Page 93 of Rune

ThirtY

QUICK INVENTORY TOLD me three things: one, Trig had caught Tova. Two, I only had a shoulder’s width of space to maneuver to each side, and if I fell to the wrong side, it would be sharp rocks that found me instead of Trig’s arms. Three, and most disappointing, Trig’s dagger had found the boy, but only his shoulder, and from how easily he yanked it out, it wasn’t deep. He twisted it to point at me.

“You should not be here.”

“Why not?” I asked. “I live here.”

He grinned like this was all some great joke. The mortal wasn’t First, which I was glad for, but he had arms like trunks and an arsenal of weapons on him to tell me he’d found good loot. His lips bent into a cocky grin like he’d won the fight already, before the first move. “Is that so? The gods are right above us. Perhaps I alert Odin his prized granddaughter is here now.” He tilted his head and called out to them.

I lurched forward, but he was expecting that. He grabbed my shirt by the collar and tried to yank me backward, into the view of the dome. Stone grated against my bare feet, digging into the skin as I shoved back. With his other hand, he held up his knife. “Tell Odin hello for me.”

But thanks to Trig, his shoulder wasn’t as strong as it once was. I held his wrist with both hands and pried his arm backward with little resistance, until his dagger wasn’t as close to my face. Then I thrust sideways.

It nicked his skin. Red appeared, both on his cheek and in the fury of his eyes. They narrowed at me, and the meaning was clear.Enough games. I’m here to win.

He used my own momentum to drive me flat on my back, one hand crushing against the corner of the wall and the other searing beneath his weight, as he drove his knee into my gut. Somewhere below, Tova and Trig were shouting. Pointless knives flew up. With us flat, they’d just as likely hit me than him. I struggled to free myself as he ground his weight harder against me, waiting for him to make a bigger move so I had options.

He made it a heartbeat later. The boy had to let go of one arm to strike again, and the moment he did, I brought my fist over to collide with his jaw. He handled the impact surprisingly well, only staggering for a moment before striking downward. But my hand was already at his wrist, and I held it there.

As we struggled to gain control over the blade, he chuckled. My eye snapped to him.

“I’m glad I’m fighting you and not Tova,” he said. “Because no one wants to go against a child marked by Odin. We’d heard of her in my clan. But you? I can defeat you.”

A familiar scratching noise vibrated to my right. Tova was climbing again.

With blood pounding in my ears, I let go of his wrist and let the dagger smack against the stone an inch from my ear. The ring of it echoed through my brain. Then I grabbed his weak shoulder, brough my knee up against his side, and flung us both from the wall.

As we fell, his eyes widened, only to flinch as his back collided with the ground. The fall was too hard. My weight was too much to land on him. And the life was fleeing his body.

My breath shook as I spoke into his ear. “I am Ruin, goddess of the fight, and I release you, great warrior, into your eternity.”

That was the only whisper of peace I could give him, and it wasn’t much. He deserved a warrior’s burial, and I knew he’d never get that. Worse yet, while my name was the last he’d ever hear, he died without me knowing his.

I vowed I would learn it. I’d learn every name of those who fell today, and I’d remember them as the ones who died so we could go free.

Uncertain knees held me weakly, only tightening when Tova appeared beside me to wrap her arms around my body.

“Thank you,” she whispered in my ear.

I hugged her back, trying to erase everything else that happened around us. The kill was easy, but my guilt would not be so quickly tossed aside. I put it in a bottle to drink later, promising myself I’d feel again once this was over—once Tova was safe. That time was not yet. I pulled back.

“Go,” I told her. “Step forward and hold up his dagger, to show the gods you got the kill.” Our eyes trailed upward, where we were still hidden from view. But they’d have seen the boy and Tova come. Theyknew a fight occurred. I didn’t want them to be suspicious and find a better angle to see us.

Tova nodded, and grabbed the blade from his hand. She stepped several paces out, and looked up to the glass dome. There, she lifted the dagger above her head.

“For the gods!”

Then she dropped her hand, looked back to the city, and shifted into the shadows of the wall. With her head low so they wouldn’t see her lips moving, she spoke. “What now?”

“Five dead,” I counted, wiping sweat from my brow. Trig was already kneeling to steal the weapons from the body. “Three to kill.”

“I say let them come to us.” Tova planted her hands on her hips, studying the expanse of the garden.

“Or let them kill each other until one remains.”

“That’s no fun,” Tova replied.

“We aren’t here for fun,” Trig snapped, standing to flick me another dagger. “We are here to survive.”

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