David Baldacci - The Finisher

I had an instant to glance toward the platform and shuddered as I saw Morrigone staring directly at Ladon-Tosh, as though she were willing him to stand. And then I knew I couldn’t win. I knew that Ladon-Tosh had an ally I couldn’t defeat.

He came at me again. With my right arm totally useless, but my senses otherwise intact, I easily sidestepped him. Instead of hitting him with my good hand — since it would be good no longer — I spun around, supported by my one able arm, and flicked my feet against his buttocks as he flew past me. This propelled him out of the ring and into the crowd. Wugs ran hither and thither trying to get out of his way. He was like an enraged creta, only a hundred times more powerful and a thousand times more murderous.

Old Silas toddled forward and said, “Wug out of ring. Penalty against Ladon-Tosh. Free blow for Vega Jane. Well done, lass.”

Fortunately, Delph snatched Silas out of the way before he was crushed by Ladon-Tosh leaping back into the ring to attack me.

He was now throwing punch after punch with astonishing speed. I dodged them all and then I started to employ my other tactic. I started to race in a circle around him. He spun too, punching at me but landing nothing. I told myself that he had to tire at some point.

When I glanced over at Morrigone, she still had her gaze fixed on Ladon-Tosh, yet I could see the rising panic in her eyes. She was upset that I was not yet dead. She was afraid I might win. Well, I just might.

I ran one more circle around him and then leapt and kicked him in the head with my left foot. Again, the shattering pain swept down my limb. Again, he went down hard. I noted with satisfaction that he took longer to rise this time. But rise he did.

And I had made another even more egregious mistake. I could run with one arm. I could not with one leg. “Damn!” I screamed, so furious was I with myself.

Then I smacked myself in the head with my good arm.

The Stone. The bleeding Adder Stone. I snatched it from my pocket and, concealing it in my hand, I swiftly ran it up and down my damaged limbs.

They were damaged no longer, but I once more lost my focus. I heard the crowd collectively scream and I felt the blow hit me across my shoulders. I was knocked fifty feet into the air and crashed hard well outside the ring.

Ladon-Tosh did not wait for me to reenter it. He leapt and came down hard with his elbow pointed downward right on top of me. Or where I had been an instant before. He struck the ground so hard, it dug a hole in the dirt three feet deep, and about twenty Wugs toppled over from the ground, shaking with the impact.

I raced back to the ring, turned and breathlessly waited for him to come. I knew the only thing that had saved my life when the blow had struck was Destin. Its links still felt ice-cold to the touch as though it had absorbed almost all the energy of a blow that a few lights ago had easily killed a fully grown male Wug.

If I couldn’t hit my opponent without crippling myself, how could I win? If this kept up much longer, one of his blows would land squarely on target and it would be over. Despite my tactics, he was not growing tired.

But I was. My lungs were heaving and my heart, I believed, had reached its maximum pumping capacity. I could not last much longer.

Ladon-Tosh stood there frozen, but I could sense the tremendous building up of energy coming from him. He was about to put everything he had into one blow that would hit me so hard, there might be nothing left. I felt my heart in my throat, and my stomach gave a sickening lurch.

I glanced over at Morrigone. Her gaze was only on Ladon-Tosh. I had never seen her face look so hard, so … unrelenting. She had obviously made her decision. I was to die. And Ladon-Tosh was the tool with which she would kill me. Newton Tilt had doubtless been a mistake for which she had grieved mightily. I doubted she would be nearly as saddened by my passing.

I looked back at Ladon-Tosh and knew the moment had come.

And yet as he made his final charge, it occurred to me exactly what I had to do. I had to end this. And I had to end it now. He was trying to kill me. Well, that was a two-way path.

Not a natural killer, I steeled myself to become one.

I slipped off my cloak. Underneath I had on a shirt and trousers. But in my cloak was Destin. I gripped the chain at both ends and waited.

When Ladon-Tosh struck with a speed that was beyond a blur, I had already somersaulted over him. When he sailed past me, I turned in midair and flung the cloak and with it Destin around his neck. I landed on the ground, set my feet and pulled with every bit of strength I had.

The giant Ladon-Tosh was lifted off his feet, flew backward over me and, as he went past, I crossed my arm and thus the chain, as I had with the maniack in the looking glass.

The result was not the same as in the glass. In fact, it was not anything like it.

I heard the screech before I saw anything.

I was instantly paralyzed with fear by the sound. But what I then saw made the sound seem as nothing.

Ladon-Tosh was rising slowly. Actually, Ladon-Tosh was coming apart at the seams. His head was gone but his body was now upright. Bloodcurdling screams came from up and down the crowd. Both females and males fainted at the sight.

“Bloody Hels” cascaded through the air like flocks of frightened birds.

But that was not the worst part. I knew the worst part. It was about to happen.

Ladon-Tosh’s body burst open, half his torso going left, half to the right.

“No,” screamed a voice. I looked up in time to see Morrigone yelling this over and over. “No! No!”

I searched the crowd and saw Krone. He was racing away with Dodgson, his face filled with panic and dread. Krone even ran over a very young in his escape. The bloody cowards.

The crowd had turned as one to run. Now they turned back for an instant to see what Morrigone was screaming at. I already knew. The screeches were ear-shattering.

The two jabbits that had nearly killed me at Stacks catapulted from the husk that had once been Ladon-Tosh. How creatures so large had been compressed into the space of one Wug, albeit a big Wug, I couldn’t fathom. They hit the ground so hard that the pitch seemed to whipsaw under our legs. Then five hundred heads and with them one thousand eyes looked at all the Wugs so perilously close, and I could almost see the lustful hunger in the monsters’ sinister orbs.

Every Wug ran for his or her life. Parents snatched up their youngs and very youngs. Screams kept coming, but they came nowhere near to drowning out the screeches that heralded a slaughter of Wugs about to occur.

I glanced once more at Morrigone. To her credit, she had not run away. Indeed, she was waving her hands and it looked like, as difficult as it was for me to believe, she was trying to will Ladon-Tosh back together again. But it was clear that she had not been able to control the creatures with Tilt and it was just as clear that she would not be able to stop them now. As I watched, she glanced at me. Tears were in her panic-filled eyes. She looked desperate.

Cries of “Outliers, it’s the Outliers come” sprang up and were repeated from Wug mouths everywhere.

I looked for Thansius and found him trying to fight his way forward through the sea of Wugs and toward the jabbits. He drew something from under his robe. It was the same sword he had used at the Council hearing. He said he had no special powers, but what the Wug did have in abundance was courage. Yet I didn’t think he would get a chance to use his blade in time.

I thought this because both jabbits had risen up, their innumerable fangs exposed, and they were just about to launch themselves against the nearest Wugs. It would be a bloodbath not seen here for hundreds of sessions.