Page 255 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
And then she and Skibs took off to the side of the room, sprinting toward the burning archway.
He hefted his father’s sword up and sprinted toward Eravin, who’d dodged Navara’s second deadly beam. The far wall of the cathedral groaned with the impact.
He had no blasting idea how to use the sword and wished desperately for an electropistol or his hovership. Then he might’ve stood somewhat of a chance.
The flames painted Eravin’s face in red and gold, rendering his dark eyes into bottomless pits, far more terrifying than they had been in the Catacombs full of shadowed tunnels and lightless voids. He shot that glittering darkness that had killed his father at the Yalven woman. Navara parried it with the sword in her hand, the darkness absorbed by the beaming blade. She winced, but didn’t hesitate before twirling on her feet, slicing the sword across Eravin’s middle, then slicing backhand when he sidestepped her first blow.
“Ah, a Chronal. Of course,” Eravin spat as he dodged once more, throwing out his hand. Purple energy shot from his hands.Navara threw dust into the air that roared into a wall of flame mirrored almost exactly to her body, like a self-shaping shield.
Kase could only gape dumbly at the power. Could Hallie do that? He glanced at where she and Skibs knelt before the burning Gate. He needed to keep Eravin distracted, and he was just standing there slack-jawed.
Eravin ripped a familiar dagger from the sheath at his waist and cut his palm. His face barely twisted in pain, though the cut was deep. Black, bulbous blood spurted from the wound. “Varkl drak!”
It said something about who Kase was as a person, probably, that amidst all the terror and chaos around him, his first thought was,Thathelviterstole my King Arthur dagger.
Like he’d heard Kase’s thoughts, Eravin dropped the dagger and held up his bleeding hand. The ashamox above him surged toward his fingers, coiling around them and solidifying into a blade of smoke, veined in red and gold like a fiery slab of marble.
The blade flashed in an arc, glittering power shooting out with the swipe. Both Kase and Navara dropped to avoid the wave. It whizzed over Kase’s head, his curls rustling as if in the wind.
The smell of singed flesh burned his nose. Not his—at least, he hoped not.
He needed to do something, but what could he do againstthat? He wasn’t special. All he had was a borrowed sword and a past riddled with grief. He was useless as anything but bait.
His sword, his father’s sword, might be able to do something if it truly was the Second Gate’s guardian. That was what Hallie had been planning to do—kill herself by giving her power to it. Could Kase get close enough to cut Eravin? Would that be enough? Or would he have to stab him like his father haddone Correa? And would that only take the Essence power from him, or would it also destroy Jagamot?
What if Kase was wrong about all of it?
Kase swung around the back side, hoping to catch him off guard while distracted by the rather impressive Yalven woman who had lived the last forty-odd years of her life in a place where souls came after death.
He glanced at Hallie and Skibs again, their shadowy silhouettes ablaze against the Gate. They hadn’t moved. They had to fix it fast. He didn’t know how much longer Navara could hold Eravin off. Whenever that pouch of dust ran out, she was doomed.
Eravin laughed, shooting another purple-laced beam at Navara. “It doesn’t matter, Toro is dead.”
“He will never die!” Navara shouted, charging forward and throwing all her weight behind the next thrust of her sword, the tang now dancing with fire like that of the archway behind her. “Not while we have the other Essences.”
Eravin’s sword met hers in a flurry of black and gold sparks, metal singing a high note that echoed through the cave. Navara was skilled, but she was no match for the man several decades her junior. He shoved her back, casting out a bolt of purple energy laced with glittering black.
She dodged, but the beam grazed her arm. She screamed but rolled back to her feet, grabbing a fistful of dust and ground it into her wound.
Would that blackness spread like it had in Harlan’s wound? Would she too die in mere moments, leaving Kase as the only line of defense between Hallie and this monster?
The burning Gate crackled, and the ashamox roared in response, a booming rumble like thunder. Kase jumped. Everything was too loud in the chamber, the echoing makingeverything worse. The noise frayed his focus into tattered threads. He couldn’t gather them all.
Eravin swaggered toward Navara, black fire consuming his sword, molten shadow shimmering at his sides. “Should I kill you now or let you suffer?”
He only waited one heartbeat before spinning his sword and cutting it through the air. He was too far away to cut her, but black flame flew from the blade, hurtling toward Navara. She heaved up a cloud of dust and cried, “Yrea maxima!”
The same firewall from earlier erupted from the dust particles, but it seemed weaker to Kase; the flames wavered at a glacial pace, not as bright or colorful. The wound was taking a toll on her. She couldn’t hold out much longer.
Do something, you stars-idiot!
Eravin’s fire collided with Navara’s shield, shattering it, engulfing the woman’s wounded arm. Her scream rang louder than the growl of the ashamox.
Kase had no choice. He had to move.
He threw himself forward, hefting the sword, and swung it with everything he had. A brutal, instinctive yell escaped his throat, but it was lost in the cacophony.
The blade soared for Eravin’s neck. So close. So close—
