My gaze snapped back and forth, flicking from one giant to the other and back again. Despite their heavy swords, the two men were barely winded thanks to their great strength, but I was sucking down air, trying to get my breath back after using so much energy to block their hard, furious attacks. My knives weren’t going to get the job done,not in this situation, so I tucked them back up my sleeves.
“Aw, are you giving up already, little Spider?” Lancelot sneered at me again. “If you raise your hands and surrender, we might just do you a favor and kill you quickly. Give you an honorable death, at least.”
An honorable death? There was no such fucking thing. These guys had been hanging around the ren faire too long. All those prettyproclamations and flowery words about honor, codes, and duty had addled their minds—and were going to get them killed in another minute, two tops.
I smiled at him. “You want me to raise my hands? You got it, Sir Knight.”
I reached for my magic, snapped up my hands, and flung a spray of Ice daggers out at them. Given their big, strong bodies and thick, heavy leather outfits, the daggers didn’thave much chance of hurting the giants, but Lancelot and Arthur didn’t realize that, and they both yelped in surprise, lifted their arms, and turned away from my frosty blast of magic.
The sharp shards of elemental Ice splintered against their massive biceps and shoulders and dropped harmlessly to the ground, but the giants’ distraction let me close the distance between us. I went left, targetingLancelot first, since he was the better fighter and far more dangerous than Arthur. I leaped up, grabbed hold of the bridge railing, and kicked out, slamming my boot into his sword hand.
Lancelot yelped, staggered back, and dropped his weapon.
Arthur snarled, stepped up, and swung his blade at me, but I avoided his vicious blow, darted forward, and scooped Lancelot’s sword up off the bridge.
The weapon was far, far heavier than I’d expected it to be. I had to wrap both hands around the hilt, but I managed to hoist it up. Arthur raised his sword high overhead, giving me an easy opening, and I stepped up, whirled around, and sliced the stolen blade across his stomach.
The giant screamed and staggered back against the railing. Arthur’s feet flew out from under him, and he collapsed tothe ground. His sword dropped from his hand and skittered across the flagstones, shooting off a few hot silver sparks.
Arthur’s panicked gaze dropped to his stomach, and he clamped his hands over the deep, gruesome wound, trying to keep his blood and guts from leaking out. I could have told him that it was a losing battle and not to bother, but I went for the more direct approach of lashing outwith my sword again. This time, I buried the blade in the side of the giant’s neck, cutting off his screams.
I tried to yank the sword free so that I could turn my attention back to Lancelot, but I couldn’t quite manage it. I grunted and tried again, but the blade was firmly stuck in Arthur, like, well, a sword in a stone.
“You bitch!” Lancelot screamed. “You killed him!”
The giant chargedat me, his arms outstretched like he wanted to wrap me up in a bear hug and crush me to death. I couldn’t let that happen, so I let go of the sword and lurched away from Arthur. But once again, I wasn’t quite quick enough, and Lancelot plowed into me. I barely had time to grab hold of my Stone magic to harden my skin into an impenetrable shell before the giant body-slammed me down onto the bridge.
Despite my Stone magic, the bruising blow still hurt, and I let out a low groan of pain.
“You bitch!” he screamed again, wrapping his hands around my throat. “You killed them!”
Lancelot started squeezing my neck, trying to choke me to death. At the same time, he lifted my shoulders and chest up off the bridge, getting ready to slam my head back against the stone, probably over and over againuntil he cracked my skull open like an egg.
I couldn’t let that happen either, so I reached for even more of my Stone magic. There was no time to be subtle, so I focused on the closest part of the bridge railing. Then I lashed out with my magic, hammering my Stone power into the supports the way Owen and the other blacksmiths had been hammering their weapons and other metal creations in the forgeearlier.
CRACK!
Several pieces of stone exploded out of the railing. I put a lot of magic into the blast, and one of the chunks zipped across the open space and hit Lancelot in the side of his neck. The giant let out a choked cry. He toppled off me and flopped over onto his back, wheezing and clutching his throat.
I sucked down some much-needed air, then forced myself to roll over and get backup onto my knees. I palmed a knife and loomed over Lancelot, ready to drive the blade into his ribs if he came at me again, but I didn’t have to.
I’d already killed him with my Stone magic.
That chunk of railing hadn’t just made Lancelot choke and gasp for air. Part of the stone had shattered and driven itself deep into his neck, wounding him just as badly as my knife would have. A steady streamof blood was pouring down his throat, and it had already started pooling around his head like he was lying on a scarlet cloak.
I leaned over the giant and fisted my hand in the front of his leather shirt, shaking him and trying to get him to focus on me before he bled out.
“Who sent you?” I hissed. “Was it Tucker? Mason? Are they here? Are they watching us right now?”
But I’d done too gooda job with my Stone magic, and it was too late to get any answers from Lancelot. The giant gurgled and stretched up an arm like he was going to shove me away, but his strength gave out, and his hand flopped back down onto the bridge. A moment later, his body sagged, and his blue eyes became fixed and frozen.
A knight no more, Lancelot was dead.
