Act 13.

"To the King!" yelled Linda.

Without thinking Margaret and the guards near the king moved to surround Patrick. The guards who had been assigned to the guests also moved to cover them.

Linda saw that her shouting had distracted the archer who, for a split second, turned his head to look at her.

The columns of the audience hall were decorated with gifts from other lands that had been given over the years to countless kings and queens.

Some of these were metal, or ceramic, plates with local art or the coat of arms of the presenter on them.

Linda quickly reached out and took the nearest plate of the column she was closest to.

She flung it like a frisbee at the man in the rafters. Though it was not exactly shaped properly, Linda had fooled around, tossing around the frisbee, in the park with her gang often enough to be pretty good throwing anything shaped like one.

It didn’t hit her mark, but it did do what she wanted.

Seeing this plate flying up at him, the archer became off balance trying to avoid it. His shot went off but flew wild, and struck a column at the far end of the hall.

A dagger embedded itself in the rafter nearest the archer’s head. His eyes went wide with surprise staring at it.

Linda looked in the direction the dagger had come from. Margaret was just bringing her hand down and reaching for her sword.

Linda did not have her sword with her since guests were asked to go unarmed into the king’s hall. Only the guards and his personal champion were allowed to carry weapons.

Thank god though that she was still wearing her armour as a treat for his guests.

"Margaret! I need a sword!" she said keeping an eye on the archer.

He was moving around the rafters, probably trying to get away. He was good, quickly leaping between the wooden beams.

Margaret turned to a nearby guard.

"Your sword! Quickly!"

Without hesitation he pulled out his sword and gave it to the knight.

"Champion!" she shouted and threw the weapon in Linda’s direction.

Linda turned and caught it by the hilt. It was slightly heavier than she was used to but it would have to do.

She and Margaret ran back down the hall in the direction the attacker was running. There way was hampered by the crowd that was still assembled. Some moved quickly out of the way, while others were roughly shouldered aside by the two women.

Linda kept one eye on the fleeing man. He was very nimble and seemed to be having no trouble navigating the mesh of wood in the ceiling.

At one point he stopped and braced himself and turned toward his pursuers. With a speed Linda had never seen, he notched an arrow and aimed it at them.

"Take cover!" she cried and grabbing one of the female guests who was in the line of fire, she leapt off to the side. The woman let out a screech as they tumbled to the floor.

She heard others yelling as well, and heard the thump of the arrow hitting the floor.

She looked to see it embedded in the floor not far from where her feet were. He had tried to compensate for her movements.

"He’s good." she thought. "That’s definitely not good."

She scrambled to her feet, and saw that Margaret was doing the same thing.

Their prey was already on the move again.

Margaret turned to Linda and said.

"We won’t catch up to him through this crowed. I have an idea, follow me."

She ran pass linda to a door that was on the side of the hall. She opened it and passed through followed by Linda.

They emerged in the side garden of the grounds. Margaret turned and continued to run, now unhindered, back toward the front of the building.

"The only exits at the end of the hall are either the doors or the large window near the roof." said Margaret. "That’s probably were he got in and is the only way for him to get out. He probably thought that the confusion of an assassination would slow pursuit."

"He was right." said Linda.

"But he did not take into account that I know this place inside out, just incase of such emergencies." she said grinning. "We can get around to the front through this garden and hopefully catch him as he comes out."

Soon they came to the end of the garden and ran through the open gate at the entrance. They turned right and could now see the huge doors that mark the entrance of the audience hall. The guards were not there, having gone in when they heard the alarm.

Up high on the wall were two large rectangular windows, decorated with the new kings coat of arms. They had been opened to let the spring air fill the hall for today’s special event.

Through this window the two women saw the archer emerge and delicately balance on the small ledge that ran under it.

"We can’t do anything as long as he stays up high." said Linda.

The archer began to climb up the side of the of the building trying to get on the roof.

"If he gets up there we’ll loose him." said Margaret..

She looked around at the ground. She reached down and picked up a large rock, that probably took someone twice her size to move, from a pile that had been dug out of the garden and placed here to be moved later.

"Go." she told Linda.

Linda ran toward the entrance doors and their man.

Margaret put all her strength into throwing the rock. It arched through the air and Linda saw it slam into the wall very near the head of the man climbing it.

Pieces broke off and Linda saw that one piece hit the archer in the face. He lost his grip and began to fall. twisting through the air, the man managed to grab onto the ledge below the window.

He looked around and saw that Linda was nearly there and that Margaret was close behind. He seemed to be weighing his options and decided to drop to the ground and try to outrun them.

He ran toward the forest nearby hoping to loose them in there. His hesitation had allowed the two warriors to close the gap between them.

Linda thought quickly.

If he entered the forest, finding him would be a lot more difficult. She had once chased a rival street kid down, after he had taken her stash. Back then she had thrown a garbage can and knocked him down, but there were no garbage cans, or anything for that matter, to throw.

But she did have her gauntlets.

Quickly she removed the left one and hoping her aim was good, threw it at his feet.

She just made it. The gauntlet tangled up in his feet causing him to loose his balance. It was not enough to make him fall but as he was regaining his balance, Margaret slammed into him bringing him down.

Linda reached the two of them and helped to subdue the struggling man.

"Now." said Margaret to their prisoner. "We are going to go back in and you are going to tell us which of my brother’s enemies sent you."

The man laughed.

"It not as simple as that Lady Knight." he said. "You definitely won’t get anything out of me."

"We’ll see about that." said Margaret.

They brought him up to a sitting position, getting ready to haul him to his feet.

The arrow struck him in the neck, passing through and pinning him to the ground with a surprised look on his face.