Midnight appeared as she plunged down, knife in hand, but Merlin must have sensed something as she flinched at the last minute, the blade meant to sink into her neck tore down her back instead.
It didn’t kill her, but by the screech of pain she let out, it had hurt like The Pits!
The mists in the hall suddenly contracted back into Merlin. Skyfire fell to the floor gasping for air, Silence wasn’t far away from me, a little too still. Others lay motionless around the floor of the hall as well.
In that moment, Ursa screamed, and I looked in time to see Hale plunging a sword into her chest. I’d completely forgotten about them! Ursa fell back as Hale twisted his blade then pulled it out, a gush of blood following it. Then he turned to me and smiled, a gleam of hatred in his eyes.
Midnight was deftly evading Merlin’s attacks at the moment, skipping lightly around the hall, and Merlin’s attention was completely on her, which meant… I had a moment to deal with Hale. But… was that the right move? Merlin was wounded and reeling. I could see the mists gathered over the wound on her back, probably healing her. Which meant I didn’t have much time until this advantage was gone. But if I focused on her, Hale would be free to harry me or kill others.
Pits!
I’d take out Hale, but quickly. Launching myself at him I drew my sword in one hand and gathered webbing in another. I batted his large sword out of the way as it struck at me, then flung the webbing at his face. I didn’t hit his mouth, he flinched at the last moment and I caught the left side of his face instead, one eye and part of his mouth.
“Gah!” he cried reaching up with his free hand to clean the webbing away. I took that moment to relieve him of his sword hand at the wrist.
He screamed.
I kicked him hard in the balls. “That’s for Dove!”
He grunted, contracting down a little bit.
So, I kicked him again, harder, with all the strength I had — and I had very strong legs — in the same place. “That’s for me!”
He fully doubled over this time, which put him the perfect spot for me to knee him in the face, while at the same time bringing the hilt of my sword down on the back of his head. He jerked, jarred, then fell back, clearly stunned and in pain. I slashed deeply at his one calf, making sure, if he did try to rise, it would be painful to do so. He flinched, but seemed to be waning. So, I spun out gobs of webbing and began plastering him to the floor, the wounded wrist first, so I’d stop the blood and keep him alive for justice later. Then his neck and other hand, then his waist and feet, also webbing the wound on his calf.
It took every ounce of restraint I had not to plunge my sword into his gut and twist it several times. He’d killed so many. I glanced over at Ursa. She was clearly dead. Her eyes vacant and far too much blood pooled around her. I couldn’t save her, but I could still save others, hopefully.
Turning back to Merlin, I saw her slam Midnight into a wall with a push of mist. Merlin was screaming with rage and pushing harder and harder. Midnight could not escape, and she’d soon be dead, flattened.
I launched myself at Merlin… at the same time Skyfire did.
Neither of us hit the madwoman.
Chapter 27
Merlin seemedunable to stop screaming as she spun, flinging out her hand. With the motion a circular blade of mist expanded out from her. It caught Skyfire and me mid-leap. Skyfire managed to get mostly out of the way with a flap of her ephemeral wings. I shot silk at the ceiling and tried to pull myself up as well. I pulled up one leg in time, but the mist-blade caught my other ankle. If not for my armored boots, it would have severed my foot, but still the cut was deep and bleeding.
MyHerogift kicked in hard, blocking the pain even as I pulled more silk and reached down to clot the wound. It would be hard to walk or leap or do much of anything with that one lame foot, but I had to keep going.
Skyfire breathed fire at Merlin, who blocked with a wall of mist.
I dropped from my silk, landing in an awkward roll near Midnight, who was still being crushed. I had no clue how to stop the push of mist, except… Merlin was still holding out one hand toward Midnight as if controlling the mists upon the woman. So, I threw silk at her hand and managed to grab it, pulling it away. Midnight cried out and fell to the floor as Merlin’s mists vanished, but it was clear Midnight had taken extreme damage and wouldn’t be participating anymore in this fight.
“I’ve done what I can,” she gasped. “Kill that bitch!”
I would be more than happy to oblige, but… how?
Merlin, with her arm now roughly extended in my direction, opened her palm and a wall of mist appeared before me, moving to crush me as well, but I leapt. Yet with one bad leg I didn’t leap as well. The wall caught my shins. It didn’t capture me, but it sent me somersaulting through the air to land awkwardly on my back on the floor.
Then Skyfire was there, swooping in to pluck me up easily. She too had a wounded leg, bleeding profusely. I guessed her tough hide had protected her from that attack the same way my armor had. Still the wound was deep and she’d quickly lose a lot of blood from it. I reached down and put some silk over it to help her.
“Thanks, but how in The Pits do we kill this woman?” Skyfire asked, voice angry and pained as she flew around the hall, dodging more mist attacks. “She’s nothing like you described the other mistweaver to be.”
That was clear. “She’s more powerful by far and… she knows the future, she knows I defeat her and how, so she can avoid that.”
“Do you know how?”
“No clue.”
