15. Clash of Stone and Steel #2
She narrowed her eyes at him. It was true, but she didn’t think he’d meant that as a compliment.
“I assume you took the key to your cell off the ring sometime before I took it back from you?” he went on.
“If you say so,” she said. She wasn’t about to admit anything to him.
Samhail moved toward her, and she stepped back. He stopped.
“So is the plan to bring me back alive, or is my corpse good enough for Lord Bressen?” she asked.
“He left it up to me.”
“And what’s your preference?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“You seemed ready to kill me yesterday.”
Samhail took another casual step toward her, and she took an answering step back. She pulled on Regent’s reins to move the horse partially in front of her.
Samhail only stepped to the side so he had a more direct path to her. They could maneuver around each other like this all day.
Talyn sighed and stepped back to sit on the boulder near the stream once again. She crossed a leg over one knee and leaned back to eye him. She was still ready to move if he attacked, but Samhail raised a brow at her seemingly relaxed pose.
“So what do we do now?” she asked.
His brow rose higher. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she said, “I have my powers back, and you have your powers, but as far as I can tell, we’re at a stalemate here.”
“How do you figure?”
She shrugged. “Well, I can try to run, but you can fly, so you’ll only catch me.”
He nodded.
“But when you catch me,” she went on, “I’ll just port out of your reach. We could end up doing that all day until one of us gets tired.”
“I see your point,” he said. He paused as if considering their options. “Should we fight again?” he suggested.
Talyn narrowed her eyes at the eagerness she thought she heard in his voice, but she shook her head.
“To be honest,” she said, “the thought of fighting you for the third time in two days just sounds exhausting, powers or not. As you pointed out, my tendency is to attack by stealth. You’re more of a…How would you put it? An out-in-the-open type of person. Our fighting styles aren’t compatible.”
“You didn’t strike me as the type to give up so easily,” he said, leaning against a tree. “I figured you’d welcome a rematch now that we’re on more even footing.”
“We’re not exactly even,” she said. “I don’t have a weapon, and you have two. That’s the very definition of uneven.”
Talyn tensed as Samhail reached behind him and unsheathed his swords, but she was shocked when he tossed her one of the blades. She caught it deftly by the handle and looked up at him with incredulity as he pulled his wings back into his body.
“Better?” he asked.
Talyn’s mouth hung open another few seconds before a slow smile curled onto her face.
“I could use another foot of height and probably two hundred pounds of muscle to really make us even,” she said, “but I suppose this is a start. You actually want to fight?”
“I want you to stop whining about how you could beat me if you had your powers,” he said. “You have your powers, and you have a sword. Now prove you can beat me.”
Talyn scowled at him. “I don’t whine. I only meant-”
She ported behind Samhail and brought the sword screaming down toward his shoulder. In an instant, Samhail was facing her, and his blade met hers in a clash of steel only inches from his body.
Talyn’s eyes widened at the speed with which he’d turned and blocked her blow. Nemesis take her, he was fast. She’d seen him train before, but she still hadn’t expected such speed from someone his size.
Talyn ported back a few feet to give herself room – both literally and figuratively – to reconsider her strategy.
Samhail tsked. “It’s hardly sporting of you to attack me from behind.”
“Not that it mattered,” she pointed out. “It’s really not fair you get to be both big and fast.”
“Are you ever going to stop complain-”
His words were cut off as Talyn attacked again, slashing and thrusting her blade at his torso. She decided not to point out he also had the advantage of wearing armor and just tried to land a blow.
Her moves were exploratory, her hits designed not necessarily to kill, but to wound, to feel out his fighting style and abilities. They were moves that forced him to defend against her blade while also keeping her far enough out of his reach that she could retreat if necessary.
Once she had a better sense of his tendencies and weaknesses, then she’d exploit them. It was how she usually approached an opponent.
After several sequences of attacks, though, Talyn had yet to discern any obvious weaknesses in Samhail’s fighting. He didn’t seem to favor any one side of his body or any particular move. He also hadn’t tried to attack her yet either, preferring instead to simply defend against her assaults.
His refusal to attack pissed her off, which she suspected was the point. He was trying to goad her into being reckless, and it was working.
Talyn feinted in one way, then spun the other. Samhail almost fell for it, but he’d apparently learned from his mistake on the balcony and corrected his course. Talyn still managed to spin around him, and she swung her blade up, barely missing his head.
They both stepped back to regroup, breathing a bit harder.
“Close, but you missed,” Samhail said with the hint of a smile.
“Did I?” she asked, smirking at him. She held up a small lock of stark white hair a few inches long between her fingers.
Samhail’s face darkened, but Talyn only winked at him and tucked the hair into the pocket of her pants. She’d shifted her own hair into a short bob to avoid a repeat of the incident in the cell, and she’d make herself bald if she needed to.
Talyn had hoped to draw Samhail into attacking by keeping his hair, but he didn’t take the bait, so she ported behind him again, then immediately ported back to where she’d been and swung her sword.
The move worked to the extent that Samhail did indeed turn after her first port, but he still blocked the blow she aimed for his back by thrusting his sword blindly behind him to stop her blade almost by sheer luck.
Talyn gaped for a moment, then slashed low for his ankles. He was facing her again by that time, and her blade once again sang off his. His other hand reached out to grab for her, but she did a backflip out of his reach, catching his chin with her foot as she went.
It was the only hit she’d managed to land on him so far.
Samhail grunted and brought his hand up to rub his jaw. He flexed it and eyed Talyn as she circled him.
“Not bad,” he said.
“Are you planning to attack at any point or are you just going to stand there and fend off blows all day?” she asked, letting her annoyance show. He was trying to tire her out, she realized. “You were the one who wanted to fight me, so fight me.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want?” he asked as his mouth quirked.
“Yes!” she said, holding her sword ready.
His grin widened, and Talyn had a sinking feeling.
“Just remember,” he said, “you asked for this.”