She ran before the next one could be executed. Not to get out of sight of the executioner or the fires whose light she saw start to dance across the tree trunks, but to find the one who ran. He had to be here somewhere! The screams cascading through the village were growing louder and the fires devouring the tents spread a little further with every instance. She had to find him before there was nothing left!
There was too much...everything for her to find that coward. Every corner she turned just led her right into another obstacle that had grown in his absence. Men with weapons as long as their arms came tearing through collapsing tents, firing random shots at the shadows they saw scattering away from them. Torches being thrown onto tents soaked in oil that now acted as the perfect kindle, spawning massive columns of fire right in front of her path. She could hear gargled screams coming from the infernos, causing her to freeze in place as memories came rushing back in.
Every path she took instantly forced her to turn back around and race down yet another only to find more familiar sights down the way. Women running away with children clinging to their chest, faces stained red from tears and black with soot. Screams followed close behind them as they ran in every direction only to find more no matter where they went. Children were left crying in corners, but her recollection wasn't complete until she saw the bodies. Cracks of gunfire followed the sound of crackling wood and the hollers for mercy, littering the ground with silent bodies.
She froze with everyone she saw, her jaw dropping even further and her eyes following suit as they settled on images that should have long since past. Fires erupting from the tents, people being reduced to bleeding piles of meat, and the sound of genuinely gleeful laughter fueled by the carnage. Heat licked at the sweat pouring from their skin and their ears started to ring from all the screams and laughter that never let them think they were safe for a single second of mercy.
This wasn't happening. Not again. There had to be something that changed. Anything. This couldn't happen anymore. There had to be some difference, the smallest ounce of improvement of just basic hope. Maybe the fires weren't as high or some of the men would find it in themselves to spare something. But no. It was all the same. Fire and smoke smeared all over it and here she was. Running. It couldn't be like Not for long. Where was he? He couldn't have gotten far in all this. He just couldn't. Not yet. He had to be somewhere in all this chaos, just somewhere.
"JUDAS!!!" Lozen cried out as she kept racing through the village, passing more screaming pyre's and crying children. Sometime she felt the urge to stop and maybe help one of them, but she knew there was nothing she could do. Someone they trusted and who would be heard when they called out for the people. She had to find him. That way, she could help all of them. He could help all of them.
"JUDAS!!! JUDAS!!!" She cried out over and over again, trying to keep her thoughts focused on nothing but him even as her survival instincts cried out for her to flee. Her skin prickled as the heat started to shear her body and her eyes water as the smoke crashed into them, every second bringing her closer to the flames creeping around her. The wounds still on her legs started to scream as the heat snuck their way inside like burning tendrils injecting lava into her veins. Her feet stumbled as the pain from her mending injured made taking a single step a trial and forcing her to slow down the more she scoured the burning village, dodging flames and maniacs rushed through the place. Every quick turn or snap movement she made to avoid the hungry flames or gleeful eyes caused her bones to feel as if they were about to snap and twist her wounds in a way that caused more blood to soak into her clothes. The skin on her feet was scraped bare and her toenails were torn out as she forced herself to skid to a halt every other second. Flames skimmed past the edges of her limbs and debri stabbed into her eyes, but he was out there. He had to be.
It wasn't until her body was torn to pieces and lungs gargled on burning fumes that she finally saw something down the one hundredth path she came across. She thought it was another broken man cowering in a spot he naively thought would be safe, but when she saw a sliver of blue light burning through even the raging flames spreading around them. "JUDAS!!!!" Lozen spat out as she saw the deadman huddle on the ground against a tent, curled up into a ball. She slid down until she was right next to him, grabbed him by the shoulder, and forced him to face her before she screamed "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!!? GET OUT THERE NOW!!!!"
Judas started struggling against her grip, his hands rising to beat down on her arms only for her to deliver a solid punch right into his jaw. "JESUS CHRIST!!" He spat back at her and he continued to fail getting away from her. "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU STUPID BITCH!!!!"
"You're not going anywhere!!! You are standing yourself up and you are going to charge back in there before they realize you even exist!!"
"LIKE HELL I AM!!"
"Oh yes!! That would be a wonderful tale! The gunslinger who ran away and left an entire village to die!!"
"LIKE ANYONE WILL GIVE A FUCK!!! IT'S JUST ANOTHER SAVAGE TOWN!!! AND I AM NOT RISKING MY LIFE FOR THESE BASTARDS!!!"
"You did befor...." She stopped before she could finish that. That was right. He didn't. And now that he might, he was running. Why wouldn't? This was just another savage town.
The realization, no, the recollection struck her like a bullet. It was so simple. How could it be any other way? "So you're just going to let all these people die!!? What about her glory!?!!"
"WHAT ABOUT IT?!? YOU THINK ANY PEOPLE ARE GONNA CARE ABOUT A BUNCH OF REDSKINS!!? LOOK AT WHAT THEY DO FOR LAUGH!!" He swung an arm up and gestured to the raging flames as well as the laughter echoed between the flickering lights. "But....the slaves!! They were-"
"FUCKING SLAVES!! PEOPLE LOVE IT WHEN SLAVES ARE FREED!! THEY FOUGHT A WAR FOR IT!!!?"
"Then this can be that!! The battle that made this matter!!?"
"AND WAIT TWENTY YEARS IN ORDER TO EVEN HAVE MY NAME MENTIONED!!! MAYBE!!? FUCK NO!!! NOT IF MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE!!!"
"My life's always been on the line and you never see me complaining about it!!"
"LAY DE FUCKING DA!!! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!! IT'S-"
"Shut up!! Shut the fuck up, you whimpering cow!!! You think because you know what's on the other side that gives you a right to cower back here like some child!!! Well news flash idiot, you're not the only one who's afraid to die because you don't need to come back to know what's in store!! Abyssal nonexistence!! Boo hoo!! Everyone's gotta go through that and everyone knows they will, but some of us have people that we're going to leave behind! People who are going to die a slow and painful death if we don't come back, so don't act like you know any better just because you came back!!? Who did you run to, who did you protect, what in this world made it worth coming back for!?"
"OH CHRIST WILL YOU SHUT UP!!! I'VE BEEN HAVING TO DEAL WITH YOUR SELF RIGHTEOUS HORSE SHIT THIS WHOLE WAY HERE AND I AM NOT GETTING KILLED OVER IT!!!" He managed to wrench his hands away from her and jump back onto his feet. "You still need me!!" Lozen cried out as she got back on her feet. "If you leave, the deal is off!! Good luck finding Iscariot again after you run away like a coward!!"
"FUCK ISCARIOT!!! I'M NOT DYING TO HIM AGAIN, ESPECIALLY NOT FOR THESE ASSHOLES!!!!"
"Why not!!"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO FUCKING DIE!!!"
"Neither do these people and right now, you're the only one who can change that!! So get out there and do something!!"
"LIKE WHAT!!?"
"They'll listen to you, you idiot!! They trust you and right now, they need someone to tell them what to do!! So get on a fucking podium and tell them to get to the forest line!!"
"OH YEAH!!! THE PLACE FULL OF ASSHOLES WITH GUNS!!! GREAT IDEA!"
"Those guys are all around us now, burning this place down and slaughtering the people!!! They're not in the forest anymore!! Why would they be?!"
"WHO FUCKING CARES!!?"
She was starting to notice that phrase was coming up more and more often. A part of her expected to hear him say this and an even larger segment hoped it wouldn't come to that. Maybe her worst fear wasn't true. Maybe they could still be saved.
But the fires were raging even now and there were more people dying with every second she stood here trying to talk him down. Her gut twisted into knots at the thought and her eyes started darting around the deadman, drawn by the flames that were dancing all across the village. She twisted her head around, her attention caught by the screams continuing to fill the blackening air, and said "Please, Judas, you once told me that you would go and help my people! I'm begging you, do the same for them! They will be eternally grateful if you help them now!! You'll be a legend!! Please, just help them!"
Judas stood frozen for a moment, his stance wavering for a moment before he spoke in a much quieter voice "I....I can't do that, okay! I.....I don't want to die!!"
The fury was still there, but it was faded and something else took root in his voice. Fear. An overwhelming, omni-present fear. One Lozen knew all too well. It coiled around her gut, brewing a poison in her stomach that slowly crawled through her muscles and paralyzing them in place. "And you think that's an excuse!! Everyone out here's afraid to die, but you can stop that!!" She said.
"Stop asking me! I can't.....I just can't!!" He sounded so.....hollow. Like there was just nothing keeping him standing. "Just go away! I can't do this, I can't help, and I can't...I can't...I just can't!!!"
He wasn't much. Just a narcissistic showman, but she saw what he could do. He could make the hopeless stand up and fight and lead them into something better. She would have asked what was different this time, but she already knew and she was ashamed she had not remembered it until now. Even with all the death and pain around him, he needed more of a reason to care. Because who wanted to hear the story of the Injun village burned to the ground?
"I...I gotta go....I'll..." Judas said as Lozen felt the horror crawling onto her expression. He seemed to take a step back as he saw the growing reaction on her face and a small tremor shot through him before he said "I'm sorry."
"No." Lozen found herself saying as the shock settled in. "You're not." The words strolled out of her mouth as naturally as any even as her gut started to constrict. Lozen wasn't sure if Judas heard it or not, because the next thing she knew, he ran down the pathway and sped right around the corner, leaving her all alone as the village burned. She wasn't sure how long it took for her to feel the last of the floorboards give way under her and left her suspended with only the red and black.
This was all there would be. The hero had run away and now it was just them. Her breathing started to erratically speed up as her lungs trembled every second she heard that laughter come echoing down the village. The skin on her back prickled as she swore she felt the bullets already digging into her back. She felt the urge to follow his suit, find some place to hide and wait for this all to pass, but while the idea circulated in her mind, it never took root. Instead, she just found herself staring into nothing for a moment before her feet started acting on her own. Her feet raced out from under her and started racing down the pathways again, not certain where they were even going. Not that there was anywhere left.
She wasn't sure how long she ran for. Hours, minutes, days, you could have told her anything and she would have believed it. However, she knew the exact moment where the aimless running stopped. It was a simple sound that should have been swallowed up by the roars of the flames and cries of the people. A whimper. Not that of an adult even. A child's whimper. One she knew all too well. It was a compromise of sorts between the need to scream in hopes someone would come and the urge to stay quiet so the threat couldn't find you. She could still remember when she heard that same sound drip out from her lips.
She skidded to a halt on the pathway she was running down and glanced down to an alleyway to her right. Cowering inside this time was one more appropriate to be in such a position. A child. Couldn't have been older than twelve. And they were all alone. She forgot why she was running as she saw the child, but couldn't quite recall why she stopped either. There were plenty of people dying or crying. What made this one so special? Because she noticed them?....she stopped herself as she heard the thought cross her mind. No one else saw the child, but something in the back of her mind told her that wasn't right. Someone should see them. Someone should help, because the hero's were too busy dancing.
Keeping her eyes scouring the area around the chil, she started marching towards him, hoping to just scoop him up before a mad gunman came along. However, the crunching of dirt under her feet caused the child to jump and as his eyes snapped over towards her, he let out a scream before he started crawling away from her. "No, no, no! Don't go! It's okay! I'm not going to hurt you!!" Lozen quickly cried out as she raised her hands in an attempt to make herself look as non threatening as possible, but the child still retreated. He tripped over his own limbs and was literally crawling away from her, back sliding against the floor and legs kicking dirt right at her. "Please! It's going to be okay! I'm not with those men!" Lozen tried again only to realize the obvious. She had spent every single day of her life for the past twenty years trying to blend into the world those men came from.
Her tongue crawled back into her mouth for a moment before she hooked a finger over the bandana covering her face and yanked it down. "Wait! I'm not one of them! See?!" She stammered out and whether it was the words, her face, or a combination of the two, the child finally stopped. Lozen didn't waste the opportunity. "I'm not going to hurt you and I'm going to make sure no one else will. Please. Just come with me. Everything is going to be okay." She said, as she kneeled down to eye level with the child, praying again all else that he would just come with her. That was all she asked. Just this once, let everything go right. That was all she asked. Nothing more.
She wasn't sure how long she held out her hand, but after a moment of just staring into that poor soul's eyes, he finally crawled an inch towards her. Then another and another until he raced towards her and tackled into her gut, wrapping his puny arms around her neck as he buried his heat into her shoulder. Lozen could just barely feel his tears start soaking into her shirt and while she felt the urge to reassure him further, there wasn't much time. She hoisted herself back up with the boy in her arms, saying into his ears "Told on tight." With one arm wrapped under the boy's legs for support and the other reaching down to draw her weapon before rushing out into one of the main roads.
The laughter followed her with every step she took and the flames were already there to meet her, but she kept going forward. Her mind tried keeping itself together by plotting out everything she could with minimal results. Six bullets, twelve if she managed to switch between her weapons, but compared to everything else, it wouldn't give her much of an advantage. The flames were too high. She needed to get clear of this place. They all did.
Bang! A figure fell in front of her. She fired the shot out of pure reaction the second she saw that the figure was holding a rifle. He had come bursting out of a corridor with a war cry blaring from his mouth and was thankful to see that her action was justified. There would be many others like her, but the thought that the next one might not be caused her to pause for a moment, though not for long. Despite the difficulty of moving around with the child in her arms, she managed to keep making her way through the villages while only sparingly using her weapon. This place must have been bigger than she thought and their numbers stretched thin. Whenever one of the invaders came rushing into her view, she shot them down and pressed onward, but if there were more as there so often were covered she rushed down another path and hid or ran.
However, none of that occupied her attention the most. That would be the other people she saw aimlessly running down the paths. Some were men, others women, and too many were children. They didn't know where to go or what to do. They'd listen to anyone. She could only hope they'd listen to her. "Get up! You need to get to the forest!! There's safety in the forests!!" Lozen cried out as she passed by the hopeful survivors. "They're not in the forest!! Get out and get to shelter!!" She wasn't sure if they would listen to her, but something must have been having an effect because almost everywhere she went, she found more and more people following her cries. They rushed in ahead of her and taking a guess where they were running to, she started following them. She didn't know this town better then they did, so logically they should know about how to find the way out. Not a lot of them made it. She passed by bodies she had been chasing after more times then she could count even after all she did to get them out.
Bang! Bang! Bang!! She fired at every raider she saw come rushing out at her or the stream of people gradually accumulating in front of her. There was no way she could have helped them all and more than once, she found herself having to duck down a pathway that deviated from the one the survivors laid out. By some miracle she found her way back to them and sometimes he even managed to help a few people back onto her feet. It wasn't enough though.
The fires were too great and the unrelenting heat they sent battering down on everyone was starting to become too much. Every second someone new came crashing from heat stroke or wounds and with the new found weight on her back, Lozen felt herself start succumbing to such effects as well. Her head felt dizzy and every limb was slowly encased in iron as her lungs cried out for air. It felt like she hadn't had a chance to sleep in the first place and was now being dragged down into something deeper than sleep. Her eyelids fluttered as the air started to waver like a mirage was taking hold. Whether it was because of oxygen deprivation or the blood loss, Lozen wasn't sure how much longer she could continue in this heat.
"Please." She begged. To god, the ancestors, Great Spirits, crows, or whatever the fuck was up looking down on them. "Let it rain." Her pleas continued as she ran through the village, hearing the screaming people pass behind it lag behind. She was sure why she spoke. What else could have been done? Her pace started to slow as her mind ran with the idea. She could see it now, raindrops falling from the sky and riding them of the flames. Cool droplets could splatter across her face and the choking smell of smoke would he replaced with the blissful scent of rain. Her feet started to slow at the idea and her burning muscles started to relax along with them. "Just this once, let it rain." That was she could think off. Her only plan. A miracle. Was this it? Begging for miracles? Was this the most she could do now?
Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt a frightened shutter pass through the child in her arms. At that moment, her heart sunk and a single thought passed through her mind. Rain wasn't coming. Neither were heroes. But she could. A simple thought, nothing more than a shadow of a wish and one that would pass like a long forgotten, albeit pleasant, but that proved to be enough. She smashed her feet down into the dry earth beneath her and mentally slapped herself in order to refocus her efforts. Her lips sealed shut and her vision refocused on the task at hand as best as her deprived body.
"Don't worry." She said, trying to comfort the terrified child in her arms. Her words hadn't helped. He was old enough to know that when the adults started praying, they couldn't protect them. "You're going to be okay. I promise you, everything is going to be okay and I'm not going to let anything happen, especially to you." Her words felt light on her tongue and they seemed to do something of value as she felt the child's trembling diminish. "So just hold on-" She started saying right before she skidded around a corner and caught a sight that made her freeze dead in her tracks. It was just for a moment, but it was a moment too long.
There was a group of five bodies lying on the ground, all of them men and armed with rifles, but they were wearing tribal clothes as opposed to that of the invaders. They were arranged in an unintentional circle with their limbs splayed around them, faces froze in either deathly apathy or soul shaking fear, and blood pooling around them as well as soaking into their clothes. A holler came from a sixth that collapsed onto the ground just as their assailant wrenched his knife out of the new corpse.
The blood smearing his face made it difficult to recognize Florentine upon seeing him, but the eyes compensated for whatever entrails obscured his scars. They reflected the raging fires around her like sharpened mirrors, but there was something even more fundamental in them. There was no fear, joy, or pain. Just an expression closer to death then the bodies lying scattered around him. Although, something stood out from those this time. Boredom. No. Morning. As if Florentine knew all the men around him and was witnessing their funerals. No. That wasn't it. There was something else in those eyes. But it didn't matter now that the eyes had seen her.
Every one of her instincts expected to see Florentine hurl his knives towards her and in anticipation, she turned her entire body sideways in an attempt to put as much of herself between the child and psychotic as possible. Instead, as her eyes narrowed onto the blood soaked beasts in front of her, she didn't see him make any attempt to harm her. His own eyes were focused on her like gun barrels, his fingers twirling the short blade in his hands as if he were trying to find just the right way to point it, and there a familiar determination on his face Lozen found oddly sympathetic. What was he doing? Waiting? Yes. That was it. He was waiting. But for what? Why wasn't he just attacking? Those eyes were that of a killer...no. That of a warrior. She had seen them once before. On someone who didn't come back.
He wasn't a murderer, at least not the kind she expected. He was waiting alright. For her. "Don't." She found herself saying even as there was no reaction on Florentine's face. "I need to get this child to safety."
"The men will stay away. They know better than to harvest before me and will only follow in my wake." He said almost as if he were reading a tome that should have never been written. The blade of his knife pointed itself to a corridor to his right as he continued "Take that path, a right, two lefts, and then continue straight on to exit the town."
She waited for more before she took a step towards the corridor mentioned only to see a flash of steel rush through the air. Her feet froze in place as a knife landed right in front of her. "Only the child." Florentine said as he pulled another blade from his vest. Lozen looked him over again and thought for a single instant before slowly kneeling down until the child's feet rested on the ground. "Alright. Listen to me." She started saying as she made eye contact with that child. "Did you hear what that man said?" He stood petrified for a moment before nodding his head. "Good. I want to follow that path and get out of the village. Don't stop for any reason and when you make it to the forest, keep running until you see one of your tribesmen. Do you understand?" The boy nodded again. "And this is important. If you see anything on the ground. Don't look at it. Just keep your eyes up, head down, and feet moving no matter what." He nodded again. "Good. Now go!" She barked at him before the child did exactly as she said. Kept his eyes away from the corpses and farted down the corridor the madman was still pointing at.
Lozen let out a sigh of relief when she saw the boy disappear from sight and then pushed down whatever part of her was trying to be comforting. She slowly stood back up, being careful not to make any sudden movements that might agitate Florentine. He was good with a knife, but if she could get to her weapon quicker then he could throw, this would be over before long. Not yet though. She needed to be absolutely sure she could make the right movements, something she never could if Florentine was still focused on her. Until then, she kept her hand hovering around the one pistol she knew would be loaded with her fingers twitching in anticipation.
"You're smart." Florentine said as he could to gradually spin his blades like the hands of a clock. His eyes were just as focused on her as Lozen's were on him, each trying to find just the right moment when the other would make a mistake. There was nowhere for them to run. Flames to their sides, certain death behind them, and only the weapons in their hands to change that fact. "So don't do it." Florentine said, eyeing the weapon in her holster. "Don't you want a fight?" Lozen asked. In her experience, the more people talked, the more comfortable they became, and the more comfortable they became, the more error prone they were. "You only killed armed men." She continued, gesturing to the corpses surrounding Florentine. "So I take it you're looking for one."
"They were the only ones who could defend themselves. If they died, they have only themselves to blame."
She raised an eyebrow and said "So you want a clear conscience? Is that it?"
"Half-wits have consciences. We have rules. One of my own being no one deserves to die unless they can stop it."
"And what about all this?" She said, this time gesturing to the flames around them. "Did the people here deserve to die?"
"The men came here for blood shed."
"So you surround yourself with half-wits."
"My employer does. Iscariot has an odd habit about him."
"Sounds like a convenient excuse for you. All you need to do is let these men do your dirt work for you. What else did you think these savages would do."
"Not a convenience. An annoyance. These fools grab a gun and a horse and believe that makes them masters in killing. You do not. These men do not. They know the value of a life and what it should cost to take it."
"And what might that be."
Florentine passed a blade in front of his face, gesturing to the scars eclipsing his face as he said "Everything."
"So, this is you paying the bill?"
"It is a reminder."
"That?"
"That my loss is still enough. That my pain and trials have are worthy enough to pay the price."
"So you cut yourself up and that suddenly gives you the right to kill all these people?"
"I never hurt myself. Such an act is moronical. As would be your attempts to distract me."
Her heart skipped a beat as she heard that and her fingers shrunk away from her weapon.
"I do not want another duel. They are quick and easy. No skill is required, no high price must be paid."
Shit. He was more observant than she thought and possibly more experienced. All those scars seemed old and if she were to bet, accumulated over time. He had been through dark, long days, maybe more than her. The mere thought was enough to make a small seed of doubt burrow in her mind and compel her to rethink running away. She was expecting and hoping for another thug she could have easily out gun or out smart. Now, only a tiny part of her still did.
"Then what do you want? A fist fight?" Lozen asked as she kept her hands still hovering around her waist belt.
"That blade on your side. It's obsidian built. There won't be better craftsmanship this side of the Mississippi."
"You want a knife fight?"
"I want to know the fight was proper."
She would have thought this man was an idiot if she hadn't seen him toss a blade faster then someone could fire a gun. It looked like a blade was more than he needed and she wasn't sure her own weapon would be enough. Even if she grabbed it, she had to draw, aim, and pull the trigger while all Florentine had to do was throw a blade. Maybe.
She wasn't certain she could pull her weapon in time, but she trusted even less the idea of using that useless blade at her side. She could handle her own with a knife, if not she would have sold the useless thing long, long ago. That child, those people, someone had to protect them, and she didn't have time to play this madman's games. He wanted to find some sick form of solace from this, but she needed to get past him. Those people couldn't make it far without her. Not like this.
"Don't." Florentine warmed again, causing Lozen to hesitate.
"You're not quicker than me. You won't win that draw."
She didn't say a word, merely keeping her hand above her pistol.
"And I should take my chances in a knife fight with a man who brings knives to gunfights."
"You do too, but you don't try to draw it. You deserve a better death."
"Says who?"
"Iscariot."
"If that's his real name."
"It is the name he has earned."
"Whatever. This knife is just a prop. Nothing more."
"Tribes worship that metal."
"I'm sure they do. But I'm not that dim."
"Is it dim to have faith?"
"Of course. It clouds your mind. Makes you think everything will magically be alright in the end."
"No. Faith is merely another word for hope and we all must have hope."
"Spare me. I'm not listening to a lecture from a murderer."
"We're all murderers. But such deaths do not have to be sins."
"You think?"
"I hope."
"Have you ever thought that maybe you're just another murderer trying to find some excuse for killing people?"
"Have you ever thought that you're trying to find an excuse not to have faith?"
"What would you know or care? You're just another white man willing to step over us."
"I have no qualms with you people. You will die like any other. Quick and fair."
"Like they did?" She gestured to the men at his feet.
"Indeed. All one needs to do is cut an artery. Nothing more. Never move." His scars seemed to twitch as he said that. "But they died better than most. Will you?"
"I'd rather not die at all."
"All things die. But very few can die well."
"And how might that be?" Her trigger fingers twitched as she swore she felt Florentine's gaze drift away from her weapons.
"I would not know. Perhaps we may discover that. Draw your blade. Make it a good death."
His eye flickered. It was tiny, barely even worth note, but with the air hanging stiff around them and both trying to maintain as perfect of a composure as possible, it was enough. And Lozen wasn't going to wait for this maniac to continue his little tyrad.
Her hand snapped down and ripped her pistol up, tearing the leather of her holster as she did. Adrenaline burned through her body, propelling her every muscle to do it's part in a delicate dance and smashing her other hands down onto the hammer of her weapon. However, before she could hear even a single crack of her weapon ring out, she saw a blur of silver flash through the air and felt pain rush through the hand dripping her weapon. Enough to cause her to drop the gun the second she drew it. Instead of hitting the hammer on her pistol, her free hand instinctively slapped itself against the cut she felt drawn over her other limb.
Her teeth gritted together, stifling the yelp threatening to burst from her throat and trying to divert her attention elsewhere. Unfortunately, the second she could refocus back onto Florentine, another flash of silver flew through the air right before the blunt butt of a knife smashed into her forehead. While a part of her was glad it hadn't been the blade, the other part was knocked senseless by the force of the strike and sent her stumbling backwards as twin streams of drowsiness and pain rushed through her. Her head throbbed, putting a pressure on her brain that made her feel as if she were about to fall asleep again. Her feet dragged across the ground for a moment as her head swayed and vision blurred, but before she would have collapsed, Florentine continued his assault.
He was in front of her in seconds, the palm of his hand smashing against her nose and nailing the drowsiness down before it could have fluttered away and then slapping another against her shoulder. His final arm hooked itself around her neck, striking her Adam's apple and depriving her of air right before his leg swiped reached forward to drive itself into the back of her legs, dealing the final blow to her balance. Through the fog festering in her mind, Lozen could just barely make out the sensation of falling and of her back hitting the dirt as her consciousness was assaulted from dozens of different angles. Darkness crept at the edges of her vision and her oxygen deprived lungs weren't giving her brain what it needed to stay awake. Though, in the end, she wasn't even conscious enough to panic.
"I warned you. You were not fast enough. Nor smart as it appears. But you do not deserve this death." Florentines distorted voices said right next to her ear. "Iscariot spoke to you at the bonfire. He said something to you, for your ears alone and his words are not to be taken lightly. There is meaning in them and I will rob no one of that." Her strength was starting to wain and her thoughts dissolved into jumbles of random words and observation. She wouldn't last much longer, for she could not even realize such a fact anymore. "But if you insist on dying the wrong death, I will be forced to oblige. My patience for fools is limited, Miss, and you have just wasted it. The next time you try to force me to end a life in such an insignificant manner, you will not live long enough to regret it." Her body fell limp against the floor and just before she drifted off to somewhere the flames and smoke could no longer reach her, she heard Florentine's voice mutter "Because I am worth more than your folly."