He quickened his pace further when he saw the silent woman reach behind her and pluck a thin sword from beside the enclosure. “Minx!” shouted Kaleb, charging down the square.
In the next instant, Minx's cloak had been cast off and slashed in two by the razor-sharp edge of that glistening blade. It fell between Minx and the fog-eyed guard, and already Minx had nocked an arrow in her bow. From close proximity she let the shot fly, but was stunned when the shaft was parried by another thrust of the thin sword.
This woman with the long hair, haunting eyes and reptilian hands was committed to guarding Mau's cage with the utmost seriousness. Whether she'd been hired by someone else to keep watch over the Faelyr, or was herself the one who had taken Mau to begin with, remained to be seen. “I will give you this opportunity, and this opportunity only, to turn back from here,” she said, both of her scaled hands wrapped tightly around the hilt of her sword. Her stance was sure and her handle on the sword exuded confidence. This woman was no novice.
Minx did not answer, except to pull two arrows from her new quiver and nock them together. She jumped upward, landing in a crouch on the corner of the steel cage, and loosed the double volley, the pair of arrows diverging a bit as they sailed toward the woman's center of mass.
The guard, skilled with her blade, succeeded in chopping through one of the incoming arrows with incredible speed, and had accounted for the trajectory of the other in her movements so that it merely grazed her pale shoulder before crashing into the ground. Pivoting into an offensive stance, she lurched forward and swung her blade in a wide arc, shearing off the tip of Minx's next arrow before she could even fully nock it.
Minx jumped from the cage, scaling the edge of the crumbling wall, and fired another shot from above. Her target, silvery hair flowing in the breeze as she dodged, leapt forward, planted her pale, bare feet against the wall and dashed up the side of it, delivering a savage slash that would have cleaved Minx in two if not for her evasive footwork along the narrow edge of weathered stone.
This odd woman was Fae—or something like Fae. But she smelled like a dragon. Kaleb had never seen anything like her. He didn't have the least interest in jumping into battle against her; rather, he wanted to ask her questions. Minx engaged the mysterious sword-wielder with a murderous glare in her eyes, however—every shot that flew from her bow was intended to kill. “Hold on!” he called out, tossing away his cloak. “Let's calm down for a minute and talk!”
Neither Minx nor her opponent heard him, however.
Kaleb's experience with the Fae prior to meeting Minx had been practically non-existent, but he'd heard much from his elders about their culture and practices. The Fae were a proud race, a race that valued competency in battle above most everything else. They were given to hot-blooded duels to settle longstanding feuds, and these struggles, often in public, never failed to attract many onlookers. Despite their size, the Fae possessed surprising strength and great dexterity, making them capable hunters with the right training. Kaleb had faced Minx one-on-one and had personally witnessed her consummate skill with the bow numerous times.
By the looks of it, this lone woman guarding Mau's cage was no slouch, either.
Just as the duels in Fae territory would often continue until one of the fighters was killed, so too would this fight keep going until one of them was dead.
That is, unless he intervened.
Minx dodged a thrust of the sword and descended from the top of the wall with a dusty thud. Her attacker was upon her in the next moment, sailing down from above and sweeping the ground with her blade. The Fae huntress saved her ankles from being slashed with a well-timed hop and sent an arrow barreling past the sword-wielder's head—which nearly struck Kaleb.
“Enough!” Kaleb trudged toward the pair, coming to stand between them—but no sooner had he interfered was he the target of a powerful swing of the blade. The mysterious Fae slashed at him, connecting with the rings of black plate armor around his forearm. The blade did not penetrate, but as she drew away and prepared another attack, Kaleb noticed the glittering red finish had been gouged by the strike.
Minx treated the dragon shifter as another obstacle, stepping past him and loosing a whistling arrow that ate through the edge of the woman's rough outfit. The sword-wielding Fae returned this volley in kind, delivering a powerful jab that would have skewered Minx if not for Kaleb's steady hand.
Watching the movements of the sword very closely, he'd managed to reach out and grab the Fae's thin arm before she could connect with her weapon, and applying his forceful grip, the dragon shifter put pressure on her forearm till she cried out in pain and the sword fell from her grasp. She fell to her knees, tugging and panting but ultimately unable to pull away from him.
He heard the smooth nocking of an arrow, the drawing of a bow. “No!”
Minx had wasted no time. With her opponent disarmed by the dragon shifter, she'd loaded a fresh shot and prepared to deliver a point-blank coup de grace. The arrow had begun to fly, only to meet its terminus in Kaleb's waiting hand. The sharpened tip of the arrow sheared the skin of his palm neatly, but he was able to stop the thing before it reached its intended target, and he cast it away with a wince.
“What are you doing?” demanded Minx, pulling another arrow from her quiver.
At this, he reached out and took Minx by the arm, pulling her close with such unexpected force she dropped her bow. A wide-eyed rag doll in his furious gaze, she found herself nearly nose-to-nose with him, his hot breath streaking
