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Kai took it. He let the hits turn the world narrow so that all that lived in it was a face and a cage and the thin hum in his head that said numbers and ti in a voice that refused to care.
[Ding! 85%... 21 seconds.]
Mardek drew back for the big one, for the story blow, the one you carve at the end of the tale. He lifted the dagger high and pulled his other hand into a fist and set his weight to drive it through Kai’s eye and into the brain and show the seven hundred how a man ends without aura.
Alka fell again.
She didn’t touch Mardek this ti, either. She hit the ground a pace to his right and threw sand and her scream together into his face. It wasn’t a word. It was a hawk’s blade of sound. Mardek flinched and slashed blindly where he thought a wing would be. Alka was already up a body-length. The cut took air.
"Eyes on !" Skyweaver cried from above, and raked a low pass that made three ranks duck their spears and ruin their neat line. She rose with a long, low laugh that wasn’t joy, just the sound a fighter makes when she has air and purpose at once.
"Stand!" Mardek shouted again, coughing sand. "Stand, you sons of—" He almost cursed the queen.
Azhara stepped in under Kai’s guard and cut a rope on the nearest cart with a flick of her wrist while everyone watched the bird. She kept moving. She was careful not to look at the cage so eyes would not follow her eyes.
The army ring of seven hundred finished standing. Officers shoved them into a crescent. Shields locked. Spears leveled. The sound of the line finishing had a weight to it. It was not clean. It was not pretty. It would still crush if it moved.
Kai spat blood into the sand and lifted his chin again. He had no aura. He had no tricks left. He had hands, a spear shaft, a crown that humd without food, and three won who trusted his word.
Kai tried to stand on his feet.
Mardek’s eyes narrowed. "Watch White hair, Kai."
Mardek shook his head like a dog shaking water, then laughed without joy. "Enough chit chat," he said. "Kneel or—"
He walked backward two steps, still facing Kai, and kicked the cage bar once. Then he turned and slamd it up, reached in, and grabbed Miryam by the scruff again. She was fully awake now, eyes huge and wet, jaw set like a small soldier who had read her father’s face and learned how to make one like it. She did not make a sound when his hand closed on her neck. She made a sound after, when he lifted her too high and the skin in her shoulders pulled. It was a small sound. It broke three people in the center who could hear it. Azhara made a low noise in her throat. Skyweaver said a word Alka had not heard her say before. Silvershadow did not make a sound but sothing happened to his heart; it went cold and narrow and hard.
Mardek turned so the seven hundred could see the small golden thing in his hand. "This," he said, voice hot. "This is why you stand. This is why we march. This is the bait and the proof and the prize."
He made to strike Kai again with the dagger, just to show he could hit both father and child with one breath.
Kai stepped forward. His ribs scread. He stepped again. He didn’t know if he’d make it to the next step. He set his mouth to say the word that would make the sky fall and the knife miss.
He didn’t get to say it.
The choice ca from Mardek instead.
He shoved Miryam back into the cage and dropped the bar with a slam. The rope twisted, twice, hard. He turned from her and launched himself at Kai like a thrown spear, dagger straight, both feet set to drive through whatever he hit.
Kai brought the spear shaft up to parry and took the dagger along it. Sparks jumped. Mardek’s shoulder slamd his chest. They went down together in a rolling knot. Kai took sand in his mouth. Mardek took a head-plate to the cheek. They rolled again. They ca up to knees with hands in each other’s plates like two dogs in a ditch.
The seven hundred shouted. The sound was a wall. It pressed on the ears and on the chest and on the brain.
Azhara moved to Kai’s right shoulder and beca part of his shadow. She didn’t strike. She waited for the half-second when a wrist would be wrong and a rope would be right. Her knives rested in her fingers like questions that already knew their answers.
Skyweaver cut a wide slice across the front ranks again to keep the first two lines too busy to rush. She did not dive into spears. She snapped low and climbed, low and climbed, a saw through cloth.
Alka climbed higher, buying room for another fall.
Silvershadow held the knot with his fingers and felt the twist in it. He read how fast it had been tied from the way the fibers settled. He set his thumb on the place where the bar would rise if soone pulled from the outside. He was ready to push inside instead when the ti ca.
The system counted in Kai’s skull like a slow bell.
[Ding! 90%... 14 seconds... 91%... 92%...]
Mardek threw his head forward and hit Kai’s jaw with his brow ridge. Pain flashed like light. Kai’s teeth clicked. He tasted more blood. He drove his thumb at Mardek’s eye and caught cheekbone instead. He shoved anyway. Mardek hissed and bit his thumb. Kai ripped it free and slapped his ear with his open palm. The sound stunned both their heads for half a breath.
"Push!" a captain scread from the ring. The army ring took a step. Shields pressed. Spears ca down. Then they stopped because a hawk’s shadow and a woman’s scream crossed their eyes and hands at the sa ti and made the step bad.
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