scared?”
She glared at him. “I’m not scared!”
He laughed. “Hokay, shoore!” Then he gestured to Sonya’s captive. “Free friend?”
It was a risk, but she knew that the whole idea of coming here was one big risk. She met his smile with one of her own and shrugged as if it was no big deal. Then she sheathed her knife and let the Uaine girl at her feet go.
That Uaine girl immediately spun around and tried to stab her, but Sonya grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back, forcing her to drop the knife. Sonya kicked the weapon away, then twisted the Uaine’s arm more so that she was forced to drop to her knees. To further drive home the point, Sonya pressed her foot down on the woman’s back until she was bent forward with her face in the dirt.
Sonya nodded to the woman who struggled to get out from under her boot and looked at the man in chain mail. “Friend?”
He laughed even harder that time. “Aye, aye. Hokay.” He waved to the other Uaine and they lowered their spears and bows. He said something to the Uaine under Sonya’s foot, and she immediately stopped struggling.
“Friend?” he asked.
Sonya sighed and released the woman. This time she staggered to her feet and glared at Sonya for a moment as she rubbed her arm. Then she stalked over to join the others.
The man’s smile finally faded and his voice took on a more serious tone. “What friend want?”
“I want to offer an alliance to your emperor.”
“Em-or-ror?” he asked, rolling the r sound in a particularly drawn out manner. “What es thess?”
“Emperor. Your leader.”
“Oh, leader. Aye, Tighearna Elgin Mordha a’ Clan Greim es now… eh… lord o’ war?” He frowned thoughtfully and muttered something in his own tongue. “No, he es warlord of all Uaine. Thess make sense t’ ya’?”
“Yeah, that sounds right,” said Sonya. “I want to talk to him.”
The man’s grin returned as he said, “No.”
“No?”
“I say no,” he agreed. “But ya’ fight me. If ya’ win, I say yes.”
“Really?” asked Sonya. “That simple?”
He nodded. “But ya’ will lose. Because I es good.”
Now she laughed. “Not good enough to beat me.”
He laughed along with her. “Oh no? We see. Aye, we see.”
“We will,” she agreed.
He drew his sword and held it aloft with two hands. It was bigger than any Sonya had ever seen, but the weight didn’t seem to hinder him at all. “I am Blaine Ruairc, captain a’ Clan Dílis. Y’re honored t’ fight me.”
She held up her knife. “I’m Sonya Turgenev Portinari, Ranger of Marzanna. And the honor is all yours.”
His eyes widened as he looked at her knife. “That it? Ya’ sure?”
She flipped the knife into a reverse grip and nodded. “This is all I need.”
“Uh, Sonya…” Jorge looked very nervous. “Remember we want him to be a friend, so don’t kill him.”
“Kill me?” Blaine asked Jorge incredulously. He gestured to Sonya with the tip of his sword. “Lettle girl wi’ lettle blade. Na’ killin’ me.”
Jorge winced and looked pleadingly at Sonya. “Please don’t kill him.”
“Don’t worry, Jorge. I’ll just make sure he understands what a stupid thing that was to say.”
She lunged toward Blaine, but he slashed his massive blade with impressive speed. She deflected the blow with her knife and used its momentum to alter her course down and to the right. She rolled over one shoulder when she hit the ground, pivoted, and tried to trip him with a scissor kick, but he leapt back and out of the way. Despite his heavy sword and chain mail, he was quite nimble. But in leaping back, he had put enough distance between them that she was able to safely regain her footing.
She feinted another attack at his legs, then when he lowered his sword to guard, she somersaulted over the blade. That would have put her in striking distance, but he dropped backward until his shoulders hit the ground, then used his sword as a pivot on the ground so he could bring his feet up to kick her head. She caught his ankle with her hand before the hard leather boot could strike and spun around his leg like a pole, maneuvering so that her heel was aimed right at his pretty head, which was pressed against the ground with nowhere to go.
He saw where she was going and twisted his torso so that his leg yanked her to one side and sent her into another dive roll. They both regained