CHAPTER 26 #3
She favored my right side, and I could sense her goading me. When the attack to my left came, I anticipated it. More than a few strikes landed, and I would be very bruised tomorrow, but no major injuries. I needed Dane to call it. I was beginning to tire.
But so was she. Her physique, compared to mine, was unfathomable, but I could tell that this weapon had her ever so slightly off balance.
I began to see gaps in her defenses. Every time she swung around on her right side, she blocked low, leaving her head wide open.
It was only for a fraction of a second, but I’d have to work with it.
“Just give up and admit that you’re inferior,” Meralda spat between strikes.
“And give you the easy way out? I don’t think so.”
She swung; I blocked. She swung around the other side; I reversed my block. She swung high; I built my wall. She struck forward; I smacked her staff to the side.
“You’ll be begging me to go easy before we’re through.”
“Keep dreaming,” I gritted out. I stayed ready and waited. I would get only one chance.
Meralda moved, attacking on my left. Like a dream, time slowed as the moment arrived.
Her next swing around would reload her momentum to attack again in quick succession, leaving her head exposed.
I’d take a hit to my side, but it would be my sacrifice for ending the match. I lunged straight for her face.
She smiled.
Oh shit.
Meralda sidestepped my lunge as soon as it started. Her staff flew straight at me. I was helpless to stop it. It collided with my cheek, cracking bone and shoving me off my feet. She’d been playing me for the fool I was. I hit the floor like a sack.
Cheers erupted. Over their shouts and jeers, Dane called a halt. I had lost.
I did manage to get to my feet and hobble off to my alcove, where Callagh carefully cleaned my face.
Marr Magda arrived moments later with Kahvrah, and she layered one of her salves over my cheek and gave me a bitter potion to drink.
Behind me, I heard Dane’s voice call out that the next event was archery.
“You’ll get a rest,” Callagh exhaled as if she were the one in need of a break.
“Just make sure you hit all the targets,” Kahvrah added.
I took a swig of water, swished, and spat. It was tinged red with blood. “Funnily enough, I worked that part out for myself.”
Marr Magda forced a waterskin on me and wouldn’t let me leave until I drank it all down. By the time I made it back, Bracht was waiting on the side of the field closest to the dais with bows and quivers. Targets stood scattered across the field.
He handed me a quiver first, then a bow once my quiver was in place.
His eyes danced over my cheek, and he offered me an unconvincing smile.
I had a feeling, by now, the side of my face was blossoming with bruises.
He passed both quiver and bow off to Meralda and walked away the second they left his hands.
She glared after him, then turned her glare at me.
I gave her my widest smile, even though it did things to my cheek that made me see spots.
I turned to my targets. This was the only event I stood a chance at.
“Breathe, Small One. Your emotions run too high.”
She was right. I needed stillness. I closed my eyes, blocked out the world around me, and focused on my heartbeat and the earth beneath my boots.
I wanted to feel the grass between my toes, but now was not the time.
With each breath, the pressure inside me lessened.
Everything slowed, loosened, and unwound.
Dane was already speaking, beckoning the challenger forward to take her aim. There were ten targets in all. The same short blast of the horn echoed across the arena.
I kept my eyes closed. I heard the whizzing of each arrow and several corresponding thwacks into the hay-covered targets, followed by oohs and hisses from the crowd.
Next, Dane called my name. I opened my eyes and stepped forward. I couldn’t help but make a count—seven hits, three misses, one bullseye.
I had to do better. I wasn’t a perfect shot, but I was a good one, especially when calm and focused.
I tested my bow and drew it to its full length.
It was perfect, but my body was not. My back hip screamed at me, and my front knee threatened to buckle.
This would make things harder. I nocked my first arrow, took aim, and at the end of my exhale, I relaxed my right hand.
Thwack!
My arrow hit the closest target. I aimed at the next, and Vaya’la began to speak in my mind.
“You are Serae, daughter of Jaeda, Bound of Vaya’la, shaper of life.
You are as strong as the scales on my back and as tender as the babe’s first breath.
You are the joy in a butterfly’s touch and the rock that not even waves can break.
You alone among the people of this world have been deemed worthy of your gods.
You alone already possess the power to command all life toward peace. ”
My last arrow loosed, and I stepped back.
The crowd was deathly silent. All ten arrows had hit.
No bullseye, but a clear win. I turned to the dais behind me by reflex, and all three men were staring at me.
Dane was smiling. Ell’s characteristic grin was still faintly there, but his brow was bunched up.
Wep had gone very still, and he wasn’t meeting my eye.
His were trained on the top of my head. He frowned.
“What trick is this?” Meralda hissed at me. “You’re a fool. In the Riht, we don’t wear crowns.”
A cold dread crept over me. I dared not move and draw attention to whatever it was I had grown on the top of my head. As calmly as I could, I set aside my bow and quiver and hurried to my alcove.
“What is it, my lady?” Callagh asked urgently.
I tugged at my locks, but there was nothing there.
“Did you see it?” I asked. “What was on my head?”
Her brow furrowed, and she gripped my shoulders. “You’re fine—Serae, you’re fine. You hit all the targets! It was perfect. I’ve never seen Meralda so angry.”
One win, one loss. It would all come down to this last event. Daggers. I stood a better chance at living with shorter blades flying at me, but my prospects still weren’t good. There was no time to dwell on it. Dane was already calling for the crowd’s attention.
“I will protect you if it comes to it.”
“No. I have to do this on my own.”
“You are never on your own, Small One.”
It took all my courage forced into my legs to walk out to my doom.
Bracht’s expression mirrored my own as he handed me two daggers and whispered, “Go for blood.” He threw the second pair of daggers at Meralda’s feet.
The crowd jeered at him, but Dane held up his hands for peace.
Wep gripped his arm and said something in his ear, and Dane shook his head.
“Begin.” The horn blew for the final time.
Meralda began to circle me. “Pathetic display, as expected,” she spat. “What makes you think you could stand at Eldreth’s side?”
I didn’t rise to the bait. I focused on her feet and her body, hoping I might anticipate something of her moves before she plunged a dagger into my heart. Killing may be banned, but I couldn’t protest it if I was already dead.
“He won’t even touch you. Do you know how many times I’ve had him in my bed?”
Well, there was a mystery answered. How mad would Dane be if I called off this whole thing, offered Ell up to Meralda, and begged to be rematched with Wep?
“He needs a woman who can handle him, not a weakling like you.”
“Will you shut the fuck up and attack already?”
I knew it was a mistake the moment the words left my mouth.
Meralda exploded forward, platinum braid swinging, attacking with a viciousness I’d never faced.
I blocked blow after blow with my blades and my leather bracers and took one unlucky cut down the back of my hand.
With no gaps between her strikes, I couldn’t even turn and run.
She knocked my arm wide and drove her dagger toward my gut.
I barely twisted in time for the blow to glance away harmlessly.
I tried using her momentum to flip her, but without the proper grip, the move failed, earning me a blow to my side. The cut stung, but it was shallow.
Still, Meralda didn’t relent. She came at me with both daggers in rapid strikes, aimed at my torso.
If any one of them hit home, she’d pierce a vital organ.
I kept on the retreat, leaping out of the way and countering what I could until I misjudged an angle.
Her dagger pierced clean through my left hand.
Screaming through the pain, I dropped my blade and spun behind her, striking at her back, but I lacked the strength to drive it through her leathers.
“Call it.” It was Wep, but I blocked him out. I couldn’t spare any focus on him.
Meralda whipped around, trying to elbow me with a reversed blade running along her forearm. I flung myself backward out of her reach. She charged in with a downward strike that I easily blocked, but her other arm was aimed low. She was trying to stab at the gap between my leather vest and pants.
“CALL IT!” Wep shouted.
I caught her motion just in time, swiping the blade out wide. She swung it around, stabbing it straight into my bicep from the side. With nothing but my thick shirt to halt the blade, it sliced through my arm and embedded into my leathers at the breast.
“HALT!” Dane called out.
Meralda drove the blade in deeper, piercing through my vest. I screamed as it twisted inside my arm and bit into the side of my right breast.
“HALT!” Dane bellowed again.
My challenger would not listen. “Just die already,” she gritted out.
My scream turned into a yell, forcing the blade away from my chest using the arm it was embedded through as leverage.
The pain was so intense that my consciousness threatened to leave me.
Her eyes were wild as her free arm came down, straight toward my neck.
I caught her wrist with my injured hand just in time, gripping her in a hold that I prayed she couldn’t break.
“Why won’t you die!” she hissed.
A fist collided with Meralda’s head. She was knocked back, taking her free blade with her.
The other remained trapped within my arm and breast. I stared at the back of Bracht’s head as he kicked Meralda to the ground, screaming profanities at her.
Tied in a half-braid, his shoulder-length honey-blond hair flew wildly around his face.
I watched the strands flutter as time around me slowed.
Pain from the dagger through my arm darkened the edges of my vision.
I reached for the hilt with my left arm, but the angle was awkward, and my pierced, bloody hand could find neither the strength nor the grip to extract it.
I swayed on the spot. Someone caught me, and my body reacted.
Thorns jutted out of my skin, biting into their flesh.
The scent of mint and eucalyptus washed over me at the same time that I heard Wep’s hiss.
“Sorry,” I muttered as the thorns retracted.
“We need to get you to Marr Magda.”
“She’s already here.” I nodded toward the alcove.
Every step was agony as the dagger jostled with my movements. Wep’s hands were on me, steadying me, but with the dagger still in place, it was too much of a risk to lift me.
Marr Magda hurried across the grass to meet us.
“Get it out of her, you fool,” she snarled at Wep.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said, and he yanked the blade free.
I screamed. A rush of blood poured out at my side. I finally fell into blackness.
WHEN I came to, I was still on the arena lawn. I had been stripped out of my leathers and my shirt sleeve cut away. Marr Magda was wrapping thick bandages around my arm. Callagh was at my side, holding a thick wad of fabric to my exposed breast.
“Welcome back,” Marr croaked. “Once I’m done here, we’ll take you in. I’ll need that shirt off to dress that wound at your breast.”
“Thank you,” I groaned.
“Don’t thank me for doing my job. I told Dane this rite was folly. Anyone with eyes can see that you belong with the weaponmaster.”
I gasped. “You know?” I whispered to her.
She just tutted and continued tying the bandage. “There, let’s get you up.”
In my room, she gave me herbs to chew, tea to drink, another of her special little potions to swallow, and far too many clean bandages. She assured me I’d need them all.
“Call on one of my underlings if you need help with the dressings,” she told Callagh. “Or get Kahvrah. She’s been trained enough to know what to do.”
I drank my tea, nibbled on some bread, and then asked Callagh to help me into bed.
“I’ll stay with you until morning,” she promised. “We need to make sure the clot sets, or you’ll bleed out in your sleep.”
“Lovely.” I had a feeling I was in for a long, painful night.
“Rest, Small One. I will not let you perish as you dream.”