Page 32 of The Goddesses' Gifts

“If only you’d seen the expression on his face when you didn’t look his way, Zelfek.” Dulanzo frowned, shook his head, and clucked his tongue. “How could you have loved something that pathetic? The disappointment …”

And next thing I knew, my hands were fisted in the front of his jacket, shoving him into the wall, but he just grinned back at me like a maniac.

“He was gutted when you ignored him,” he laughed. “Oh, the poor stupid thing. And the look in your eyes—the one that begged me not to notice your little halfie—told me there was something you cared enough to protect. Not your son. Apparently not your pupils. But that pretty little halfie … well, you sealed his fate right there.”

And I couldn’t control my rage any longer.

“I sealed his fate when I brought him to this tomb!” I snarled in his face. “He was the only thing here that wasn’t tainted by your madness! Innocent of the suffering you’ve inflicted on the rest of us!” I slammed him against the wall again. “He was too stupid for you to find interesting and not enough of a threat to be a target for anyone else!” And I slammed him again. “Fuck you, Dulanzo! You destroyed the last decent thing in this place!”

His expression finally sobered, and he shoved me back. “You’re lucky nobody else can do my job as well as you, subcommander or I’d kill you where you stand.”

“Yes, lucky,” I seethed. That’s what I was alright.

He straightened his jacket and examined my face critically. “Still no tears though.”

“I don’t have a heart to break.” Tears were for people that had the safety to shed them. Tears were for people who listened for the footsteps of someone coming to comfort them, not freeze in fear of some boogie man coming to drag them into Irnon’s abyss. “You made sure of that.”

He didn’t reply, only turned to dismiss the magic of our silence and start walking to meet the rest of the warband in the main chamber. I followed, seething inside. We were too close! I couldn’t collapse under the strain of his bullshit with the end of this game in sight.

The clanging bell only assaulted our ears for a few more minutes before we reached the main cavern. There’ to my right, was Ozanna, crouched among some crates. She was well hidden from the elves in the chamber, but not Dulanzo and I who were a little behind everyone else. My little outburst had stalled us just long enough to ruin the one advantage I had tried to give her. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

Dulanzo had already spotted her though, and he crept up on her from behind. He no doubt hoped to catch her off guard, but something in his approach gave him away.

Ozanna popped up from her crouch and spun, bringing a fucking furniture leg about to slam against the side of Dulanzo’s head. The collision was so hard and fast that the sturdy wood all but shattered against his skull. And … he staggered!

I rushed toward them, placing myself between the pair and dragged the woman down. We both braced our forearms against the ground to keep the child strapped to her chest from being crushed beneath the weight of the three other elves that piled on to “help” me subdue their commander’s attacker.

“You have improbable timing,” Dulanzo snarled and crouched down, appearing to meet her eyes, but I saw he was blinking as if stunned by the blow. She’d actually hurt him. There was no blood, of course, but I could see him struggle to focus. He picked up the broken piece of wood she’d dropped. “I see we need to upgrade your living quarters. Or perhaps simply sever some of your tendons?”

She glared up at him over my shoulder. “Eat shit!”

He rumbled out orders, his voice surprisingly calm. “Get up off of her, she’s not capable of hurting me, fools.”

The weight against my back disappeared and I rose to help Ozanna to her feet. She made the wise choice not to fight.

I eyed Dulanzo warily. “How’s your head? Are you sure you want to go forward with a duel?” I asked in the trade language so she could understand.

Dulanzo bit back in elvish, “It’s fine, fool.”

Ozanna appeared uninjured and the wide-eyed child clung to her shirt front despite the wrap of fabric around him.

“Bring her!” Dulanzo barked in the trade language. “She can watch me kill her mate. Whichever one it is.”

I pushed her to walk ahead of me and into the crowd. “You came so close, girl,” my whisper almost swallowed by the crowd around us. “If you’d have been just a little slower to follow everyone out, he wouldn’t have noticed you.”

The other elves filed through a narrow doorway and gradually started up the spiral stone staircase, that bypassed the longer route the horses required.

“Which one of them has called him to duel?” She asked in a whisper.

The elves around us glanced at her suspiciously.

“Hush,” I hissed.

“Too bad I didn’t hit him harder,” she said through a sneer.

CHAPTER 16

LHORIS

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