[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

not want, for power she did not wish to have; something she had tried to avoid and which had, in the
end, come for her.
And yet-the reward would be something Adria had never known, and would never understand.
"I have to survive only one, beloved," she told him. "And believe me, I do intend to survive that one."
The burning sun beat down upon the two women: two combatants, who were the very antithesis of each
other. Xylina, small, slender, long-waisted and high breasted, with her blond hair streaming down to her
waist-and Adria, lean, whip-cord-tough, no more figure than a boy, and with her dark hair cut
aggressively short. And yet Adria, who was by far the more experienced and tougher-looking, already
showed some slight discomfort-perhaps from the exposure to the sun. Xylina, clothed only in her
signature banner of hair, seemed completely serene and at ease-perhaps because she had been the
plaything of the elements for some time now, and had gotten used to them.
Between them lay the crystal, on a flat rock in the center of the makeshift arena. Xylina had insisted on
that one change in the challenge-rules; the crystal lay beneath a pair of transparent domes of near-
unbreakable adamant. She had created one, Adria had created the other. Any force great enough to
smash the domes would also smash the crystal. Neither of the combatants would be able get at the
crystal unless the other was dead, for at death, all conjurations dissolved.
Adria had not liked that rule, although she had agreed to it, and her glance kept straying to the glinting
gold-and-crystal shape of the protected shard. Perhaps she hoped to trick Xylina into dissolving her
conjuration so that the Queen could grab the shard and use it to win. Or to lure Xylina away from it, to
where she could be ambushed or driven away. In a day her conjuration would dissolve anyway, and then
the Queen could get the shard. Ware had warned Xylina that if the Queen found any way to get the shard
without finishing the combat, she would. "Kill her," he had cautioned. "No mercy, no hesitation. Just kill
her, as quickly as you can. Nothing else." Faro and Thesius had nodded agreement.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
So Xylina did not look at the shard. She kept her attention fixed firmly on the distant figure of Xantippe.
When the old warrior dropped the banner she held, the combat would begin. Only Adria knew what
Adria would do first, although it was a fair bet that it would be a sudden and overwhelming attack. One
of the reasons that Adria had been so successful in these challenges was that she never did the same
thing twice, so there was no way to anticipate her. Every combat she had undertaken had begun
differently.
Xylina hoped that her own first move would take the Queen off-guard. The banner dropped.
An enormous block of stone appeared just above where Xylina was standing, and crashed down into the
ground, smashing everything beneath it to powder. But Xylina was no longer there.
She had created a tiny springboard just in front of herself, and had used it to catapult herself through the
air, landing well out of range of the stone, and-most importantly-right next to the domes protecting the
shard. Now she could use the domes as a kind of shield, and unless Adria wanted to risk smashing the
crystal, she could not use any more weapons like that block of stone. If she dispelled her own dome,
Xylina would be able to get her hands on the crystal, thus greatly increasing her own power. Adria's
scream of rage told Xylina that this first ploy, at least, was a success. Now Xylina took her second
move, while Adria was still off-balance. It was the essence of simplicity: she copied the Queen's first
move.
A block of stone the same size as the one Adria had made appeared over the Queen's head. And stayed
there-for the Queen had conjured several stout metal posts to support its weight. A standard defense for
a standard attack.
So the first round was done. There were no turns in such combat, but the action did tend to fall into
segments as one attacked and the other countered. A woman who did not counter would soon be dead.
There was more than the usual significance to this round, however. The Queen had tried to finish the
battle swiftly, and had failed. Conjuration was limited; a woman's magic grew progressively fatigued,
until finally she was unable to conjure any more. The victor in past battles between ranking women had
generally been the one whose power of conjuration outlasted that of her opponent. Xylina suspected that
the Queen had gambled most of her power on the first ploy, hoping not to have to follow up. She also
suspected that her own power of conjuration was now significantly greater than the Queen's, because of
her practice in the wilderness. Xylina could conjure a second block the mass of the first; she doubted
that the Queen could.
But at the moment this didn't matter, because there was no way to drop such a block on the Queen. The
stout posts would support both, leaving the Queen unscathed. Defense in such cases was usually cheaper
than attack. So the massive conjurations were over-unless Xylina could somehow force the Queen out of
her impromptu shelter where she would be vulnerable to another block. She wanted to save her power
until the Queen thought she was safe from it. So for now Xylina planned to limit herself to
diminishingly smaller conjurations, as if she were weakening, hoping to make the Queen overconfident.
The Queen conjured a spiked metal ball that she hurled at Xylina. Xylina, wary of what else might be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

ssaver.htw.pl