you will be slain out of hand by the wills of my lord and the Lords of Outer Night.”
“I have this problem with buildings,” I said. “Maybe you noticed the columns back the other way . . . ?”
Alamaya gave me a blank look.
I sighed. Nobody appreciates levity when they’re in the middle of their traditional mumbo jumbo, I guess. “Nothing. Never mind.”
“Third,” Alamaya said. “The duel will begin at the next sounding of the conch. It will end only when one of you is no more. Do you understand the rules as I have given them to you?”
“Yep,” I said.
“Yes,” said Arianna.
“Have you anything else to say?”
“Always,” I said. “But it can wait.”
Arianna smiled slightly at me. “Give my father my thanks, and tell him that I will join him in the temple momentarily.”
Alamaya bowed to us both. Then she retreated from the field and back over to her boss.
The night grew silent. Down in the stadium, there wasn’t even the sound of wind. The silence gnawed at me, though Arianna looked relaxed.
“So,” I said, “your dad is the Red King.”
“Indeed. He created me, as he created all of the Thirteen and the better part of our nobility.”
“One big bloodsucking Brady Bunch, huh? But I’ll bet he missed all the PTA meetings.”
The duchess studied me and shook her head. “I shall never understand why someone hasn’t killed you before now.”
“Wasn’t for lack of trying,” I said. “Hey, why do you suppose he set up the rules the way he did? If we’d gone by the Code Duello, there’s a chance it could have been limited to a physical confrontation. Really seems to be taking away most of your advantages, doesn’t he?”
She smiled. “A jaded person might consider it a sign of his weakness.”
“Nice spin on that one. Purely out of curiosity, though: Once you kill me, what comes next?”
She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I continue to serve the Red Court to the best of my ability.”
I showed her my teeth. “Meaning you’re going to knock Big Red out of that chair, right?”
“That is more ambitious than reasonable,” she said. “One of the Thirteen, I should think, will ascend to become Kukulcan.”
“Creating an opening in the Lords of Outer Night,” I said, getting it. “Murdering your father to get a promotion. You’re all class.”
“Cattle couldn’t possibly understand.”
“Couldn’t understand that Daddy’s losing it?” I asked. “That he’s reverting into one of your blood slaves?”
Her mouth twitched, as if she were restraining it from twisting into a snarl. “It happens, betimes, to the aged,” Arianna said. “I love and revere my father. But his time is done.”
“Unless you lose,” I said.
“I find that unlikely.” She looked me up and down. “What a . . . novel outfit.”
“I wore it especially for you,” I said, and fluttered my eyelashes at her.
She didn’t look amused. “Most of what I do is business. Impersonal. But I’m going to enjoy this.”
I dropped the wiseacre attitude. The growing force of my anger burned it away. “Taking my kid isn’t impersonal,” I said. “It’s a Kevorkianesque cry for help.”
“Such moral outrage. Yet you are as guilty as I. Did you not slay Paolo’s child, Bianca?”
“Bianca was trying to kill me at the time,” I said. “Maggie is an innocent. She couldn’t possibly hurt you.”
“Then you should have considered that before you insulted me by murdering my grandchild,” she hissed, her voice suddenly tight and cold. “I am patient, wizard. More patient than you could imagine. And I have looked forward to this day, when the consequences of your arrogance shall fall upon both you and all who love you.”
The threat lit a fire in my brain, and I thought the anger was going to tear its way free of my chest and go after her without me.
“Bitch,” I spat. “Come get some.”
The horn blew.
45
Both of us had been gathering up our wills during the snark-off, and the first instant of the duel nearly killed us both.
I called forth force and fire, both laced with the soulfire that would help reinforce its reality, making the attack more difficult to negate or withstand. It took the shape of a sphere of blue-white fire the size of an inflatable exercise ball.
Meanwhile, Arianna fluttered her hands in an odd, twisting gesture and a geyser of water erupted from the soil with bone-crushing force.
The two attacks met halfway between us, with results neither of us could prevent. Fire and water turned to scalding-hot steam in a detonation that instantly washed back