Page 99 of Court of Talons
Kheris and I have won the first battle.
I brace myself for the serpent to turn on Gent, yet Kheris doesn’t move. The battle is done, it seems, and he’s not attacking me…but why? Almost belatedly, I punch the sky with my hand, sending Gent back to his own plane. The horns sound again, and Kheris’s snake disappears as well. I slump backward, grateful that Kheris isn’t standing right next to me. We’ve survived, and the crowd is on its feet, stamping and cheering. But there are no petals at my feet, nor swirling in the air. We don’t have time for pageantry in this match.
We’re escorted back to the warriors’ dais, and I watch the other four warriors ride out to battle. Before they even gain the top of their platforms, Kheris is at my side. I brace myself for the much larger man to simply kill me on the spot, but he says nothing to me as he stands beside me as the tournamentprotocol demands of him. Beside him, I feel like a dwarf mushroom next to an oak.
The second battle takes longer than the first, the warriors already making adjustments to their fighting style based on what they saw in our match. Still, these pairings don’t work in perfect sync with each other. Their Divhs aren’t connected with them the way Gent and I are, the way I’d even felt with the dragon Szonja.
Unable to wonder any longer, I turn to Kheris. “You didn’t try to kill me, and you could have just now. Or at least made the attempt. You want to wait until the final round?”
I’ve managed to startle him, but he sneers down at me. “I’d kill you where you stand if it were the will of Rihad,” he rumbles. “He decided to wait until deeper in the tournament. And so, I wait.”
I glare right back. “I don’t want to kill you, but I’d still rather not die in the next round if I can avoid it. Instead, I’ll give you that chance to win you crave so much.”
He barks a short laugh.
Unfazed, I continue, “You see these Divhs? They don’t fight together. They don’t assist each other. Not the way Gent attacked your enemies from behind when your serpent was cornered.”
He bristles. “My Divh is stronger than that cow you control.”
“I don’t care. They’re both stronger working together than either working apart.” As he considers that, I press my point. “If you have a need in this next battle, allow your Divh to hear me. Only if you have a need.”
He looks as if he wants to argue, but he’s seen what the others have seen. The reaching of Gent’s long arm across the field, the swirl of petals in the air.
“What sort of sorcery is this?” he growls.
I roll my eyes. Whatever it takes to live through another round, I’m willing to do. Whatever it takes to keep Gent alive.
“The sorcery that would allow you to have your glory in the end. I won’t kill you, Kheris. I wouldn’t even if I could. But I’ll let you take your chance at killing me. If you want that chance…let your Divh hear me.”
“Warlock,” he curses under his breath, but he turns away from me as the battle ends on the field. There are now only four warriors left, and we climb again to our positions in the tower.
“There’s been a change in the tournament, to keep the crowd happy,” the guard says gruffly as I mount the stair. “If you win this round, and the expectation is you will handily, you won’t fight Kheris here. You’ll face him as opposing captains in the melee, out on the open field.”
I roll my eyes.Rihad and his meddling. “I’ve never fought in a melee. My horse hasn’t either. That won’t make for good sport for anyone.”
The guard shifts uneasily. “By order of the Lord Protector.” Then he glances at me down his long nose. “He can’t let you die till the end, Merritt of the Tenth. You have too much support.” With a quick grin, he pulls back his sleeve. Wrapped around his forearm bracer is a familiar green-and-silver sash. “The melee is another story. It’s never been done. Accidents can and will happen. You’ll still be honored, though, even in death.” He curls his hand to his chest.
“Comforting.”
Then the man is gone, and four warriors stand once more upon the platforms.
I stare across at the warrior from the Second House, the exact opposite of Hantor—where Hantor was foolish and scrawny, this man is a monster. He stares back, grinning.
My mind clears. It suddenly occurs to me that all the warriors might have been given different messages by the guards whoattended them. Itthenoccurs to me that I alone could be preparing for my death during the melee, while my opponents are still hoping to kill me in this battle.
The moment the attack begins, I realize how right I am.
The monsters both rush Gent, this time leaving Kheris’s fighting serpent twisting in confusion. I feel the outrage of the snake even as Gent deflects the first attack, making his arms as deadly as a long sword and fighting with both arms to cut and to slash. Kheris has never had to barge in on a fight, apparently, and so his serpent turns and turns again, not able to do anything but score the backs of the other Divhs as they pound on Gent.
Gent, for his part, roars in pain at one particularly vicious swipe of the shaggy red wolf-like beast he’s opposing, the creature’s teeth sinking into his shoulder. I can feel the spurt of blood at my own collarbone, as the wolf holds fast. After a long, sickening moment, Gent sends the creature reeling with a punch to its face. Then Gent staggers back, in full retreat.
Suddenly, the serpent screams.
Atme.
A flood of awareness washes through me as the serpent races across the tournament field toward Gent, splitting apart the other Divhs briefly and shooting past my Divh. Kheris must have realized that with me dead too soon, he and his Divh would surely fall next. His only choice is for me to survive this round.
Either way, his Divh is right before me, and my mind flashes immediately to Fortiss’s demonstration with Lord Rihad’s Divh. If Fortiss can guide a Divh not his own…by the Light, so can I. With a flick of my hand, I reach out, and Gent swings his mighty paw. He grabs hold of the serpent’s tail and swings her—she’s aher, I realize—around, her hood full and her mouth stretched wide, poison dropping from her jaws and glistening on her skin.