Richard Byers - The Shattered Mask

"I see you're changing your tactics," she said. "I promise, the cape won't save you. I understand that manner of fighting, too."

"You've known me for thirty years," he said, circling. He flicked the cloak at her, but she discerned that the action was a harmless display intended to distract her attention from his sword, and she ignored it. "Do you honestly believe I would have murdered a sweet young girl?"

"I've known you to be hard as diamond to get what you wanted," she said.

"Well, I never wanted to marry Rosenna Foxmantle," Thamalon said. He flicked the cape again, more forcefully, making the cloth snap like a whip. "The woman was little better than a harlot."

"And you know about harlots, don't you?" Shamur cut over his blade into the open line, then extended her arm and lunged.

He stepped back and over, shifting his left foot in front of his right and his cape hand ahead of his sword hand. The heavy wool mantle swept in a circle intended to brush Shamur's thrust to the side.

It was the defense she'd been hoping for. She let Thamalon feel the cape collide with her weapon, then instantly whipped the blade down and up into line again, freeing it of the folds of cloth that he'd hoped would hamper it. When he stepped through, putting the whole weight of his body behind a low-line stab at her thigh, she met the attack with a thrust in opposition. Her sword pressed his away and cut the inside of his leg just above the knee. It was yet another superficial wound, and she cried out in frustration.

Their exchange had brought them into close quarters, and he shoved her backward. At once, he tossed the cape, trying to drop it over her head and blind her, but she wasn't so off balance that she couldn't bat it away with her blade.

"First the lantern, then the cloak," she said. "You just can't hold onto a shield, can you?"

She advanced and he retreated, unfortunately not limping as far as she could tell. Above the trees, the first stars of the evening had begun to shine.

"Why would I have proposed to you… your counterpart… whoever if I weren't in love with her?" Thamalon asked. The bloodstain on his lambskin jacket looked black in the gathering gloom. "Not for money, plainly. You Karns didn't have any."

"For position," Shamur said. "Our marriage was the key to your acceptance by the Old Chauncel."

To her surprise, Thamalon snorted. "Perhaps you truly aren't the girl I courted so many years ago, for you certainly don't seem to understand the way things work in Selgaunt. Admittedly, our wedding helped reestablish the House of Uskevren, but it wasn't essential. Ultimately, and despite all their flowery paeans to honor and culture, most merchant nobles respect two things: money, and the strength to defend it. Once the Old Chauncel decided I had plenty of both, they would have opened their doors to me eventually."

She hesitated, for once again, he'd made a seemingly cogent point, though not, of course, sufficient to convince her. "I guess you simply weren't willing to wait."

She took three leisurely steps to accustom her retreating foe to that pace, then suddenly closed the distance with a fast one. She feinted a head cut, then a side cut, then came back to attack his head in truth. Thamalon blocked her out with a high parry, then spun his long sword in the beginning of a cheek cut. She raised her broadsword to counter, and his blade streaked down at her leg.

She hopped back and lashed her weapon down in a sweeping low-line parry. The swords rang together, then something jabbed her thigh. But it was only a little sting, and when she glanced down, she saw to her relief that he hadn't wounded her any more grievously than she had thus far managed to hurt him. Her second parry hadn't quite stopped his attack, but it had robbed it of most of its force. She slashed at his sword arm, and he hopped back.

"Suppose I did try to kill my fiancee," Thamalon said. His back foot slipped in the snow, but he recovered his balance before she could take advantage of it. "Do you honestly think I'd leave the murder weapon in an unlocked box in my bed chamber forever after, where you could so easily discover it? We have vaults in the cellar for hiding our secrets!"

She scowled. For a second, her weary sword arm quivered, till she willed the tremor away. "Ordinarily, I would agree that such carelessness is unlike you," she admitted, "except for one thing. Until I visited Audra Sweetdreams, I had no way of knowing what the bottle was."

"Well, do you think I'd leave it where our young children could stumble onto it and take a curious sip?"

"Oh," she sneered, gliding forward, "I'm to believe you care about the children now."

He retreated before her, realized he'd almost backed himself up against the trees, and pivoted to alter course. She chose that moment to attack, and pressed him hard until he succeeded in breaking away.

"Use your head," he rasped, his chest heaving. "If you were a shady dealer in illicit potions, would you dispense them in costly and highly recognizable glassware? For that matter, how likely is it that this Audra of yours gave me such a flask, and here she is still using exactly the same kind three decades later? I tell you, Shamur, someone induced her to lie, then planted the bottle in my room."

"I see," Shamur said. "Lindrian was a liar, and so is Audra. Everyone lies but you."

"They did He. Some schemer has perpetrated an elaborate ruse to provoke you into doing precisely what you're doing now."

"Why, when the world at large has no idea that the genteel Lady Uskevren knows how to kill?"

"Curse it, woman, whatever you choose to believe, consider this. If you slay me, someone is bound to find out."

Shamur laughed. "What do I care? After you're dead, I'll ride for Cormyr, and Selgaunt will never see me again.

There's nothing here I’ll miss." She grimaced. "Well, the children, but I've made my peace with that."

"All right," he growled, "if you won't see reason, let's finish it. You've made my life a misery for thirty years, and the Stalker take my soul to hunt through the sky if I let you rob me of what's left of it!" He sprang forward, his long sword streaking at her head.

Retreating, Shamur parried, cut at his chest, and instantly his blade smashed hers aside. She realized then that he hadn't expected his first action to reach its target. He'd been trying to draw a fast, direct stab from her, | which, since he'd been expecting it, he'd easily deflected. | Now his point flashed at her heart.

Leaping backward, she parried. His point dipped, evading her sweeping blade, and rose to threaten her torso anew. He bellowed a war cry and lunged. She took another retreat, spun her broadsword in a circular parry, and closed him out a split second before his weapon could pierce her breast.

She cut at his eyes, and the long sword swept up, forming a horizontal bar that hoisted her blade above his head. Holding her weapon trapped at the juncture of his blade and his guard, he stepped in close and pivoted his point down for a jab at her abdomen. Sucking in her belly, she flung herself around him. Her sword scraped free, and she thrust at the expanse of exposed ribs under his upraised arm. Not one fencer in a hundred could have whirled and parried that attack in time, but he did, then came at her again.

She almost felt as if she were dueling a new opponent, for his current mode of fighting, a relentless onslaught of strong, lethal attacks, was utterly different from the defensive style of evasions and counterattacks he'd employed before. She thought that if he'd battled this way from the beginning, he might even have defeated her, but he'd waited too long to start. He was tired now, and after a few more fierce exchanges, it seemed to her that his actions were finally starting to slow. Only a bit, but so evenly matched were they that a bit was all she needed.