Richard Byers - The Shattered Mask

The last few words of the sentence sounded peculiar in his own ears, and after a moment, he realized why. Bile-worm had spoken them in unison with him. The old man scowled at the mockery.

"I know," Marance said. "Even if the warriors didn't wear their uniforms, somebody might recognize one of them, and then our House would be held accountable for their actions. That's why I asked you to provide me a lieutenant who knows his way around the underworld." He gave an avuncular smile to Ossian, who, among his other responsibilities, was indeed his father's liaison to Sel-gaunt's criminal community.

"All right," said Ossian, a shade hesitantly, "I can hire a crew of ruffians for you. I suppose."

"Don't worry," Marance said, "I won't kill them when I'm done with them. Nobody will miss that apothecary and her friends, but I understand how desirable it is for we Talendar to maintain our secret alliance with the major outlaw fraternities of the city. Besides, I won't have any reason to slay my helpers. By the time I'm ready to dismiss them, there won't be anyone left for them to warn."

Ossian grinned. "Thank you, uncle. I appreciate your restraint."

"I still wonder if this scheme is going to work," Nuldrevyn grumbled, still irked over Bileworm's impudence. "Thamalon knows how to handle himself in a fight. If Shamur gives him a chance to defend himself, he could easily kill her instead of the other way around."

"If so," said Marance, "then we'll still be one dead Uskevren to the good. Don't worry, brother. While I do have confidence in my strategy, I know that events may not fall out precisely as desired, and I've planned for every contingency. One way or another, I'm going to clip the Old Owl's wings."

Jhamur gave Thamalon time to draw his long sword and come on guard, but not an instant longer. She immediately sprang into distance, feinted a head cut, and then, when her husband's blade came up to parry, attempted a strike to the chest.

Thamalon reacted to the true attack in time. Retreating, he swept his sword to his left to close the line. The two blades rang together, and Shamur waited to counterparry his riposte, but instead of attacking in his turn, he simply took a second step backward.

"For the love of Sune," he said, his black brows drawn down in a fierce scowl, his cheek bloody from the shallow gash she'd cut there, "at least explain what this is all about."

"I told you," she said. "I know what you did."

She advanced and attacked again, beating his blade aside, then lunging and driving her point at his throat.

He hopped back, and the attack fell short. Shouting, her skirts whispering on the fallen snow, she ran at him, striving to plunge her point across those last few inches. He pivoted and brushed her weapon out of line. Now her blade was passe, beyond his body and poorly positioned for either offense or defense. Her safest option was to dash past her opponent and spin around to face him.

So that was what she attempted, meanwhile watching for his riposte so she could counter. Unfortunately, she was so intent on his sword that she lost sight of what his other hand was doing.

Suddenly his unlit horn lantern was hurtling down at her skull. She saw she had no hope of dodging it, so she threw up her unarmed hand and caught the blow on her forearm. One of the milky oval windows shattered, and the pewter frame around it buckled. The impact numbed her limb and knocked her off balance.

From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed him sprinting after her, the lantern raised for a second blow. Frantically, her boots slipping in the snow, she wrenched herself around and thrust her broadsword at his face, an attack out of distance but one that at least served to bring him up short.

Shamur scowled. Skilled combatant that he was, Tha-malon had nearly had her then. It didn't matter how furious she was, she mustn't attack so recklessly, as if there was nothing more at stake than a touch in a friendly fencing bout. This duel was life and death. More warily now, sizing up her adversary, looking for openings, waiting for an advantageous moment to attack, she moved in on him again.

"Just tell me!" Thamalon said. A snowflake drifted down to light on his shoulder. The frigid wind moaned.

"And then you'll lie and deny it, and I won't believe you," Shamur said. "Why don't we save ourselves some time, and simply fight?"

She slashed at his torso, and he used the battered lantern like a buckler to block the cut. Her blade lodged in it somehow, and when she jerked it back, it tore the makeshift shield from his grasp and weighted her own weapon down, rendering it useless. Seeing his opportunity, he charged her, his long sword lifted high to brain her with the heavy round steel pommel. She retreated hastily and flailed with her own sword to shake free the lantern. It landed with a clank on the ground. She extended her point, and Thamalon had to wrench himself to one side to avoid impaling himself.

That desperate attempt to check his momentum sent him reeling. He was virtually defenseless, but Shamur couldn't take advantage of it. Her scramble backward had deprived her of her own balance, and in the instant it took her to recover, he did so as well.

But she knew there would be other openings, and, smiling, she advanced on him again.

"Tell me," he said. The blood had run down to the ermine collar of his winter cloak, staining the white fur red.

Shamur beat his blade to the side, then thrust at his shoulder. Hopping back a step, his black boots with their gold and silver spurs crunching in the hindering, treacherous snow, he deflected her blade with a lateral parry. She waited an instant for his riposte, then, when it didn't come, lunged closer and renewed her attack, trying to hook around the long sword that still theoretically closed the line.

That was what Thamalon had been waiting for. With flawless timing, he waited until she was entirely committed to her action and he widened the parry. The two blades scraping together, he shoved Shamur's broadsword so far to his left that it had no hope of piercing its target. Worse, she was passe again, virtually unable to make another attack until she cocked her arm back as far as it would go or withdrew from such close quarters. Trying to take advantage of the situation, he grabbed for her wrist with his unarmed hand.

It was a mistake. He might be as good a fencer as she, but she very much suspected she was the better brawler, a skill she'd honed in disreputable taverns, thieves' dens, and alleys from Sembia to the Moonsea. She whipped her sword arm far to the side, easily avoiding his attempt to seize it, and smashed the heel of her empty hand into her husband's jaw.

Thamalon's head snapped back and he stumbled. Shamur recovered from her lunge and swept the broadsword in a savage cut at his torso.

By the time he saw the blow coming, it was too late to parry, but he managed to jump back. Her attack, which should have sheared through ribs and into the lung beneath, merely grazed him, ripping his lambskin jacket, doublet, shirt, and scoring the flesh beneath.

Snarling, she instantly attacked again. He retreated out of distance. She started to rush after him, then stopped, reminding herself again that, vengeful as she was, she couldn't let it make her rash. Thamalon would take advantage of any mistake.

So, taking her time, catching her breath, she stalked closer, then began to advance and retreat, advance and retreat, with the mincing, cadenced, subtle steps of a fencer attempting to hoodwink his opponent's perception of the distance. He hitched back and forth in time with her.

"I drew first blood, old man," she sneered. Perhaps she could rattle him with taunts and insults, although actually, she doubted it. As far as she knew, none of his other foes had ever succeeded with such a ploy.