The knife missed the man who charged at Amber. She picked up the sword and axe Tomas had thrown at her, and she charged him. She parried the first blow he made towards her hip, and countered with her axe. This left a gash in his right arm and he yelled, stumbling back. He swung his sword at her, cutting a lock of hair off her and slicing her leather chestplate. A large gash in the material exposed her heart, protected only by chainmail and cloth.
She backed out of the way. The man came back charging and she quickly kicked him in the groin and brought her axe to his neck. Another mercenary was already upon her, so she kicked the man out of the way, not bothering to pull the axe out, and started fighting another.
-----
Tomas looked down at the scene, and started walking down the stairs, limping. He grabbed his new sword and put it to the test, slicing a mercenary's throat open. Another one shot a bow at him and it caught him in the stomach, he fell to one knee and avoided another one. He saw one of the guards cut the bowman down and started limping towards Amber.
"Tomas, protect Arryn!"
She was unarmed and still in the hall. Tomas went towards her, clutching at the arrow in his stomach and using his sword as a crutch.
"Arryn, come with me," he just said, gesturing to the door.
----
Amber turned around. Another mercenary was there. He was a tall brute, almost as tall as Kaz, with a long salt and pepper beard. His face was pockmarked and scarred, and his pupils were small as if he'd had too much pipe-weed. Attached to his arm was a prosthetic hand, made of steel, clutching a sword. Then, it clicked. This was the Jorvik Steelfist in those tales.
The man roared and started laughing uncontrollably, and started running towards her, holding his mace awkwardly behind him. This strange way of attacking put Amber off balance and his mace hit her in the ribs. A loud crack echoed in her head and she fell to the ground, the sword slipping out of her hand. She grunted as pain swelled her entire torso.
He brought his mace again. She moved her head to avoid it, and his mace smashed the cobble beneath them. Through squinting eyes she saw Tomas leap on the man. The two crossed blades, but Tomas sword got stuck in the man's leg armour and he fell over. Jorvik lifted his mace and brought it down on her brother. He tried to parry, but the blade only slowed down the mace marginally and snapped, along with Tomas' hand.
Amber noticed her wrist had been cut during the battle, and her entire arm was covered in blood and sweat. She saw the mace come down again on her brother. She closed her eyes.
She pictured Horvik. Killing everyone in the forklands. Killing her mother.
She got up, she winced at the pain but she walked on, and pulled her axe out of the neck of the mercenary she'd killed. She dragged it across the stone, and despite the little strength left in her, lifted it above her head and brought it down on the man.
The mace went spinning out of his "hand", which caught Amber's axe. With a twist, she bent one of the fingers out of the way, and another slash ripped his arm open. Jorvik stumbled back, and picked up his sword with his good hand.
"You'll pay for that, cunt," he said, before charging back at her.
-----
Dannos hesitated for a second. Then he ran.
He didn't care about forfeiting his position anymore. He'd be dead or worse if the boy died. He ran past a few guards running in the opposite direction, and nearly knocked a farmer down with full force. He heard Gidja yell at him to get back there, but her words fell on deaf ears.
He cut down a mercenary who tried to oppose him and walked up to the keep. Grabbing his bow, he saw the man Joakim was chasing, and took aim. If the arrow missed, it could easily hit Joakim or the wall. He couldn't risk it, but he had to.
He paused. He let everything around him only be a blur, the shouting, the fighting. He was one with himself, and only concentrating on his target. He simply nocked the arrow and let it loose.
It slammed into the wall behind Ladykiller. He nocked another one.