Kye bent over his knees, ready.
Demyan charged. Kye met him, steel screaming, a single spark catching the light as they danced and flew. Their hilts tangled, and Kye kicked Demyan square in the stomach. The tall pirate went down, and as he did, the enmeshed grips ripped Kye’s blade from his hand. He rotated in time to avoid Burian’s downward slash.
Burian’s blade lanced off a thick root, Kye’s sidestep too quick for the injured man to follow. He stumbled, and Kye grabbed the cutlass from his hand, its tip dragging along the pirate’s arm as Kye wrenched it away.
The pirate screamed as his arm slackened. Crimson trickled from his forearm like a lazy geyser, steaming in the cool forest air. It stopped for a heartbeat, then spurted again.
The other two men froze as their fellow pirate landed hard along the roots. Burian glanced at them both, his face sheet white as he covered the wound with his opposite hand. It made no difference. The blood continued to surge through his fingers.
Kriska chopped at Kye, his rapier swifter than the bulky cutlass he'd swiped. Kye blocked, twisting to deflect a glancing blow from Demyan at his back. He feigned a swipe, forcing the tall pirate back as the captain stabbed at him again.
Teeth bared, Kye parried. The cumbersome cutlass dislodged from his grip.
In a reckless grab, Kriska yanked the steel away, sending the cutlass glancing across the roots of the tree at my feet.
Half crouched in the grass, Kye pulled his knife from his boot. They stood still, their eyes darting between each other. Kriska muttered something in Kravan to Demyan, then turned toward me, raising his sword, his mouth parting as he readied some other provocation—
Kye’s knife soared through the air, lodging in the base of Kriska’s neck.
The pirate captain faced me as it struck.
From the ground, Burian screamed in frustrated agony. Kriska’s eyes flashed wide with surprise. He reached to prod the blade stuck fast in his flesh and took a hard swallow as his knees buckled—dropping him not far from Burian.
The captain’s lips twitched across his black teeth, eyes blinking rapidly up at the sky, as though even while dying, he couldn’t understand what had happened.
Burian reached for his captain as Demyan dove at Kye—who had sprinted for the fallen cutlass at my feet. I stretched for it, sending waves of sharp pain across my back. It lay inches beyond my grasp. Still numb, my fingertips slid across the smooth handle, but I couldn’t reach far enough to wrap my hand around it.
Something in my periphery glimmered.
A metallic whistle cut the air.
A shard of icy fire exploded in my hip.
Steel struck bone inside me. I gazed down to find a knife sunk deep in my side.
Suddenly my leg gave out, and I sagged against the tree. A dull ache spread across my pelvis as my weight dropped, leaving me hanging from one arm as Kye reached me.
A roar echoed across the canyon as Demyan swiped at Kye. Kye dropped into a crouch, unarmed as he shoved Demyan backwith his hands. Granting us the space of a single step, Demyan’s eyes shot to me, blazing with wild anger.
Kye dove and rolled onto his feet, leading Demyan away, the cutlass untouched. The pirate swung. Dusky sunlight slanted. Kye spun from under the slash of bright steel.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The world tilted left and right. Burian staggered to his feet and limped down the hill, hand still tight over his spurting arm. I glanced down, grazing the knife’s handle with a single fingertip. It had buried itself to the hilt in my hip.
The pain was beginning to fade, leaving me stranded with no feeling at all.
Demyan and Kye became the dancer and the wind. One solid and the other air, they chased and dodged, their movements a winding river—until impatience crept into the dancing pirate’s eyes. He ran for Kye, sword drawn.
Unarmed, Kye dodged to the right—but the pirate anticipated the shift. He swung and Kye feinted, effortlessly rolling across dirt and grass, gaining his balance again.
As though realizing he might never touch Kye while the weight of a sword slowed him down, Demyan flung his blade into the grass and charged. He drove his shoulder into Kye’s middle, and the two met the forest floor in a spiraling mass of arms, legs, and guttural grunts.
They were roughly the same size, tall and powerfully built. Kye hooked his legs around Demyan’s waist, rolling him to the side.
The pirate twisted out of Kye’s grasp, landing a lucky punch in the center of Kye’s chin.
Kye's eyes went blank.
His arms dropped away.
