Page 40 of Ironhold, Trial Two

Our two sides do have strategies of a sort. Vex, the shadow cat, and I must all rely on movement and sudden attacks. Naia and Koda clearly want to charge forward and close the distance. They use the frost drake like a kind of shield, advancing behind it, and the creature seems to know that they're on its side. It only throws blasts of ice at Vex and me.

This would be so much easier if I could take control of the drake’s mind, but the cuff I’m wearing prevents it. Instead I must rely on what I can feel of it to understand when its attacks are coming, trying to relay that information to the shadow cat. The cat darts in and out of the shadows, attacking Koda, then the drake. It seems to understand that I don't want it to hurt Naia.

Vex clearly doesn't care. His knives dance in their customary swarm, and I see one slice Naia’s arm. She heals the wound almost as soon as she suffers it, moving forward with fresh determination on her face.

As much as we try to keep at range, inevitably, the distance closes. Koda is clearly used to those with talents throwing magical attacks his way, and he doesn't give any of us space to get them off. He swings at me with his staff again and again, coming closer and closer to hitting me each time. If it weren’t for the distracting attacks of the shadow cat, I am sure that he would kill me in seconds.

Vex and I both realize at the same time that we are safer close to the drake than further from it. Up close it cannot target us with its ice breath. It must attack us with claws and teeth instead. It means that the combat quickly becomes impossible to follow. The shadow cat is dancing in and out of different shadows, pouncing and leaping away, swiping with its claws. It seems frustrated that those skitter from the scaly hide of the drake. Vex’s knives don't seem to be having much more effect. I manage to use thrusts from my trident to keep the beast at bay, but Naia and Koda Both seem to realize that distracting me will stop me doing anything about the drake.

It is impossible to keep track of who is attacking whom in the melee. Every time I try to give my attention to one opponent, another strikes at me. I swing my net at Naia, trying to tangle her to take her out of the fight without hurting her, she dodges back and Koda swings his blade staff my way.

The shadow cat takes advantage of the opportunity to attack him, but the drake knocks it aside once more. Vex is sending his knives this way and that but he has the same problem with them as the drake has with its frost breath: in close, in all this chaos, it is hard to aim properly.

Around us, the crowd is roaring its pleasure at the pace of the fight. Naia is cut again, and they bellow their approval, even as she heals herself. The two of us move to one another, determined now to enact our plan to give the crowd a good show. We start to trade blows, her axes swinging wildly, my trident and net combining to try to trip or tangle her.

This is the best way I can protect her, by having this fight with her while the others get on with the rest of the battle. The shadow cat is on the drake’s back now, and it is trying to crane its sinuous neck to try to bite the cat. Vex and Koda are facing off, the large null’s fur armor absorbing glancing blows from the knives, letting him swing his blade staff with ferocious speed.

Both of them suffer cuts in almost the same moment, Koda’s blade staff raising a line of gore along Vex’s leg even as a flying knife cuts Koda’s arm. Naia’s flailing axes cut me, and my trident scores her flesh. Neither of us is trying to kill the other, but in this chaos, it is impossible to avoid wounds.

Even the brief stability of each of us taking on a single opponent cannot last. In just seconds I find myself having to block an attack from Koda, to dodge aside from a swipe of the drake’s claws. The shadow cat lunges at Koda, distracting him, but I'm so busy trying to use my net to tangle the drake that I can’t take advantage of it.

I hear our names being shouted again and again around the arena, while the crowd stamps their feet in a furious rhythm to match the tempo of the fight. The drake it's trying to bite down on me, and I managed to jam my trident into its jaws, using all my strength to keep it at bay.

Even as I do so, I see Vex lining up an attack with his knives, half a dozen of them aimed straight at Naia. That's not what we agreed. An attack like that could kill her. I do the only thing I can, shoving away from the great bulk of the drake, hoping that I will be in time to intercept the weapons, before they can kill her.

Chapter Twenty Four

“Naia!” I call out and fling myself forward. I swing my netlike the fishing implement it is trying to intercept the weapons before they can strike her.

I have done this when fighting Vex before to defend myself, but this is different. The weapons are not coming at me, but at her. I manage to catch them like sharp silvery fish, swinging my net around, throwing them to the sand of the arena.

“What are you doing?” Vex demands. “You spoiled my shot, traitor.”

“Leave her to me,” I shout back. “Focus on Koda!”

He turns back to the tribal warrior, but even as he does so, one of his knives comes perilously close to slashing my leg. It's obvious he has not forgiving me for stopping him killing Naia.

Naia and I leap back into battle against one another because it is the only way to keep one another safe. I have already cast my net, so I must use my trident as my main weapon, holding it two-handed and striking with both the butt and tip. Naia deflects the blows, swinging back with her axes again and again.

I deflect those blows in turn, and although none of them is aimed at my head or heart, they are swung with intent. Naia has talked about wounding me enough to take me out of the fight, then healing me afterwards. I'm not sure I can let her do that, though, not until we know which way the fight is going. If the drake is still up, it might devour me when I fall, and there's always a chance Koda will decide to finish me. Even Vex might take the opportunity to cut my throat when I'm down, hiding my death in the chaos of battle.

So I block each of Naia’s blows, and I press forward, trying to close the distance while battering her with the haft of my trident, trying to get close enough to speak.

“Not yet,” I say. “The rest need to be down before we finish the fight.”

I assume that she will nod and go on with the fight, continuing to make it look good to the crowd. Certainly they seem to be enjoying the action so far, screaming my name and hers, both loud enough to drown out any calls for Vex and Koda.

Instead, the strangest look comes over her face. For an instant, it goes completely blank, as if someone has just completely turned off her personality, leaving nothing else in its place.

“Do this, and you can have a seat among the best of us,” she says.

The words make no sense to me.

“Naia, what are you talking about?”

“Do what I ask, Naia. You know you want to. It’s for Lyra’s own good.”

The words come out without any inflection. They barely sound like her voice at all. Naia seems to come back to herself, but she looks as though she is remembering something int hat moment, something she ought to do.

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