The Reforged king

Chapter 6 : The Breach

POV: Draven Korr

Iron met iron outside the door before Torvun finished talking. I did not wait for Vane to decide anything.

I pushed past both men and ran toward the east hall, where the sound of fighting grew louder with every step.

Two of Bannerly's soldiers turned the corner ahead of me, swords already drawn, their faces set on killing anyone who stood in their path.

I had no weapons. I had only my hands and the strength that had not fully answered me since the mines.

The first soldier punched me in the chest. I caught his wrist and twisted until the bone gave way beneath my grip.

He screamed and dropped the blade.

I took it from the floor before he finished falling and turned it on the second soldier, who was already lunging at me.

The clash sounded through the corridor, and I forced him back against the stone wall until his sword fell from his hand.

I did not kill either of them.

I needed information more than I needed bodies on the floor.

Where is Bannerly, I said, pressing the blade against the second soldier's throat.

He is not inside yet, the man said, breathing hard. He is waiting at the gate for word that the target is secured.

He target Me?

I released him and told both men to run before I changed my mind.

They did not need to be told twice.

I found Corwen in the cellar stairwell, exactly where I hoped she would be, shielding Mira behind her with a kitchen knife holding in both hands.

She saw me, and for a moment neither of us talked.

They are inside the walls, I said. We cannot stay here.

Corwen nodded once, already moving.

Mira held tight to her sleeve, her small frame shaking, but she did not cry out.

She had learned long ago that silence kept her alive.

We need the eastern gate, I said. Vane said it would be unguarded for an hour.

That hour may already be gone.

Corwen's jaw clenched. Did you trust him now?

I trust that he wants me alive more than he wants me dead, I said. That is not the same as trust.

We moved through the servant corridors, avoiding the main halls where the fighting had spread.

Smoke curled beneath one of the doors we passed, and somewhere above us a woman screamed before the sound cut off entirely.

I did not stop to learn why.

Kade saw us near the kitchen entrance, blood on his sleeve that was not his own.

He held a short blade in one hand and looked at me the way he always did, like someone deciding whether I was worth the trouble of saving.

You look like you need help, he said.

I need the gate cleared, I said. Can you manage that?

He did not answer with words. He turned and moved ahead of us, cutting down anyone who stood between our group and the eastern wall.

Whatever resentment lived between us, it did not stop his blade from finding its mark.

We were thirty paces from the gate when Torvun caught up to us, still bleeding from the wound he carried into the room earlier.

He said Bannerly himself had entered the estate through the front hall, and that Vane had gone to meet him.

Why would he do that, Corwen asked.

Because if he does not, Torvun said, Bannerly will assume Vane has already helped you to escape, and there will be nothing left of this house by morning.

I understood then what Vane had done. He was buying us time with his own life.

The gate came into view, and for a breath I believed we might get it clean.

Then three more soldiers stepped from the shadows near the wall, blocking the only path out.

Kade moved first, but one of the soldiers caught him across the ribs before he could land a strike.

He fell hard against the stone, gasping and did not rise.

The strength beneath my skin answered before I called for it.

It came faster than it ever had, hotter, less controlled.

My vision sharpened until I could see every motion the soldiers made before they made it.

I closed the distance in a single stride and struck the first soldier so hard he did not get up again.

The second and third came together, and this time I felt something crack loose inside my chest, not pain, but pressure breaking free.

Light gathered beneath my skin, faint at first, then bright enough that both soldiers hesitated, their faces changing from confidence to fear.

One of them dropped his sword and ran.

The other stood frozen, staring at my hands as though they no longer belonged to a man at all.

Behind me, Mira's voice broke the silence. Draven, she said, your eyes.

I did not have time to ask what she meant.

A horn sounded from the front of the estate, low and long, the kind of signal used to call every remaining soldier to a single location.

Corwen grabbed my arm. That means Bannerly knows, she said.

He knows exactly where you are.

I looked past the gate, toward the open field beyond the wall, and then back toward the estate where smoke continued to rise from the upper floors.

Whatever Vane bought us with his life, it was already running out and Bannerly was no longer waiting for confirmation.

He was coming for me himself.