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"We&039;re trapped," Tavi breathed

Another arrow slah thefor the width of several fingers and barely falling short of his tee, and he covered himself and Tavi with the shield resolutely

Wind howled at the gap in the wall, and Tavi looked back to see thedropped off on the battlee swordsman landed next to him

Amara drew in a breath, her face pale "Get away froarded those crouching on the walls with a flat, neutral gaze "Give er"

"It isn&039;t yours"

"Give er, Amara"

For an answer, Aer from her belt and tossed it onto the stones behind her "Come take it, if you can I&039;m surprised you didn&039;t kill everyone while you had the chance"

"I ran out of arrows," the man said "Aldrick Kill thean walking down the wall

Auardsh Tavi could see her hand trerowl Bernard jerked at the straps of the shield and loosened it from his arm Then he handed the straps to Tavi and said, "Hold on to this" Bernard rose, taking up the double-bitted axe, and moved down the wall to stand beside A

Aldrick paused several feet away, abruptly becoed one of his shoulders and then let out a shout and rolled forward, axe sweeping across his body in a vicious arc at the swordsman&039;s head Aldrick ducked beneath the blow, and the axe bit into the stones of one of thebits of rock and powder Bernard spun, using thedown in a blow meant to split the swordsman&039;s body in two

Aldrick waited until the very last second to move and then hardly

see the line of his body away fro axe, so that it whipped past his chest by the breadth of a hair

As he did, his sword rose The tip plunged into Bernard&039;s flank, just above the belt of his trousers Bernard stiffened, his eyes widening He let out a short, harsh groan, and his fingers loosened from the handle of the axe It fell to the battlements with a thump

Tavi stared in horror Aldrick twisted the blade as he tore it back out of Bernard&039;s flank, then casually let him fall from the battlements, toward the chaos of the courtyard below

"Uncle!" Tavi screamed

Amara reached out a hand toward him as he fell "Bernard!"

Fade let out a shriek, dropping his shield, and ran back to Tavi, clutching to the boy and gibbering incoherently

Aldrick flicked his weapon to one side, and droplets of blood, of his uncle&039;s blood, splattered against the stones of the battlements

Amara&039;s face set into a sudden mask of cold disdain "Crows take you, Fidelias," she said in a cool, quiet voice "Crows take you all"

Tavi didn&039;t see her strike, so much as he saw a blur of color the same shade as the cloak the Cursor wore She uardsman&039;s blade, and the sword made the air whistle as it darted at Aldrick

The swordsman took a pair of quick steps back, no surprise on his face, no eht Amara&039;s blow on it Three more blows followed, so fast that they chile tone, but the swordsman stopped them all, despite Amara&039;s sheer speed, his blade close to his body, his movements very short, quick

Tavi crawled forward, tears blurring his eyes, lugging the huge shield and the sobbing Fade with hih his belt again, watching the battle, helpless and terrified

Aain, her blade whipping at Aldrick&039;s throat, knees, and throat again The swordsman blocked each strike and then with a sudden, hard smile, his blade lashed out A to the stones near Tavi

Aldrick whipped his blade in a horizontal line, and Aainst the battlements, her hair fallen around her face Tavi could see blood on the mail around her belly A her arm at him in a strike The swordsman

slapped her hand aside, and his foot lashed out at her knee Aain

Aldrick shook his head, as though disgusted, and slammed one heavy boot down onto Amara&039;s splinted arm She let out a cry and jerked She looked up at Tavi, her eyes not focused, her face bedsheet-white

Aldrick did not pause He drew back his blade, crouching, and with two hands swung it toward the paralyzed Cursor

Tavi didn&039;t stop to think He seized the fallen sword in his left hand and lunged forward frouardsap between the swordsnificant cut across the skin But it was enough to make Aldrick divert the blow aimed for Amara&039;s neck, to parry Tavi&039;s clumsy thrust aside

Aldrick snarled, his face suddenly suffused with scarlet anger, ainst his cheek He slaainst Tavi&039;s Tavi felt the jolt of it in his shoulders and chest, and his arertip to elbow The sword flew off somewhere behind him

He rolled back and tried to lift the shield to cover himself, but the swordsrasp and into the courtyard below

"Stupid boy," Aldrick said, eyes cold "Give ger&039;s hilt and started wor the wall "You killed him," Tavi shouted, his voice hoarse "You killed my uncle!"

"And what happened to ht here," Aldrick growled "Give up You can&039;t win"

"Go to the crows! If I don&039;t beat you, someone else will!"

"Have it your way," the swordsers and closed toward Tavi, lifting the blade, eyes cold "If Araris Valerian himself was here, he couldn&039;t beat me And you aren&039;t Araris"

The swordsht both hands to the hilt of the sword and struck Tavi saw the cold, bloodiedtoward him and knew that he was about to die He screa full well that it would do hi else

The sword came down in the death stroke

And met steel in a cold, clear chime, like a bell A cloud of silver sparks

rained dohere Aldrick&039;s blade had uardsman&039;s sword

Fade stood over Tavi, both hands on the hilt of the short blade, his legs spread out wide, knees bent, his body relaxed The swordsman bore down on his weapon, but Fade seemed able to hold it away from Tavi with little effort, and after a scant pair of heartbeats, Fade twisted his body Aldrick&039;s blade slid to one side, and he skipped back froh Fade&039;s shipped toward Aldrick&039;s face, and split the white scar there open anew, blood flowing

Aldrick dropped back into a guard position, watching Fade, his eyes wide, his reddened face going pale "No," he said "No"

Fade took a step forward and stood between Tavi and the other two men on the wall His voice came out quiet, low, steady "Stay behind me, Tavi"

Tavi stared in shock He clutched the dagger and scooted back from the two men

"You aren&039;t," Aldrick snarled "You can&039;t be You&039;re dead"

Fade said, "You talk tooover A toward the swordsman Aldrick parried in a shower of scarlet sparks, slid a thrust to his belly aside, and cut at the slave&039;s head Fade dropped to a crouch, and the blow struck cleanly through two feet of furycrafted battle washtub slid down the wall and fell into the battle outside the fortress

Fade rose, blade dancing, and pressed the swordsed and unke about his head, his scarred face set in an expression of cool detachment When his sword struck Aldrick&039;s, scarlet fire rained down, and when he caught one of the swordsman&039;s strikes, clouds of silver-white in to panic, his ant He retreated step by step, and Fade pressed him relentlessly The slave swept one blow at Aldrick thatup another shower of sparks as the blade cut through the stone near Aldrick&039;s feet, but the slave seean to push Aldrick down the wall once again

Tavi had never seen anything so graceful, so terrifying, as the two er of the pair, Fade seeain blocking blows

that in He leapt over one strike, ducked under another, and thrust at Aldrick&039;s belly onceon his feet to reverse positions with Fade on the narrow battlements, so that he now stood with his back to Tavi

Aldrick rained a pair of heavy blon on Fade, who danced aside frouardsman&039;s blade Fade countered with a volley of cuts and thrusts too swift for Tavi to follow, and Aldrick once again backed down the wall, defending himself

Fade&039;s blade whipped at Aldrick&039;s foot andstone Aldrick kicked the slave in the face with one heavy boot, and Fade&039;s face snapped to one side He turned the motion into an upward slash, but that blow too h the massive merlon beside him

Aldrick&039;s sword darted down to Fade&039;s wrist, a swift cut that drew blood and threw the sword from the slave&039;s hands and down into the courtyard below Fade cried out and fell to his knees, clutching the hand to his chest

Aldrick stood over Fade, panting, white around the eyes, and drew his sword slowly up behind him "Over," he said "Finally over You lose"

Fade said, "Look where you&039;re standing"

Tavi looked down at Aldrick&039;s feet, at the deep slashes in the battleh the stone

Aldrick looked down, and his face hite

Theline Fade had cut in it, the stone falling with a ponderous grace to the weakened floor of the battlement It struck, and the two slashes Fade hadcracks Aldrick tried to step back, but the stone beneath his feet gave way like a rotten board, and with a howl Aldrick ex Gladius and a thousand pounds of stone went crashing down to the courtyard below

Fade closed his eyes for a , then looked up at Tavi

The boy stared at hi "Aldrick has always thought in lines So I thought in curves"

Tavi saw a movement behind Fade and shouted, "Fade! Look out!"

The slave whirled, but not before Fidelias, holding the rope they had used to climb to the wall, had tossed a loop of it over Fade&039;s head Fidelias jerked on the rope, and it tightened Then the led, but he had no leverage The rope hauled hio of the rope, and Fade fell out of sight The end of the rope had been tied off to one of the crenellations, and the rope tightened with a sudden, snapping jerk

"No," Tavi breathed

Fidelias turned toward Tavi

"No!" The boy rose to his feet and threw hier He leapt at Fidelias, knife extended

Fidelias caught Tavi by his shirt, and without any effort spun him around and threw him to the stones of the battlement Tavi felt the rock hit his back with an i of his wounded ar fire

He let out a weak sound of pain and tried to struggle away froe of the shattered battlement behind hied rubble of the fallen section of wall, where Marat and beasts fought in savage efficiency, killing

He turned back to Fidelias, clutching the dagger

"Give me the knife," Fidelias said, his voice quiet, his eyes dead "Give me the knife, or I&039;ll kill you"

"No," Tavi wheezed

"You don&039;t have to die, boy"

Tavi sed He squirmed out as far as he could on the broken battleroan beneath him "Stay away froer, and he jerked his hand in a sudden gesture The stone rippled, as if it had been a sheet snapped by a holdwife, and threw Tavi a few feet toward Fidelias, stunning the boy

Fidelias reached for the knife Tavi swept it at him in a desperate cut Fidelias clutched the boy&039;s throat, and Tavi felt his breath cut off with a sudden jerk

"Just as well," Fidelias said "No witnesses"

Tavi&039;s vision began to diin to loosen

Fidelias shook his head, and the pressure on Tavi&039;s throat began to increase "You should have given led uselessly, until his aret how to move He stared up into Fidelias&039;s hard eyes and felt his body going limp

And so it was that he saw A one knee beneath her, and reaching back to draw a short, small knife from her boot She clenched her jaw and shoved her broken ar her body

Then, in one motion, she drew back the knife and flicked it at Fidelias&039;s back A sudden jet of wind propelled the knife toward him

Tavi saw the man jerk suddenly, startled surprise on his features He stiffened, fingers loosening from Tavi&039;s throat, and reached a hand up toward his back, his expression twisting with sudden agony

"You wanted a knife, Fidelias," Amara hissed "There&039;s the one I took frohtened, turned back to Tavi and clutched at his hand, at the dagger

There was a franticcry of pain Tavi felt a hand around his wrist, a sudden pressure, heard the crack of breaking bones Agony roared over hile uselessly

Fidelias reached for the dagger and grabbed its hilt

Tavi seized Fidelias&039;s belt and hauled with all of his strength and weight

Fidelias overbalanced, let out a harsh croak and fell froap in the wall Tavi turned and looked down, saw the ht he heard bones break

Fidelias fell to the ground, and a tide of Marat washed over hi, exhausted, in ht could exist in the entire world Uncle Bernard Fade The tears welled up, and he couldn&039;t stop thely, harsh little sounds He laid his cheek down on the stone and cried

He felt Aed a shield with her She lay down beside Tavi and used the shield to cover the He felt her hand pat cluht, Tavi It&039;s all right" She leaned her cheek against his hair "Shhhh You&039;re going to be all right It&039;s over"

Over

Tavi cried quietly, until the darkness sed him