Page 111 of The Last Slayer
Finally I was an instant too slow in ducking and his sword hit my helmet. It cracked; my vision dimmed for a second, and I felt something sticky and wet oozing from my left temple. I staggered; Nathanael thrust toward my chest. My amphitere dipped and partially disengaged, shoving me away from the killing stroke.
The beast saved my life. Nathanael’s blade still reached me, but without sufficient force to penetrate. Still, the impact from the blow drove all the air from my lungs and dented my armor, drove me to one knee. One of Leh’s vials broke, its jagged glass digging into my flesh. A warm moisture trickled down my torso, mixing with my sweat and blood, burning like acid.
“Ashera!” Ramiel’s anguished cry was loud enough to carry even over the sounds of battle.
My amphitere made a quick turn, throwing Nathanael off balance and giving me a slight respite. As I swayed, my helmet split and fell from my head. The cold rain on my face was an instantly sobering shock. I flung my wet hair out of my eyes, searching for Nathanael. The liquid from Leh’s vial began to evaporate, and the burning sensation eased.
In the midst of battle it was as if time froze for a moment. In the middle distance above, Ramiel had disengaged from Semangelaf and was diving my way, his pale opponent following closely behind. Two dragons off to my right, copper and cobalt blue, were twisted in a hideous ballet, rending each others’ armor. Below, what looked like liquid patches of metal moved across the landscape, meeting and mixing in battle.
Leh’s vial had broken and…nothing else happened.
That’s it? I thought. There’s no magic or anything?
Time went back to normal. Nathanael had regained his footing and was turning to face me. I tightened my grip on my sword. One of us was going to die before the day was over.
Suddenly a bittersweet melody filled the air. Leh’s voice rose around us like a symphony, the exquisite sound drowning out the wind and all the pandemonium of battle. It was as if I’d suddenly gone deaf, except for notes so unbearably beautiful they brought tears to my eyes.
Nathanael stared at me, unbelieving. I saw his lips form a word.
“Leh.”
The sword in my hand felt as heavy as a drake’s leg, but this was my chance. As the song faded and other sounds reappeared, I lifted and plunged it toward his heart.
He made no move to defend himself. His amphitere threw its weight sideways at the last instant. My blade slid deep into his ribs, just missing the heart. Nathanael gasped, blood instantly soaking his robe, and fell off, plunging toward the ground below.
His amphitere shrieked and tried to disengage, swinging its tail wildly. Mine redoubled its attack. With Nathanael gone I could join in, and in a moment his amphitere was dead, my mount’s jaws on its neck and my s
word through its chest.
“Nathanael!” Semangelaf cried. He wrenched his amphitere into a screaming dive and overtook Nathanael, plucking him from the air.
Ramiel reached me at last. I wanted to finish Nathanael off, but I’d pushed my luck enough for one day and wasn’t going to take my chances against another dragonlord. My amphitere fell in with Ramiel’s and he leapt across the distance to crush me to his side.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not badly.”
His gloved hand ran over my forehead and hair, checking for himself. I winced, and his arm around my waist pulled me closer. His muscles were practically vibrating, and I realized with surprise that he was shaking. Fulfilling his vow mattered a great deal to him, but this was more than that. I looked up to see real anguish in his eyes and the vise around my heart loosened a little.
As I relaxed against him I glanced down to where Semagelaf was circling. I wanted to make sure he didn’t try anything underhanded while Ramiel was distracted with me.
Nathanael looked up at me from Semangelaf’s amphitere and smiled. It sent shivers down my spine.
“My clever girl.” His voice was projected weirdly—even from that distance I could hear him clearly. “I didn’t know how far you’d go to stop me. You even foiled the Seekers. Clever…so clever.” He slumped.
Semangelaf’s hold on Nathanael tightened, and he soared into the air. Madainsair’s dragons regrouped around their dragonlords, as ours did around us, and things grew quieter.
“You should leave while you still can,” Ramiel called across the sky to Semangelaf. “You may outnumber us, but half your force has lost its will to fight.”
Semangelaf shot us a look that froze my blood. “This isn’t finished, cripple.”
Ramiel smiled, but his eyes remained hard. “Would you prefer that we finish it?”
Semangelaf spat a curse but called his dragons into retreat. I watched them go, reconsidering. Maybe if we pressed the situation, we could kill them all. Semangelaf and Nathanael both. Then I’d be free of them.
“I know you want to pursue them. But we needed to take care of our injured as quickly as possible.” Ramiel gestured at our own warriors that lay dead or hurt on the ground. I knew what he meant. With dragons breeding so infrequently, a Pyrrhic victory was out of the question.
He was right, of course. I couldn’t ask everyone to risk their lives, especially the dragons from Besade and Higashiro. This wasn’t their fight.
