“We’re not caught yet.” I stumbled back to my feet. “I’ve got to get this stupid thing to your dad or else.”
“Why do you care so much about your fake wizard school?”
“It’s not fake!” I shouted. “It’s all we’ve got! And I’m not going to let some prick take what little bit of hope we have left away from us.”
With the box in hand, I half-blindly groped about for the safety rail. I might as well keep moving until I could see fully. At least this felt like I was doingsomething.
Dathka swore at me, but from the noise, I could tell she’d followed.
A few seconds later, I was still seeing stars and spots, but I was making progress. “There were some tall buildings all along the lift plaza. If we find a good angle, I might be able toDescendus to the roof of one of those. If we’re lucky, nobody will be looking up when we do.”
“A moment ago, you almost broke our necks going a fraction of that distance.”
“You got any better ideas?”
“I got an idea,” Gerzog said as he stepped out from behind the pillar right below us and pointed something at my chest. “Hand over the lamp.”
I didn’t know if he had a wand or gun aimed at me, but whatever it was, it was sure to be deadly. But how had he gotten below us?
“You son of a bitch.” Dathka was outraged. “You learned how to use my shadow charm.”
“I did.” Gerzog held something up, but it was still too blurry for me to tell what it was. “Whoever enchanted this is good. Really good.”
“My mother gave that to me.”
“That makes me using it to kill you an even sadder story.” Gerzog turned his weapon toward Dathka.
I stepped in front of her just as he fired.
I could pretend I’d done that out of honor, but the truth was, Dathka had no charms left, while my Frunza Tarlev protectivecharm was still on my person. I could take a hit and live. She couldn’t. And two versus one was better than me fighting Gerzog by myself.
The weapon turned out to be a gun, which I learned the hard way, by having the lead ball flatten into a pancake against my abdomen. The protective spell took most of the impact, but it was paper thin, and a whole lot of that energy managed to sneak through in the form of a nasty gut punch.
Dathka rushed past as I fell on my ass, launching herself at the much larger orc.
It was two versus one, except he was nearly three times her size and she was unarmed.
At least, I thought she was unarmed, until she revealed that she had a knife that she tried to bury in his chest. Then I realized that wasmy knife.The thieving skag must have taken it off me when she’d been hanging on to me for dear life.
Fat lot of good my knife did her, though, as Gerzog smashed the barrel of his empty pistol against her. Dathka went rolling away.
I yanked out one of Azarin’sJoltrods and threw it. Gerzog ducked as the sparking metal flew past his head. That gave me enough time to abandon the box, get up, and charge. I closed enough distance that this time, myShroud of Flameset his grey robes ablaze.
Gerzog got burned good, yet he calmly shrugged out of the burning priest’s clothing and tossed the flaming bundle at me. I swatted it out the air in a shower of sparks, not realizing he would be right behind it.
Orcs hit really hard.
That shot rocked my head back on my neck. His knuckles left a dent in my cheek. I reached up and slugged him right back, which he clearly hadn’t expected, but hitting an orc’s jaw is like punching wood. I think I hurt my hand more than I hurt him.
He dropped the pistol and yanked a short sword from his belt. I leapt back as the steel whistled through where I’d just been.
I responded with more Red. But when theShroud of Firecleared, Gerzog wasn’t there.
Confused, I blinked for a few seconds, thinking my lamp-damaged eyes were playing a trick on me, then Gerzog came out of the shadows of the pillar fifteen feet behind me. I turned just in time to see him aiming a wand. I was in the open. He had me dead to rights.
“Shred.”
Out of pure instinct and desperation, I reached for the metal railing and willed the Clear embedded in my glove to activate. It was all the speed and violence of anAscendbutsideways.
