Warrior of the Wild(82)

I try to pull away to the side, but he twists our axes, tangling them together further, herding me toward the crowd. He’s going to back me up right into them.

My strength starts to waver, my muscles weakening, until I realize it’s not me.

Something is pulling on me from behind, aiding the god, and I think for a moment that maybe someone from the crowd has a hold of my ax.

I tighten my grip as the ax is nearly wrenched from my hands, and get pulled along with it. Peruxolo sneers at me as he halts in place, watching me fly backward.

My fingers gripping the ax crunch under the weight of something, and I think my middle finger might actually be broken. A beat later, my back slams against the ground with my ax pinned above my head.

When I finally adjust to the pain, I note that I haven’t actually reached the crowd. No, my ax pins my fingers against a tree trunk. The bark is broken in places, held to the tree by thick nails. And underneath, little slivers of that new metal. It’s drawn me here, and no matter how hard I pull, I cannot get my ax to part from it.

“You are beaten, Rasmira Bendrauggo,” Peruxolo says. “I send you into the next life to meet Rexasena’s wrath. Just as you have met mine.”

I’m not afraid. He can’t take another step forward without sticking to this tree just as my ax is.

Peruxolo drops his ax to the ground and reaches behind his back once more—for another silver dagger. I pull at my fingers, trying to free them from where the ax has them trapped, glancing over my shoulder at the god.

He pulls back his arm, taking careful aim.

I prop one foot against the bark of the tree and pull.

My head cracks against the rocky ground just as the dagger embeds into the bark where my body was just seconds before.

And though the world spins, I rise to my feet, launching myself at Peruxolo and his confused face.

I plow right into him, and the two of us go crashing to the ground. I land on top and get my thighs on either side of him to steady myself as I send a closed fist flying toward his head.

“My armor isn’t made of metal.”

I try to hit him a second time, but he catches it and bucks his hips, sending me flying off.

I land right next to his ax.

Peruxolo eyes it and then me. “No!” he shouts.

I fling it toward that tree. It would have landed no farther than five feet away if the natural forces at work hadn’t propelled it onward. It clanks into the bark right next to the ax Iric made me.

Confused grumbles now come from the onlookers as they wonder why Peruxolo would allow his own ax to be trapped by his power.

“Behold Peruxolo!” I shout for the whole crowd to hear. “He who uses nothing more than simple natural forces to keep you afraid and helpless. He is nothing without his lodestones.”

“You worthless bitch!” he yells.

We charge each other, colliding in a tangle of limbs and armor. I try to force him toward that tree, where he’ll be helpless, sucked against that sheet of metal with his lodestone armor, but there’s no denying that he’s stronger than I am.

I have lost any advantage I had, and now that our weapons are gone, now that the battle is down to fists and feet, Peruxolo has the upper hand.

He steps on my foot in his haste to force me back. The fingers in my right hand throb and swell from where I grip him. At least one of them is definitely broken. My head still spins.

In the next movement, I strike him on his left side where I sliced him deeply and he cries out.

“I am your god!” he says when the surge of pain passes. He backhands me, cracking my neck in the opposite direction. “You do not challenge me. You do not tell lies regarding me. You obey. You deliver your Payment. And you stay out of my way! I will have the whole Bendrauggo line for this!”

I backtrack, trying to gain some footing so I can strike, but Peruxolo follows. Knuckles dig into my cheek as he hits me again, and for one brief moment, my gaze lands on Soren, standing at the edge of the clearing. His body is rigid, and his teeth are clenched together.

You promised, I hope my look says.

I try to dig my hands around Peruxolo’s throat, but he’s forcing me backward. A fist into my throat has me choking for air. My eyes water, my throat burns. Every appendage throbs with pain.

I’m going to lose the fight.

But then Soren’s voice trails through my mind.

If things go wrong, if you need a breather, you get him to follow you to this spot.

I make sure I land a little more to the left after his next strike.

I want everything to end. I want my people safe. I want to go home. I want Peruxolo’s tyranny over.

He steps on my hand, the one with the broken finger, and I scream. He sends a kick into my stomach with his other leg. I can just imagine the satisfaction on Havard’s face at that move.

But I can’t let him kill me. Not here. I look around. There are the boulders. I need to get him closer.

I pull my hand free of his foot, even though it feels as though I’m pulling my finger off. I roll in the right direction, the move sending more pain shooting through all my injuries. I still can’t breathe from the kick that stunned my lungs.

When I stop, I look up, trying to find the boulders.

Just a few more steps.

I right myself, back up some more, my breaths coming faster than ever.

And then I watch the god take his last step.