Codex 04 - Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher

Author:Jim Butcher
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Fantasy fiction, American, Battles, Sword and Sorcery
ISBN: 9781841497471
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2009-08-06T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

“Again!” Araris snapped, driving a series of high, whirling slashes at Tavi’s head. The singulare was not restraining the force of his blows, and it took every ounce of Tavi’s concentration and skill to survive them. He found the rhythm of the attack, found the tiny half beat of vulnerability between one of Araris’s strikes and the next, and countered low, his body dipping to one side and out of the line of the attack, one hand resting flat on the ground to support his suddenly altered balance, his blade darting in a swift thrust for the large artery in the singulare s midsection.

Tavi was an instant too slow. Araris slammed his blade across Tavi’s, driving it from his fingers. The singulare swung a booted kick at Tavi’s face. Tavi rolled away from it. Araris drove his heel down at Tavi’s nose. Tavi swatted the blow mostly aside—and found the point of Araris’s sword resting in the hollow of his throat.

Araris stared at Tavi, his eyes expressionless, even frightening. Then he drew himself upright and lifted the sword away. “It has to be faster,” he said quietly. “The fight is always in motion. You can’t wait for the right beat. You have to anticipate it.”

Tavi scowled up at Araris. “We’ve done this every day for a week. It’s only one counter. Someone my size is going to have real trouble using it. We both know that. What happened to fighting to my strengths?”

“This is one,” Araris said. “You just don’t know it yet.”

Tavi shook his head. “What the crows is that supposed to mean?”

Araris rested a hand on his midsection where he’d been wounded, wincing like a man with a stitch in his side after a long run. “Any swordsman worth the name won’t expect that move from someone like you. They would think it too dangerous, too foolhardy.”

Tavi touched his throat, where Araris’s sword had been, and glanced at the small smear of blood on his finger. “Why would anyone think that?” But he got to his feet, recovered his sword, and faced Araris, ready to go again.

Araris rolled his shoulder, his expression pained, and shook his head. “Enough for today.”

They lifted their blades in a mutual salute and put them away. “Is your side still hurting’? Maybe I should get the Steadholder to—”

“No,” Araris said at once. “No. She has enough to contend with. It’s sore, that’s all.”

Tavi arched his eyebrows, realization dawning in his face. “That’s how Navaris got you.”

Araris frowned and looked away. “She had too many of Arnos’s singulares with her. I couldn’t have fought them all and lived. So I gave Navaris an opening. I had counted on her to take a thrust to my leg and pin her sword in the hull for a moment.” He waved a hand at his flank. “But she hit me here instead.”

Tavi frowned. “I saw her sword go through the hull. But it was still stuck there when…” His voice trailed off as a little surge of nausea went through his stomach.

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