sadness as she turned back to the imprisoned Highborne. “You sacrificed so much in the beginning. But I guess the same thing that made you decide you could just leave behind your duty and go off merrily with some trollop from the temple makes it impossible for you to appreciate what I have been doing.”
She eyed the magi. Jarod, trying to find some sort of shield as the glaives returned to his two pursuers, saw that in addition to Archmage Mordent and the other Highborne, there was a corpse of another mage a short distance away. His body was absolutely white, as if covered in frost.
Jarod had no time to wonder at the cause of the Highborne’s demise. He knew that Maiev was responsible, and that was all that mattered. Worse, from the way she studied the other captives, it was clear that she intended to speed up the executions.
Another glaive went flying at Jarod. He judged its speed and dropped to the ground. At the same time he brought his foot up and kicked the soaring glaive from underneath.
He only barely missed having his boot and the toes inside sheared off. Still, Jarod accomplished what he desired: the glaive wobbled, then crashed to the ground fairly close to him.
But getting the weapon was another question. As he moved toward it, the second glaive came at him. He also saw that the owner of the first weapon now had a long dagger drawn and was heading in his direction.
Jarod rolled to the side as the second glaive passed. The spinning blades flew back toward their wielder. He used the moment to reach his objective.
However, instead of using it to defend himself, he threw the first glaive in the direction of his sister.
One of the other Watchers called out the alarm. Maiev vanished, reappearing next to her umbra crescent. She need not have been concerned with his attack, though, for she had not been his true target. That distinction went to a small golden cone that she had been bending down toward—a cone with four stones the color of pearl.
The glaive struck head-on. The cone shattered and the stones flew off in different directions.
Jarod had hoped that by destroying the artifact he would free the Highborne, but such was not the case. They remained prisoners, although he saw that there was relief on the face of more than one. At the very least, Jarod appeared to have either stopped the executions or somewhat delayed them.
His sister answered that question. “So clever, my little brother. I will fix it soon enough, though.”
He had no chance to worry about that, for the Watcher with the dagger then attacked. She slashed back and forth at Jarod, in between each slash kicking at either his midsection or his legs. He managed to stumble out of her way each time, although the gash in his calf grew increasingly painful with each movement. Out of the corner of his eye, Jarod saw his second foe calculating the aim of her glaive.
Aware that the second Watcher did not know that he saw her, Jarod pressed his defense against the first. Yet, he kept the other ever on the edge of his gaze.
His immediate foe kicked again. Risking getting sliced through the throat by her dagger, the former guard captain bent forward and seized her ankle.
Although taken aback and off balance, she nevertheless used the dagger as best as she could, cutting at the hand that gripped her. Jarod grunted with pain as the dagger’s tip scraped along his wrist to his hand. Despite the danger, he pulled as hard as he could, bringing her to him.
At the last, Jarod spun her around. The Watcher twisted.
But it was not the oncoming glaive that struck. The glaive flew past the pair, then rose up as it began its return to its wielder. Rather, what cut his foe through the back, regardless of her armor and severing the spine in the process, was his sister’s umbra crescent. Maiev, her helmet on and using the glaive as a distraction, had teleported up to her brother in order to catch him from behind.
A permanent glare across her lifeless face, the Watcher collapsed in his arms. Maiev disappeared.
The other Watcher reached for the approaching glaive. Scooping up the dagger, Jarod threw it. As the second Watcher started to rise, the blade hit her in the chest. The small weapon did not penetrate the armor but did distract the Watcher.
The glaive spun past her hand