Page 104 of Fae Champion

On course to land straight on top of Saffron.

I shook free of my stupor—andmoved.

Yanking a pair of throwing daggers from Rush’s belt as I lurched forward, I jumped over Sundo’s sizable torso, slid through his blood, and pushed Saffron out of the way.

Half a heartbeat later, the chandelier exploded as it crashed to the floor, crystal fragments shooting in all directions.

I slammed my body over Saffron’s. The projectiles sliced into my upper back and arms, a downpour of shrapnel that made the three cuts from the Gladius Probatio finale seem like nothing.

My grunts weren’t the only pained ones to color the space.

I dared to hope the queen was one of them, but a glimpse her way revealed her sitting atop her throne as before, a shit-eating grin on her face. Her dress and skin were pristine, though shards of crystal were embedded in the dais just a foot beyond the end of her skirts. Ivarstood behind her, clutching his cutlass, eyes roving in all directions at once.

Invisible magic of some sort protected her and Ivar.Dandy. So much for the throwing knives I’d swiped that I’d destined for her.

Gorko plodded past me, dragging Xeno, who was in the process of climbing the chain to reach the ogre, when the chain binding Saffron went taut.

He stared up at me with big, terrified eyes and whined, as if he realized what was about to happen. I had no reassurance to offer beyond rising off him so I wouldn’t hurt the little creature by trying to keep him with me.

Ryder, Hiroshi, and West still careened around and around above our heads. Blood whipped around with them, spattering in all directions. Blinking rapidly, Hiroshi appeared to be working furiously to keep from passing out from blood loss.

Ryder cursed loudly, hurling one insult after another at the ogre in a spitfire rhythm, as if words alone might stop him.

On the next loop around his head, the ogre grumbled from the effort, perhaps finally feeling their weight as a burden, and the chain drooped for a beat, dropping West lower than before.

Wrists and ankles still bound, he somehow managed to grasp the ogre’s head and drag his nails across Cambo’s face, digging in so hard the pygmy ogre screamed—and West came away with the brute’s blood dripping from his fingers.

Cambo roared and dropped the chains to clutch at an eye, and the three warriors went sailing in different directions.

Hiroshi slammed into Bandel’s body with a pained grimace; Ryder took out a series of chairs lined up for the queen’s future audience; and West tumbled as he went, tugging hard on his chain.

He pulled Cambo’s feet out from under him.

Meanwhile, Rush was slashing at Gorko with his sword. The pygmy ogre was using the glowing metal links as a weapon, Xeno and Saffron jerking around in whatever direction he slashed their chains toward Rush.

I’d lost track of Braque and Larissa, and a rapid scan of the room didn’t reveal either one of them.

The queen’s alchemist might not be brandishing a cutlass like Ivar, but his omnipresent satchel was no doubt filled with replacements of those elements capable of opening a whirling chasm that devoured anything in its path—and possibly worse.

Wincing, I stood, feeling at once every crystal shard stuck into my back, yanking out all of them I could reach, then skirted around Bandel’s swarthy legs, and crept up on Gorko. Saffron squealed every time he was yanked and flew without aim, and Xeno was crawling along the broken crystal, appearing intent on taking out the pygmy ogre’s legs. Blood streamed in dozens of rivulets along his arms and face.

I tucked the two throwing knives into the band at my waist, heartily regretting that I’d let Pru swap outmy fighting leathers for a frilly dress, grimaced again at how every movement pulled at the crystals still in several places in my back and shoulders, and clutched the icepick. Though slim, it was wickedly sharp, and if I rammed it through just the right organ, a tool as slender as this could take down a beast as large as the ogre, who didn’t seem to have muchpygmyabout him. What were full-sized ogres like if pygmy ones looked like this?

Zako had taught me hundreds of ways to disable and end a man. The pygmy ogres resembled men in that they had their external body parts in all the corresponding places, but what about their internal organs? Would they be the same?

I didn’t know but had to try anyway.

With a terrible rending of my shoulder muscle, I surged upward in a leap and rammed the pick up and through what I estimated was Gorko’s ribcage.

Straight into his heart, I hoped.

Rolling past, I left the eight-inch blade where it was, praying it was long enough to pierce fat and reach my beating target. I crashed into Xeno, who lost his hold on the chain and slammed onto his hands and knees hard enough to rattle teeth.

I didn’t spare so much as a smile or word for the friend I’d so worried about. Not even for the dragonling I wanted to defend as fiercely as if I, too, were a dragon protector.

I rolled and looked up.

Gorko blinked heavily, then attempted to glancebehind his back. Rush capitalized on his distraction and shoved his sword through his belly.

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