The Destroyer Book 2 (47 page)

I made a quick, vertical attack at her collarbone and she raised her sword to block. The sound of our blades smashing together was almost deafening, but I could hear her grunt from the force. I smiled and pushed down on the blade, then released the pressure suddenly, brought the weight to my side and tried to slice off part of her arm.

She was ready for the tactic and only lifted her weapon enough for the brief second of pressure. Her sword shifted around to block mine, and she kneed me quickly in the hip where I was still healing from the cut she gave me a second ago.

The pain should have been excruciating, but I'd dealt with plenty of torment in my life. I shrugged off the screams of my body and pushed her down against her stable leg when she launched the knee. She tumbled down to the rocks on the edge of the water and came up easily from a somersault.

We had some distance again and the ground was becoming more level and rocky as we got closer to the river. A small crowd had gathered around the shore to watch us spar. I couldn't get an exact count before Shlara kicked a rock up from the slope at me and then tried to take my arm off when I blocked the stone with my weapon.

I twisted to the side and narrowly avoided her blade across the arm, but in my haste to vacate the space, I made my lower left side open to attack. She whipped her weapon around and sank it deep into my thigh, meeting the hard bone beneath and almost cutting through that as well. I pulled my sword and knocked her blade free of my flesh. My leg fought to keep control of my stability, but I didn't utter a grunt of pain from the wound. Shlara moved back and began to circle me like a hunting wolf, a wide smile painted with bloody lips. She smelled victory.

"Concede?" she asked as she spit out blood.

I shook my head and smiled. The movement seemed to anger her because she came in recklessly with a cut aimed at the leg she had already maimed. I swept her blade past me with a back step that almost toppled me over onto the hill. Then I tried to counter with a thrust of my own, but she easily blocked it and moved out of the way.

"You lost, Kaiyer. You can't fight me with your leg like that."

I didn't respond and the smile faded from her face. She circled me again and I had to hobble to make sure I was facing her. My leg was healing as quick as it could, but it would still take a few more minutes. It was time I didn't have.

She swung horizontally again but it was a feint, at the last second she stopped her weapon before I blocked and then thrust toward me. I twisted my body, but the side of her blade still ripped through my shirt and across my chest. I had to knock the sword away with my free hand to clear it.

The stones around my feet were slippery and coated with my blood. Shlara's bleeding had stopped, but her nose was still shattered beyond recognition. She circled me again like a lioness playing with her prey.

"I can't believe it is taking you this long to finish me," I taunted with a smile. She frowned and made an attack toward my uninjured leg. She hinted at this swing so I saw it coming. I blocked it and spun around my edge to catch her arms. She hissed in annoyance as she came away with a small cut across both of her forearms.

"You're good, Kaiyer. I thought you would be slower." She smiled at me and I noticed the lust in her eyes. I had come to recognize that look after all the years we spent together.

"You might still win, as long as you don't lose hope," I said sarcastically. It got a laugh out of her.

She came in low with her usual three cuts. The movements had to be a set up for something. She couldn't possibly be using the same combination against me in this manner. She would know that I would eventually find a hole in the attack and win. I played the exchange safe, trying to move as little as possible so that my wound would heal quicker. At the end she retreated out of my reach before I counterattacked.

"I might have to cut the other leg out from under you. It will be fine though, I'll send some of my best lieutenants to carry you to my tent tonight." She smirked as she angled toward the uninjured side of my body. I grunted in annoyance.

"No witty reply?" she laughed as she made the same low cuts against me. She moved slower this time, lazily cutting her horizontal slashes so that I might easily block. "You must be getting tired. Just give up so you'll have energy for me tonight." Her eyes narrowed and she came in for another series of strikes aimed at my thighs.

I had an exceptionally high pain tolerance, but bending to combat her attacks was tearing up the wound in my leg and putting extreme pressure on my lower back. I didn't think I would be able to handle much more of it. But I hated to lose, especially if winning meant that I would get her compliance for the strategy I wanted us to execute in our final battle.

Losing meant she would finally have what she wanted from me. Though I would enjoy spending my nights with her, I had gone so long without risking a relationship, I was determined not to put our army in jeopardy a few weeks before we crushed the Elvens and finally liberated our race.

Maybe I was just being an asshole.

Shlara came in for her series of low attacks. Before she could make her first cut, I kicked a loose stone from the bank of the river into her face. She turned her head in time so that it bounced off her jaw, but it threw her momentum off enough for me to close in the gap. My leg screamed in agony as I put my weight on it with my sprint. Then the limb howled in frustration when I skidded to a halt and slammed the point of my blade through the bicep of her sword arm.

She tried to move away from my thrust, but she had been too busy trying to push her own attack and dodge the rock, so she misjudged my strength. Or perhaps she hadn't misjudged my strength, she just didn't think I would be willing to endure the pain.

She let out a gasp of shock as her arm turned useless and her sword dropped out of her hand. I thought I had gotten lucky and won our little match with a quick gamble on my leg. But I should have known better. Shlara was my best warrior, she was driven to win as much as I was. So when she used her left hand to trap my grip on the pommel of my weapon, swung her impaled arm out, and pushed my own blade into my stomach, I guessed that she might have wanted to win our wager a little more than I did.

I stumbled back as I felt the sharp metal spear through my abdomen, but she had latched onto my arm with hers. Then her left leg wrapped behind my hips and she tightened her body around mine like a snake. The effect caused me to collapse backward onto the smooth stones of the riverbank, driving the point farther into my stomach.

"I fucking win!" she screamed into my face as she pushed down on me. The movement slammed the blade deeper. The air from my lungs was being squeezed out by the pressure she was putting on my chest. My vision started to dim and black spots appeared in front of my eyes.

My left arm was still trapped against her hand, against my sword, impaling myself. My right was free though, and I reached out to my side, hoping to reach a river stone I might use to bash Shlara off of me. But there was nothing.

I tried to think of what I could do to win. It seemed hopeless, but there was always some way out of even the direst situations. My brain was losing oxygen and blood so fast that all I heard was the sound of my heart beating. Forcing the Earth through me. Forcing the Water through my blood.

Earth.

Water.

Shlara had not excluded those Elements from our match. We needed Earth to control our strength and healing. Water was almost never used since it was so similar to Air and could not be combined with Fire. But I knew how to use Water. I had done things even Entas had not believed.

Things he made me swear never to teach anyone else.

I grabbed onto Shlara's neck with my right hand and tried to focus. I yanked the power of the Earth from the ground into me in a swell of energy. Then I brought Water from Shlara's body, through her skin, and into me. She gasped in surprise as her muscles overheated instantly. I pulled the magic back into me and felt the addicting surge of power, life, and strength.

My left hand broke free of her grip and I held her leg against me with my arm. Once she was trapped, I rolled her over so that I was on top of her. Her eyes were wide with fear as she tried to struggle but suddenly had only the fortitude of a normal, mortal human. I ripped the sword out of her arm and laid the blade across her throat.

"I win. You'll talk to Malek and agree with my plan?" I smiled down at her.

"Yes." Her voice was a whisper and I saw the terror in her eyes. "What did you do? I . . . I can't move.” She coughed and blood erupted from her mouth in an ill-sounding gurgle.

Oh shit.

I put my ear down to her chest and listened. Her heart was beating too slow and the air sounded weak in her lungs.

"I need water, now!" I screamed at our observers. A few looked to each other in confusion, as if I had just woken them from a dream. A woman ran forward with a water skin.

I grabbed the bottle and popped open the cork. I poured the water into Shlara's mouth as her body started to seize like a fish out of the river.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Come back to me!" I said as I tried to hold her down against the ground. She was weak now, and I could keep her grounded easily. Entas had warned me against attempting to use Water.

Could I reverse the magic?

"Slowly pour the water on her chest," I told the woman who brought me the bottle. She nodded, took the container from me, and did as I instructed.

I tapped into the Earth again, creating a surge of excess energy in my blood. I ripped open the front of Shlara's shirt, her skin was turning white. The slow stream of water from the bottle was centered over Shlara's heart. I placed my hand between the stream and her skin. Then I tried to reverse what I had done before: pushing my Earth into Shlara's body by using the water.

It didn't work.

"No. No. No!" I screamed. How could I be so fucking stupid? I should have given up and let her win. Tears fell down my face and landed on her dying body. I had killed my best friend, my best general. All because I didn't want to lose a petty argument.

How much water is in a human body?

I lifted her off the riverbank. The women gasped as I ran toward the group of people standing in the current. They parted way for me, but I paid them no mind. Nothing mattered but Shlara.

My leg wasn't fully healed and I tripped a few dozen steps into the water, I fell down to my knees but didn't lose my hold on her twitching body. I cursed my clumsiness and struggled a few more feet into the river's icy blue torrent.

Then I repeated what I had tried before with the liquid. This time there was much more water and the energy it made coursing around us seemed to help. I felt it rip through my body, dance through my insides, my organs, through my hands and into Shlara. Her eyes shot open and she gasped as liquid flowed into her mouth from the river. She tried to sit up in my arms, but the current was too strong. After a few more seconds I stopped pushing the Element into her and pulled her out of the flow, cradling her soaking body against my chest.

"Cold." Her teeth chattered as she clutched the front of my bloody tunic. I nodded and carried her out of the water. Her seizures grew worse as we left the current, but I figured coldness from the river on a hot spring day would be better than a seizure caused by dehydration.

"Get firewood and set it over there." I gestured to a spot on the river's edge. Half a dozen men ran off toward the campsite.

"Is she going to be okay?" the woman who had assisted me asked as I sat down on one of the rocks with Shlara in my arms.

"Yes. Leave us."

"Aye, Kaiyer." She gave a signal to the rest of the people gathered. They shot concerned looks our way and slowly departed. Within moments, the men returned with firewood and lit it for us. Once they had finished, I looked at the departing mob and nodded. They saluted and ran back toward the camp.

I inched myself closer to the fire so that Shlara would get the full heat. It was a little past midday and the flames made it almost hotter than I could stand, but she needed the warmth.

"Kaiyer," she muttered into my chest after a few minutes.

"Yes?" I asked with relief.

"Did you win?" her voice was barely a whisper.

"Yes."

"Harmph," she said in annoyance. Then there was silence punctuated by the cracking of the firewood.

"Kaiyer," she spoke a bit louder.

"Yes?" I wanted to crush her body to me, but I didn't know if she was using her Earth yet. I didn't want to smother her.

"You'll have to break my nose again so I can set it. I think it healed wrong," she complained.

"I'll fix it," I said eagerly.

"How did you win? I don't remember," she finally asked after a few more minutes of shivering silence.

"I cheated. I'm sorry."

"No, you're not." She tried to lift her head to look at me but I cradled her too close and I was too strong. I didn't want to meet her eyes.

"Can you use your Earth?" I asked after she said nothing for a while.

"Yes. It is slow."

"You'll be okay?"

"I'd be better if you told me you would make love to me tonight." She coughed but I thought it was an attempt at laughter.

"You lost."

"You cheated," she spat.

"I said I was sorry."

"My head hurts." She had stopped shivering.

I rubbed her back carefully with my left hand, regret floated through my mind. I should sleep with her tonight. It would fix our relationship.

Fuck. This war would end in a week or two. Afterward, Shlara and I could be together. There would be no more Elvens and no more revenge.

No more Iolarathe.

"Kaiyer."

"Yes?" I stopped rubbing her back.

"You're a fucking asshole." She finally lifted her head to stare at me. Her nose had healed and it didn't look crooked. She smiled her full grin at me and winked.

I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

She laughed too. But I was sure it wasn't for the same reasons.

"Why did you keep attacking me low?"