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This time, Farrendel aimed his attack toward the troll with the mace. He would not be able to take out the troll with the sword until he took care of that mace.

The mace started coming toward him. He kicked off from the troll’s shoulder, gaining enough height that the mace whistled just below his toes as he tucked his knees to his chest.

He came down on the mace’s backswing and stabbed his sword into the troll’s shoulder where his neck met the rest of his body.

The troll roared with pain and lurched backwards.

Farrendel threw himself off the troll’s shoulder and landed in the dirt in front of him between his body and his shield. This troll did not have a weapon for such close quarters. Even Farrendel’s swords were slightly too long, but he twisted, trying to get his swords up to stab the troll’s chest and finish him.

The troll smashed the inside of his shield into Farrendel’s back. Farrendel stumbled forward, unable to get his swords up in such a confined space, especially with the shield and the troll’s arm pinning him.

Before Farrendel could squirm free, the troll bashed his forehead into Farrendel’s face. Stars burst across Farrendel’s vision, and his knees buckled. The troll shoved Farrendel away from him, and Farrendel stumbled back, going to his knees.

He blinked furiously, trying to clear his vision and his head.

“Look out!” Julien’s voice cut through the buzzing in his head.

Farrendel snapped his head up and scrambled to his feet, but he was not quick enough. The mace swung toward him and smashed into his side just above his hip, tearing the breath from his lungs. Pain burst through his middle as he was flung off his feet.

He struck the ground several feet away, the last gasp of breath leaving his lungs. Pain shredded his insides as he struggled to draw in a breath. Definitely several broken ribs. Probably other damage.

Farrendel gasped and coughed on a breath, tasting blood. He forced his eyes open, trying to gather the strength to breathe, to move, to push to his feet. Through the heart bond, he could feel Essie’s fear, painful and raw.

Do not watch me. He silently pleaded with her as he drew in as deep a breath as he could manage.

Then Julien was there, raising his shield and crouching over Farrendel to protect both of them. “Are you all right? Can you get up? I can’t hold off both of them by myself.”

Farrendel coughed again and pushed himself onto an elbow. Even that much movement tore through him.

All he had to do was survive, and Melantha could heal him later. But if he did not get up now, both he and Julien would not survive.

Farrendel clenched a bloody hand around the hilt of one of his swords. He was not sure where the other one had gone.

“Farrendel?” Julien’s shield shuddered, his whole body shaking as he absorbed another blow from one of the trolls.

With something between a groan and a growl, Farrendel used Julien to pull himself into a crouch. Steeling himself, Farrendel launched onto Julien’s back, then onto his shield.

As they had practiced so many times during their early mornings in Aldon, Julien stood in time with Farrendel’s jump, launching him even higher than Farrendel could by himself.

Farrendel’s feet barely left the shield before the mace came swinging in from the side, missing Farrendel but catching the edge of Julien’s shield. Julien cried out as the shield was wrenched from his arm, the mace’s spiked head still embedded in the wood.

The encumbrance gave Farrendel the opening he needed. He came down on the troll with the mace, who was grimacing and struggling to lift his weapon with the extra weight and with his arm injured and pouring blood down his chest. Farrendel sliced the troll’s throat, then stabbed his chest for good measure before landing on the ground by the dying troll.

Julien parried a blow from the other troll’s sword, but Julien’s shield arm hung at his side, probably pulled from its shoulder socket and possibly broken. The troll stabbed his dagger toward Julien, taking advantage of Julien’s unprotected side.

Julien dodged, but the dagger laid open a cut along his chest.

Something tugged in the heart bond a moment before Farrendel caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. In the second row of the enemy troll army, a musket was lifting, its muzzle swinging to point at Farrendel.

But the weapon never fully raised. A bolt of blue magic lashed out, blasting the gun from the troll’s hands.

“No one will interfere!” Essie shouted as more magic crackled through the air.

Farrendel spun, his breath hitching in his chest.

Essie stood in the center of a firestorm of his crackling blue magic. Bolts twined around her fingers as her braid floated behind her, wisps of her red hair standing out starkly against the fiery blue magic. Her gaze was focused past Farrendel, her green eyes blazing.

She wasglorious. In her hands, his magic was still deadly, still powerful. But it had an added beauty and grace to its deadliness. Something beat hard in Farrendel’s chest as he fell in love with her all over again.