Maze’s laughter died as he turned to see what James was looking at. He swore in his own language, something that sounded like ‘claedeshk’, and pushed James off him roughly before quickly getting to his feet and turning to face the window.

“Get behind me,” he snapped and the tone of his voice instantly made James nervous.

“A friend of yours?” James asked.

“Shut up,” Maze snapped and took a step backwards, away from the window, pushing James behind him as he went.

“Don’t tell me to shut up,” James frowned at him. “Why are you so scared of her, she’s just a child?”

“She is not a child,” Maze said without taking his eyes off the small alien.

She blinked at them from outside the window for a moment before stepping forward. James was about to make a joke about aliens knowing nothing about windows when the child shimmered and disappeared, only to reappear a second later just inside the window. One minute she was outside the house and the next she was inside with them, standing just behind the couch, if he had blinked he would have missed the whole thing.

“Ilyn,” Maze’s tone was carefully flat and James felt his mouth drop open at the fact that Maze seemed to know the intruder.

“Eamazyn,” the smaller alien said in an equally flat tone.

“Maze, you know her?” James murmured so that only Maze could hear him.

“Shut up,” Maze snapped again. “What are you doing here Ilyn?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Ilyn snapped and turned her cold gaze towards James.

“Get your eyes off him,” Maze’s hand suddenly flew backwards and grasped James’ wrist. “Why. Are. You. Here?”

“The King sent me,” she growled, her eyes slowly turning back to glare at him.

“Of course he did,” Maze laughed coldly. “Send him my regards when you return then.”

“You can give him your own regards,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “When you return with me.”


“No!” James exclaimed without thinking. Maze’s grip tightened on his wrist almost to the point of being painful and James’ realised it was his way of silently telling him they were in big trouble and he needed to keep his mouth shut.

“You need to train your pet better,” Ilyn smirked, glaring at him again.

“He is not a pet,” Maze snarled. “And I told you to keep your eyes off him.”

Glancing between the two aliens James couldn’t help but notice that they were acting almost exactly like two wild animals, sizing each other up before deciding if it was worth the risk to engage in battle.

“You always were so protective of your pets,” Ilyn moved slowly, purposefully, to her left and around the armchair. Maze  took a step backwards, moving James with him. James frowned. She was half his size, sure he was stronger by default?

“I’m warning you Ilyn,” Maze said in a low, threatening tone.

“Oh you’re warning me?” Ilyn laughed coldly as she stopped in front of the coffee table. The laugh was identical to Maze’s and that sounded far creepier on a small girl. “Tell me something Maze, does your pet know who you truly are?”
 
“He knows everything,” Maze snapped aggressively and shuffled them backwards again. “There is nothing for you to destroy here Ilyn. Leave.”

“I beg to differ,” Ilyn grinned nastily and glanced at James again.

“One more time Ilyn!” Maze barked. “I don’t want to hurt you but if you keep looking at him like that I won’t hesitate.”

“Oh that’s what you’ve been doing, hesitating?” Ilyn cocked her head to the side. “And here I thought you were just stalling until you could get close enough to the door to run.”

James was standing close enough behind Maze to feel him tense at the words, clearly he hadn’t counted on the other alien realising what he was doing. He growled low in his throat and stepped backwards again.

“It won’t work,” Ilyn grinned wider. “You know I could kill him before he even moved.”

“Him?” Maze suddenly sounded shocked.

“You thought I was here to hurt you?” that cold laughter echoed around the room again. “No dear Prince, my orders are not to harm you at all. Bring you home, yes, but not harm you.”

“And James?” Maze was frowning, James could hear it in his voice even if he couldn’t see his face.

“Oh that’s it’s name?” she mused, her posture relaxing slightly. “Pretty.”

“Don’t,” it was clearly a warning.

“It is a distraction,” Ilyn snarled. “And my orders are to remove it.”

“Over my dead body,” Maze snarled, his body tensing again.

“That won’t be necessary.”


It all happened almost too quickly for James to see. Ilyn grabbed the edge of the coffee table and flipped it over like it was nothing before dropped quickly into a low crouch with one leg out in the front of her, pulling the long thin swords from her back as she went. For a brief second she paused with one sword raised over her head and both pointing at Maze and James. As she paused there James suddenly realised why Maze hadn’t bothered attacking her immediately. He may have been bigger but Ilyn was much, much quicker.

“Run!” Maze suddenly roared, using his grasp on James’ wrist to try to push him towards the dining room, but it was too late.

James could only watch in horror as Ilyn flipped the sword she had over her head to a different position and used it as a spear, hurling it across the living room at James. He opened his mouth to cry out, prepared for the pain, but what came out of his mouth was a shout of devastation as Maze quickly stepped into the path of the sword.