Page 86 of Play of Shadows
First the tip of my sword came up high, but I knew that was only a distraction. Corbier had positioned us so the light of one of the hanging lanterns would reflect off my blade at this precise angle. Ferica blinked, but she was already getting her guard up to defend against the coming thrust. I watched in confused awe as my left hand flung out, spraying blood from the wound she’d given me moments ago into her eyes, blinding her. Reflex overpowered all her years of training and she swung her sword wide to keep me at bay, but Corbier merely had me lean back, letting the point barely scratch the tip of my nose. Before the Vixen could bring her weapon back into line, I stepped inside her guard, so close that I was able to grab hold of her shoulder even as Corbier delivered the thrust no one witnessing the fight had believed would come.
The sound was. . .wet.
Ferica di Traizo’s eyes tried to blink away the blood, staring at me, unseeing. With my hand still gripping her shoulder, I eased her down to the marble floor. She opened her mouth as if to thank me for the courtesy.
‘Don’t try to speak,’ Corbier whispered. ‘The blade has missed your heart. I said I’d kill you in one thrust, but I lied. Two is better. The first is to disable you, the second is to be savoured.’
Stop, I cried,she’s beaten! It’s enough—
Corbier was laughing at me now.You think the Vixen will thank you for sparing her life? On the contrary, the moment she can fight again, she’ll come after the big oaf you adore so much, your beloved grandfather, and everyone else you’ve dared to love. She’ll kill them one after another until she can draw you back in the circle to finish what she started.
Ferica di Traizo tried to scream, turning her head towards the guards as if they might come to save her, but my hand clamped over her mouth.
‘Have no fear, Lady Fox. Your money and influence will have them rushing to your aid momentarily. Alas, the instant the first clod’s boot hits the floor will mark the moment of your death.’
Don’t do this, I begged.I’m not a murderer.
Not yet, no, Corbier agreed even as he drew the blade from her in preparation for the death blow,but you’re about to become one.
Suddenly the crash of a door slamming open echoed throughout the throne room, followed by two pairs of footsteps and a voice bellowing with imperious outrage. ‘What madness is this?’ demanded Duke Firan Monsegino. ‘Lay down your arms this instant, both of you!’
Lady Shariza was at his side and when her eyes searched out for mine, I felt sick knowing that what she saw was the steady, unfeeling, cold-blooded stare of a trained killer ready to take a life.
Enough now!I shouted in impotent silence at Corbier.His Grace has commanded an end to the duel.
But Corbier wasn’t listening to me any more. My gaze shifted fractionally as it moved to Monsegino, no longer seeing the Violet Duke, but in his place a golden prince.
‘Pierzi,’ I heard myself say.
No! It’s not him, you fool! It’s—
Before I could implore Corbier to stop, Duke Monsegino, who I’d always assumed to be a clever man, but now proved himself an utter fool, raced across the throne room, drawing his own bejewelled court sword from its scabbard.
Glee rose up like bile in my throat.
No, I begged,no, you mustn’t– NO! Don’t do this—
But Corbier’s mad, euphoric rage had sent me stepping right over the now forgotten Vixen so that I could drive my rapier into the Duke of Pertine’s heart.
The penalty for interfering in a lawful duel is as old and violent as this country, Corbier informed me over my failing struggle to regain control.You’d think a monarch would know better.
My legs took me from a run to a leap in the air; my arm extended the tip of my rapier in an elegant and deadly arc. In that split second, I knew there was no possibility of Duke Monsegino parrying the thrust.
A flash of sparks from steel crossing steel blinded me. As I hit the floor, Corbier’s reflexes sent me into a roll under the sword’s second cut that would’ve taken my head off– a blade not wielded by the duke. I came back up to my knees and pivoted around to find the tip of that blade touching the ball of my throat.
When I looked up, Shariza was standing over me.
There was a moment– barely a fraction of a second– in which I thought I was suddenly seeing two worlds again, just as I had when I’d been both with Shariza in the present andAjelaine in the past. It was different this time, though. Now I saw two versions of the same woman: one hesitant, held back by an unexpected kinship and attraction that longed to grow into something deeper, overlaid with a second image which all too quickly replaced the other. The flat, cold-hearted expression left no doubt that with the tiniest pressure of her blade, she was ready to kill me.
‘His Grace requests that you desist now,’ said the Black Amaranth.
Chapter 42
The Sharpest Blade
Beretto and Rhyleis tried to run to my side, but Shariza’s curved dagger revealed itself in her other hand and held them at bay. ‘Put down your rapier, Damelas,’ she said to me. ‘It’s over.’
She moves well, Corbier observed, forcing me to rise.No false flourishes, no wasted tension in the shoulders, not like the fox at all.
