The Darkness Before the Dawn - By Ryan Hughes Page 0,11
the sea of narrow faces turned toward him in the flickering firelight. They were all waiting to see what he would do, and he knew only one thing would satisfy them. He wasn’t about to get himself killed just to please a tribe of elves, but even if he hadn’t had an audience, he knew from experience that he had to stand up to Sahalik somehow or suffer his abuse indefinitely.
Trouble was, there was no way he could fight the elf warrior. Sahalik could tie him in a knot any time he wanted to, and they both knew it. Jedra’s only chance was to humiliate him somehow and make him afraid to tangle with the half-elf again. He thought frantically for anything in his experience that might work here, and suddenly he had it. He had seen a pair of jesters stage a mock fight one time…
Straightening his robe again, he stepped back a pace to give himself some room, then swept his right foot across the ground from side to side, drawing a deep line in the sand with the toe of his sandal.
“I dare you to cross that line,” he said.
The elves fell silent. They obviously hadn’t expected Jedra to challenge the strongest member of the tribe.
Nor did Kayan. What are you thing? she mindsent. She started to get up, but Jedra stopped her.
Stay there! I’m trying to keep from getting killed.
I don’t see how this is going to accomplish that, she said, but she settled back down.
Watch. Jedra beckoned to Sahalik with his fingers. “Come on, cross the line.”
Sahalik grinned widely and came to his feet with a smooth unfolding of his legs. Balling his hands into fists, he took a step forward, then another—directly across Jedra’s line in the sand.
But Jedra was no longer there waiting for him. The moment Sahalik had committed his weight to his second step, Jedra darted around him and dived for the vacant spot at Kayan’s side.
“Thanks for keeping my seat warm,” he said as nonchalantly as he could manage, twisting around to sit there as if nothing had ever happened.
The elves burst into laughter—all but Sahalik. The elf warrior whirled around to face Jedra, his eyebrows nearly meeting over his nose with the intensity of his scowl. He clenched and unclenched his fists, his face glowing even redder than the firelight could account for, then he shouted at the tribe, “Silence!”
He was their champion warrior, and next in line to be chief. They gave him silence. Sahalik turned back to Jedra and said, “You choose the coward’s way out. Amusing, perhaps, but foolish tricks will not serve you in the desert. I challenge you to prove your worth to the tribe.”
“He’s already done that,” Galar said, stepping up next to Sahalik. “Have you already forgotten how he helped you locate the slave caravan? And how he fought the psionicist and the magician there when we most needed him? His strength is mental, not physical.”
Sahalik spat into the fire. “Mental tricks are useless if he runs from battle. He must prove that he will fight, hand-to-hand in single combat, or he must leave us now.”
“He’s our guest, Sahalik,” Galar said.
“He is a parasite,” Sahalik answered.
Galar hesitated, obviously not wanting to put himself in Jedra’s place, but he couldn’t abandon his friend, either. Softly, he said, “This isn’t about Jedra and you know it. You’re just mad because Kayan prefers him to you.”
Sahalik nodded. “Perhaps. Then I challenge him to fight for her as well as for his own honor.”
Kayan had kept quiet so far, but at that she got up and stood in front of Sahalik, her hands on her hips, and said, “I’m not anybody’s property to fight over. I choose whom I want to associate with, and you’re not my type.”
Sahalik barely glanced at her. “Beware, human woman, or you may find yourself alone in the desert with only your chosen worm for company.”
A few of the other elves laughed at the affront, and Jedra realized he was losing them. They’d been perfectly happy to laugh at his amusing stories, and even at his practical joke, but he was an outsider and a half-elf. They weren’t going to back him against one of their own. He would have to defuse the situation some other way.
He rose to his feet and said, “All right, both of you, that’s enough. Insults and taunts are for children. We’re supposed to be adults here; why don’t we start acting like it?”