Lyra frowned when she saw the footprints they had left behind, but unless the raider was very observant, she doubted he would notice because of all the other marks made by the horsemen who had just left. Lyra leaned around the archway and glanced into the courtyard, but she could see only bloody bodies lying on the ground. The raider must have reentered the castle. Her eyes fixed on the sword of a fallen guard and she nodded to Syman. He nodded back as the three young warriors dashed into the courtyard. The Academy grounds were deathly quiet and Lyra made sure that the sword she grabbed did not strike the ground as she hefted it. She looked back at the boys and saw that each of them had also found a useable sword among the bodies.

The front doors to the Academy were wide open and Syman and Antello each pressed their body to a different side of the doorway. Lyra looked at them quizzically and then nodded. Lyra stood in the center of the courtyard and glanced at her two friends. Each of them nodded and Lyra banged her sword against the stone ground of the courtyard. The sound from that one strike reverberated through the courtyard and into the castle. It took only seconds for the raider to appear with his sword drawn and a smile upon his face.

“So, my little mud rat,” sneered the raider, “you’ve been hiding in the moat, have you? Put down the sword and I won’t be forced to hurt you. We’re going on a little trip, we are.”

Lyra was about to probe the man for information, but he must have sensed the boys behind him because he whirled and lunged for Antello. Syman wasted no time and leaped at the hulk of a man, bringing his sword down hard on the man’s unprotected neck. The raider cried out in pain as he collapsed to the stones, blood squirting out of the long cut on his neck. Lyra ran quickly to the raider, but when she arrived the raider’s body shivered and fell still. Wordlessly, the three youngsters entered the castle and started searching for survivors or other raiders who might be lurking about.