Page 84 of Play of Shadows

Elation spread throughout my entire body, as if a man could become drunk on undeserved hope.

We can do this!I thought, marvelling at the possibility that Corbier’s skill with a blade might allow me to survive the night.The two of us can beat the Vixen at her own game—

No, Corbier said, and the word sounded like a death knell.

But I thought—

A new memory assaulted me, this one rooted even deeper than the others: the feeling of my body pivoting, just slightly, as my arm reaches full extension. The tip of the sword evades the enemy’s parry, piercing cloth, then skin, the feeble resistance of muscle and sinew quickly overcome until, sliding between the ribs, at last it buries itself deep into a still-beating heart. This would be no mere win; there would be no ending at first blood.

My right hand drew the rapier from its scabbard in a motion so fluid it was like water flowing down a river. Memories of a hundred past duels flooded my thoughts, a torrential river that dragged me below the surface.

We aren’t going to defeat the Vixen, Corbier said, taking his first steps towards the noblewoman whose arrogance exceeded even his own, and whose callous cruelty the Red-Eyed Raven would not tolerate.

We’re going to kill her once and for all.

Chapter 41

The Raven’s Blade

With a rapier in her hand, Ferica di Traizo, the Vixen of Jereste, was a marvel to behold. I could still remember the first time I’d stood among the cheering crowds of a packed courtroom, holding my breath as she glided around the duelling circle with preternatural grace, always smiling. Lean and broad-shouldered, she looked more feminine in her fencer’s blouse, waistcoat and trousers than when draped in the gaudy finery of a noblewoman. Professional duellists often claimed that the hardest part of fighting the Vixen was to stop oneself from falling in love long enough to remember to parry.

‘Are you going to cavort about like an overexcited puppy all night, my Lady Fox?’ I asked.

My voice, but Corbier’s words. Far more unnerving, I was holding my rapier too loosely, allowing the point to drag along the floor as I sauntered around the circle with no more finesse than a man on a midday promenade.

The Vixen pivoted on her back foot and launched herself into a devastating lunge, moving almost too quickly for the eye to follow. Even as reflexes not my own kicked in and my guard came up in a diagonal sweep to knock her blade away, her tip dipped under mine and caught me on the forearm. Before Icould so much as attempt a counter-attack, she’d returned to her previous position and resumed walking the circle.

I stared down at the trickle of blood from the shallow cut. ‘Are you sure you’re a vixen?’ I heard myself ask. ‘You prance like one of those show ponies ridden on parades by soldiers too old to fight.’ My knee came up in a preposterously high step and then stomped on the ground once, twice, thrice. ‘Can you do sums as well?’

‘First blood has been shed,’ Beretto shouted from the corner of the room where he and Rhyleis were forced to sit like idle spectators, surrounded by six of the palace guards. ‘Honour has been satisfied!’

‘The actor is correct,’ Captain Terine said. ‘The matter is now settled. The combatants will withdraw.’

I laughed, a deeper, crueller sound than had ever before emerged from my throat. ‘You ought to know your own duchy’s duelling laws better than that, Captain. While it’s true that the presiding magistrate has the right to callprimada sanguidato halt any duel at first blood, the principle only applies afterbothfighters have made their initial attack.’

The Vixen’s eyes narrowed as she at last understood why her opponent had made no move to strike.

Clever plan, I thought.Except you’ve just let it slip and now she has the advantage over us!

Corbier was untroubled.Whatever paltry benefit she gains from knowing our intent is vastly outweighed by the overconfidence that knowledge will instil in her. You said it yourself: our Lady Fox likes to play with her food before she eats. Her style is to launch feints and half-thrusts here and there, gradually ensnaring her opponent until it’s too late for them to regain their own tempo. She’ll be more cautious now.

The Vixen and I continued to circle each other. She launched a flurry of slashes and low thrusts, but Corbier refused to let meeven attempt a parry; he simply had me give ground, a small step at a time. The cost was a nick to my left cheek and another shallow cut on my sword arm.

Your strategy doesn’t appear to be working, I pointed out, feeling the blood trickling down my face. Perhaps if you moved our fucking arse a little more?

Again Corbier ignored my fear.You pretend at ignorance, Damelas Chademantaigne, but I can sense your instincts as easily as you perceive mine. Your grandmother trained you from childhood– that learning is deep inside you even now. Why do you refuse to let it out?

Because you’re wrong, you lunatic. I’m no swordsman, and I’ll be even less of one if you let the Vixen take my legs out from under me!

Almost as if she’d heard me, she ducked down low and placed her left hand on the floor to hold herself steady as she swept her sword three inches above the ground, threatening to sever my ankle. I lifted my forward foot at the last instant without a trace of gracefulness, looking more like an old man trying to step over a puddle.

What a fool she is, Corbier said, again not bothering to counter-attack.

She’s the deadliest fencer in Jereste.

Fencer, perhaps, but a fencer isn’t a duellist. Have you forgotten your Errera Bottio already?

One of the principal things I’d taken fromFor You Are Sure to Diewas that Bottio must have become terribly pessimistic in his old age.

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