His lips curled and he sent Lina a bemused look.“You’ve got friends in high places, I see.”
Ione chilled, unfazed, and eight trunks of water snaked up around her, smaller but faster than Kai’s storeys-high waterspouts.One by one they rose, frozen points shooting at Castor – but for all the training in spellcasting Ione had received, it was not experience in open combat.Laughing, Castor dodged or evaporated each of them, not bothering to attack, inciting Ione into fighting harder, depleting her energy faster.
Opportunistic as ever, River wove between the strands of water, his sword a blur.Castor ducked out of the way, but his face tightened when River changed direction on the fly, knocking Castor nearly off his feet in another narrow dodge.
Castor opened his palm, white sparks building, a close-quarters technique Lina recognised.“Get back,” Lina shouted, and River obeyed, allowing her to throw herself in the way and stifle another burst of flame.
She scarcely registered Castor’s bared teeth, the loathing in his eyes – and then pain cracked in her skull.The room lurched and went black, sending her flying, falling, landing into the water with a dull splash.
A shriek and the stench of fresh blood cut through, tore her back to life.Lina pushed herself out of the water and squinted through the haze, dizzy, searching for Ione.There, alive and unharmed, her face twisted with grief.
And before her, River, on his hands and knees as blood poured from his abdomen.He sucked in an unsteady breath through gritted teeth, one hand weakly groping through the water for his sword.
“We’ll do away with the rabble first, I thought,” Castor said, stooping and wiping his dagger on the back of River’s tunic.
Lina staggered back to her feet, her temple already swelling where Castor had hit her with the butt of his dagger, but Castor kicked her hard in the knee.She crashed into the water, sputtering.A foot pressed into the back of her head, forcing her down.Drowning her, the ultimate insult from a pyromancer.
The weight lifted and Lina rose, retching.
“Menon will kill you,” Ione screamed, straddling Castor’s chest in the water, her ice blade held high.She stabbed, but Castor caught her wrist, gripped until she cried out and dropped the blade.
“I should hope Menon makes an appearance,” he said, backhanding Ione and bucking her off of him.He stood and shook the water from his hair.“I hadn’t wanted to go too hard, too fast, but if Menon’s going to be this shy, maybe I need to up the ante.”
Ione snarled, hurling a thick whip of icy barbs at him, but he wended around them like they were nothing.He let another nearly hit him before he thrust his dagger out, shattering it.Child’s play, his grin said; this angry, Ione was harmless to him.
“Don’t be that way.”He tutted and opened his arms, sauntering towards her.“After Hearthstone, I put a lot of effort into planning my official meeting with Menon Herself.”He motioned grandly to Lina.“Even as my precious sister tried to delay my healing.Yes, Lina.”Castor’s eyes seemed to glow with some inner fire, otherworldly.“Of course I knew.”
He stopped just short of Ione, taking her in, the rise and fall of her shoulders with each ragged breath, the wedding dress dyed red.Lina moved to stand and collapsed with a furious curse, agony radiating from her knee.She clamped a hand over it, the skin red-hot, fragments of bone loose beneath it; light bloomed beneath her palm, but she couldn’t concentrate through the pain, didn’t have time to heal bone.
So she crawled, her useless leg dragging behind her.Castor saw her and chuckled.
“Valiant.”He grabbed Ione’s wrist, twisting it before she could summon another blade.“You’re serious about this one, are you?”he asked, pointing at Ione.“Was it you she was marrying?”
A flash of movement, and Castor jerked back, cursing and holding his nose.Ione had punched him, but her victory was short-lived: he slapped her across the face, a high sharp noise, and Ione careened backwards.
“The funny thing is,” Castor announced to his audience, “I would’ve thought this was enough.”He gestured around them, at the ruined building, the few bodies of hydromancers floating nearby; at River, cradling his abdomen and breathing wet and slow; at Lina, dazed and broken.
“So where is She?”he demanded, rounding on Ione, blood dripping from his nose and spraying with each word.“Where did you put Her?”
Metal flashed and Castor fell to one knee, cursing.River had found his sword, delivered a deep slice in the back of Castor’s leg – but with a burst of flame Castor healed it, drew himself up, kicked River square in the face.
Ione shrieked as he fell, a wall of ice spikes rising in response to her terror.They melted before they touched him with little more than a wave of his hand.
In the blink of an eye Castor was inches before her again, a hand around her throat.“Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked?”His voice rose, almost cracking, droplets of blood dotting Ione’s face.“Do you understand everything I’ve gone through, everything I’ve done, for this moment?”
Ione went still, paralysed with fear.
“If you have Her, give Her to me,” Castor whispered now, a gentle caress.“And if you don’t, then tell me now so I can kill you and move on.”
His gaze cleared and he lurched backwards, letting a spear of ice bolt between them through the space where his head had been.“Ah!”With Ione still in his grip – to be used as a shield, Lina realised, her blood running cold – Castor beamed towards his new opponent.“This seems promising.Welcome.”
“Thanks.I feel welcomed.”Kai.His shoulders were hunched, one mangled arm hanging, but his eyes were filled with drive as they locked onto Castor.“I don’t suppose you’d let her go if I asked nicely?”
“Who, this?”Castor spun Ione around and pinned her arms behind her, letting Kai see.What little energy Lina could still sense within Kai coiled, blackened with hateful protectiveness.
There was movement a distance behind him, shadowy forms nearing.
“Last chance.”Kai widened his footing.“I sure hope you don’t care about these people.”
