Page 40 of Fortune's Blade

“That is not the same thing!”

“How is it not?” I tilted my head curiously. “The Svarestri were not chasing you; they were after me. You could have easily taken off and left me behind, and they would not have pursued you. But you did not.”

“Dorina—”

“You stayed and fished to feed me, when you did not need such food yourself, and built a boat for us so that we could float away. And when they found us anyway—”

“Goddamnit! Stop talking!”

“—you stayed again and fought by my side. Do you really think that I would leave you now?”

“Yes!” He looked at me wildly. “You have to!”

“Then, Raymond Lu, it seems that you do not know me as well as I thought,” I said, and headed for the arena.

Chapter Thirteen

One of the guards had another of those strange fey spears, so I grabbed it as I ran past. The creature seemed surprised, perhaps because Marlowe’s fight was scheduled to be a one-on-one, although the crowd seemed happy enough to see me. Although that might have been because the great off-world champion was getting his arse kicked.

Badly.

That wasn’t surprising considering that, if anything, the depictions on the ads I had seen had downplayed the situation. He wasn’t merely facing a giant; he was facing a colossus with hands larger than my whole body and legs like tree trunks—if the trees were sequoias. And when the creature’s body passed in front of a section of the stands, it shaded more than the awnings did.

The spear I had grabbed suddenly made me feel less secure.

The only good thing was that the giant had yet to notice me. Its shaggy head, covered with a matted mass of dark hair and a scruffy beard, was high enough that the roar of the crowd likely barely registered, and it was distracted, being busy trying to stomp Marlowe like a bug. The footsteps that had reverberated in the corridor were now creating concentric ripples in the sand big enough to threaten to throw me off my feet each time one hit.

I stared upward at the huge mass backlit by the sun, or whatever star burned in the fey sky, and felt confused. I had never fought such a thing; never so much as seen one. Where to even start?

Before I could decide, someone grabbed me.

“You’re crazy!” Ray yelled, so loudly that I heard him above the crowd’s screams and the giant’s stomps. “Let’s go!”

He was pointing violently at the stands, I supposed with the same idea as before only now modified to include both of us. And it required a quick decision, as the guards had overcome their initial shock and were headed this way. But sand waves kept knocking them back, giving me a moment to choose.

I looked back at Marlowe.

I had been content enough to let him solve his own problems when there was anything like an even playing field. He was a first-level master and a senator. He did not need me.

Until he did. Because this was not level, and I could not leave him there to be smeared across the sand like so many others clearly had been. This ended now, for all of us, and the only way to do that was to bring the giant down.

“Stand clear!” I told Ray.

“What?” His hearing did not seem to be as good as mine.

“Stand out of the way when you see it fall!”

“What?” And perhaps I was wrong about the hearing, I thought, as his eyes widened and his fingers, which had wrapped around my forearm, abruptly tightened.

But I did not have time to argue, so I shook off his hold, tightened my grip on my spear and took off at a run, jumping over waves of sand and heading straight for the nearest huge, hairy leg.

The giant did not have many clothes, as it would have taken the wool of an entire flock of sheep merely to make him a tunic. As a result, he wore only a brief loin cloth instead. Leaving his flesh unprotected and vulnerable, including that over his Achilles tendon.

A huge leg came crashing down, aiming for the man lying mad-eyed and desperate in a canyon of sand that previous stomps had created. I leapt, jumping off of the opposite foot and striking while still in the air. Fortunately, the spear was easy enough to use, with a small lever that activated the energy blasts, one of which I sent straight at the massive calf above me.

I did not see whether I hit my target, but I hit something. Before my back slammed down onto the sand, a wave of blood shot over me, black as midnight, and the creature roared in pain and what sounded like outrage. And all but deafened me in the process.

I did not know how the crowd reacted, because I could not hear them anymore. I did not know whether the creature had been seriously injured, because more blood had just drenched me and cut off my vision. I did not know much of anything except that someone had grabbed me and was hauling me away at a rapid pace—