Laura Resnick - The Purifying Fire

“How dare-”

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here-and probably a very short life, at that-because you didn’t use your head.” When she just glowered at him, he prodded, “Well?”

“Insofar as I am capable,” she said darkly, “I will think before I act.”

“Good. Next condition: You will not kill anyone who isn’t a danger to us.”

“How are we deciding who is or isn’t a danger?” she asked suspiciously.

“Let’s agree you’ll trust my judgment on that.”

“No.” She turned away.

His hand on her arm stopped her. “Chandra.”

She turned her head. Their eyes met. His were very serious. To her surprise, he didn’t look angry. She wasn’t quite sure what she saw there, though.

He said softly, “We could die here.”

Gideon was a little taller than she. Chandra tilted her head up and said, “Then I’ll die because of my judgment. Not yours.”

His hand still held her arm. “I don’t want to kill any innocents while I’m trying to get out of here.”

The thought of innocents bothered her.

“I don’t, either,” she said, aware of how close together they were standing. So close that she noticed now he needed to shave. The dark shadow starting to darken his jaw would become more obvious by morning

… which wouldn’t come, of course. Not on Diraden.

Gideon said, “You can be a little… reckless that way.”

His gaze dropped, and his dark lashes lowered. Chandra had a feeling he was staring at her lips. She licked them, and she felt the grip on her arm tighten ever so slightly.

“I was trying to survive. They’d have killed me on Kephalai.” She heard the breathlessness in her voice and didn’t like it. She jerked her arm out of his hold and stepped away. “Anyhow, what makes you think we’ll meet innocents? So far, I’ve talked to a goblin, seen a Bog Wraith, and heard about a black mage with a sinister appetite.”

“The night is still young.”

He looked at her impassively, as if that odd moment hadn’t happened between them.

Maybe it hadn’t for him.

She scowled at him. “So. Are we working together?”

“Yes.”

“Fine,” she said. “Since you’re an advocate of thinking before you act, what’s your plan?”

“First,” he said, “I think we should find out who’s watching us.”

“Watching us?” She frowned. “What makes you think we’re being w-”

“Yaaagggh!”

The wordless bellow was accompanied by something big and heavy careening into Chandra’s back. At that same moment, she saw Jurl leap over a tumbled stone wall and attack Gideon, who whirled around to defend himself.

Chandra hit the ground with considerable force, and had the wind knocked out of her. She heard snarling right by her ear and felt a heavy body lying on top of her. Then a powerful grip seized her shoulders and started banging her against the ground. Over and over. Hard.

She called on fire, intending to incinerate her attacker… and then realized that she couldn’t.

Damn, damn, damn.

While she fought to retain consciousness, Chandra saw a hairy, clawed hand out of the corner of her eye. Lumpy, gray skin. Another goblin.

Jurl? she wondered in confusion.

It kept banging her into the ground, as if trying to tenderize her.

That does it!

Without enough physical strength to gain the advantage, in her current position, she tried a different tactic. “I…” Fortunately, the ground wasn’t hard: but even so, this was painful. “… surrender!” She was smashed into the ground again. “I surrender! I surrender!”

“What?” the goblin said, pausing in its assault.

“I surrender!” Now that she wasn’t being pummeled against the ground, she could hear the grunts and blows of Gideon and the other goblin fighting each other.

“Surrender?” the goblin said, breathing on her neck.

“Yes! I surrender! I give up!” Chandra cried. “You win!”

The goblin’s weight shifted. It was evidently surprised, and perhaps a little confused. Since goblins weren’t known for their mercy, it might never have encountered this reaction to an attack before. Typically, a fight with a goblin was a fight to the death.

The pause in the goblin’s assault and the shifting of its weight was all Chandra needed. She used the muscles of her legs to buck the goblin off of her with a powerful scissor kick, before she rolled over and reached for one of the rocks lying at the base of a nearby ruined wall. Rock in hand, she threw herself at the goblin and smashed its massive head. The goblin shrieked and stumbled backward. Chandra jumped up and hit it in the head again right at the temple. The beast hit the ground hard. Unmoving, blood trickling from its ear, Chandra left the it where it lay and staggered away, unsure if it was dead.

“Ugh! I hate goblins! I hate them!”

Chandra turned around, intending to go help Gideon. He and the other goblin were rolling around on the ground together, their bodies wallowing frantically in the mud around the stone walls.

Chandra picked up another rock and moved toward them. The goblin lost its hold on Gideon, who rolled away and raised his foot to kick the goblin in the face with considerable force. It fell backward, then staggered in a circle and turned toward Gideon, who rolled across the ground rapidly and stretched out his arm, reaching for something. The goblin saw Chandra approaching them and froze. It turned its head and saw its companion lying prone on the ground.

The goblin gave a shrill little cry-then turned and fled.

“Stay back!” Gideon ordered as Chandra dashed across the ground.

“It’s getting away!”

“Get down!” Gideon raised an arm to make wide, rapid circles over his head.

Chandra saw something glint brightly in the moonlight as it spun over Gideon’s head, making a menacing whooshing sound. She realized it was that daggertail of his, unfurled and swirling above them with deadly speed.

Remembering that the thing had three very long, sharp blades, Chandra threw herself to the ground and covered her head. Without his magic guiding the weapon’s steely tendrils, who knew whether Gideon’s aim was any good.

She heard the whooshing sound change to a long steel sigh as Gideon unleashed the whip. She peeked between her fingers and saw that he had released the entire weapon, letting it sail through the dark night, handle and all. The goblin was speedy and had already covered some distance, but it couldn’t outrun the flying weapon.

As Chandra rose to her knees, gaze fixed intently on the fleeing goblin, Gideon set off at a run. Chandra saw something glint briefly in the moonlight, then she saw the goblin fall down. She rose to her feet and ran after him, too.

When she reached Gideon’s side, the goblin was lying on the ground, grunting and snarling as it struggled in the sharp tangle of flexible blades that were constraining its short legs.

“I shouldn’t have doubted your aim,” Chandra said to Gideon, breathing hard from her exertions.

“Lucky shot,” Gideon said. “To be honest, I could scarcely see him.”

“Chandra!” the goblin said in a familiar-sounding voice. “Don’t kill!”

She sighed. “Hello, Jurl. We meet again.”

Gideon seized the handle of the whip and jerked it sharply. Jurl’s eyes bulged and he made a horrible groaning sound from the pain inflicted on his trapped limbs.

Chandra asked Gideon, “How did you know they were watching us?”

“The one that attacked you was casting a shadow on the stone wall near you. I realized it when he moved.”

She hadn’t seen the realization dawn on Gideon’s face. She should remember that he was good at hiding things.

Gideon gave Jurl a light tap with his foot. “But I didn’t know there was one behind me, too. They move quietly, don’t they?”