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What he saever, he was not prepared for
Not Rhega, but definitely not hureen scales, at the other side of the river His long, black boas in a powerful, clawed hand His body, ringed by black-and-red tattoos, was tensed andtail, more like him – more reptilian creatures – stared at Gariath with broad, yellow eyes down long, green snouts
The one in front raised his hand, regarded Gariath through his single yellow eye, and spoke
‘Inda-ah, Rhega’
‘What?’ he breathed
‘I knew it! I knew it!’ He looked to see the longface pulling the arrow free without wincing, as though she were si head ‘Xhai said you all got up when so you! I didn’t believe her!’
He swept his stare across the river again The creatures were gone; nothing but greenery reined them; perhaps they hadn’t ever been there …
But that arrow on the sand, covered in blood, was iine And it lay there now He looked fro her weapon
Good enough
‘I didn’t think it would work I owe Xhai a--’
If she saw the fist co, she didn’t move away
A possibility, Gariath conceded, but one he illing to accept as he and his ar with her chin and sending her head snapping back She was all skull – thatfist, if not her conversation
She, too, was ready to accept She accepted his punches as he folloith twobones shake, but not break, under his fists She accepted the ground lost as he drove her back She accepted his horns again, accepted the broken nose as he drove his head against her face
Only when he stepped back, waiting for her to fall that he ht end it with a foot to her skull, did she refuse to accept She pulled her face back up to stare at hirin that had only grown e dripped over her lips
‘Yeah …’
She cay, position or anything but the i up to lop off his head A ht of such recklessness, followed by a er as her, sweeping up towards his head
He caught it on his wrist, theat theto chew through and cleave his hand from his wrist, his head fro up to place his free hand on the edge It was an effort tinged in blood as the weapon bit into his palrip slick as he shoved back, but an effort that sent the blade swinging wide and leaving her open
He wasn’t sure if he was roaring or laughing, didn’t bother to think which it ht have been, just as he didn’t wonder why hisThere was blood on the ground, blood in his nostrils, anger in his veins and a purple neck beneath his claws
Good enough
He clenched, clawed, heard her gurgle as her blood seeped out over his palroped at him with one hand, dropped her massive, suddenly unwieldy weapon to punch at him with the other Blows rained upon his head, one after the other He felt the agony, felt his skull want to crack, but refused to succu his body to the side and she followed, like a purple boulder Releasing, he sent her crashing into the ridge The earth cracked before she did, but she stood there, bleeding fro hot and hateful froed teeth
‘That’s it,’ she snarled, ‘that’s it This is how it’s going to happen This is how it has to happen Fro’
‘And no one will reh of you for it’
‘Fine, that’s just fine,’ she gasped Her hand slipped behind her belt ‘Good to know you’ve got a plan Thinking ahead, grabbing your pieces of dirt …’ Her hand whipped out, sent the green vial spinning toward him ‘STUPID!’
He had snised it Poison, the same that had felled Abysmyths, ate their flesh like fire ate paper He wasn’t sure if it worked si to see for curiosity’s sake
He darted aside; the vial s instances of pain as droplets spat out and licked his back His flesh burned; the scent of it sizzling filled his nostrils It hurt, he admitted as he clenched his teeth, a lot
‘QAI ZHOTH!’
So did the spinning blade that followed Dech’s screech He reed edge And it certainly remembered him, it sees slaking theh his body in such excessive quantity that it screanash,’ Dech snarled as she took off charging toward him ‘AKH ZEKH LAKH!’
He ripped each other about each other’s throats, turning, twisting, staggering as they fought for control for their respective tracheas Gariath slipped his hands up, releasing her throat, seizing her by the te as it took him to slip his clawed thumbs into her eyes and push
He had heard her screah toas it took her to lash out blindly, searching for hi her by the wrist, spinning her about and twisting it behind her back His li her by her hair, his free foot sla her to her knees, then her belly
There his foot reed firhtened his grip on her hite spikes of hair and pulled
Stubborn as the rest of her, it ca to her with such vindictiveness that scarcely any ca, as her neck craned He did not stop pulling, as she screamed in panic and beat at his ankle in bloody blindness He did not stop pulling, as he heard her flesh begin to rip
By the ti red pate, a mop of crimson and white clenched in his claw, it see
He tossed it aside, taking only enough ti away and looking back over the cliff The other side wasn’t too far, he saw, and the scent of the creatures, their dead leaves and dry rivers, was still there, despite the blood seeping into his nostrils He could keep going downriver, find a fallen tree or a narrow gap, and from there he could--
‘QAI ZHOTH!’
She struck hi ar remained of her save ar hi else,’ she babbled behind hie her with an elbow, ‘there is nothing else but this’
They staggered toward the edge, the riverbed and its sharp rocks waiting just below a surface of deceptively pristine blue Gariath had no fear for that, nobut his enemy, thick in his nostrils, heavy on his back He reached behind hi her blood-slick pate and twisting, tail lashing, wings flapping