Grumpy, still in human form, entered. He calmly closed the doors, though one no longer sat straight on its bent hinges.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Delly heard clearly the sour note from below that ended her song. Having grown up around ruffians, having seen and been involved in many, many brawls, the woman understood the gist of what was happening below.
“By the gods,” she muttered, biting off a wail before it could give her and Colson away.
She hugged the child close to her and rushed to the door. She cracked it, peeked out, then swung it wide. She paused only long enough to kick off her hard shoes, knowing they would give her away, then padded quietly along the corridor between the wall and the banister. She hugged the wall, not wanting to be spotted from the foyer below, and that, she could tell from the noises— grunting and heavy punches—was where the intruders were. Had she been alone, she would have rushed down the stairs and joined in the fight, but with Colson in her arms, the woman's only thoughts were for the safety of her child.
Past the front stairs, Delly turned down a side passage and ran full out, cutting through Deudermont's personal suite to the back staircase. Down she went, holding her breath with every step, for she had no way of knowing if others might be in the house, perhaps even in the room below.
She heard a noise above her and understood that she had few options, so she pushed right through the door into the elaborate drawing room. One of the windows was open across the wide room. A chill breeze was blowing in, just catching the edge of one opened drape, fluttering it below the sash tie.
Delly considered the route. Those large windows overlooked a rocky drop to the cove. She cursed herself then for having discarded her shoes, but she knew in her heart that it made little difference. The climb was too steep and too treacherous—she doubted the intruders had gained access from that direction— and she didn't dare attempt it with Colson in her arms.
But where to go?
She turned for the room's main doors, leading to a corridor to the foyer. There were side rooms off that corridor, including the kitchen, which held a garbage chute. Thinking she and Colson could hide in there, she rushed to the doors and cracked them open—but slammed them immediately and dropped the locking bar across them when she saw the approach of hulking figures. She heard running steps on the other side, followed by a tremendous crash as someone hurled himself against the locked doors.
Delly glanced all around, to the stairs and the open window, not knowing where she should run. So flustered was she that she didn't even see another form slip into the room.
The doors got hit again and started to crack. Delly heard one powerful man pounding hard against the wood. The woman retreated.
Then came some running footsteps, and another threw himself against the doors. They burst open, a large hulking form going down atop the pile of kindling. A woman entered, flanked by one, and the second as the door-breaker stood up. They were two of the ugliest, most imposing brutes Delly Curtie had ever seen. She didn't know what they were, having had few experiences outside of Luskan, but from their splotchy greenish skin and sheer size she understood that they had to be some kind of giantkin.
“Well, well, pretty one,” said the strange woman with a wicked smile. “You're not thinking of leaving before the party is over, are you?”
Delly turned for the stairs but didn't even start that way, seeing yet another of the brutes slowly descending, eyeing her lewdly with every step.
Delly considered the window behind her, the one that she and Wulfgar used to spend so many hours at, watching the setting sun or the reflection of the stars on the dark waters. She couldn't possibly get out and away without being caught, but she honestly considered that route anyway, thought of running full speed and throwing herself and Colson down onto the rocks, ending it quickly and mercifully.
Delly Curtie knew this type of ruffian and understood that she was surely doomed.
The woman and her two companions took a step toward her.
The window, Delly decided. She turned and fled, determined to leap far and wide to ensure a quick and painless end.
But the third giantkin had come down from the stairs by then, Delly's hesitation costing her the suicidal escape. The brute caught her easily with one huge arm, pinning her tightly to its massive chest.
It turned back, laughing, and was joined by the howls of its two ogre companions. The woman, though, seemed hardly amused. She stalked up to Delly, eyeing her every inch.
“You're Deudermont's woman, aren't you?” she asked.
“No,” Delly answered honestly, but her sincerity was far from apparent in her tone, since she was trembling so with fear.
She wasn't so much afraid for herself as for Colson, though she knew that the next few moments of her life, likely the last few moments of her life, were going to be as horrible as anything she had ever known.
The strange woman calmly walked over to her, smiling. “Deudermont is your man?”
“No,” Delly repeated, a bit more confidently.
The woman slapped her hard across the face, a blow that had Delly staggering back a step. A thug promptly pulled her forward, though, back into striking range.
“She's a tender one,” the brute said with a lewd chuckle, and it gave Delly’s arms a squeeze. “We plays with her 'fore we eats her!”
The other two in the room started laughing, one of them gyrating its hips crudely.
Delly felt her legs going weak beneath her, but she gritted her teeth and strengthened her resolve, realizing that she had a duty that went beyond the sacrifice that was soon to be forced upon her.
“Do as ye will with me,” she said. “And I'll be making it good for ye, so long as ye don't hurt me baby.”
The strange woman's eyes narrowed as Delly said that, the woman obviously not thrilled about Delly taking any kind of control at all. “You get your fun later,” she said to her three companions, then she swiveled her head, scanning each in turn. “Now go and gather some loot. You wouldn't wish to face the boss without any loot, now would you?”
The brute holding Delly tensed at the words but didn't let her go. Its companions, however, scrambled wildly, falling all over each other in an attempt to satisfy their boss's demands.
“Please,” Delly said to the woman. “I'm not a threat to ye and won't be any trouble. Just don't be hurting me babe. Ye're a woman, so ye know.”
“Shut your mouth,” the stranger interrupted harshly.
“Eats 'em both!” the giantkin holding Delly shouted, taking a cue from the woman's dismissive tone.
The woman came forward a step, hand upraised, and Delly flinched. But this slap went past her, striking the surprised brute. The woman stepped back, eyeing Delly once more.
“We will see about the baby,” she said calmly.
“Please,” Delly pleaded.
“For yourself, you're done with, and you know it,” the woman went on, ignoring her. “But you tell us the best loot and we might take pity on the little one. I might even consider taking her in myself.”
Delly tried hard not to wince at that wretched thought.
The stranger's smile widened as she leaned closer, regarding the child. “She can not be pointing us out to the watch, after all, now can she?”
Delly knew she should say something constructive at that point, knew that she should sort through the terror and the craziness of all of this and lead the woman on in the best direction for the sake of Colson. But it proved to be too much for her, a stymieing realization that she was soon to die, that her daughter was in mortal peril, and there was not a thing she could do about it. She stuttered and stammered and in the end said nothing at all.