The Cereans began to follow. Then, over all their noise, she heard a bird calling from the hill above, the trill a little longer than it should be, the gap between calls a little longer too. She answered in kind. The others were coming. She would not be all alone.
Most of them were now under the trap. She raised her sword, flashing in the sun – or was it dragonlight?
Squid saw her. He cried out.
She brought the sword down as swiftly and surely as she could. The rope snapped, all but one strand, and the old dead tree shuddered and shifted above. A few of the Cereans looked up and pointed.
Squid said something in Cerean and pointed at her as she swung again, slicing through the last strand of rope. The Cereans’ leader was staring right at her as the many-limbed tree smashed down, trappin
