“Hey, maybe we’d be better prepared for this if we all knew why they’re so pissed off at you,” Cheyenne suggested. When Corian and the goblins shot her confused looks, she shrugged. “Okay, I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t know.”
“They’re the last of Gúrdu’s tribe,” Maleshi hissed. “I led a siege against Felagtrok under the Crown, and apparently, these are the ones I didn’t manage to get my hands on before they fled.”
Cheyenne narrowed her eyes. “What happened to the rest of them?”
“I gave Gúrdu the option to make the crossing. Perks of being an Oracle, I guess. And then I killed everyone else.” Maleshi stopped, looked at the halfling, and shrugged. “It was a different time, kid. I was different.”
“I sure hope so.” Cheyenne watched the general pace, then had to look away. “You’re making me nervous.”
“I don’t give a shit about your fragile composure right now. I’m too busy with my own.”
Cheyenne and Corian exchanged quick glances, and the nightstalker man shook his head. “We’ll hold right here. That’s all there is to it.”
“And if they attack us?”
“Relax.” L’zar lifted his forearm from his knee to wave his daughter’s concerns aside. “They’re not going to attack.”
“You want a sliver of your honor back, nilsch úcat?” The shouting raug thumped his fist on his chest over and over. “Let’s see how you fight when I rip those fancy little whiskers right out of your coward’s face!”
Maleshi hissed again and vanished in a flash of silver light. A second later, she’d stopped two feet from the line of raugs and snarled at him. “I dare you, grayskin. Anyone who holds onto the past this long has nothing else worth their time.”
“Smashing you into the ground would be worth my time.”
The raugs behind him chuckled darkly and snarled at the nightstalker. Two of them stepped forward, and Maleshi cocked her head. “Don’t.”
“Why not, Hand of the Night and Circle?” The closest raug licked his gray lips with a shiny black tongue and sneered, eyeing her. “You look so soft.”
The general lifted her arms away from her sides and extended four-inch claws from every finger. “Wanna bet?”
“Maleshi,” Corian shouted. “Not here.”
“This looks like the perfect place to me, vae shra’ni.” The general spread her arms wider and lifted her chin at the sneering raugs in front of her. “Unless every one of you wants a repeat of the Felagtrok. I didn’t tell anyone about the cowards who ran off and abandoned their tribe that day, but now we have witnesses.”
Another raug hissed a bitter laugh. “I thought this was the General Hi’et who abandoned her post for a world full of weaklings. What a convenient way to avoid paying for what you’ve done!”
Maleshi snarled and took a step toward him, pulling her arm back and holding it there, ready to strike.
“I said, not here!” Corian came toward them in a flash of silver light and grabbed the general’s shoulder. “If it comes to it, let them strike first.”
The raug in front of Maleshi lunged forward and swung a powerful uppercut into the general’s stomach. She flew across the stone courtyard, and in nightstalker fashion, landed in a crouch, sliding across the stone and glaring at the raug with a wild hiss.
The raug looked at Corian. “Thanks for the invitation.”
The nightstalker glared at him. “That’s not what I meant.”
Maleshi flashed past him in a blaze of silver light and barreled into the raug, slashing across his chest with her claws. The other five gray-skinned magicals roared in approval, shouting insults at Maleshi and encouragement to their fellow raug as the two battled it out with their fists and claws.
“This isn’t why we’re here!” Corian shouted over the noise. “Maleshi, call it off.”
She darted around the raug, who spun in the opposite direction and knocked her out of her enhanced speed when his left fist cracked into her jaw.
“Dammit, Hi’et!” Corian ducked when another raug swung at him. Then he hissed, rolled his shoulders, and blasted the attacking magical with a bolt of silver lightning.
“Jesus.” Cheyenne jogged toward the nightstalkers, who were in furious single combat with two raugs. It’s gonna be two against six pretty soon. I thought I was the one who got pissed-off and stupid.
“Hey!” She stopped four feet away from the cheering group of raugs and summoned a crackling black sphere of energy in one hand. “I know all of you can hear me. We have bigger problems to deal with right now, and this isn’t helping.”
L’zar stayed where he was, his forearms dangling over his knees, and chuckled.
“Fuck this.” Lumil clenched her fists and summoned the red, spinning runes around them. “No way am I sittin’ this one out.”
“Nope.” Byrd’s hands filled with green flames, and both goblins raced toward the fight.
“You’re all a bunch of idiots,” Cheyenne shouted, trying to be heard without getting closer.
“Kiss my goblin ass, you beefy shits!” Lumil raced past the halfling and punched the closest raug where a human’s kidney would have been. The raug stumbled forward with a grunt, whirled toward the goblin woman, and snatched the front of her leather jacket before tossing her away with one hand.
Byrd ran screaming into the fray, ducking huge, swinging gray arms and blasting green fire in all directions.
Every raug roared and focused on a new target. One of them hooked a claw through the back of Byrd’s collar and lifted the goblin off the ground, swinging him from side to side and grinning. The hulking magical beside him burst into thunderous laughter until Lumil launched at him and smashed her spell-enhanced fist into his mouth.
“Dammit.” Cheyenne gritted her teeth and quickly scanned the fighting magicals. “Guess it’s a full-on brawl now.” She launched the crackling sphere of magic at the raug swinging both fists toward Lumil and knocked him back enough that he missed. Lumil cackled and dropped to her knees to bring her fist up into his muscular gut.
The halfling sent her lashing tendrils toward
