Page 127 of Of Empires and Dust

He saw an opening and lunged, shifting the tide of the duel and sending Olmaír on the defensive. Olmaír deflected Eltoar’s stab, but Eltoar pushed forwards through the elf’s guard. He grabbed Olmaír’s sword arm with his free hand, then hooked his sword hand behind the elf’s head and dragged it down onto his rising knee. Acrunchsounded, and blood spurted over the dirt as Olmaír staggered backwards.

Eltoar swung his blade in a downward arc, angling to split Olmaír’s skull through his temple and cheek, but the elf launched himself forwards, crashing into Eltoar’s chest and sending them both to the ground once more. Eltoar gasped, the impact hammering into his back and knocking the air from his lungs.

A fist slammed into his face and his head bounced off the dirt, a blinding light bursting across his eyes. A second fist crashed into his cheek from the other side.

Blood coated Eltoar’s tongue as Olmaír’s steel gauntlets smashed into his face again and again. With each blow, Eltoar’s consciousness flickered, his vision blurring.

In the back of his mind, he felt Helios roaring, felt the dragon’s rage burning like the sun.

No.Even as Eltoar thought the word, another punch bounced his head against the earth with a crunch that let him know a bone had broken.

Helios roared back in defiance, and through his blurred vision Eltoar could see his soulkin and the other two dragons looming over him and Olmaír. Helios would burn every elf in Epheria alive before he’d let Eltoar die.

Another fist rained down, but this time, Eltoar twisted his neck to the right and Olmaír’s armoured hand collided with the earth. Eltoar reached up, wrapped his two hands around Olmaír’s neck, then pulled the elf’s face into his pauldron with every drop of strength he had.

Blood sprayed over Eltoar’s cheek as the steel crushed Olmaír’s nose and burst his lip. The elf didn’t let go however, and the pair grappled in the dirt, smashing pieces from each other. Bloody and sweat-soaked, they knelt in the dirt, staring into each other’s eyes, both dragging in ragged breaths.

Without taking his gaze from Eltoar, Olmaír slowly lifted himself to his feet and allowed Eltoar to do the same. The elf nodded toward Eltoar’s blade, which lay on a small patch of grass to Eltoar’s right, then moved to snatch up his own.

Eltoar grunted as he picked up his sword, tasting blood in his mouth, his nose broken and blocked. He turned to face Olmaír.

The Dread Reaper of Caelduin smiled back at Eltoar, blood trickling from his torn lips and rolling over his chin, his lefteye already black and bruised. He dropped into Howling Wolf,Vengeancegripped in his fists. The elf spat blood into the dirt, then cracked his neck. This had gone on long enough. The next time their blades clashed, one of them would lie dead in the dirt. “Heraya tael du ia’sine ael, Eltoar Daethana. Du katiran val haydria.”

Heraya take you into her arms, Eltoar Daethana. You fought with honour.

“Ar du, Aeldral.”

And you, Elderblade.

With one last long breath between them, Eltoar and Olmaír collided in a flurry of steel.

Eltoar turned a strike left with his blade and grabbed Olmaír’s left hand, pulling it away from the hilt of his sword, then smashed his forehead into the elf’s already-broken nose.

Olmaír staggered backwards, and Eltoar twisted, flipped his sword into reverse, grabbed the hilt with both hands, and drove the blade back. Even exhausted, Olmaír managed to palm the steel away and swing with a single-handed strike ofVengeancethat skittered off Eltoar’s pauldron.

Eltoar pressed forwards, attempting to catch Olmaír off balance, but the elf caught Eltoar’s swing with his vambrace, and a searing, sharp pain erupted just below Eltoar’s ribs.

The world stood still, and Eltoar’s breaths slowed. He looked down to see the hilt of Olmaír’s sword protruding from below his breastplate, its tip having torn through the mail. He pulled in a breath but found it catching in his chest.

His gaze locked with Olmaír’s, whose breaths were just as heavy as Eltoar’s, sweat, blood, and dirt coating his face.

Olmaír placed his second hand on the hilt of his blade and tried to pull it free from Eltoar’s body, but Eltoar wrapped his left hand around the hilt and held it in place.

The elf opened his mouth to speak, and Eltoar threw back his right shoulder and thrust the tip of his sword into Olmaír’s open mouth. Steel cracked teeth and sliced through flesh, then burst out the back of Olmaír’s skull, blood flowing down the blade.

Eltoar yanked his sword free, bringing chips of tooth and bone with it. Olmaír collapsed, blood pooling around him, and Eltoar stood in the open plain before the city of Elkenrim, ringed by both humans and elves, one sword gripped in his fist, the other jutting from his torso.

Fighting the urge to collapse in the dirt beside Olmaír, Eltoar pulled on threads of Air and Water, using them to contain the blood flow as he wrapped his left hand around the hilt of Olmaír’s sword and pulled it free of his body. It was only then that he allowed himself to drop to his knees beside the ruined body of a warrior who was legend even when Eltoar was but a child.

“Can you stand?” Voranur said, grasping Eltoar’s arm. “We need to get you to the Healers.”

“Help me up.”

Eltoar slid his own sword into its scabbard, then grunted as Voranur stuck his hand beneath Eltoar’s arms and lifted him to his feet. The other elves who had stepped through the fog with Olmaír hadn’t moved an inch. They all still stood in a semi-circle, their stares fixed on the corpse of Olmaír the Undying.

Eltoar limped towards the nearest, who bore the same sigil of the sun on his chest as Olmaír. “By the rights of Alvadrû, you are defeated this day. Lay down your weapons and submit or your honour be forfeit.”

A long silence was Eltoar’s answer. But then the elf before him lifted her helmet and held it under the crook of her arm as she knelt, bowing her head. “By the rights of Alvadrû, I yield this day to you, Eltoar Daethana, the Unworthy, the Black of Heart.We are yours. We trust in what is left of your honour to uphold the ways of war.”

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