Denedrick
Hours after Thedra left House Beldor with his refusal, a servant brought Lord Denedrick the crystal she had left behind: one final road to the king, should he reconsider what he meant to surrender.
It was no larger than the last joint of his thumb.
Denedrick stood.
Valerie
The carriage door had folded inward.
Through the opening, Valerie saw a broad avenue descending toward the arena and a man in a blue coat standing among six fallen soldiers.
The coat reached his knees. Pale marks showed at the collar where imperial rank pins had once been fixed. He carried a curved sword in one gloved hand. The blade had cut halfway through the carriage axle and remained perfectly clean.
His pupils were so wide that his eyes looked black.
He was smiling.
K forgot the chain in his hands.
"I'agrod."
The man in blue turned toward his voice.
His smile widened.
"Student."
K moved for the broken door.
Valerie caught him beneath the arm. His legs failed as soon as he put weight on them.
"Let go."
"You cannot stand."
"I can improve while moving."
Kavie drew his sword.
The blade cleared its sheath with a quiet, disappointed sound.
I'agrod stepped over a soldier whose breastplate bore no visible cut. The man's body lay bent at an angle armour should have prevented.
"Kavie the Brilliant," I'agrod said.
"The Gauntlet sends strange rescue parties."
"The Gauntlet did not send me."
"No." Kavie examined his eyes. "I imagine it did not."
Two surviving guards attacked from behind.
I'agrod did not look at them.
His curved sword turned once. The first guard's weapon struck the street. I'agrod caught the second man by the front of his armour and threw him through a fruit stall hard enough to break both.
People fled in every direction. A vendor abandoned a cart of red pears. One wheel continued spinning after the cart overturned, scattering fruit between soldiers and horses. Farther down the avenue, arena bells kept calling the city as if violence were part of the invitation.
K's weight sagged against Valerie.
"He was my partner."
"He is trying to kill Kavie."
"That is not the same as being himself."
She saw it then. I'agrod's body moved with terrifying precision, but not all of him moved together. His smile arrived before pleasure. His eyes fixed on Kavie and remained there even when a wounded soldier seized his coat. His sword killed the obstacle; his attention never acknowledged the man.
Kavie saw more.
"Elixir," he said.
I'agrod attacked.
The distance between them vanished.
Kavie caught the first cut close to his guard. Steel rang through the avenue. I'agrod's second hand struck Kavie's injured nose. Kavie gave ground, more from surprise than force, and I'agrod's curved blade opened his grey coat from shoulder to waist.
Kavie looked down at the cut cloth.
"Against choice," he said.
I'agrod laughed.
The sound had too many edges.
Kavie tilted his head, studying the widened pupils, the fixed purpose, the joy forced across a face that still contained some awareness of its own captivity.
Recognition approached.
"A child with a sword," he said softly. "Or someone who wants me to think of—"
I'agrod struck before the name formed.
The curved blade hit hard enough to drive Kavie across the street. His boots broke two paving stones. The watching guards pulled back.
K tore free of Valerie and reached for the opening.
His first step held.
His second did not.
He fell against the ruined carriage.
I'agrod's head turned.
For one instant his eyes left Kavie and found K.
Something human reached the surface.
"You chose the villagers," he said.
K gripped the broken door. "You remember."
"You called me a coward."
"I called you worse."
"You usually did."
The smile faltered.
His sword hand trembled.
Then the tremor stopped with unnatural completeness, and his body turned back toward Kavie.
K tried to follow.
Valerie put herself in front of him.
"Move."
"No."
"He knows me."
"He does not control his own hands."
"That is why I cannot leave him."
Another impact shook the avenue. Kavie passed beneath I'agrod's cut and placed two fingers against his sword wrist. I'agrod's hand should have opened.
It did not.
He head-butted Kavie and drove a knee into his ribs.
Kavie laughed as he stumbled back.
Not pleasantly this time.
K pulled at Valerie's arm. There was no strength in it. "He taught me."
"And my father is inside that arena."
The words hurt them both.
K looked down the avenue.
The arena rose above the roofs, its pale outer wall covered in royal banners. Crowds pressed toward the entrances. Somewhere within those walls Saughtrick was being prepared for a death the crown had announced two days too early and changed too many times.
"We can get help," Valerie said. "The Gauntlet will be inside. We get my father. We come back."
K looked at I'agrod again.
The man in blue attacked with a sequence too fast for Valerie to separate into cuts. Kavie yielded across the width of the avenue, reading each intention before it became motion, yet I'agrod did not seem to care whether any blow landed. His body followed a single command with no instinct for its own survival.
That made him difficult even for Kavie to predict.
It would not make him difficult forever.
"K," Valerie said.
The arena bells stopped.
Silence rolled outward, followed by the amplified voice of a royal herald.
"Citizens of Erenora. People of Stornia. By command of His Majesty King Hamrick Storn—"
K closed his eyes.
When he opened them, he pulled I'agrod's stolen needle from the prison cloth and pushed it into Valerie's cuff.
"Turn your wrist."
She did.
The lock opened.
Behind them, I'agrod's sword split the carriage roof from end to end.
Valerie caught K around the waist and dragged him into the fleeing crowd.
He looked back until the avenue curved and the blue coat disappeared.