They were shorter than Amber had expected – the tallest of them came up to her chest – and their wide shoulders and long arms gave them a strangely ape-like appearance. Simeon had been right about the fur. They were coated in short, thick hair ranging from white to gray. He may have been right about the claws and fangs too, but the beastlings were upon her before she could look.

The first one charged Amber with an inhuman howl. She side-stepped his charge and swung her sword through the meat of its chest as it ran past. It staggered, dropped to the floor, clutching its wound. The second one landed on top of her, knocking her backwards to the floor and sending her sword skittering away.

Amber saw the fangs now. It was a wolf’s mouth above her, set into a man’s hairy face. The thing was going for her throat. Amber rocked her body to the right, moving her soft jugular out of reach and throwing the thing off-balance. She rocked back to the left – hard – while bringing her dagger up to bear. She felt the dagger thunk against bone in the beastling’s side, then gave it a twist and a shove to jam it in further. The beastling stopped moving.

There was a third beastling. Craning her neck, Amber could see it behind her poking its head out the window. It was sniffing.

Amber rolled out from beneath the creature on top of her and retrieved her sword. The beastling at the window awkwardly pulled its head back into room just in time to see Amber swing her blade in a clean, flat arc aimed at its neck.

The beastling and its head fell with two thumps to the floor.

Amber stood in the middle of the room and dripped blood from her blades. The beastlings’ blood was red, thick, and human. She found the fact oddly reassuring.

Until the first one she killed staggered to its feet.

Amber whirled, both blades at the ready. The beastling’s fatal chest wound was now nothing but a thick black stripe outlined by red-matted fur. Just above the scar, below the thing’s left shoulder, Amber noted an older scar that was small as a child’s fist. It looked like the creature had been branded.

“Oh. I see,” said Amber as the beastling lunged for her throat. She ducked, then slashed up and to the right with her sword. She didn’t have much room to swing, and the blade barely cut the skin, but it was enough.

The sword sliced through the mark on the beastling’s breast. There was a crackle of energy, a flash of white-hot phosphorescence, and the smell of charred flesh. Amber slid to one side, letting the now-dead creature flop to the floor behind her.

Turning, she saw the second beastling rising as if from a long nap, and the third crawling on the floor, groping for its head. She dispatched number two with a stab, a crackle, and a flash. Number three never found its head, but discovered the toe of Amber’s boot as she kicked it backwards, exposing its mark. For a moment, it clawed at the air like an insect on its back. Then it joined its brethren in oblivion.

Though the air was clear, it felt thick with smoke, and the stench of the burned marks was cloying. Amber wrinkled her nose and gave one of the creatures a kick. It was stiff, as if it were dead for days already. Satisfied, she wiped her blades on Simeon’s rented bedding. She sheathed them as she walked to the window. Simeon couldn’t be too far away. The fight had last lasted less than a minute. Still, it was dark out and he had a head start. At least from up here, she could get an idea of where he ran.

Except that he hadn’t run. He was waving up at her from the street.

“Are you all right?” he called.

Amber shook her head and smiled to herself.

“Get up here and collect your things!” she called back. “I’m taking you home!”