her blond hair flying.
How? How did she get here? What is she doing here? She was supposed to be planetside.
Her legs were already moving. Maud dashed forward. Nothing else mattered.
Helen dove under a table, slid on her knees and crawled forward, disappearing from Maud’s view.
“Stay! Don’t move!”
A vampire got in her way, her armor marked with Kozor colors. Maud stabbed her in the gut, driving the sword through the armor with detached precision. The vampire groaned, Maud pulled her sword free and kept moving. Nothing mattered except getting to the table.
Another knight lunged at her. Maud leaned back a hair out of the way. The blade whistled through the air, fanning her face. She gripped the wrist attached to the hand that held the sword, jerked it up, thrust her blade into the exposed armpit, freed it, shoved the body out of the way, and kept moving. She was almost there.
Two knights, snarling and locked in combat, blocked her view. She halted. They tore into each other and moved to the right.
Onda stood by the table, holding Helen by her throat with one armored hand.
The world screeched to a halt. Maud went ice cold.
Helen dangled from the Kozor woman’s grip like a helpless kitten. Her face was turning blue.
Onda smiled wide and turned to Maud.
Helen jerked her hands up and drove both of her daggers into Onda’s face. The vampire woman screamed. A shimmer appeared on the table next to them and snapped into Nuan Cee. The merchant tossed a handful of pale powder into Onda’s ruined face, caught Helen as Onda collapsed, and dashed across the table tops, leaping nimbly over the larger armored fighters like he could walk on air. A blink and he landed among the lees.
“Let me go!” Helen snarled and kicked, but the lees swarmed her, petting her hair and making cooing noises.
Maud let out a shuddering breath, exhaling so much pressure, it felt like pain, then something burned her side. She spun out of the way of the pain, turning around.
Seveline grinned at her. “I’ve been waiting for this.”
Maud’s side was on fire. The armor kept most of the blood in and it drenched her, so hot it felt scalding. She forced a yawn. “Bring it, bitch.”
Seveline lunged, opening with a classic overhead stroke. The bitch was fast. Maud dodged left. Seveline reversed the swing, turning into an upward slash. The blood blade grazed Maud’s breastplate. The armor held. Maud danced back.
“Running?” Seveline sneered.
“I want you to feel like you’re doing well.”
“Is that so?”
“You’re so scared, you stabbed me from behind, so I’m trying to boost your confidence.”
Seveline bared her fangs.
Maud struck, lunging fast. Seveline parried. Maud let her blade slide off the other woman’s sword and thrust, aiming at Seveline’s throat. The vampire woman shied back and launched a furious counterattack. They clashed in a flurry of blows and blocks, neither fully committing, their swords meeting and parting too fast to follow.
Seveline ducked, and Maud’s sword whistled over her head. The vampire woman thrust from a near crouch. Maud knocked the blade aside and kicked but missed. They broke apart.
Sweat soaked Seveline’s hairline. Maud held completely still, trying to catch her breath. Her whole side was drenched in pain now. Every movement, even deep breaths, hurt. Fighting Seveline required everything she had, and she had attacked and parried on pure instinct. The more she bled, the slower she would be. Time was not on her side.
Seveline charged. Maud parried the slash. The power of the blow traveled up her arm into her shoulder, stabbing the joint. Seveline had switched tactics, banking on her greater strength. The blows rained down on Maud, big, wide, fast. She danced away, dodging and ducking. Her back touched a table. Seveline had backed her into a corner. An electric pulse of alarm burst through Maud.
I will survive this.
The vampire gripped her sword with both hands and brought it down with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Maud angled her blade down, catching Seveline’s sword at just the right place, and guided it down, out of the way. The momentum pitched Seveline forward and off-balance. Her face was wide open, and Maud hammered a punch into it.
Seveline stumbled back.
The world acquired a slight fuzziness. She was losing too much blood. She needed to end this now, or there would be no time with Helen, no evenings with Arland, and no holidays with Dina.
“You can’t beat me,” Maud said. “You’re not good enough.”
Seveline snarled and marched forward. Maud saw her