“I have orders to kidnap the queen. She has a moon-mark and knows where the shielders are.” Yes, thosewerethe reasons Vorik had given to change his brother’s mind on what to do with Syla…
“Others have moon-marks. She’s too dangerous.”
“I didn’t ask your opinion, Gavartash. Take me to Lesva, and I’ll discuss it with her.” With his sword drawn, most likely. Vorik braced himself to face her.
But Gavartash didn’t walk off. Instead, his hand strayed again tohissword. “She doesn’t want to see you, sir. Earlier, she was suggesting that your wing should have a new leader.”
“Are you going to challenge me for command of it?” Vorik wondered if Lesva had put Gavartash up to this confrontation.The kid had only been a rider for two years and wasn’t bonded with a dragon. He was a talented fighter, but he hadn’t previously said or done anything to suggest he wanted to challenge Vorik.
“We don’t think you’re making good decisions for the tribe or our people.” Gavartash looked at Yevlor.
“Don’t include me in this,” Yevlor whispered. “Lesva wasn’t rubbingmyshoulder and getting me excited and ambitious.”
“It wasn’t myshoulderthat she rubbed.” Gavartash stepped back and drew his sword.
Despite saying he didn’t want to be involved, Yevlor also drew his sword and faced Vorik.
“You’re not offering a duel or a proper challenge?” Vorik rolled onto the balls of his feet, prepared for a fight, though he didn’t want it and didn’t yet draw his blades. “By the code, only one man may challenge another at a time.”
“We’d be foolish to challenge you solo,” Gavartash said. “And this isn’t about the code. It’s about doing what’s right for our people.”
“And satisfying the woman who’s rubbing something of yours?” Vorik didn’t want to fight his own men, and it bothered him that their concern about his leadership wasn’t unfounded. But he hadn’t yet gone against Jhiton, and that was who they should be looking to for guidance, not Lesva.Lesvashould have come forward to challenge Vorik personally if she wanted to get rid of him.
“I’m doing this for our people,” Gavartash said firmly.
Yevlor rolled his eyes but didn’t correct his comrade. He was the first to move, flicking his sword in a feint toward the side of Vorik’s neck.
Mindful of the tight confines of the tunnel and a wall behind him, Vorik leaped sideways, the water splashing under his feet, and drew his sword and dagger. He recognized the feint for whatit was and didn’t bother deflecting it, suspecting that Gavartash was the main threat.
Yes, the man lunged in while his comrade sent a second feint toward Vorik’s hip. Vorik deflected both attacks, his eyes sharp enough to see the blades in the dim lighting. Further, after so many battles in his life, he sensed and anticipated the men’s attacks. It helped that they were his own people, fighting with familiar combinations and patterns of stabs and slashes, attacks that Vorik had helped ingrain in them.
Weapons clashed, echoing loudly in the enclosed space. Not wanting the noise to draw the city’s guards, and aware of others around the bend, Vorik summoned his magic to give him greater speed so that he could end the confrontation quickly. With a sweep of his dagger, he deflected an attack from Yevlor, then stabbed him in the back of the hand. The man cried out, dropping his sword into the water.
Gavartash tried to take advantage of the distraction, but Vorik parried his combination of thrusts and slashes without taking his eyes from the man’s face. Movement in his peripheral vision warned Vorik of others coming, and he launched a rapid series of attacks of his own.
Since Yevlor was close to finding his sword in the water, Vorik kicked him back even as he focused his blades on Gavartash. The man managed to parry two blows but stumbled back and bumped into the tunnel wall, and the third attack slid in, knocking his sword away to disarm him. Before Gavartash could scramble away, Vorik pressed his dagger to the man’s throat, using it to pin him against the wall. He turned his sword toward the oncoming troops.
Captain Lesva, her own sword drawn, slowed to a stop, but a female rider at her side fired a crossbow. Without removing his dagger from Gavartash’s throat, Vorik ducked. The quarrel whizzed over his head and landed with a fleshy thud. Yevlorgrabbed his shoulder as he spun away, stumbling and splashing in the water again.
“Idiot,” Lesva snarled, pushing the woman’s arm down.
“You said?—”
“To kill him, yes,” Lesva said, her icy eyes locked on Vorik, “but not to shoot in an enclosed space with our men nearby.”
“To kill me, Lesva? After all we’ve been through? I’m wounded. Though not as wounded as some.” Vorik glanced at Yevlor, not wanting an angry and injured man at his back, but Yevlor had abandoned trying to find his sword and backed to the storm-drain entrance. He slumped against the wall with his hand to his wounded shoulder.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Yevlor ground out through clenched teeth. “I didn’t want to.”
Sword clenched in a hard and frustrated grip, Lesva stopped a few paces from Vorik. She didn’t look surprised to see him. Had she seen him on the rooftop earlier and intentionally brought her team close? Yes, this probably hadn’t been a chance meeting. But what had she intended? To attack Vorik while he’d been distracted fighting the other two men? She must have known Gavartash wasn’t a match for him, but she had a lot of troops with her. Did theyallwant Vorik dead?
Other than the rider at Lesva’s side, a lieutenant from Moonhunt Tribe who’d probably been loyal to the captain for years, the others hung back. Soldiers and riders from a number of tribes, they hadn’t yet drawn weapons. But when Vorik’s gaze skimmed over them, few met his eyes.
“You should be executed for the choices you’ve made,” Lesva said.Shehad no trouble meeting his eyes. “The choices you’ve let yourpenismake.” She looked in disgust at his crotch.
Vorik sighed, not interested in getting into that with her again. “As I was telling our riders, I’ve orders to kidnap Queen Syla and Lady Abrya.”
“So do I,” Lesva said. “The queen is here in the city, isn’t she? We know she left her ship. Is she going to the palace?”
