Chapter Thirty-Three
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
FAIR DEALS
“ I t’s simple. Just kill me, then revive me. Perhaps you can use your magic to slow my heartbeat and then speed it back up again?”
I paced around the cave where we made camp—a rocky hole in the perimeter of the Convallis. “I’m not a healing Witch, you know that, right? I’m just an Earth Witch,” I responded to the inane solution the creature had proposed.
“Ha! Merely an Earth Witch! Well, those are not words I thought I would hear in all my millennia,” the Ezren imposter replied.
“Do you have to remain in his form?” I asked, heat climbing to the tips of my ears. “It makes it harder for me to think.” I rubbed my thumb and index finger over my brow.
“Yes, your mind is quite deafening at the moment,” the Talpa said, apparently privy to my thoughts. “Unfortunately, not only can Talpa shift to show the desire of those around them, we are highly encouraged to do so… given we are cursed to feel acute pain in our true forms. I’ve spent little time in my natural shape because of that. So, I have few options other than the reflection of my surroundings. Though you may not like it, what you desire is most undeniable.”
I sighed, plopping down on the cold stone next to the fire, staring into the flames. “I have never brought someone back to life with or without magic. What makes you so confident I could do it now?”
“I am not. I simply trust, as you trusted me. How were you so confident that I did not deceive you when I told you of the lifeblood?”
“Talpa cannot lie,” I said weakly.
“Yes, but they can deceive. It could have been a trick. I said the gift of lifeblood would grant me freedom—but I didn’t say only my freedom. I could have been taking more than you knew.”
“Well, it certainly sounds like you have experience with crafty wording,” I huffed, rolling my eyes. “I don’t know. I suppose I sensed more fear in you than malice. I also have been afraid, many times. You felt, familiar, like me. I guess… I guess I did trust you.”
“But why? ” the creature pressed. “You’ve had your trust violated many times in the past, no?”
I threw my hands up in admission. “I don’t know why—perhaps, in here, everything is stripped away. There is no room for self-doubt in the Sk?l. I have only instinct to rely on. And my instinct was to trust you.”
“Exactly. You could say I have that instinct now, too,” the Talpa said.
I paused, loosening a breath. “What’s your name?”
“Talpa do not have names, you know that,” it replied tartly.
“No, if my recollection is correct, Talpa do not have names they share . However, a trusted confidant, trusted enough to kill and bring back life, should know. Am I wrong?”
The Talpa eyed the flames. “I’ll make you a deal. You succeed, I’ll tell you my name thrice over. And I’ll explain the Full Moon of the Creatrix.”
Though my stomach roiled again at its proposal, my pulse quickened at the potential information. The way the creature said it felt weirdly personal, and it had refused to share more after we’d found a safe resting place. I curled myself into a ball on some soft ground I had gathered, letting my eyes shutter.
“Fine. I agree. No need to attempt it now. It’s the middle of the night, and we have until sundown tomorrow. We must rest,” I said through my yawn.
The Talpa rolled onto one side and fell into rhythmic breathing almost instantly.
I eyed the sleeping creature. Why help me? Why not run? I stared into the dwindling fire, little more than glowing embers, looking for answers and finding none.
He came to me in my dreams once more, a soft touch here and a firm press there. It felt just as desperate, raw, and real as the first time. A time when we needed each other so badly we became one. When I was him, and he was me. That I could relive the moment in my head—the memory alone conjuring the same physical reactions—stunned me. Even though I knew it was a dream.
I rolled over on that grassy bed, Ezren moving with me until his eyes locked with mine. And he leaned over me, taking my shoulders in his large palms, thumbing them gently. “Terra,” he said. “Terra,” he said again, urgency in his tone. I stirred, blinking my eyes open, and I froze when I saw Ezren in the flesh, his face leaning over me. A jolt of hot lighting ran through my body.
It wasn’t really Ezren, I remembered. It was a nameless Talpa, waking me with worry. I didn’t move for several heartbeats more, recovering from the shock to my insides, taking small sips of air to calm the pounding in my chest.
“What is it?”
“I smell something,” it whispered hurriedly, Ezren’s eyes wider than I’d ever seen them.
“Okay?”
“Talpa can smell nothing, nothing at all—unless death is near.” It released me and paced.
“So you smell death, then?” I asked, pushing myself up and raising a brow.
“No, no. I don’t smell actual death. I smell ‘something.’ Anything. But only when death is near.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, what do you smell?”
“Iron. Metallic. It is hard on the tongue.” It squirmed—an unnatural action to see on Ezren’s form.
I squinted at the Talpa. “You smell iron? I expected ‘ something tangy’ or ‘ something cooling ,’ but how do you know what iron smells like, or anything for that matter—” I was cut off mid-sentence by a dead Talpa flying through the cave’s opening, landing at the foot of our fire.
The Ezren impersonator shrieked at the limp creature, mangled in its true form. It howled and sobbed, and I wondered if they had known each other. But the thought did not stop me from leaping up, drawing my broadsword from where I’d kept it strapped to my back.
Tey sauntered in.
“Tey,” I said, nodding casually, noting the ring of gold on her wrist. She had won the second event. “What can we help you with?”
I angled my body to block my Talpa as I spoke. It stood a few feet back from me, and I knew if I let one of the other competitors kill the creature, it would disqualify me. Three, maybe four steps back, and I could grab it and portal.
Before I could launch backward, Tey spoke. “If you even think about portaling, she dies.”
I froze as Brita appeared, dragging Xinlan into the cave, a blade stuck in her thigh.
Xinlan fought the grip, but Brita snickered and pressed a knife to her throat. Blood soaked Cas’s lover’s leg, dripping down her ankle. To her credit, she did not whimper. But she didn’t meet my gaze. She looked defiantly past me, as if she wouldn’t acknowledge the situation at hand.
I stared. A heartbeat passed. I was tempted, so tempted, to let Xinlan face her fate. I’d already saved her life once, what more could I owe her? But Tey’s blades hovered in the air, and I knew what the threat implied. The two seconds it would take me to turn, grab the Talpa, and envision the portal could be enough for one of Tey’s flying blades to sink into the soft spot of my back. And more than that, something inside me couldn’t leave Xinlan alone in the cold, dripping cave with no hope for a way out.
Half a breath had me drawing a large semi-circle in the cave’s dirt floor with the tip of my boot, and whispering “clypeus” to it. In an instant, an iridescent green flame erupted in a shield from where the line lay on the ground.
Tey lost her composure, and the blades from her armor flung themselves in our direction. Fury marred her face as they bounced harmlessly off the shield and fell at my feet.
“Come out and fight us, you coward half-breed!” Tey shouted, midnight hair swirling around her. Brita’s knife pressed harder into Xinlan’s throat, blood beading at the sharp edge. “Or I swear to the gods I’ll have Brita gut this whore in front of your eyes!”
Xinlan shook her head slightly, despite the deepening of the wound it caused. Maybe she didn’t feel worthy of a second rescue. I swallowed, weighing my options. “There’s no reason to involve Xinlan in this,” I said, fighting to keep the calm in my voice. “We can work this out, the two of us.”
“Oh, the saint act again—what bullshit,” Brita said, venom dripping from her words. “How do you plan to win the Sk?l? Does the princess see herself above the rest of us? Clean hands, unlike your dirty competitors?”
“Can’t you just speak a spell to stop their hearts or something?” the Talpa whispered behind me. I shook my head. Even if I could, I wouldn’t have wanted to.
Tey launched another attack, attempting to curve her flying weapons around my half-tower, but the flames licked them away, snaking and extending where needed. She growled in fury. “You have three seconds before my knife sinks into her neck. Drop the shield, now .”
“I’ll make you a deal.” I narrowed my gaze on the black-haired female shrouded in sharp points. “Hand-to-hand combat. No magic. No Brita. Just you and me and our swords.”
A sneer crossed her face, and I did what I could to remain unaffected. “A fight to the death then, eh?”
“You could say that,” I replied.
“Deal,” she said.
I smirked, unsurprised at her agreement. Above all else, she wanted my life.
The Talpa moaned behind me in quiet protest. Xinlan’s eyes were dull as she slumped to the ground, Brita no longer holding her up. Blood trickled down her leg, staining the dusty floor.
“Lower your shield,” Tey said, stepping towards us.
“Blades first,” I replied.
She acquiesced, her armor’s cover flying off and landing in a pile at her feet.
I stepped through my wall of flame, which parted momentarily for me to pass.
Tey’s face contorted. “I said, drop. Your. Shield,” she ground out.
It was a gamble to leave the shield up while fighting. The spell required a steady feed of magic from me, which would impair my skill in combat. But the alternative meant leaving the Talpa vulnerable, which seemed like a worse choice.
I shrugged. “If you kill me, the shield will drop. Our deal was hand-to-hand combat. Perhaps you doubt your abilities to win fairly?”
Tey’s face twisted into something feral, and she launched into the spar. Her quickness and lightness of foot drew me in. Her now undone black hair, a violent contrast to her pale skin, whipped around as she danced and twirled. Our blades met briefly each time; she was relentless, her next attack came while I defended the last. I grew tired fast. Her rhythm was too swift for me, which was new.
I had to slow things down, force her to match my pace. That was how the slower, bigger opponents usually won against me. But I didn’t have the experience with that, and before I could figure out my next move, her blade slashed across my face. I saw it come out of the corner of my eye, but my dodge was too slow, and the tip drew a line parallel to my cheekbone. The resulting wetness tickled my cheek, a slow stream of blood.
Tey bared her teeth, but did not relent. She had been training her whole life for this and knew not to revel in any small triumph. She gave me no ground, and in fact used my faltering against me. Her body spun around, and Tey sent a sharp kick of her leg backward, the heel of her boot meeting my stomach with wild force. I hit the dirt hard, landing right outside my spelled wall, my sword ricocheting out of my hand.
My head tilted up to see the green flames licking out above me. I half grunted, half wheezed, the wind knocked from my lungs. Tey’s black hair swarmed in my vision.
She grinned but remained silent, raising her broadsword. When it came flying towards my neck, I felt the tug of a blade raising my hand. Ezren’s dagger had somehow appeared in my palm, the emerald shining on the hilt. I had no time to wonder how. My arm rattled with the impact of her large sword against my smaller dagger, reverberating through my body. I struggled to hold, her blade sliding closer and closer to my chin. I gritted my teeth when her eyes locked in on mine, swirling with a violence that roused my own anger.
“Can you see yourself, your reflection, in my eyes?” Tey hissed. “Look closely and see the face of a coward. Look closely, and you will see your own death.”
She made to push harder, her final blow, but I flung my other hand up to the dagger. It glowed again, blindingly bright, and in one push, I shoved her up and back away from me. Tey flew through the air, hitting the ground with force. I barely had time to blink at the unnatural strength that push would have required—strength I didn’t have.
“How in the—” She spat blood as I forced the heels of my palms into the dirt. We rose to meet each other, well-matched dancing partners. She lifted her blade, ready to strike once more.
Before she could deliver her next blow, a voice echoed through the cave, moving closer to us.
“ Tsk tsk tsk . Such violence in you females!” Fayzien’s disturbingly delighted face appeared from the shadows, and our jaws went slack.