Page 99 of Play of Shadows
At last, Corbier exulted.A worthy opponent!
What the Hells are you talking about? Who is—?
The masked figure stalked towards me, the plain but perfectly made swept-hilt rapier in her hand marking her as a professional duellist. Worse still, her movements were instantly familiar.
The Vixen of Jereste.
How the Hells is she even standing?I asked silently.We stabbed her through the chest last night!
I missed her heart, Corbier replied.I wanted to see her eyes when. . . well, never mind that. I suspect she’s been dosed with a fortune’s worth of prodigialis magni– a useful concoction, by the way. Given how many people want you dead, you might consider acquiring some. But apparently given a choice between a nice new castle and killing you, our Lady Fox prefers the latter.
‘Why bother with the mask?’ I asked, my hand alreadytrembling on the grip of my own far heavier and clumsier rapier. ‘Did you think I wouldn’t recognise you, Lady di Traizo?’
Don’t be a fool, Corbier told me.The mask isn’t to hide her identity; it serves merely to afford the magistrates doubt over her presence here, should evidence of this massacre ever come to court.
The Vixen wagged a reproving finger at me. ‘It’sMargravinadi Traizo now, remember?’ That same hand rose up to pinch the black silk covering her face. As she laughed brightly, the grey orchid over her mouth twisted eerily. ‘The Masked Margravina, the minstrels will call me. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Like a heroine from one of the old sword romances.’
‘Speaking as an actor myself,’ I began, keeping my point towards her even as Corbier was shouting at me to take up a more aggressive posture, ‘I fear the role of heroine might lie outside your natural disposition.’
My voice sounded hoarse, anxious and overcautious. It was all I could do to keep my concentration on the Vixen while my friends were screaming and dying in the light of the flames consuming the Belleza.
Try feinting to her open line, Corbier suggested.Follow with an attack on the outside. The prodigialis will affect her balance, and the mask is an encumbrance to which she won’t be accustomed. Even the slightest check to her peripheral vision will throw off her game.
I tried to follow his instructions, but the Vixen wasn’t so easily fooled; her steps traced a narrow circle in the alley’s confines, avoiding every broken cobblestone and piece of debris.
She’s been waiting out here, mapping her terrain, I realised,which means the Orchids must have more armoured bastards out the front, ready to herd us back here if we’d managed to escape that way.
‘Fascinating,’ she said, watching my movements. ‘I expected tomeet either my rabbit or the Red-Eyed Raven, but here I see something in between.’
Following Corbier’s earlier advice, I kept silent as I feinted with the tip of my rapier at the grey orchid on the Vixen’s masked face, only to then drop low and extend myself into a lunge for the forward leg. She was too quick, though, pulling her foot back even as she dropped her own point to thrust at my right shoulder. Only by slapping the attacking blade away with my left hand was I able to save my sword arm from being skewered. My palm was still covered in bandages from the night before, but the razor-sharp blade separated the cloth as cleanly as the flesh, leaving fresh blood seeping from the wound.
Stop fretting over paper cuts, Corbier advised.She’s prepared for either of us. You must confound her expectations.
Drawing on Corbier’s memories of fencing bouts against true masters of the blade, I attempted a series of staccato manoeuvres, blending deception into genuine attack and back again, but the Vixen parried them all handily, and within seconds I had collected several more shallow cuts on my arms and cheeks.
‘Good,’ she said, as if urging me on, ‘you’re better than I’d believed, my rabbit– but still not good enough.’
I glanced around, hoping for assistance, but the Knights of the Curtain were barely holding their own against the armoured Orchids. And I was winded now. Fusing Corbier’s experience with my grandparents’ training made me a better fencer than I’d ever been before, but nothing could alter the fundamental mechanics of my own body. The archduke had been taller, with a longer reach, so I kept having to stretch out at the last instant to reach targets that would have been well within Corbier’s range. I was quick enough, but I lacked the muscle endurance of a hardened soldier. I was already exhausted.
Worse still, the Masked Margravina knew it.
‘Really wonderful technique,’ she remarked after my last volley. ‘Do you know, Damelas, I think you might have had a promising future as a duellist– well, if you had any future at all.’
I remained silent, but this time Corbier had other ideas.
‘I thank you for the compliment, my Lady Fox. Allow me to offer one of my own: rarely have I encountered a woman blessed with the privileges of birth, wealth and training, who nonetheless overcame the qualms of civility and dignity to hide her coward’s face behind a mask while devoting herself to the midnight butchery of barely armed civilians.’
Weren’t you the one advising me not to waste my breath?I asked.
Words are like any other weapon– to be used when the time is right and your opponent is vulnerable to their sting.
The Margravina di Traizo’s shoulders tensed for the first time. ‘I will cut your tongue from your mouth for that remark, Rabbit.’
You see?Corbier remarked smugly.
I do. Allow me to follow your example.
I stuck out my tongue and mumbled, ‘Here it is, my Lady.’
