Page 66 of Oaths & Vengeance
I suspected my uncle had sent him here, and I’d have to duel with him whether I liked it or not. He just couldn’t be straightforward and say as much. Ulmar loved creating drama.
“Get a sword,” I said, refusing to show a hint of fear. “But we do this with the traditional practice rules.”
In other words, we couldn’t use any magic for the first two minutes. That forced opponents to test their physical skills first. After that, we could attack with anything in our arsenal—blades or magic—as long as we didn’t maim or kill. I’d only fought Ulmar twice, both times years ago, but I’d never won. He was cunning and ruthless.
As my cousin grabbed a practice sword—made of sturdy wood with a blunted tip—I moved into my fighting stance. Today, he wouldnot get the best of me. I’d make him hurt the way he’d done to me often in the past, usually outside the practice ring.
He returned to face me. “Very well, traditional rules it is, Aella. Let’s see if you can stay on your feet this time, hmm?”
Ulmar wasted no time swinging his sword at me, but he broadcasted the move so much that I easily ducked as it sailed over my head, missing me by inches. I thrust forward, stabbing him in his exposed stomach. It didn’t penetrate his tunic, but the breathwhooshedfrom him due to the force, and he stumbled back. Getting hit with a blunt tip still hurt.
My cousin growled at me. In the next moment, he lunged forward and began a series of strikes that left me on the defensive. He had incredible speed that could rival the best swordsman. I kept my eyes trained on his blade, blocking and ducking each attack. This was how he got me to the ground the last time we fought, but I’d spent these previous weeks practicing for this very strategy. I’d had two people attack me at once, so I’d have to accelerate my reactions.
Ulmar killed time by not giving me another opening. He didn’t have great stamina but had enough endurance to buy time until he could use magic. I estimated that I had fifteen seconds before that happened.
When he spun to build force for a particularly devastating strike, I ducked and rolled past his legs, kicking him in the knee as I went. With him already unbalanced as he rotated, he went down hard. I leaped to my feet as he began to rise and slammed my sword into the side of his head, ringing his ears.
“Who is on the ground now?” I asked, looking down at him.
He sneered. “Not for long, little cousin.”
I noted a crowd had gathered on the other side of the fence, watching us. Sariyah’s father stood over there with a stoic, analytical expression. He was about as serious as a person could get, but in private, he doted on his daughter. After losing his wife, his only child meant everything to him. I envied their close relationship. The way they chatted amiably at dinner when I visited reminded me of how things were before my parents died.
As Ulmar struggled to his feet, Sariyah called out, “Time!”
I didn’t hesitate to gather my wind magic and send my cousin flying down the ring thirty feet away, crashing into the fence. He let out a pained grunt as his back struck one of the support posts enhanced with magic so it wouldn’t give under any pressure. The farther I stayed away from him, the better. That was my strategy. For once, I wouldn’t let him get the best of me, and Iwouldwin.
Per the rules, I waited for Ulmar to return to his feet. He did it slowly, but the moment he was up, he stretched his hand toward me. Pain burst in my head. I winced and backed up because every foot of space I put between us reduced the intensity. Unfortunately, he quickly moved in step with me.
I’d endured this agony many times before, so I pushed through it and sent a curve of wind that hit him from the side and sent him sliding across the dirt. The pain vanished momentarily as he rolled onto his hands and knees and pushed off the ground to stand. I sent another forceful gale at him until he slammed into another fence post, head flying back as he struck it.
Sariyah flashed me two fingers, indicating we had two minutes left. It wasn’t long, but it was also an eternity. A lot could happen during that time. I jolted as pain sparked inside my head again, directly behind my eyes. My vision blurred as it worsened.
“Ahhh!” I screamed.
Ulmar had hit a cluster of nerves that felt like a thousand tiny needles had stabbed me. I pressed my palms onto my face, willing myself to work past the agony. It went on and on in ever-intensifying waves. My knees shook, but I refused to fall to the ground the way my cousin wanted. He’d sworn to take me down. I couldn’t give him that satisfaction because he would not win this time. I was tired of losing in so many ways.
His solid footsteps came close. I braced my feet and removed my hands, attempting to see, but my vision didn’t clear. A fist struck the side of my head, and more pain exploded in my cheekbone. I tilted to the right but caught myself from falling. Lifting my arms, I managed to block the next blow and blindly kicked outward. My boot struck his leg.
As he stumbled back, the pain let up enough for my vision to clear a little. Now that I could spot his location, I decided to put a new secret weaponinto action. I drew in the air around me and spun my hand in small circles. Wind swirled around Ulmar like a whirlpool, lifting him and turning him. As long as he wasn’t on the ground, I didn’t have to stop. It would make him so dizzy that he wouldn’t be able to see anything to target me again. Let’s see how he liked it.
I’d developed the idea a couple of weeks ago while alone in the pit and practiced with stones when I grew tired of failing at my light magic. I hadn’t planned to reveal it today, but he’d left me no choice.
The wind picked up the dirt underneath, along with a few stray rocks and twigs from last night’s storm that had blown into the ring. Ulmar’s body continued to spin fast through the whirling vortex. Breaking through the torrent of noise, I heard him grunting and crying out as the debris struck his exposed skin. His shirt lifted, and after a few moments, it tore from his body to join the other spiraling items.
I kept my eyes on him to maintain the speed of my wind magic, but I heard the shocked and impressed murmurs around me. No one had done anything like this before. Wind in Zadrya usually flew straight or at a slight curve, but it never spun like this. I’d stolen the idea from a natural whirlpool near mine and Sariyah’s favorite spot by the Salmar River. It had seemed like something that could work with air as well.
It didn’t tire me to keep the spin going since I hadn’t used my magic all day, so I found I could even move around my wind swirl to get a good look at the vortex from all sides. Something like it could prove useful on a larger scale in the future. It was fortunate that this wasn’t a natural phenomenon, though, because it could easily destroy whole villages.
Commander Norvin, Sariyah’s father, gestured at me. “It’s over. You won, Aella.”
I stopped spinning my hand and flicked out my fingers, letting Ulmar crash to the ground. He huddled there in a ball and began heaving his lunch onto the hardpacked ground. My cousin was covered in dirt, bloody cuts, and red marks.
After the horrible things he’d done to me over the years, I didn’t feel the least remorse. He’d fully recover within a few hours from the minorinjuries, whereas I constantly had to hide my scars from others so no one outside my family would know what he and my uncle had done to me.
“Excellent display of power, Aella,” Commander Norvin said, coming over to pat me on the back. “If a situation is ever dire enough, I may call you forward to launch such magic on a larger scale.”
I lifted a brow. “How do you know I could make it bigger?”
