She’d endured so much already; more than a lady of her grace and loveliness should ever have to face. This . . . this was the last. It ended here. Now.Rage scorched through his body, firing renewed strength into his tired arms. The bald mercenary lunged again, and Edouard thrust up his sword. The blades met, tension jarred through Edouard’s torso, and then he pushed with all his strength against the joined swords.When the mercenary staggered back a step, Edouard lunged forward and swung the blade in a wide arc. The steel sliced the mercenary’s upper arm. Blood shot in a crimson streak across the man’s leather hauberk.The mercenary screamed.“Yield,” Edouard said between his teeth, “or I will kill you.”The man’s anguished gaze shifted from Edouard to a point near Tye before he pressed his free hand over the wound, spun on his heel, and hurried away.“—I will not ask again. Release her,” Edouard’s sire was saying, as Edouard dried his sweaty brow with his sleeve and faced the others.“Why should Tye heed you, when you do not even respect his birthright?”
