floor, the little creature righted herself, ripped away the fern fronds, and then raced in panic through the door. Fern fronds trapped her wings, but her legs drove her forward with an astonishing turn of speed.
The whole tavern erupted into chaos. One man tried to block the Justicar’s way and was straight-armed to the floor for his pains. Arrivingat the doorway a second after his prey had gone, the warrior kicked the door open and lunged out onto the open deck.
A spell blast ripped past his head. With Cinders giving an instant’s warning, the Justicar jerked back and felt the doorjamb beside himexplode into flames. He leaped instantly through the heat, sensing flames hungrily tearing at the wooden walls above.
The pixie saw him land. Snarling, she backed a step away and suddenly disappeared from sight.
“Cinders, shoot high!”
The hell hound blasted a huge sheet of flames across the escape route and into the open river. Invisible and cursing, the pixie dodged back the other way, fleeing to the upper decks of the barge.
With the tavern in flames behind him, the Justicar swore as he tied Cinders into place about his helm. He ran fast as he leaped past deckchairs wreathed in fire.
“Talk to me!”
That put her sprinting along the deck between a row of chairs. The Justicar ran hard and heavy in pursuit, matching his prey twist for turn as she fled in a panic up the superstructure and onto the highest promenade.
The Justicar dived and rolled, his heavy body hitting the deck in a practiced move that brought him back up to his feet. A lightning bolt ripped past his ribs, missing him by the thickness of a hair. The bolt struck the ship’s stern castle, severed a flagpole and sent a banner arcing down intothe panicked crowds below. Crew members were already running for water buckets and bellowing “Fire!” at the tops of their lungs. Flames blossomed as a brandycask caught fire inside the tavern door, blocking the stairs to the upper levels as blazing liquid sluiced across the decks.
Roaring with anger, the Justicar hurled a deck chair through the empty air, heard a thud, and suddenly saw a naked, skinny pixie skidding hard across the planks.
Fern-covered and disheveled, the blonde girl speared him with a glare of such pure, smarting malice that it almost hit him like a blow. The pixie spun onto her feet, one hand trailing a stream of glittering sparks as a new spell formed around her fingertips.
“I see it. Thanks!”
The Justicar summoned magic of his own and punched it out along the deck. It caught the pixie in the rear. The girl froze like a statue, caught in mid-stride by a spell designed to hold her paralyzed in place.
A naked study in panic, she stood balanced with her eyes bugging wide. Pleased with a job well done, the Justicar dusted off his hands and stalked menacingly along the deck toward his prey.
Chaos still reigned on the barge below. Gamblers and drunkards fought to escape the smoke-filled tavern as the fire bells screamed. Waitresses and working girls stampeded off toward the bow. The guards decided that the law had finally arrived upon the
Cinders seemed to dance and wriggle as he sensed the panic all over the barge.
“Sniff it in good health.” The Justicar stalked around toface his prey and squatted down on his heels to contemptuously meet the pixie face to face. “So, what have we here? A pixie that casts spells?”
Suddenly breaking from her sham, the pixie moved with lightning speed. With a squeal of glee, she slapped her hand across the Justicar’s face. Glittering pixie dust spattered him like a rainbow, and thehuge man froze in place instantly. The pixie danced across the deck, around and around her victim, who merely squatted on his heels and watched with dull, blank eyes.
Naked as a brat and seething with joy, the pixie finally leaned her elbow on her victim’s cheek and twiddled magic dust into the air.
“Faerie dust! Pure as dew, straight off the faerie’s butt!”The little creature had a husky voice with a twangy foreign accent. “Always knowthine enemy! Faerie dust! Once a day! Befuddles enemy.
Looking dazed and bemused, the Justicar stared dully at the girl. “Yes, Mistress. I am your boy-toy slave.”
“Perfect and Exquisite Mistress!”
“Too hoopy!” The pixie pranced and sat upon her victim’sknee. “And who’s the smartest damned girl that ever flapped her wings?”
“You are, O Perfect and Exquisite Mistress.”
“And who”-ripping away the last wriggling strands of fern,the pixie flicked out a brilliant cascade of blonde hair-“who is the mostbeautiful, most exotic, most sensual sight a mortal ever beheld?”
“You are.” The Justicar repeated the words with absoluteconviction. “You, O Perfect and Exquisite Mistress.”
“Of course.” The pixie turned a pirouette. “Praise me! Do youlike my hair? My nails? Don’t you just adore the smell of my skin?”
“Yes, O Perfect and Exquisite Mistress. Your hair is perfect,your wits are keen, you are graceful as a swallow’s flight.”
“Exactly.” The pixie sighed then folded her fingertipsbeneath her chin, perched in front of the Justicar, and prettily fluttered her lashes. “Is there anything else, O slave?”
“Yes, O Perfect and Exquisite Mistress.” The Justicar’s eyessuddenly flicked to spear the girl.
He snatched her like a bug and held the girl kicking and squealing in his hands. The Justicar rose to his feet and shook a last glimmer of faerie dust from his prize.
“A pixie with an ego problem.
Gaping, the pixie writhed with fury, unable to hide the astonishment in her eyes.
“I hit you with faerie dust, you bastard!”
“I went to school in Celadon forest.” The Justicar shrugged.“We ate that damned stuff like sugar.”
“Oh yeah-well that’s an option. I can see that!” The Justicartook a loop of cord from a pocket and dropped it over the girl, roughly trapping her wings and arms in place. “Come on! It’s high time we had a little talk aboutsome wagon trains.”
The pixie instantly sank tiny teeth into his hand, breaking the skin and making the man curse her and let go. She landed on her scrawny bottom on the deck, looked up, and hissed with triumph as a shadow loomed over the Justicar from behind.
A thin man in black tried to stab the Justicar in the spine. Cinders whipped his own head about, fixed the assassin in his mad red eyes, and gave a scream of glee.
The Justicar whirled, caught the stabbing blade with the same motion, and broke the assassin’s arm. He stabbed the man with his own knife,leaving the envenomed blade in the assassin’s gut as he continued to turncompletely around.
A second man had risen up over the rails. This man fired a bow-aiming not for the Justicar, but for the little
