The Duelist 12 by Vall Eric

Author:Vall, Eric
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

I headed up to the master bedroom to pack a bag. I was going to need more suitable clothing for this particular journey, something I could fight in.

Most of Teivel’s old clothes fit me, since he and I had been similarly sized, but a lot of it was too grand and too flimsy to be useful. He had mountains of flowing silk shirts and stiff jackets with polished brass buttons. They were handsome, for sure, but not what I needed. These were the clothes of a Councilman, someone rich. I needed something more innocuous, and something that would be able to withstand a blade, at least a little.

“See if he has any old training uniforms,” Shay advised from behind me, and I turned sharply to see her and Amaya were both standing in the doorway with slightly sad expressions on their faces.

“Training uniforms?” I asked the phoenix-woman.

“They would be leather, and probably not too embellished, as they’re designed to be damaged in training exercises,” she explained.

“Teivel didn’t really strike me as the type to spend his time training to fight,” I remarked, but I did begin rummaging through the pile of clothes again.

“Exactly,” Shay answered. “They should be like new.”

After digging around a little more, I came up with a fitted, black leather jacket that looked barely, if ever, worn and pants to match. But when I turned to show Shay and Amaya what I’d found, they were still looking at me with those sad expressions.

“Hey,” I told them gently, and I set down the clothes and held open my arms.

Both of them moved into my embrace, and we three held each other for a long moment before anyone spoke.

“Please be careful,” Shay said at last. “Kavo… he’s unlike anything we’ve ever faced. Unlike anything you’ve ever faced.”

“He’s just another bad guy, Shay,” I told the phoenix-woman, and I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Don’t believe the myth he’s built around himself.”

“I’m not talking about the Nightmare,” she said, and she tipped her head up to look at me fiercely. “He’s a Traveler, like you. He came from your world. He’ll know any tricks you plan to play on him.”

“Just as well I’m not planning any tricks, then,” I said. “We know what he wants now. We know how to stop him from winning. We just need to find him.”

The phoenix-woman didn’t look especially convinced, but I knew there was no real way of assuaging her concern when I was going off to hunt down one of the deadliest men in Aventoll. From her perspective, I imagine she might even have felt a little abandoned since she and Zoie were both pregnant. What would happen to them if I died?

I immediately resolved to speak to Horus and Sha-Kane about that before I left. Not that I was planning to get killed by Kavo-- far from it-- but maybe it would make everyone feel a little less afraid.

“I still think we should come with you,” Amaya said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.