d managed to grab—the gauntlets—she scowled. What the hell now? These were useless to her. Cover was all well and good, but they’d find her ere long, or else start swinging blindly until their blades met flesh. Could she run? She might get out of the fog bank before they realized the direction she fled, but where could she go? They’d see her for miles if she ran down the road, and her spine crawled at the idea of running to the forest, her gut twisting with uncommon disgust that she couldn’t quite explain. 

Whatever, there was no time to think that far ahead. Hearing footsteps come nearer, she blindly threw the gauntlets, which landed on the ground some distance away with a notable [i]thump.[/i] That was followed by more shouting, and the footsteps turned away, receding in the direction of the gauntlets. With a bit more distance between them, Lienna rounded the carriage, keeping it between her and the bandits. 

Well, all but one. 

“Little [i]bitch![/i]” 

The sharp grip of a gauntleted hand on her shoulder elicited a yelp from Lienna, and she was yanked around, coming face-to-face with her attacker. He was short, stocky, and blood seeped from a wound on his nose next to the dented prong of a helmet protruding over his nose. She gasped in horror; that was the man she’d shot! That stupid nose-covering helmet must have stopped the arrow from killing him, the bastard. What the hell kind of valley bandit even wore a helmet?

The man wound back to strike her, wicked blades on his gauntlets glinting through the fog, and there was no time to curse him before she had to act. With a yell of effort, Lienna did the only thing she could; mercifully quicker than her injured assailant, she raised the narrow butt of her wand and stabbed it into his eye, twisting out of his grasp as he shrieked and stumbled backward. Lienna’s back hit the carriage, and without hesitation she raised the wand, channeling her magic to give the reeling bandit a taste of Faerghian winter. 

An unfamiliar symbol flashed in front of her, and a rush of energy rocked through her body, through the wand, and out in a burst of wicked cold. Spikes of ice exploded out of the ground in a column before her, racing through the fog until the bandit’s painful moaning went abruptly silent. 

Eyes wide with disbelief, Lienna crept forward, following the ice until a dark silhouette emerged from the fog. She didn’t go close enough to see the details; the unnatural crick of the man’s spine hanging from a spike of ice was enough for her to know her magic had done its job. 

[color=baa7c7][i]“Saints be good,”[/i][/color] she whispered breathlessly, backing away from the gruesome scene before her. But shouting from behind reminded her of her situation, and she crouched down behind the carriage once more, forcing the impaled man from her mind. Right, one down, and… she wasn’t sure how many more there were. Two at least that she could hear talking, maybe three? More? It was impossible to tell. She could only hear their footfalls and curses, spread invisibly all around her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if the cover of fog was more to their benefit than hers. But for now, at least, they didn’t seem to know where she was. 

That still left the matter of dispatching them alone, but at least she had a second to think. And speaking of, where the hell was Veronica?!

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