Page 45 of Ironhold, Trial One

My heart sinks. It is obvious now which way Finn has decided to go. He has decided that we cannot beat these two, and so he is going along with Vex’s plan. It means that I am effectively defending myself alone, using space and speed to try to avoid the attacks coming my way. I know I cannot engage with Lazlo, because he is simply too strong, and he moves quickly for such a big man, his magic lending him that speed. I dodge another sword blow from him, using a jab from my trident to keep himat bay, then lean back as the eyes of the carrion birds around the arena tell me that one of Vex’s blades is coming for my back.

Another slashes across my leg, making me scream in pain.

I know that the Vex is doing this deliberately, cutting me again and again, trying to wear me down to the point where I will be helpless. He is hoping to kill me in a brutal fashion once I am unable to fight back. I don't know if he's doing this just because he hates me or if it is simply the way he fights. His floating daggers seem ideally suited to slicing someone and moving away again, rather than targeting vital organs.

I am doing better than I should be. I dodge the majority of the attacks and even throw a few of my own in return. The eyes of the carrion birds are giving me that much of an advantage at least. But it is not enough. I am still suffering small wounds, where Vex’s daggers have slid into gaps in my defense. They are distracting me from my fight against Lazlo, while his constant presence means that I cannot concentrate my efforts on Vex. I cannot attack one of them effectively without leaving myself vulnerable to the other.

If Finn were fighting by my side, this would still be a difficult bout, but we would have a chance. I would be able to concentrate on one opponent for long enough to take them down without having to worry about being stabbed from behind by a flying dagger.

Finn is not even pretending to fight alongside me now. Instead, he's moving wider, heading towards Vex. I've heard this part of the plan, where Vex is meant to disable him in a way that can be healed easily, allowing Finn to survive his last bout of this season.

Finn moves forward almost casually, blades held loosely, and Vex doesn't seem troubled by his approach. Most of his attention is still on me, sending a dagger lancing towards my eye so that I must weave out of the way. It brings me into range of Lazlo, whokicks me hard, sending me sprawling, then chops down with his great sword, sending up a spray of sand as I barely roll out of the way in time.

The crowd are roaring their approval now, cheering with every fresh cut I suffer, celebrating every drop of blood that hits the ground. They have decided that my death is inevitable, and so they are cheering at the spectacle of it. A few are even running to the betting booths, and the eyes of an errant pigeon tell me that the odds on me are lengthening by the moment. I see Lady Elara there, gesturing to a servant, who rushes forward to place another bet. I am shocked to see that it is still on me.

The moment of distraction costs me another cut, this one across my back. I am looking through so many eyes at once that it is difficult to hold my awareness together, difficult to focus on everything I need to do to survive. Finn is almost at Vex now, raising his daggers in what I know will be a half-hearted attack that will see him knocked down and out of the fight.

Except there is nothing half-hearted about the way he attacks now. Finn gives a roar and slashes with his blades. He drives one deep into Vex’s shoulder, slashing the other one across his arm. The pain of it seems to be enough to break Vex’s concentration, because for a moment his daggers fall to the floor and he gives ground, looking shocked.

I realize that Finn has been more cunning even than I thought. I believed that he was going to betray me, but instead he has turned that betrayal back on Vex, used it to get close enough to attack. I feel relief flooding through me and sudden hope, because it means I'm not fighting two people alone anymore. Finn is attacking Vex with all the speed and ferocity he can muster, and that gives me enough space to start to defend myself effectively against Lazlo, avoiding his attacks and starting to strike back, making him give me space.

For a few seconds I dare to hope that we might be successful. Then Vex’s daggers take to the air again, even as he backs away from Finn.

“Finn! Look out!” I call. It's too late. Finn's strategy is a brave one, but it also means we have to play into the hands of our opponents. They want us separated, so they can pick us off individually. It doesn't matter that Finn has gotten in a couple of deep wounds on Vex, enough to slow him down. What matters is that all of the daggers are surging towards him in a shoal of silvery death.

With Finn, Vex is not trying to toy with him, not taking him a slice at a time. Instead, daggers slam into the young man from every side. He avoids a few, but more embed themselves deeply in his flesh, plunging into his side, his leg, his back. They rip themselves out again, showering blood across the sands. A dagger slashes across the back of Finn’s legs, bringing him down.

Vex steps up to him, a blade in his hand. Even now, Finn tries to fight back, swinging a clumsy blow at Vex’s heart. Vex knocks it aside, but Finn’s other blade embeds itself deep in his leg. Vex roars in pain and sweeps his dagger across Finn’s throat.

“Finn, no!” I cry out, the pain of his loss sudden and sharp. Finn gave everything when he didn’t have to. He could have survived if he’d gone along with Vex’s plan. Now he lies dead in the middle of the colosseum.

I have no time to mourn him, though, because Lazlo is still trying to kill me. He advances on me with a cruel smile, as if he knows that this will not last much longer. He readies his sword for another barrage of attacks.

Even as he does it, I reach down into myself, finding the part that connects with beasts, the part that I have used to connect to the birds. I need more. Somuchmore. I reach out, and I call for help.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

“Time to die,” Lazlo says, moving forward.

He swings at me and I barely dodge, feeling the blade whistle past me, far too close for comfort. Lazlo reverses the stroke and strikes again, attacking me with a speed that he has no right to, given his size. I manage to tangle his blade in my net, but Lazlo uses that against me, too, wrenching his blade to drag me closer.

He hits me with a punch from one gauntleted fist, and I taste blood as I stagger. He hits me again, and I fall to one knee on the sand. Lazlo steps back, disentangling his blade from my net and raising it. I know that his next blow will either kill me or injure me so badly that I cannot avoid the death blow to follow. Terror fills me. I will not be fast enough to avoid it.

Even as he does it, though, I see a flicker in the shadows. I feel the moment when the shadow cat steps through them, perching on the edge of the colosseum’s walls and then leaping down. It seems to skip from shadow to shadow as it runs, disappearing and then reappearing, there one moment and gone the next.

It disappears, and the next moment, it is appearing from Lazlo’s shadow, leaping up at him from out of it in the kind of ambush that is impossible to avoid. Lazlo cries out as claws rake at his chest, leaping back, forgetting about cutting me down.

The shadow cat doesn’t give him even a moment to breathe. It throws itself forward with a savagery that even a skilled gladiator like Lazlo finds it hard to deal with. The creature claws and bites, not giving him a chance to recover, gouging deep wounds in his flesh.

Even so, Lazlo manages to strike back. He brings his sword around, and I feel the moment when it impacts with the side of the shadow cat, feel the pain and the fear there. I am fullyexpecting it when it slips back into Lazlo’s shadow, disappearing from view, avoiding his next attack.

“Your tricks won’t save you,” Lazlo says.

I circle around him, my fear for the shadow cat mixed in with fear for myself. I can see it through the eyes of the birds, skulking around the edge of the arena, the wound in its side bleeding. But I can also feel its anticipation, feel that it is waiting for its moment, not merely trying to hide and recover. I keep circling Lazlo, and I feel the moment when the shadow cat steps into the shadows again.

I know what it was waiting for now: it was waiting until Lazlo turned, until the sun meant that his shadow was behind him. The cat leaps through the shadows, coming up out of them and jumping onto Lazlo's back. Its teeth fasten onto his neck from behind, its claws digging into him so that he cannot dislodge it. The cat bites down with crushing force, bearing the huge gladiator to the ground. Lazlo screams, and that scream is cut off by the crunch of the shadow cat’s jaws as it crushes his neck in them.

I wince at the death. I never intended for the cat to kill, but I am the one who summoned it, who brought it to my aid. I am as responsible for this death as for that of the null I slew before. The thought of that disgusts me, and it means I stand there for just a second too long.

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