Lynn Flewelling - The Oracle's Queen

Shoulder to shoulder, she and Ki fought their way toward the banner.

Korin saw Caliel fall under Nikides’ blade.

“Traitor! I’ll kill you!” Before he could reach him, however, a young squire wearing Tobin’s baldric lunged out of the press and blocked his way. He knocked the boy’s sword from his hands with a single swing, then ran him through. Nikides screamed and flew at him, but Porion stepped in and drove him back.

Korin was about to help when he saw a crowned helm above the fray mere yards away.

“Tobin’s mine!” Korin shouted. Ki tried to intervene but Porion threw himself between them, catching Ki’s blade with his own.

Korin lunged at Tobin with all his might, fueled by his rekindled sense of betrayal. Face-to-face with her at last, he saw what looked like genuine sorrow in her eyes, but she did not hesitate.

Ki tried to keep Tamír in sight out of the corner of his eye as he faced Master Porion. “I don’t want to fight you,” he blurted out, keeping his guard up.

“Nor I you, lad, but here we are,” Porion replied. “Come on, and let’s see how well you learned your lessons.”

Tamír had fought against Korin only once before, that day he’d let her fight out her anger at having to flog Ki. Older and stronger, he’d been more than a match for her then. She’d grown stronger since, but he was still a dangerous opponent. The ferocity of his attack was stunning.

He rained down blow upon blow, forcing her to parry and retreat. They whirled around each other, striking and grappling, until they were almost in the trees. He drove her back again into a stand of tall ferns. The green smell of them rose around them as they crushed them underfoot, and she could hear the sound of flowing water close behind her.

“Tamír!” Ki shouted, farther away.

“Here—” she began, but Korin pushed her back again and she missed her footing, catching her heel on something and falling backward.

The ground was not where she’d expected it to be. She tumbled over the edge of a small gully behind the ferns and rolled down a rocky slope, dashing her left elbow painfully against a rock as she fell and losing her sword somewhere along the way. She came to rest in cold mud at the edge of a stream. It must be the same stream that ran across the battlefield, she realized, getting her bearings.

She staggered up, cradling her bruised arm and looking around for her sword. It was halfway up the steep bank, caught on an exposed tree root. She started up after it, then froze as she took in her surroundings. It looked almost exactly like the place in her vision.

The banner? Where is the banner?

Instead, Korin came bounding over the edge after her with murder in his eyes. Her sword was too far away to reach before he was on her.

“Illior!” she cried, drawing her knife and bracing to meet him.

“Tamír!” Ki leaped into view, white-faced and covered in blood. He sprang down the slope and tackled Korin before he could reach her. They tumbled together, landing in the mud a few yards away with Ki on the bottom.

“Get your sword!” Ki yelled, wrestling with Korin.

Tamír scrambled up the gully and grabbed her blade. As she turned back, she was horrified to see Korin rise suddenly and strike at Ki as he struggled on the ground. It was a shameful act.

“You coward!” she screamed. She had to reach Ki, help him, but it was like being trapped in a nightmare. She slipped and slid over the rocks, making straight for them, but she just couldn’t seem to move fast enough.

Korin brought his sword down on Ki’s arm as he tried to raise his blade to fend him off. She heard the sickening snap of bone and Ki’s snarl of pain. He tried to roll out from under Korin but the prince lunged after him and brought his sword down against the side of Ki’s helmet. Ki collapsed on his side in the mud and Korin grasped his sword in both hands and thrust it down into Ki’s side through the gap in his cuirass.

“Bastard!” Tamír shrieked. Grief and fury propelled her the last few yards to close with Korin. She struck him hard across the shoulders, driving him back from Ki’s body. He leaped away and whirled to face her. There was fresh blood on his blade, mingling with the rain.

Ki’s blood .

With a scream of rage, she flew at Korin, driving him back with savage swings, away from Ki’s motionless body.

They splashed across the stream, and onto higher ground. Korin fought hard, cursing her as he parried every swing. Their two blades clashed and rang, echoing loudly in the gully. She struck him in the side, denting his steel cuirass. He answered her with a glancing blow to the head that knocked her helmet off. There’d been no time to fasten the strap.

She fell back, hoping to retrieve it. Korin laughed and pressed the advantage, driving her back to the stream, where Ki lay clawing weakly at the ground.

She turned and jumped back, hoping to draw Korin away from him again. “Get up, Ki! Get your sword!”

With a sneer, Korin left off his attack and turned to Ki, raising his blade again for the killing blow.

She sprang at him with a despairing cry and felt Brother’s dead chill close in around her.

It felt as if the demon crawled inside her own skin, filling her with the strength of his own unimaginable hatred. It drew her lips back from her teeth in a snarl and tore an unearthly cry from her throat. With the clarity of the demon’s rage, she spotted the gap in the hauberk under Korin’s raised arm and made a long, unerring lunge.

The tip of her blade found its mark. Korin’s blood soaked like a blossoming red flower through shirt and mail.

He twisted away before she could plunge it in deeply enough, and whirled to attack her again, both of them stumbling over Ki. Korin was coughing blood as he lashed out at her, and his swings grew wilder as he kept up a staggering fight.

From the Usurper’s hand you will wrest the Sword .

“Yield!” she cried, catching his blade on her own and holding him, hilt to hilt.

“Never!” Korin gasped, spewing blood.

They pulled free of each other and she felt another surge of Brother’s cold hatred rush through her as she caught sight of Ki again. He lay very still now, and the mud around him was stained red.

This time she welcomed Brother’s strength. It joined with her own pent-up rage over all they’d lost or been denied: Ki, her mother’s love, a living brother, her father’s kindness, her very identity—all sacrificed to bring her to this moment.

“Damn you!” she screamed, flying at Korin again, battering him down, pushing him back. A red haze filled her eyes. “Damn all of you for stealing our lives !”

Korin struck her on the left shoulder, blade catching on the leather strap of her cuirass. She barely felt it as she used the force of the blow to duck and whirl around, catching Korin behind the knees with her foot.

Korin staggered, dropping his guard as he fought to keep his balance. Still bent low, Tamír swung her sword up with all her might and felt Brother’s hand on hers, gripping her sword’s hilt as she caught Korin across the throat, just under the chin, burying the edge of her blade there.

Korin gave a strangled cry, and hot blood spurted out, nearly blinding her. She pulled the blade free and quickly wiped a hand across her eyes.

Korin stood very still, staring at her in disbelief. He tried to speak, but only bloody foam found its way past his lips. His breath made a horrible wet wheezing sound through the gaping wound across his throat. His chest heaved again and he collapsed backward among the rocks. Blood still pulsed from the wound in slow spurts and ran down between the stones.

A river of blood .