116 A Forced Fracturing II

"I checked from the south tower and it looks like some of them broke through the garden gates and surrounded us. They have the hidden pathway down the plateau blocked off too from the courtyard!" Halene spoke in a rush her pale complexion almost ghostly.

"Oh no!" Leila slapped her hands to her face. "They can come in through the kitchen area then."

"We blocked it off as best we could, but if they're in the gardens then they might be able to find their way in." Dinara acknowledged this gravely the open kitchen was their weakest chink.

"We have to stop them then, how many people are here besides us, my mom, Hao Jin Ying and grandpa Hakim?" Chang asked the women surrounding her, her mouth held in a firm line.

"Well there's us, Miray who's with effendi al-Hassan, and a few older maids. Wait do you mean for us to fight?" Dinara started to list them all out on her fingers before stopping. "We can't fight these men, these are soldiers!"

"Well I highly doubt that they mean us any good if they come in here. We have to stop them before they come in!" Chang pressed her case her hands pressed together.

"We could hide just in case they do come in, this is a big place." Leila answered in a small voice.

"You all may hide if you wish, I understand. I am going to go to the kitchen area and try to prevent them from coming in. If you do hide, please hide my mother with you." Chang requested before taking off, hiking up the skirt of her long maroon dress with her white knuckles.

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"So are you going to kill me nephew?"

"No. I am going to take you back to the palace and you will stand trial before the people for the lives you have destroyed."

"There will not be a palace for me to stand trial in by the time we return." Mamud Ilyas al- Hassan smiled a small smile for the first time as if unconcerned by the saber still at his throat.

"What do you mean?"

"Must I explain it to you?"

Liang Jian Amal frowned as the realization dawned on him. "This wasn't the only army... Erol we have to get back to Muzdahir as soon as possible."

"With what? I was very thorough with my task, we're going to have to go back the same way we came. Plus we should help there's still a battle going on, the sooner it's settled the sooner we can return!"

"There's nothing you can do at this point. You may have won a small battle but you have ultimately lost the war." Mamud Ilyas al- Hassan scoffed at Liang Jian Amal as he spoke worriedly with Erol.

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