“Blast you to perdition!” Iskondra shouted, flinging herself to the side to get away from the slashing claws of the assassin Tauri.
“Already established beyond capabilities,” Tauri said, rounding on her. He snarled, then froze, pointed ears twitching.
“Reconsidering your position, are you?” Iskondra said. “I honestly don’t know whether I should be surprised or not. It is certain there is ample enough reason… but, with a similar amount of certainty, it is apparent that you lack the wit to realize this.”
“Quiet,” Tauri said.
“You hush me? I find the very idea behind that to be laughable in the extreme, as I am even-tempered and soft-spoken while you grunt and growl and shout out every utterance that passes…”
“No time,” Tauri growled, and he ran, disappearing through the curtained doorway. Iskondra heard the sound of clanking metal and booted feet echoing from above.
“Aha!” she cried after him. “It seems as though the authorities are here for you. Run while you can, varlet, I will be certain to point them in the direction you have fled.”
To her surprise, Tauri stuck his head back out.
“Do that while arrested for keeping bookseller hostage?” he said.
Though it pained her sorely to do so, Iskondra instantly absorbed the meaning of his words and reacted without a verbal retort. There was a commotion and a clatter at the top of the stairs, but no one was descending just yet.
A loud voice barked down from the street, “You down there, come on out or we’ll drag you out!”
Iskondra looked at Tauri, who still stood in the doorway.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” she whispered. “You threatened the bookbinder. You’re dressed like the worst kind of gutter filth and you have the entire cutlery drawer glued to your fingernails. Do you honestly hold out even the slimmest expectation that you won’t be detained as well?”
“Back way already covered,” Tauri said. “Too many that way. Fighting up narrow closed stairs not ideal, either.”
“In other words, you’re stuck,” Iskondra said, her voice rising and cracking with glee.
“Enough fooling around!” the guardsman yelled down. “I hear you whispering and plotting!”
“Wrong pronoun,” Tauri said to Iskondra, waggling a clawed finger.
“We are stuck, then,” Iskondra said. “Surely you aren’t honestly suggesting we unite towards a common cause? I might face imprisonment and possibly expulsion from the island of Montport if I allow myself to be captured by the guard, but those fates do not begin to compare to the one you would design for me.”
“Seemed confident could beat Tauri before,” Tauri said.
“Yes, well… perhaps I’m equally confident I can fight my way out of this,” Iskondra said.
“Alone?”
“If you happen to fight in what amounts to being more or less the same general direction as myself, we might benefit from each other’s momentum,” Iskondra said. “But I see little enough reason to sully myself with an alliance with one such as you, even without bringing your intentions towards me into it.”
“Too many words,” Tauri said. “Only one matters: fight.”
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