Mortar sifted through the chimney while Hajin crouched beside the cracked threshold, hook ready.
Juna dropped through the roof gap behind the interrogator just as his knife reached for the final binding on Toma. Her claws clamped his wrist and wrenched the blade away, then she slammed him face-first down beside the splintered post.
"Stay down, rat," she snarled into his ear, grinding his cheek into the straw.
The second kidnapper ripped a spear off the wall and lunged straight for her exposed flank.
Sable's arrow split the shaft short of Juna's shoulder, and her second shot pinned the torch guard beside his brazier. His brand tumbled into the straw while his free hand clawed toward another pitch cord, desperate to finish the order.
"Drop it!" she shouted, nocking again as the broken spear clattered down, "hands where we can see them!"
The torch guard wrenched at the arrow nailing his sleeve against the post.
