< Well, > Suyan said, < They chased me...so I ran. >

There were three of them, hooded and masked, average in build and height, scrambling after her in the dark.

< And then... >

And then, one of them caught up, and grabbed one of her antlers with a gloved hand, and dragged her to the ground. She didn't even have time to fully buck against their hold before a second one was upon her, raising a slim and shining knife over her back.

The knife went in. The hand gripping it--this one, ungloved, with a little ring on the smallest finger--slipped and slid down over the blade, opening a long slice across the palm. There was a muted curse, but no other noise, just the blood running down into the cracks between the paving stones. It shone wetly, red in a way that nothing else was in the dark.