KNIGHT OF SHADOWS (34 page)

A force similar to the one I’d just thrown at him struck at me.
 
I was surprised by his ability to regroup and retaliate at that level with that speed.
 
Not so surprised that I wasn’t able to parry it, though.
 
I took a step forward then and tried to set him afire with a beautiful spell the ring suggested.
 
Rising, he was able to shield against it within moments of his clothes’ beginning to smolder.
 
I kept coming, and he created a vacuum around me.
 
I pierced it and kept breathing.
 
Then I a battering ram spell which the ring showed me, even more forceful than the first working with which I’d hit him.

He vanished before it hit, and a crack ran up three feet of the stone wall which had been behind him.
 
I sent sense-tendrils all over and spotted him seconds later, crouched on a cornice high overhead.
 
He launched himself at me just as I looked up.

I didn’t know whether it would break my hand or not, but I felt it would be worth it, even so, as I levitated.
 
I contrived to pass him at about the midway point, and I hit him with a left, which I hoped broke his neck as well as his jaw.
 
Unfortunately it also broke my levitation spell, and I tumbled to the floor along with him.

I heard the lady cry out as we fell, and she came rushing toward us.
 
We lay stunned for several heartbeats.
 
Then he rolled over onto his stomach, reached, hunched and fell, reached again.

His hand fell upon the haft of Werewindle.
 
He must have felt my gaze as his fingers tightened about it, for he glanced at me and smiled.
 
I heard Luke mutter a curse and stir.
 
I threw a deep freeze spell at Jurt, but he trumped out before the cold front hit.

Then the lady screamed again, and even before I turned, I knew that the voice had been Coral’s.
 
Reappearing, Jurt half collapsed against her from the rear, finding her throat with the edge of that bright, smoldering blade.

“Nobody,” he gasped, “move...or I’ll carve her...an extra smile.”

I sought after a quick spell that would finish him without endangering her.

“Don’t try it, Merle,” he said.
 
“I’ll feel it ...coming.
 
Just leave me...alone...for half a minute...and you’ll get to live...a little longer.
 
I don’t know where you picked up...those extra tricks . . .
 
but they won’t save you-“

He was panting and covered with sweat.
 
The blood still dripped from his mouth.

“Let go of my wife,” Luke said, rising, “or there’ll never be anyplace you’ll be able to hide.”

“I don’t want you for an enemy, son of Brand,” Jurt said.

“Then do as I say, fella.
 
I’ve taken out better men than you.”

And then Jurt screamed as if his soul were on fire.
 
Werewindle moved away from Coral’s throat, and Jurt backed off and began jerking, like a puppet whose joints have seized up but whose strings are still being yanked.
 
Coral turned toward him, her back to Luke and me.
 
Her right hand rose to her face.
 
After a time Jurt fell to the floor and curled into a fetal position.
 
A red light seemed to be playing upon him.
 
He was shaking steadily, and I could even hear his teeth chattering.

Abruptly, then, he was gone, trailing rainbows, leaving blood and spittle, bearing Werewindle with him.
 
I sent a parting bolt after, but I knew that it did not reach him.
 
I’d felt Julia’s presence at the other end of the spectrum, and despite everything else, I was pleased to know that I had not slain her yet.
 
But Jurt - Jurt was very dangerous now, I realized.
 
For this was the first time we’d fought that he hadn’t left a piece of himself behind, had even taken something away with him.
 
Something deadly.
 
He was learning, and that did not bode well.

When I turned my head, I caught sight of the red glow before Coral lowered her eyepatch, and I realized what had become of the Jewel of Judgment, though not, of course, why.

“Wife?” I said.

“Well, sort of...Yes,” she replied.

“Just one of those things,” Luke said.
 
“Do you two know each other?”