Page 36 of Shade of Ruin

I may not trust him like everyone else does, but I can admit that he has more layers than I’d expected.

Chapter 18

The High Fae are not dragons, but it was necessary to find a conduit for this power. Only they were strong enough, but they will struggle with the effects of this new magic.

~Kasan the Lifegiver, A History of Magic and Dragons

I’ve never seen Colefight High Fae before, but this evening I’m going to. He already trained with me just like when we were traveling together, and now I’m relaxing by the fire, every inch of my body sore and exhausted, but I’m excited to watch him train with Darian and Lee.

So is the rest of Aerwyn. Nearly everyone in the village has taken up perches around the clearing. I’m sitting next to Bog the goblin, who’s picking at his bare feet with a twig while we wait. “Have you ever watched them fight before?” I ask.

Bog nods. “Lots. Cole thinks everyone should fight.” He digs the stick under his yellowed toenail and a sizeable piece of mud falls out. The riverbank had been muddier than I’d thought, and Bog’s been cleaning his feet for hours after he sank up to his knees and had to be rescued from it. “He won’t fight any of us. Says we’d get hurt. Have you ever tried catching a bird with that net? I like fish, but birds are better.”

I chuckle at him, but before I answer, Darian and Lee step into the circle. They’re wearing full suits of steel armor that look nothing like Cole’s. Where his looks like court attire with pieces of metal attached to it, theirs are exactly how I imagine human soldiers’ armor, with a few differences. The armor gleams in the fading sunlight with perfect reflections, and I wonder how Cole can look at them with how bright they’re shining. Darian is holding two swords that are nearly as long as Cole’s, one in each hand. Lee is holding two daggers. All the weapons are made of the same black steel of Cole’s sword.

They stare at each other for a few moments, and it’s like the entire world is holding its breath. I feel like I shouldn’t say anything.

“No blood,” Cole says ominously, and both Lee and Darian nod. The rest of the audience is silent as they face off against each other. Lee and Darian on one side with Cole on the other. They all stand ready, each of them in a unique fighting stance.

Lee’s the first one to move. She leaps into the air, wings sprouting from her back through slits in the back of her armor. I never expected her to move that fast. She’s moving like a hawk in a dive, fast enough to miss if I blinked. Her wings appear in an instant, give two flaps to push her faster, and then disappear, sending her shooting toward Cole.

Dariangrowsas he runs. Each step has his body expanding, and by the time he’s halfway to Cole, he’s towering over him, looking more like a giant than a High Fae. The armor has shiftedrather than breaking, all the metal sliding to the front and back of his body, leaving the sides with open slits.

But in those slits, hard plates of stone are sliding into place. The swords that had looked enormous wielded one handed now look tiny. Almost like daggers.

Two House of Steel warriors against Cole.

And Cole just smiles at them as they charge. Lee hits the ground in a roll just out of range of Cole’s sword, moving so fast her body’s a blur, and as soon as her roll’s over, she’s already inside Cole’s guard.

You’d think that wielding daggers against a mostly unarmored opponent, she’d have won. Cole is faster than I’d imagine is possible, though. While Lee is still standing up, he turns to her and kicks her square in the chest, not using his sword at all. She goes flying, and the crowd has to scramble out of the way as she hits the ground hard enough that I question whether she broke anything.

Darian’s hulking body moves just as fast as a normal Fae would while they’re carrying daggers, except his “daggers” are six feet long.

Somehow, Cole still manages to roll, slide, and dodge around them as he moves close enough that Darian can’t hit him. Using his size against him, Cole rolls under Darian’s legs. Before Darian can move, Cole shoves his sword between the stone extruding from his leg and the gleaming steel of his armor.

“I give,” Darian says immediately as he feels Cole’s blade press against flesh.

I’m sure that the stab wouldn’t have seriously hurt Darian for long, but the whole point of this is practice, not a true battle.

Lee has righted herself and is looking serious as she stares Cole down. “How do you do it?” she growls. “No magic, and you still beat us both.”

“Training. Something you both are extremely neglectful of.”

She hisses, and when she runs this time, a long, slender tail sprouts from another slit in the back of her armor. It starts off with pale skin just like the rest of her, but in an instant, it turns into what looks like dragon scales.

She tries to close the distance between them, but Cole’s strikes are constant. Lee’s forced to block with both daggers and her tail. He never attempts to push her off balance. Just constant strikes, all of which are lightning quick.

Lee blocks one strike after another, but can’t ever make progress toward Cole, and it’s as plain as day that she’s wearing out while Cole looks like he could do this all day. Her expression goes from frustrated to anger to fear.

And then her tail catches Cole’s sword. He’s quick to rip it from her grip, but by then, she’s already rushed toward him, daggers out. Her hands move in a blur, swinging as hard as she can, each blow hard enough to cut a limb off, but just like when I’d tried to grab Cole the very first night I met him, he’s always just a hair’s breadth out of reach.

She screams in frustration and launches herself at him, and he slips out of the way, his knee coming up at the same time. He smashes it into her chest, and I can hear the crumpling of metal as the armor collapses.

She lets out a loudoomphand falls to the ground. “Good catch, Lee,” he says as he walks over to where a cup of water is waiting for him. She’s still laying on the ground, and I don’t know whether to go to her or to leave her like that. They’re friends, but… I know how cold Cole can be.

I move away from the crowd to where Lee is still gasping for breath. A knee-sized indention in the armor has the metal pressing tight against her chest. She’s trying to undo the leather buckles hidden under the steel plates, but her eyes are going glossy. She can’t breathe. I shove my hand between the steel and her clothes, and with one hand, undo the buckle of a hidden belt.Immediately, the pressure on her chest is relieved, and she puts both hands on the ground as she sucks in a breath.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

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