“I’ll let you get in one good blow, if you like?” Merlin clearly felt like I had no chance against her. “Go on, hit me.”
I was certain she’d not allow me to actually hurt her so why did she want me to try to strike at her?
Unless…
She wants you to get close.
Yes, but why?
Does it matter, don’t oblige her.
Right.
I leapt and attached myself high to one of the walls, then kept moving around, leaping from pillar to pillar in the great hall, on the move and away from her.
If she wanted me close, I’d stay away, at least for now.
“Oooh! You are quick aren’t you! This is going to be so fun!” she cackled and when I leapt next, she vanished in a puff of smoke and appeared in my path. Her hand moved and a larger hand of mists slapped me out of the air. “Swat the little spider!” She giggled as I went tumbling down to the floor, hitting hard and rolling. I tried to leap away, but the mists swirling around my feet suddenly held me fast.
Pits!
“Is that all you have?” Merlin appeared next to me with a smug smile of superiority. Then suddenly her face contorted slipping through pain to rage. “How did you ever beat my sister?” she spat at me.
A fist of mist slammed into my stomach, doubling me over, and blasting out my breath. I collapsed to one knee. Without my armor, I was sure that hit would have crushed organs and broken my insides up.
How had I defeated Hazra? My mind whirled back to those events. It occurred to me then that Hazra had fought very differently from Merlin. She’d filled the room with mists and used the fact that it was everywhere as her weapon. I couldn’t get away from it. She’d also hidden in the mists, dissipating, impossible to hit until she materialized for a strike. She was more subtle, stealthy. Though, for the fight on the pirate ship, she’d used the mists as a wall to push people, or as a surrogate hand to grasp at me, which was similar to what Merlin was doing now.
How had I defeated her? I’d used all my tricks: my senses telling me where she’d materialize next, then I’d used my webbing to suffocate her.
Right… I had other things I could use!
I already had a hand on my stomach from her hit, so I spun out a ball of webbing into my hand. Rising quickly, I threw it at her. But she’d already puffed away to a spot closer to the middle of the room, laughing with glee.
“That won’t work on me. I’ve already seen how this fight ends, little spider. I have seen the future. You can’t defeat me!”
No, Legs, you can defeat her!
I’d come to that same conclusion at the same time Auwei had. Hazra had let slip that somehow, they’d seen a future where I thwarted all their plans. That meant I could win this! But how? It certainly seemed like Merlin knew my every move before I did it. If she had seen this fight, she’d know everything I could do. That was her edge. There might be a way I could win this, but she already knew what that was… and I didn’t.
“What are you going to do little spider? Your friends are dying, you’d better do something soon.”
Why would she want me to attack her?
Because that’s how you lose, Auwei said.
Which meant, I needed to wait, but wait for what? And I also wasn’t about to do nothing while I waited. I quickly ran through the fight so far. Merlin wanted me to attack now and had wanted me to get close to her. Did that mean I won by doing something at a distance? Also, it was clear she was playing with me. She’d ended her fight with Skyfire quickly enough once I’d arrived. She like playing with her foes, but only one at a time. So, if others could be brought back into the fray, then maybe… but how? I couldn’t move and everyone else was…
No, not everyone. Midnight was still out there, or so I hoped.
And… what could I do? I had my silk and the ability to jump — when I wasn’t glued to the ground — I could fit through small spaces and… oh wait!
Hope surged within me. I flashed into my spider form and leapt quickly before the mists had a chance to close in around me, then once I was high enough, I flashed back to myself, reaching out to touch a nearby pillar sticking to it, and pulling my body up to the pillar to jump away quickly. Then, I kept moving, not staying long in any one spot.
And it was only then, as I desperately evaded her spikes and fists of mist, jumping around the hall, that I noticed the upper-level balcony of the hall. The wooden railing around the balcony, in one spot, had a branch growing out of it.
Midnight.
I made sure to keep Merlin’s attention away from that branch. I just needed to keep her occupied a moment longer and…
