Red Hood's Revenge

Roudette’s reach. She dropped Roudette to the ground.
    Behind her, Talia had slipped past Danielle’s guard. Danielle’s sword clinked as it hit the floor. Danielle did her best to evade Talia, backing away and trying to keep tables and shelves between herself and Talia. Without her weapon, she wouldn’t last long.
    Roudette clutched the arrow in her leg. She hadn’t completed the change to wolf form, but it had been enough. As her body shrank and shifted, it had bent the arrows with it. Without the wolf’s strength, they probably would have just torn through her body. Thanks to her grandmother’s gift, she had felt one of the arrows snap within her.
    Roudette slid the point and shaft free. Naghesh had turned her attention back to Talia, and why not? Roudette was all but dead, and Naghesh had taken away her cape. What possible threat could she pose?
    With a feral smile, Roudette slammed the broken arrow into the back of Naghesh’s knee. The troll screamed and swung a fist the size of a tree stump, but Roudette fell back, allowing the blow to pass over her head.
    “Kill her!” Naghesh shouted.
    Talia obeyed at once, turning away from Danielle and walking toward Roudette. Talia had picked up Danielle’s sword, but she didn’t bother to use it. In Roudette’s current state, even a crippled child could have beaten her.
    Talia pressed a heel against Roudette’s throat. A good choice. A single kick would finish Roudette off, or she could just bear down, letting her weight crush Roudette’s windpipe.
    Roudette saw a blur of red, and Danielle crashed into Talia, knocking them both to the ground. Danielle clung hard, wrapping Roudette’s cape around Talia’s body.
    Talia’s struggles stopped. She rose slowly, one hand holding the cape in place, the other grasping Danielle’s sword.
    Naghesh limped back a step. “Kill them both.”
    Talia pulled the cape over her other shoulder, brushing her hand over the runes on the hem. “I watched them carry the bodies of my family onto the funeral barge,” Talia said softly. “My parents. My brothers and sister. Everyone I had ever known. Dead, because of your curse.”
    “We made you what you are today.” Naghesh’s staff was cracked, but Roudette could smell the power still contained in the wood. It grew into a gold-pointed spear, which Naghesh jabbed at Talia. “We made you great. Just as we will make Arathea great under your rule, Princess. As it was meant to be.”
    Talia walked forward. Naghesh jabbed her spear. Talia turned sideways and snatched the shaft. A swing of Danielle’s sword splintered the spear.
    Naghesh’s eyes widened. She tried a spell, and the air rippled around Talia, but once again Roudette’s cape protected her from the troll’s magic.
    Naghesh attacked again, swinging a fist the size of a club. Talia caught the blow on her forearm and rammed Danielle’s sword through Naghesh’s stomach. She tossed the troll against the wall. Her next swing cut Naghesh’s head from her body.
    Roudette smiled. Naghesh had been dead the moment Talia donned the cape. With the strength of the wolf combined with Talia’s speed and grace, few things in this world could stop her.
    She wondered whether her family waited for her to join them. Despite everything, a part of her wanted to cling to the lessons of her childhood. To believe that the souls of her grandmother, her parents, and her brother all lived on, that their deaths had been simply another step on their eternal journey. It would be especially good to see Jaun, to finally be able to ask his forgiveness for failing to save him.
    A lifetime ago, Roudette’s grandmother had given the wolfskin to her, hoping Roudette could succeed where she herself had failed. Roudette lay back and closed her eyes. “Good hunting, Talia.”
     
    The cape was heavier than Talia had expected, particularly the hood, which was lined with the flattened features of the wolf’s head.
    She had felt the cape’s power the instant Danielle wrapped it around her body. Naghesh’s magic had been like the clamor of a thousand voices all crying out, filling her mind until she could hear nothing else, until only the voices were real. The cape had brought silence, silence and relief so great she could have wept.
    Talia stared at the troll’s headless body. She had killed Naghesh with hardly a thought. “I could get used to this cape.”
    She only wished the fight hadn’t been so quick. Naghesh deserved to suffer for what