Clayton Emery - Jedit

Yet it didn't. Alerted by inhuman jungle senses, Jedit dropped Hazezon with a thump and squatted, cocking an elbow so the flying spear spanked off the wall.

Murdoch barked, "Impossible!"

More attacks came thick and fast. A small, dark-skinned nomadic woman named Echo, formerly a clerk of Hazezon's, drew her sword and dashed behind Jedit to jab his spine. One flick of a hand like a ham, and she caromed off a wall to tumble in a tangle. A woman in a purple-blue tunic and skirt flicked open a sling, plopped in a round knot of hardwood, whipped the weapon twice, and let fly at the barbarian's head. That too the brute dodged.

The druid sang, "Mask of Makou! That's no northman! He's too fast!"

"Children!" Badger carped and lobbed whatever came to hand at the invader: stools, a book, a candlestick, two redware jugs that slopped red wine in artful spirals. Simone the Siren cocked a crossbow and fumbled a quarrel to the nock, but her sizzling bolt only thudded into a chair someone else pitched. A female fairykin no taller than a fawn drew a rapier and slithered under two tables. Skidding behind the barbarian, she whisked her blade at the back of his knee to hamstring him. Dodging, she was still clipped by a foot kicking backward, a foot she'd supposedly crippled forever. She was stamped underfoot to howl like a banshee.

In the whirlwind of flying feet and fists and furniture, the battle was difficult to follow, for two torches had been wrenched from the walls and many candles spilled, and dust swirled as the brawl raged. A hardwood sling ball cracked adobe by Jedit's head, but more objects hurled his way failed to hit, for the barbarian launched his own offensive. — "Adira," shrieked Simone, "look out!"

Adira Strongheart ruled her mercenaries with her heart, head, and fists, but her game leg slowed her down. Terrifying as a tiger, the towering barbarian snagged Adira's sore leg, his hammy hand encasing ankle to calf. The pirate queen was hoisted in the air, so her chestnut hair dangled on the dirty floor. Anyone else might have panicked, but even upside down, Adira snatched a table leg from the floor and rapped the stranger's knee and ankle with fearsome cracks. When she tried to slam his crotch, he dropped her with a shoulder-crunching jolt. Bravely she bounced and rolled and grabbed for any kind of weapon while keeping one eye on her enemy.

"Adira!" croaked Hazezon Tamar, still half-strangled by his earlier throttling. Choking and spitting, he lurched to rescue Adira with scimitar raised. Simone the Siren rushed with her cutlass, as did Badger and the new crew member Murdoch. Four converging blades threatened Jedit, but he charged anyway with hands outspread. Roaring, he swiped left and right with his fingers, raking the adventurers across the heads, shoulders, and chests. Badger was stunned and knocked spinning, and Simone had her vest ripped clean off, but otherwise no one was hurt, which some onlookers found strange.

"What kind of attack is that?" Scrambling to her feet, cursing her stiff leg, Adira Strongheart still could observe the fight coolly. She asked aloud, "Why does he slash like a sawfish in a school of mackerel?"

No one heard. The barbarian's stiff fingers swatted Murdoch's nose and made it spurt blood. The sergeant lashed out with a straight-arm sword jab that skidded off the barbarian's ribs and punctured the wall. Badger, sprawled on the floor, whisked his cutlass in one hand and pegged it like a throwing knife. The blade pinked Jedit's knee. Yet Badger frowned.

"This's one queer sea-wight! It's like he's there and not there!"

Slower, Hazezon Tamar rushed from the side. He gasped with pain from cracked ribs as he threw his weight behind a stroke to lop off the barbarian's head. The shaggy assassin sliced at Hazezon with stiff fingertips that only ticked his embroidered vest. The curious attack fuddled the mage, then he tumbled backward as fearsome hands tried to rake his face.

"That's a tiger's attack!" Adira's shout rose above the havoc. "He's slicing with claws! He's Jaeger!"

Even bewitched, the name of Jedit's beloved father made the disguised cat man whip his head around. Jedit hesitated, hands in the air, while the cogent part of his brain warred with the spellbound portion. For the briefest instant the room was silent, hung in a lull like that between lightning and thunder.

A rapid pattering resounded as two more of Adira's Circle of Seven made a concerted attack. The glum Virgil and the iron-armed archer Wilemina charged, huffing, lugging a heavy oak table. Jedit turned from Adira's astonishing pronouncement just as the table rammed his midriff at a full run. Jedit smashed into the back wall so hard chunks of adobe cascaded from the ceiling and wall. Winded, he slashed feebly as Virgil and Wilemina rammed him again with the table. Jedit crumpled, skidded, and sat down hard, dragging table and pirates on top of him.

"Quick!" bleated the fairykin. "Slit his throat!"

"No!" Adira shouted as if hailing from the quarterdeck in a hurricane. "Anyone touches him gets keelhauled! That's Jaeger, I tell you!"

In the hush, people canted weapons and sobbed for air and cast about in total confusion. Questions spilled.

"Why's he look like a barbarian?"

"Why's Jaeger attacking us?"

"Why don't he speak?"

"If he's bewitched, who did it?"

Badger, canny veteran, jumped quickest on the truth. "Someone sicced him on us!"

In a wink, the mariner, Wilemina, and Simone bolted for the door. Jamming in the doorway, the three looked both ways down the nighttime street. Simone gasped, "Whoever 'witched him might've run-"

The sharp-eyed archer pointed. "There he goes!"

"Johan!" barked all three and took off running.

"Wait!" cried Adira but too late. Cursing a blue streak, she limped on her sore leg to tend Echo, who'd dented plaster with her skull. Bidding the ex-clerk to stay seated, Adira saw the rest of her crew was equally battered. Murdoch's nose streamed blood, Hazezon huddled against the wall wheezing, the fairykin Whistledove bore a sprained arm. Adira rubbed her upper lip not to sneeze in all the dust. "Give us light, someone!"

Virgil and Murdoch and two clerks knelt on the heavy table pinning the prisoner. Picking up the fallen boar spear, Adira tilted the tip against the table.

"Drag it away. Handsomely!" ordered the pirate chief. "That means slowly, you cockeyed codfish! Brace up to gaff him if-Ten thousand virgins! It is Jaeger!"

"No. Jedit. Ojanen."

A hulking northman had fallen, but under the table and four people lay a living, breathing tiger. Past the tip of her spear Adira stared into round eyes that glowed an eerie amber-green. The face was a riot of orange, black, and white stripes, and white whiskers jutted from the blunt muzzle. A fourth color was smears of red blood. The eyes were slitted, Adira realized, for the tiger was still furious, eager to spring and rend and kill given half a chance.

"Jedit Ojanen?" Doubting everything, Adira tipped the spear against the prisoner's throat, one strong hand on the haft ready to thrust. "Same name, so what relation?"

"My father was Jaeger."

A dangerous rumbling growl. The yowling accent was barbaric and old-fashioned, with words twisted out of shape. Only by concentrating could Adira understand him.

Jedit said, "You should know the name well, being his most dire enemy."

A confused murmur arose from Seveners and clerks.

Murdoch blew blood from his nose. "Someone's cockeyed."

"Shut up." Not retracting the spear, Adira fought to think this mess through. "You've been gulled, tiger-boy. If you've tramped around with Johan, I can swear to it, for that devils' tool never spoke a true word in his life."

"Johan's back?" Still crouched on the table, the scruffy Virgil huffed. "Is that what Badger yelled? Our troubles are starting all over?"