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Denaos raised a finger to his lips She nodded, saying nothing, as he slunk about the halo of light A rope slid into his hands like a snake, his fists drawing it tight He rose up behind Xhai like a black flower and angled the garrotte over her head, his hands unnaturally steady

He had only just begun to lower it when an eerily gentle s face

‘I knew you’d come,’ she whispered

His eyes widened just a fraction before he struck The garrotte snapped doiftly, finding the tender flesh of her throat and drawing tight She snarled, thrusting her elbow back and into his ribs He reeled, but refused to let go, pulling hiainst her windpipe

‘I knew it,’ she said, her voice only slightly raspy, ‘because I know you, because I know me I knoouldn’t leave my foe with just scars to reritted his teeth It was frustration and not pain that was evident in his face as he pulled so hard that the garrotte creaked in protest

‘What the hell are you made of?’ he snarled

‘And I knew they couldn’t kill you,’ Xhai continued, ignoring his words and his rope alike, ‘I knew you weren’t dead …’

Her hand lashed up and over her shoulder, gripping his throat in a vice of purple fingers

‘Because I hadn’t killed you yet’

His cry was a weak and pitiful thing against her roar as she yanked hard He flew out froest that, at some point, his innards had been replaced with soft wool

That theory, and his all-too-fleshy body, weredown upon the wood

That should have worked, shouldn’t it? he asked himself, not certain ould answer I was certain it would

Everyone makes mistakes, he reassured himself

Is that her foot above me?

It is

I should move, shouldn’t I?

He needed no answer to spur hi dohere he had just lain He sprang to his feet in ti petulantly to its twisted spikes

‘That’s fine,’ she said calet to know one another’ She s that was obviously intended to be warmth ‘When one of us kills the other, I want it to ’

She leapt at hiical precision, he slashed it up and against her brow Like a shattered dareat rivulets, pouring into her eyes and rendering her blind She shrieked, swung a fist, seeking hi backwards and continued to do so as she flailed too wildly

His retreat came to a sudden halt as he felt his back meet the pillar his companion was tied to

‘Not a lot of room to move here,’ he muttered

‘You talk like it’s my fault,’ Kataria snapped ‘Kill her quick and it won’t be an issue’

‘I’ near those hands of hers’

‘Then what are you going to do?’

‘Run, maybe? Probably die I’m not sure yet’

‘You didn’t think of a backup?’

‘I didn’t’

‘Why not?’

‘Oh, coulation wouldn’t work?’

Anything she ht have replied was lost in a howl of metal and a wail of cloven air He looked and leapt just in tie ofoff his head It bit deeply into the pillar instead as he scurried around it and the shict bound to it He grabbed Kataria about herher offended scowl, much more concerned with the white eyes painted red narrowed at hi she won’t kill you,’ he said, darting behind the shict as Xhai shot out a fist at his left, ‘or she would have already’

‘You can’t know that!’ Kataria shouted to be heard over the sword being wrenched free

‘It’s an educated ga back behind her as Xhai lashed her blade out to catch hiood shield’

‘I can hear you, you know,’ the longface said

She swung again He leapt again The blade did not so much strike the pillar as shatter it co to the ground Splinters sprayed in all directions, a haze of dust and shards assaulting Xhai’s already stinging eyes and sending her into a blind, howling fury

When he looked down, Kataria was staring at him with vast and empty eyes

‘I could have died,’ she whispered ‘And if I had, there would be no one left to help you’ She shook her head ‘I can’t let you die’

‘Then help me find my knife’

‘Asper isn’t well,’ Kataria said, rising to her feet and slipping her rent bonds ‘You have your people I haveto her feet and darted past the flailing longface, shoving the cabin door open and disappearing Though he knew he ought to feel it, the urge to curse her as a coas decidedly faint

The pang of regret at not having fled first: decidedly not

A snarl seized his attention Xhai kicked the last re toward Denaos, her eyes shining through a face painted with blood and adorned with splinters Her s over her lips to stain her teeth His face was one of fervent panic as he backed away and searched for any way past her that didn’t end in diseaze ‘No more chases, no more interruptions This is where one of us dies’ Even reflected in the blade she levelled at hilad it ended this way, Denaos’

The rogue did not cry out as he was backed up against the wall, did not think to beg or plead or make deals There was no room in her face for that What else he saw in there – the tinges of joy, of desire, of lust – he was deterutted

Thus, when he saw the slender for feet, her body tre, her arms still bound behind her, he focused on her i,’ the priestess whispered, though to as unclear ‘I wanted so badly to believe there was a reason I should’ There was a sizzling sound; a wisp of smoke rose from behind her ‘I wanted to believe that the Gods wanted lanced over her shoulder at the wo her attentions back to the rogue

‘There are no gods,’ the longface said

‘There are,’ Asper whispered