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Bows clattered to the deck The ensuing gasps and breathless screas clutched at severed windpipes went unheard Sheraptus appeared less than concerned with the fehtning, at his elusive prey
‘Why is this such an issue for you?’ he cried to be heard above the crackling electric blast ‘I’ve never heard of you before Why are you so obsessed with me?’
‘Your eradication is a service to more than one power You are a violator,’ the man replied sharply ‘In every sense of the word’
‘Meaning?’
‘I met your victi fro her naain?’ Sheraptus snarled, thrusting a finger and sending a jagged blue arc over the inae truly so scarce on this world as to be worth this ood fortune that the longface’s attentions were so focused elsewhere His eyes were drawn past the robed figure to the doors of the cabin, just as his thoughts were drawn to Kataria, undoubtedly inside It would be a si with Sheraptus so distracted
As si wizards can be, at least
As if on cue, he felt a familiar hand, far too scrawny and sweaty as to be particularly worrying, on his shoulder He turned to see Dreadaeleon’s sweat-slick visage and purple-circled eyes staring intently at him
‘You’ve been busy,’ he noted
‘It’s incredible’ The intensity of the boy’s grin raised soone! I … I can cast again, Lenk I can channel it It feels …’
His eyes went unnervingly wide as he rose up His pelvis, Lenk noted, was far too close to Lenk’s face before the boastful thrusting began
‘Look! Not a drop of moisture, not a trace of fire, not a wisp of smoke!’ the boy proclaimed loudly ‘Look! Look!’
‘No! No!’ Lenk seized hiface is distracted and you’re feeling …’ He paused, shook his head ‘We’re not talking about that anymore Denaos very clearly didn’t o in and--’
‘Save the about it The power … I can feel the surge Isn’t that fascinating? Venarie is internal, to be sure, but it’s ruled by thought and logic, not eo out and get burned alive or so can’t hold hireat feats of endurance and power, Lenk,’ the boy replied ‘He can do more than you or I could’ He winced ‘And, you know, I’ated to help him as a member of the Venarium’
‘Treason, treachery, betrayal,’ the voice, frigid and sharp hissed inside Lenk’s head ‘They are useless We are--’
‘Dead,’ the voice, feverish and burning roared inside Lenk’s brain ‘You’re dead You had your chance You’re going to--’
‘Ignore that Focus on duty Focus on--’
‘Her She’s dead, too You’re all dead and--’
‘Enough, enough, enough,’ Lenk growled to all asselared at Dreadaeleon ‘If you’re going to be useless, I can do it without you, too’
‘Useless?’ The boy mopped sweat off his brow, flicked it at Lenk ‘Do you think I got this fro in place all this time you’ve been unconscious, vulnerable and oh-so-stabbable? I’ve been setting on fire, freezing into ice, frying into blackness and otherwise harfaces There were ten more on this deck before you woke!’
‘Eleven’
The longface ca in with a purple fist that drove into Dreadaeleon’s jaw and sent hih tiainst theboy’s ribs
‘He’s already--’ Lenk began to protest
‘No,’ the longface interrupted, s her fist into his face
He felt the bone-deep quake, felt his skin ripple across his flesh with the force of the blow His vision did not soas he saw first the re face, then blackness, then her drawn-back fist, then darkness again
He felt the knuckles connect with his jaw, even if he didn’t see them
Perhaps he was still dizzy froht That’s why this was so easy for the longface to beat hi, or perhaps they had all been stronger than he suspected Or had he always been weaker than he thought?
By the fourth blow, and the torrents of glistening red pouring fro else
Sword, he told himself Need my sword The head … where is it? Sword, head, sword, head … so across rime
‘No one will come for you,’ the voice hissed across fever
And they, too, faded, with every blow the longface rained on him His neck felt like abranch, his head like a lead weight His arms were impotent as he tried to shield hi under his skin, cuts opening on his brow, his jaw Eyelids fluttering, he stared at the longface as she stared back, appraisingly
‘Huh,’ she said ‘Don’t stop to talk before you kill ’eht up, don’t they?’
She ht have had a point, as the only words he could muster were vain pleas – whether to her or soh blistered lips and a tongue swelling with coppery taste She didn’t see, in any case, as she knelt down before hiht it down in a vicious chop
He caught her arm as a tree branch catches a boulder His wrist threatened to snap under the pressure, tre the blade doards his soft throat, which twitched so invitingly
Out of the corner of his eye, Lenk took a quick, despairing stock Dreadaeleon lay fallen Gariath was still far over the edge Denaos was dead, Asper likely with hi there, not twenty feet away
She was scra only to snatch up a fallen bow and a pair of arrows Her eyes were on the co Sheraptus hurling curses and fire at the sky, the Librarian spewing frost back at him
She didn’t even see Lenk
‘Kat!’
Not until he screa at hinise him in another instant and frowned, either at him or his situation, he wasn’t sure
‘Kat! Help!’
His plea for aid twisted in his throat and beca down into the tender ainst her still, but even as he kept the blade froed teeth sawed at him His ears were filled with the sound of each sinewy strand snapping under it so that he was only scarcely sure he was still screa
‘KATARIA!’
‘Gone,’ a voice said sorrowfully