She Was Safe

"There are knights who have come to save you. You have to hide here until they reach you, okay?" he nodded again, this time braver and more confident than before.

His golden eyes shining like he had swallowed the rays of morning sun and hid it in his eyes. If it had been any other time, she would have never approached a child, but right now, she wanted to save him from the bleak future this place holds.

Releasing him, she shifted silently and took out a set of daggers from her boot, waist and below her breasts, the area covered by her dress. To her delighted shock, the child offered to hold them for her with his extended hands. And though it was morally wrong to give weapons to such a small child, she did not care a damn about it.

She gave all the daggers with sheath to him to hold and took them out one by one,  She put a shoulder to the stack of crates that shielded them. She took the aim.

The closest to them was two yards away. A little move and he would find her. But before, she would silence him.

She pointed the dagger and it flew in the air, cutting the wind before reaching its aim. It hit the chest of the man and before he could scream, he fell on the ground with a thud.

She held the child and changed her position enough to not bring suspicion. When another man came running to know the source of the noise, Elara attacked once again with force. This time, the dagger hit the space between his brow and the man did not get time to struggle. 

This time three of them came together. She knew she did not have enough luck to get rid of them. So she pushed the crates, knocking the tower of boxes over them and held the child in her arms to run.

The child obediently held the daggers to make sure they could use them later. But his knights had already approached the other side and were fighting with the criminals.

One of them noticed a child in her arms and gritted his teeth.

"Let go of our young lord or we are going to kill every single one of you." he bellowed hard when Elara stopped.

The offer looked tempting and it would end all her troubles but for that she had to drag an innocent child in the battle that did not belong to him.

"You need to run to them, I will cover you up with my daggers." the child's brow furrowed as if he was baffled that she was not coming with him but she just winked when she placed him back on the ground.

He kept staring at her without moving an inch as if he was still waiting for her to change her decision. But the knights thought otherwise.

"Come along, young lord. That bastard would not hurt you." a knight shouted as he asked others to cover him while he came running to get a hold of the child.

  Elara needed to run, so she did. Winking at the child again and waving her hand as goodbye, she ran and jumped over a broken wall that was only four feet tall.

The knight cursed as he struggled to make a decision. But in the end, he decided to pick the child and take him away rather than following her.

"You are safe, young master. We have covered this whole area. We will bring you home." 

Shouts and clinking of weapons, screams and more footsteps, Elara was sure that blood was filling the land more than water ever could but she did not stay to look at their war.

Instead, she ran nearly as far as she could without getting caught in their war for she did not support any side. Picking up the broken part of the chair, she cloaked it on the man approaching from the side and threw a dagger on the thigh of another. 

The last one came surprisingly from the other side and lunged on her when she frowned.

"You should be fighting with the knights rather than harassing a lady?" She took out the ledger book and hit him hard on his head. The man went dizzy but he would be up on his feet soon. So she used the dagger to injure his gut before running from there. 

Before one m0re could come, she disappeared on the narrow lands that had a maze like structure. She knew all the shortcuts, but they knew them too.

She was lucky that her pursuers were busy handling the knights and she did not need to worry about them following her anymore.

She hid in the dark row and took off her clothes. A small sac came out and she filled all the books, ledgers and things she had stolen from the warehouse in them. Then she covered it with broken bottles and shards she could find to make it a pile of rubbish.

Then she let go of her clothes and picked up a dirty cloth hanging on the wall nearby. She wrapped it around her skin as if it was the best gown she had ever laid eyes on.

It would be hard to recognize her as the same if they did not come closer enough and she hoped that they would not. Taking a deep breath she let go of the narrow streets for they hold more danger hiding in the dark and those closed doors. Turning to her left and then crossing the passage and another right, she reached the square where common carriages are available for those who could pay.

She mixed in the crowd and though many stared at her with scrunched noses wondering what a beggar like her was doing here? She was sure no one would look closer for it was beneath their position to pry a beggar, one who did not deserve their attention.

With their contempt, she was safe!