roundhouse blow to the side of his head.
Jedra jerked back, instinctively kicking out as Sahalik leaned forward, and his sandal-clad foot caught the elf square in the face. His psionic force-projecting ability added to the blow, but not enough. Sahalik rocked back but he didn’t go down, and he came forward again with murder in his eyes.
But Jedra wasn’t there. He had scrambled back until he could get to his feet, then leaped straight over the fire, putting it between himself and Sahalik. Finally, he managed to draw a ragged breath.
“Coward!” Sahalik shouted, jumping over the fire after him, but Jedra had expected just that. While the elf was still in the air, he reached out with his good hand and swept Sahalik’s feet upward behind him. Sahalik came down on his hands, and this time Jedra leaped on his back, coming down hard with both knees over the elf’s kidneys and reaching with his good hand for Sahalik’s left arm. He got the warrior’s bulging forearm in his grip and managed to pull it out from under him, but instead of collapsing face first into the ground, the enormous elf rolled backward as he fell, pinning his own arm under himself but also knocking Jedra off balance.
Then Sahalik rolled over again—and wound up straddling Jedra, his knees on Jedra’s arms. Jedra tried to kick at the elf’s head, but the best he could manage was a knee in the back. Sahalik merely leaned forward, and then Jedra couldn’t do even that. He tried to punch Sahalik psionically, but without Kayan’s help his power was so weak the elf hardly budged.
“You fought better than I expected,” Sahalik said. “But you still lost. And there is no prize for second place in battle.”
Jedra could barely hear him over the shouting elves, but his meaning was clear enough even so, especially when he leaned still closer and gripped Jedra’s neck in his massive right hand.
“Let us see how long you can hold your breath,” the elf said, and he began to squeeze.
Jedra felt his throat constricting, first his windpipe and then even the blood supply to his head being squeezed shut. Bright red streamers began to swirl in his vision. He had only a few seconds left before he would lose consciousness, and he could hardly move a muscle to prevent it. His forearms and legs were the only things he could move, but they could not even reach Sahalik, much less do the elf any damage.
Let me help! Kayan’s voice in his mind was overlaid with fear for his life.
Her panic, combined with his own, nearly made him accept her offer. Who cared if they blasted this hulk of an elf into bloody gobbets? But Jedra wasn’t quite panicked enough to ignore the consequences of that.
No, Jedra told her, but that moment of contact gave him an idea. Their combined psionic power might be too dangerous to use, and his pushing ability was too weak to do much good by itself, but he did have one other talent he could employ on his own…
He focused his thoughts on Sahalik, forging a link with his adversary’s mind, then when he saw the elf’s eyes bulge with the same panic Jedra felt, he slapped his broken hand hard against the ground.
The pain that shot through his arm felt like molten lava running down the center of the bone. Jedra cried out in agony—but so did Sahalik. And for just an instant as the elf’s muscles spasmed with empathic pain, his grip on Jedra’s throat relaxed.
That was all the advantage Jedra needed. He heaved his body upward with all his might, overbalancing the elf and sending him over backward. Scrambling free before his opponent could grab him again, Jedra leaped over the fire to give himself a moment to recover his strength.
He had precious little left to recover. He gasped for air, his vision wavering even more than the flames before him, and his muscles all felt as if they were about to fall from his bones. He staggered to the left, struggling just to stay on his feet, but when Sahalik charged around the fire toward him he managed to run a couple of steps, then dodged sideways and stuck out his leg to trip the elf again.
This time Sahalik was ready for him. The elf warrior grabbed Jedra’s outstretched leg, yanking it upward hard enough to pull his other leg completely off the ground too. Instead of letting him fall, Sahalik grabbed