Page 9 of Fate and Fury

His voice disappeared beneath the roar of the crowd as the door eased the rest of the way open and a man strolled through, hands open at his sides. His dark hair was cropped short, his face clean-shaven. He wore a forest-green tunic and slim black pants, the picture of a fashionable gentleman. Katerina had seen many just like him in Rivki’s Perun District, dining at establishments far fancier than any to be found in Kalach.

The direction of the wind changed, blowing the sharp-edged, resinous fumes of the rowan-fires toward the man. He coughed, the sound carrying across the arena, and Katerina stiffened. On either side of her, the other Dimis and Shadows did the same.

“Demon,” she said, watching in horror as the doorway behind him filled with more and more of his kind—twenty men and women clad in richly dyed fabric. Grigori were shapeshifters, able to take on the forms of whoever they chose; it was part of what made them so lethal. But if they’d penetrated the capital, surely the Druzhina wouldn’t just let them loose in the arena for the sake of the Trials. Would they?

Her power rose, buzzing in her fingertips, as the demons fanned out behind their leader, with him as the tip of their arrow. “Niko,” she said, her voice urgent.

Her Shadow drew a deep breath as the wind changed again, sampling the creatures’ scents. “Not true demons,” he said grimly. “Illusions of some kind. But,” he finished as all twenty of the false Grigori drew blades, “dangerous nonetheless.”

There was no time for Katerina to wonder what sort of strange magic this was, or whether the blades the illusions carried had been bathed with the Grigori venom that was fatal to a Shadow in human form. Because as the crowd bellowed in anticipation, the demons’ leader raised a hand, beckoning, and all of the creatures charged.

5

KATERINA

The familiar coldness of battle settled over Katerina, the world coming to her in fragments: A yellow-haired illusion-demon barreling toward her, teeth bared and blade clenched. The rumbling growl of her Shadow as he braced himself in front of her, palming two of his knives. The sizzle of her magic beneath her skin, begging to be used.

She could see the colored threads that connected her to each of her gifts so clearly. It would be easy for her to collapse the ground as the illusion-woman arrowed toward her Shadow, to summon the wind and send her hurtling backward. But no.You are a firewitch,she thought grimly, and prepared herself to burn.

The woman neared and Niko pinched one of his blades by the tip, arm poised to hurl it. Another step and he let it fly, the silver gleaming in the light of the Bone Moon as it winnowed straight for her. But the moment before it struck, a gust blasted from the left, where Trina stood. It sent Niko’s blade tumbling end over end, embedding uselessly in the sand. Never breaking her stride, the illusion-woman snatched it up, lips rising in a mirthlesssmile. And behind her came five more of her kind, eyes lit with a sick avidity.

By the Saints, how had Rivki’s Dimis done this? They were all taught basic charms from the cradle: how to summon shadow to conceal themselves, how to make a small light bloom and cup it in their hands. But this magic—conjuring illusion-demons—was unlike anything Katerina had ever seen. It must have taken the scholars at the Magiya Library months to discover the trick behind such a thing.

A howl rose from Katerina’s right, where Roksana Gaidar and her Shadow battled two of the creatures at once. Dimi Gaidar was a waterwitch, a skill that did her little good in this arena filled with sand and rowan-fire. She would have to rely on her Shadow to fight, and he was falling, two of the illusion-creatures wrestling him to the ground. His body shimmered as he struggled to shift into the form of his black dog, but it was too late: One of them drew back its lips and sank its teeth into his neck, just as the other plunged a blade into his side. He let out a roar that shook the arena’s walls, and Roksana shrieked, the sound so full of fear and rage that it momentarily froze the illusions charging at Niko and Katerina. As one, they turned their heads toward the melee, just in time to see the fallen Shadow cough up a horrifying amount of foamy blood. His eyes glazed over, staring sightless up at the moon-bleached sky.

Venom,Katerina sent to Niko along their bond, horror clear in her mind-voice, the way they were only able to communicate in battle.Its teeth—the blade?—

I know.He pinched another knife by the tip.We will not die in this arena, Katerina. Firewitch or no, we will not die tonight.

The conviction in his voice galvanized Katerina. She moved to his side and raised her hands, concentrating on the center of the horde that had unfrozen and was sprinting toward them at inhuman speed.If they bite and stab like Grigori, then they candie like them,she told Niko, and let her witchfire free. It might not be able to kill them, but it should wound them long enough for Katerina to get her hands on a limb from one of the rowan-fires. Saints, how she wished she could harness the wind right now.

Her witchfire streaked from her palms in a focused stream, hitting the yellow-haired illusion at the tip of the horde just as Niko’s blade found its home in the heart of the one behind her. A ululating cry ripped from Katerina’s throat as she concentrated on splitting the stream, turning each strand into a flame-tipped missile. The illusions bellowed in agony as they caught fire, their forms flickering within the blaze until, with a crack that shook the ground, they exploded, sparks scattering in all directions. A complex rune shone where they had been, as if burnt into the very air of the night. Then it, too, vanished. Their blades clattered to the ground, and Niko dove for them, holstering them before another one of the illusions could use them against a Shadow.Not entirely like Grigori, then,he said.

The six that had come after her and Niko were dead. But a few feet away, Roksana was sobbing, kneeling in the sand next to her fallen Shadow, her palm pressed to the Mark on his upper arm as she begged him over and over to come back to her. Sunk in grief, she didn’t so much as lift her head as two of the four creatures that Sofi and Damien were battling broke away from them and scuttled straight for Roksana, each gripping a venom-soaked blade.

Katerina spared a glance for Niko, but he had spun to battle another one of the illusions. If she wanted to save her fellow Dimi, she was on her own. And so she did the only thing she could think of: she screamed.

“Hey!” Waving her hands above her head, she made herself as large of a target as possible, desperate to focus the illusions’attention on her rather than Roksana. “I’m right here. Don’t you want me?”

She let a hint of flame seep from her fingertips, tracing a thin stream of fire along the sand—a path guiding them straight to where she stood. “Imagine how much more there is where this came from,” she taunted, just as she would if they were fighting a true demon horde. “Think how much you’ll enjoy absorbing all of this power, how much stronger you’ll be. How delicious I’ll taste. Wouldn’t you rather feed on my fire than her fear?”

She wasn’t sure if the illusions were sentient enough to understand her, but sure enough, their heads cocked an instant before they changed trajectory, skirting Roksana and coming straight towards Katerina. She gathered her power, feeling it pulse in her palms. It took more effort than she liked to separate the strand that controlled her witchfire from the rest, but she managed it.Not yet,she told herself.Wait for it…wait…

Behind her, she heard a grunt and then a tearing sound as a blade sank deep into flesh. Her heart sped in terror. But when she dared to test her bond with Niko, she felt not pain, thank the Saints, but satisfaction at his kill, colored with anger that she’d put herself in harm’s way.This is not a rescue mission,he snarled at her.

Trust me, she sent along their bond, but didn’t pause to hear his reply. The two illusion-demons charged, and she waited until they were a foot away before igniting them, close enough that a hint of her own witchfire caressed her skin. The demons howled as they burned, fragmenting just as their counterparts had, the same rune burnt into the fabric of the night.

But as they dissipated, yet another one of the damnable illusions charged for Roksana. The other Dimi was on her feet now, yanking one of her Shadow’s blades out of its holster. Unlike in Kalach, where Dimis trained hand-to-hand alongside their Shadows, in Satvala they had no such practice. Roksana’sblade went wide, thunking into the sand far to the left of its mark. The illusion-demon came for her, and before Katerina could stop it, the creature let its own blade fly.

A venom-soaked blade was not inherently fatal to a Dimi, the way it was to a Shadow in human form. But when plunged into a Dimi’s heart, it could kill just the same. Roksana’s eyes flared wide, her mouth a soundless o of agony. Katerina watched in horror as the other Dimi’s lifeless body toppled, landing across her Shadow’s so that he broke her fall, even in death. The illusion wrenched its blade free with as much indifference as if it had stabbed a hunk of beef and then came for Katerina, laughing.

One instant, the two of them faced each other, fire sparking from Katerina’s fingertips. The next, a massive black dog hurtled between them, sharp canines bared. Clamping his powerful jaws on his prey’s neck, Niko shook the illusion-demon, muscles rippling beneath his glossy fur. The creature shrieked, writhing, as the scent of demon blood filled the air—then evaporated. Niko’s razor-sharp canines grazed the tip of the rune that had powered the illusion a moment before it, too, vanished. He howled in victory, turning his head to make sure Katerina was unharmed even though she knew he could feel as much through their bond.

She shot him a reassuring glance, then shoved her sweat-matted hair back from her forehead and surveyed the arena. She and Niko had slain half of the illusion-demons. Sofi and Damien were battling two more. Halfway across the arena, Fyodor lunged in front of Trina and sank his black dog’s teeth into the belly of one of the illusions. Blood and flesh sprayed onto the sand, and the creature shrieked, the awful rending of metal on metal.

Four of their fellow warriors had fallen. The Dimis and Shadows of Liski, Voronezh, and Bobrov were on their feet butfighting for their lives, the Shadows engaged in close combat with all six of the remaining illusion-demons as the Dimis’ magic flared, gusts of wind driving the rowan-fires skyward, tongues of flame licking at the illusions’ skin.

Dimi Nevolin of Bobrov was an earthwitch—for the love of the Saints, why did she not open a pit in the arena and dump these forsaken creatures in? Maybe the woman was frightened. Maybe she just wasn’t used to fighting without her fellow Dimis and their Shadows by her side. Either way, Katerina’s heart sank as Nevolin toppled beneath one of the illusions’ blades, her Shadow leaping for her in time only to have three of the creatures fall upon him. The crowd caterwauled, and money changed hands, as if this were no more than a horse race. Bastards.

---