Will the charge hold out? he wondered, glancing at the emerald and wishing he could judge its reservoir.
“Come on,” Ōbhin said and rushed forward, his ribs aching. He gripped his tulwar in his off-hand, a handicap, but he couldn’t run away now. Ust would butcher everyone in the house but Dualayn. Ōbhin could feel it in his bones.
Spite brimmed in Ust. He’d been humiliated. Ōbhin understood now the wound he had delivered to Ust had only festered into something cancerous and dark. It fed on Niszeh’s Tone, letting that disharmony consume him. Now he would unleash it. He would make everyone suffer to soothe his pride.
Ust had had a chance to change his life. To make other decisions. Instead of polishing his soul clean, he dirtied it further.
Ribs aching, Ōbhin rushed through the fog. A loud, shattering thud echoed through the mist. Light flooded before him, revealing a silhouette in a doorway. Ust had battered through the manor’s doors. Ōbhin’s boots thudded on the ground, Fingers and Smiles racing with him.
“Jilly!” Smiles screamed in desperation, his legs stretching out. He pulled ahead, running with a speed Ōbhin had never witnessed. Smiles gripped his sword as he rushed at the manor house and its breached door.
Ōbhin ran at his heels, agony burning across his broken ribs.
*
The front door burst apart into splintered chunks. The pieces slammed into Avena, Miguil, and Pharon. She gasped, reeling before the onslaught. Pain throbbed across the corner of her temple. A ragged gash bled near her hairline.
Jilly screamed from the stairwell above as Avena fought for balance. A form strode in from the mist, eyes glowing like diamond light, his naked body covered in streaks of dried blood. She hardly recognized Ust. He possessed a power the bandit leader hadn’t had last time; an innate strength radiated from him.
A brass candlestick hurtled down as Ust rushed to his right and threw a punch at Pharon. The butler threw himself back, only taking the blow on his upper shoulder. He spun through the air while the candlestick streaked down into the open doorway vacated by Ust. At the same moment, Smiles appeared in the shattered portal. His free hand snapped up and seized the candlestick hurtled by his wife. Jilly gasped from above as Smiles threw the candlestick in a smooth motion at the back of Ust’s head.
It bounced off his skull, the brass bass deforming. Ust whirled around. Avena couldn’t believe how fast he moved. The speed was astonishing. Faster than Dje’awsa’s jackals. Soft glows shone from within his feet, a yellow hue that faded as he faced the doorway.
“Thought I killed you,” Ust growled at Smiles. “Guess your head didn’t break. I’ll change that.”
Smiles shrugged. “Like I told my ma, got a hard head.”
Ōbhin rushed through the door next, his chainmail coat jingling. He clutched his right hand to his chest, cradling it. He held his tulwar in his left hand, raised in a guard position, high and threatening, the blade fuzzing from its vibrations.
“What is he?” Avena asked.
Ust’s head snapped to her. Those glowing eyes fixed on her. She shuddered and realized he had diamonds inserted where his eyes should be. He could see through them. A shiver ran through her body.
“Pretty Avena,” Ust said as he grabbed his manhood. “I got a better rod for you to hold righ—”
Ōbhin rushed in for the attack, his resonance blade slashing in a humming arc, emerald light spilling over the individual links of his armor. He cut for Ust’s hand manipulating himself. A vicious thrill shot through Avena.
Cut that filthy thing off, cheered through her head.
Purple flared. Something like a binding flashed before Ust, deflecting Ōbhin’s sword. The blade hit the energy, waves of mauve rippling across the surface. From the back of Ust’s hands, faint violet glowed through his skin.
He’s got jewelchines inserted beneath the skin, she thought. Dualayn had tried something similar to save Carstin’s life with knowledge he’d learned from the Recorder. Avena realized that this was somehow Dje’awsa’s work. Jewels in the mouth could bring back the dead, animating its body, but Avena was understanding that in the living, they could have far, far more impressive effects.
Faint green glowed from within Ust’s thighs, bleeding around corded muscles. When he moved to throw a blurring punch at Ōbhin, the yellow blossomed again. Emeralds could manipulate earth or strengthen things, just as Forgiveness strengthened and mended broken relationships. Heliodors made him swift; the color of Patience was often used in things involving air. Creating breezes to soothe and make the heat endurable. The diamonds shone with Honesty, lighting up the world.
Ōbhin, Fingers, and Smiles hacked and stabbed at Ust. Ōbhin’s blade was most effective. Ust had to stop his attacks to throw up shields to keep from losing his hands. It allowed Fingers and Smiles to slash from the side, driving him across the large entrance hall. They drove him towards the stairs.
Ōbhin slashed at Ust’s attack punching at Fingers’s head, a blurring fist that Ōbhin was just able to keep up with. The purple shield flared, amethysts glowing from the backs of Ust’s hands. Fingers stumbled out of danger. Then he rushed to the right, face flushed.
Smiles’s blade slammed deep into Ust’s side.
Ust roared as blood spurted around the wound. His fist blurred in. Smiles grunted and twisted back to avoid it while Ōbhin’s sword slashed in to deflect it. Both were too slow. The blow struck Smiles in the chest.
Avena screeched as her friend flew across the room and struck the wall, cracking the plaster. His head cracked back into the masonry. A wave of pale white, like colorless and lumpy flesh, flowed over his face.
She blinked at what she saw, confused. It had to be some trick of the
