more there was a protest. “I beseech you again to stop this insanity, Maiev Shadowsong! If you think we must be judged, then bring us before the people of Darnassus—”
“‘The people of Darnassus’? They will do anything the high priestess or the archdruid tells them! I am the only honest arbiter for this! I am the only one who can mete out true justice for your damnable crimes!”
“This way,” Malfurion whispered. “I want you to go by that tree, then wait—”
Jarod shook his head. “No. You will need a distraction. I will draw Maiev’s attention.” He paused, then added, “I would like to take her alive, but . . . do what you must. . . .”
The archdruid nodded. “As you must, I am sorry to say. Be wary, Jarod. At this point Maiev may consider you nothing more than another enemy to be slain. She let me live only because she wanted me not only to know I had failed to save the Highborne but also so that she could later tuck me into some foul prison and slowly torture me.”
The former guard captain’s expression grew cold. “Maiev will try to kill me. I know that.” Jarod’s eyes narrowed to slits. “For her sake, she had better hope she succeeds. . . .”
Without another word, he left Malfurion and headed toward his sister. Jarod straightened as he stepped out of the woods, one hand clutching the knife.
“Maiev . . . ,” he quietly called.
Without even looking, she replied, “Jarod. Have to say I am proud of you for finding me.” She peered over her shoulder at her brother. “Of course, that does not mean I will not make you regret it.”
Her hand moved with a speed that surprised even him. A knife shot not toward him—but rather where Malfurion hid.
A branch shifted seemingly of its own accord. The knife struck deep—and something hidden on the handle flew free.
The forest in that direction exploded into flames.
Jarod gaped. The inferno spread so quickly, he could not see how Malfurion could have protected himself in time.
Even as she tossed the knife, Maiev used her other hand to throw something else at her brother. However, Jarod had already moved by then, lunging toward his sister and not away as she had evidently expected.
Behind him he heard a crackling sound. Ignoring the distraction, he threw his own knife at his sibling.
Maiev, her crooked smile taunting Jarod and her hand reaching for her crescent, vanished. Her helmet, released as she went for the weapon, fell to the ground.
But Jarod, aware that as warden she had the ability to teleport herself short distances, and having made a calculation of her viable directions—not to mention her insidious thinking—turned his lunge into a roll.
Maiev reappeared only a short distance away and at an angle that would have given her a clean strike at her brother. However, she had only a moment to finish drawing her weapon when Jarod bowled her over.
The two sprawled together. Maiev lost her grip on her crescent. The blades in his sister’s cloak cut Jarod in several places but caused only superficial wounds. Jarod tried to stop his momentum. Unfortunately, he sensed that Maiev had recovered first. Again she vanished, reappearing a few yards from him.
“You are getting sneakier!” she jested madly. “That is more like it! That is how you survive when those above send you on one hellish journey after another! That is how you live when demons torture you or the people you are fighting for spit on everything you swore to uphold!”
As she spoke, another pair of Watchers trotted into sight. They were not armed with umbra crescents, as he would have expected, but rather glaives. Their murderous gazes fixed on Jarod. One then looked to Maiev.
“Oh, by all means, kill my brother,” she commanded. “He came here to save them, which makes him as guilty!”
“Maiev—” But before he could try to reach whatever sanity might remain within his older sibling, her two followers threw their weapons. He saw why they had glaives now; the crescents were deadly but could not be tossed. Skilled as they were, the Watchers could adapt to whatever weapons worked best for the moment.
Jarod managed to completely dodge the first, but the second cut into his right calf. Although he still proved sufficiently dexterous to avoid more than a glancing cut, the pain was enough to throw him off balance.
“I had actually hoped you would see the truth of things, Jarod,” Maiev said with mock