Feeling suddenly sick to her stomach, angry with herself for what she even considered doing, Amber tucked the knife back into her belt and turned away. She couldn't take the life of a child, no matter who their father was; the girl couldn't help her father's actions.

Moving silently through the rooms back the way she had come, she ran through what she would say to the two men waiting for her. How was she supposed to explain that she couldn't complete the mission? Then again, unless they themselves were monsters, there was no way they could have succeeded in this either. Taking solace in the fact that she was in the right, she slipped back into the room where she had entered the manor...

And came face to face with a handful of guardsmen.

"Get her," the order came fast, and before she could even react a hand snapped out and grabbed her wrist. She came back to herself at the contact, twisting her arm away and pulling knives into both hands to face the men in front of her. There was no way she was going down without a fight!

Her eyes darted to take in every detail: the three who stood between her and the window, their swords still sheathed, and the one who had grabbed her now pulling his own long knife into hand. She wondered briefly that they hadn't called an alarm, but as soon as the thought went through her mind she head a bell begin to toll.

The guard closest to her reached for her once again, this time with the blade as if to place it at , but she wasn't about to just stand there and let them capture her. Jumping back out of his reach, she stepped back out into the hallway, only to find that more guardsmen were coming up the staircase, these ones with the room to pull their swords. A quick glance to the right showed that there were no guards from that direction, at least not yet, and so without hesitation she darted back toward the sleeping child's room. A shout of anger came up from behind her but she ran as if her life depended on it, which was likely true, and beat them to the doorway to rip it open and fling herself at the small girl. She had just sat up, one small hand rubbing at her eyes as she looked toward the source of the commotion, but she let out a scream as Amber yanked her out of the bed and turned to face her pursuers with a knife at the child's throat.

"Back," she warned, and the two men who had followed her into the room obeyed, moving out of the room once more as she came toward them with the girl in her arms. Instead of following them, though, she kicked the door closed and dropped the girl to bolt the door, the guards immediate attempts to break the door down letting her know that this wasn't going to hold for long. She grabbed the small girl's arm once more, pulling her along as she moved through her spacious chambers to the far balcony. The large doors were bolted from the inside, but Amber unlatched them quickly and pushed the girl to the far side of the balcony.

"Stay there, you understand me?" She could hear the girl crying but hurting a child's feelings was the least important thing for the moment; one glance over the balcony told her that there was a long drop down and no trees to jump to. She could hear the soldiers still pounding on the door and knew that she still had a little bit of time, though unfortunately not as much as she would want.

Darting back inside the rooms, she pulled the sheets from the bed and came back to the balcony, tying the sheets together hastily before tossing one end over the balcony railing and tying the other end to the railing. It made a good picture, at least, and that was what she needed it to do. With a hand to the girl's shoulder, she pushed her back inside the rooms; as soon as the child was free of Amber's grasp, she let out a sob and ran for her bedroom door.

Now that the girl was no longer watching her, Amber climbed up onto the balcony railing, and, ignoring the sheets draping toward the ground, leapt up to catch the edge of the roof above her. She could hear the soldiers stop their banging and knew that she had to get up right then or be captured, and so with every ounce of str