“Comeon, love.Aim a little better.Poke that head out from cover.”There was aclick, a hiss of a burning fuse.“Let’s have that duel.”
Isaacpressed an ear to his shoulder, pointed his finger at the ice, and fired aburst of sound.
On theceiling, the ice exploded in a shower of glinting shrapnel.Isaac and Zariabraced together as a hail of ice and stone sliced through the room, tearingapart the skeletons on the stage.Underneath the blast of sound, Isaac heard ascream of pain.
Earsringing, he leaped out from cover, pointing his finger like a cannon.
Hefound Soren reeling on the circular stage, a hand clutching her face.There wasa grenade in her other hand, the fuse lit and shrinking.She flung the bombawkwardly, stumbling back, blind and deafened.Isaac marched ahead, ignoringthe grenade, pointing his finger at the pirate captain.Behind him, Zariacursed and ran.
Heloosed more sound.Soren ducked away, slithering down beneath a desk,recovering with remarkable speed, and Isaac’s salvo of magic blew open a wallof the council chamber, scattering rubble into the adjacent hallway.He couldsee glimpses of her scrambling along the floor, snaking her way between thedesks.She was visible by the tall white of her ears.
He pointed his finger.
Hergrenade exploded.
Theeruption struck him hard, mere feet from where he was standing.Only the coverof a bony desk saved him from evisceration.Even still, he was slapped like abottle from a shelf, the breath knocked from him, the mnemonic activation ofhis magic disappearing as he stumbled and fell to the floor.Dirt and stonerained in his eye.
As heblinked the dust away, Soren leaped into the air.For a moment, with his mindreeling in shock, time seemed to slow.
Aflashing sword.
Animble speed.
Ascreaming fury.
Isaacregained himself, rolling at the last possible instant.A cutlass scraped overstone, missing flesh.Both of them scrambled.She was faster.Back on her feet,Soren dashed for him, moving like a knife, one of her eyes as black as death.
“Captain!”Zaria yelled.
Thebunny paused.An entire desk sailed through the air, tumbling end over end, andSoren stepped easily to the side, letting the furniture crash against thenearby wall.Zaria stood a few rows away, her hands now empty.
“Nicetry,” Soren said.
“Sameto you!”
Thebunny turned, and Isaac blasted her with wind.
Sorenwas blown off her feet, sailing halfway across the room, bouncing, rolling,smashing through several desks, her white ears tumbling like leaves in abreeze.Isaac picked himself up, threading a path through the chamber.Twohurricanes balled in his hands.By the time Soren managed to stand, he slammedhis wind into the floor, creating a surging wall of force, flipping over everydesk and chair in its path.
Thebunny flew again.When she stood, a sharp blast of wind knocked her down.Isaacdid not stop marching.After a breathless snarl, Soren attempted to sluice betweenthe desks, using her short stature to her advantage, dashing low through thechairs and walkways.He lost track of her.He caught a few movements.After afew blind guesses, he approached the sound of a scuffle.
Agrenade was on the floor, the fuse burning away.
Heflung it forward with a gust of wind, and the bomb exploded in the air,damaging nothing but furniture.Soren dashed from the side.Her ambush had almost worked.
“Fuckin’die!”
Heturned, coiled a gust, and flung her away.
“Youfirst,” he said.
By now,most of the room was a debris field of masonry, spilled rock, jagged metal, andan ocean of splintered bone.Soren went spinning through it all, unslowed byany obstacle.By the time she tumbled to a stop, her body was just at the edgeof the elevator.For a moment, she coughed and sputtered, unable to rise.
Zariastood up from the cover of the desk.Beside her, Isaac came forward, a smalltornado of wind cocked in his hand.
Thebunny continued to groan, her cutlass still in hand, one of her white pawsgripping the edge of the open hole.Now that she was immobile, Isaac could seea field of shrapnel embedded in the burned flesh of her face, all of it madefrom ice and stone.Blood leaked over her armor of bones.
Slowly,she met his gaze.Her black eye reflected his face, the glass as perfectly dark as the chasm beneath her.
