Read Reckoning (The Empyrean Chronicle) for Free Online Page B

desperately,
which would provide him with ample openings.
    The fourth round began and the two men rushed each other. The
sound of clashing steel rang into the night, accompanied by grunts of effort as
the fencers thrust, parried, and riposted as fast as their bodies allowed. The
villagers looked on, silent to a man, transfixed by the drama unfolding before
them.
    Elias sought advantage and opportunity by continuing to
buffet Cormik with a rain of heavy-handed blows. Cormik, though, remained an adept
swordsman, and, despite having underestimated Elias earlier, fought with skill
and panache.
    After some long-felt minutes of combat, Elias drove Cormik
to the edge of the circle with his relentless offense. Cornered, Cormik fought
like a caged animal. His face contorted into a feral mask as his lips drew back,
teeth bared in a snarl. Elias, so close to victory renewed his efforts. He fell
into a rhythm of strokes, yielding his conscious mind to instinct and waited
for an opening.
    Then, everything turned upside down.
    Elias lay on his back, still registering out how he had
gotten there. Cormik’s lips had moved all but imperceptibly as he breathed out
a couple of barely audible words while gesturing with his free hand. He kept his
hand low and close to his body, to cloak the gesture. Then Elias had tumbled
backward as he was struck in the torso by an invisible force.
    Cormik pounced, reversing his grip on his rapier, and
stabbed down at Elias. Reflexively, the prone distiller caught the rapier by
the blade with his left hand. Cormik leaned his weight onto the rapier, teeth
clenched in effort, while Elias strained to hold it at bay. Elias cast aside
his foil and added his right hand to the effort. He attempted to push Cormik’s
blade to the side so that he could regain his feet. Elias heard Ulric Bromstead
screaming as he mounted the dais.
    Elias was able to keep the rapier from descending any
further, in a struggle that took mere seconds but to the beleaguered distiller
felt an eternity. Then he heard a ripping sound. At first confused as to where
the sound came from, his eyes focused on the rapier’s leather sheaf. The
threads that held the sheaf together at the point began to snap under the
pressure—the steel of the rapier was sliding through.
    Elias saw a flash of red. The rapier tore from his hand. He
rolled to the side and off the fencing dais, hands raised to ward off further
blows. When no such assault came, Elias turned his attention back to the dais.
    Elias’s mouth fell open in shock. The woman in the red dress
that he had seen dancing by the gazebo, stood in the fencing circle with a boot
on Cormik’s chest. Sensing eyes on her, she turned her gaze from Cormik to
Elias for a beat and gave him a nod.
    Danica and Asa rushed to Elias’s side, with Lar a step
behind. Elias’s eyes remained fixed on the woman in the red dress, while their
hands roamed over him checking for injuries. Roderick Macallister climbed onto
the dais and demanded that his son be unhanded. The crowd roared. Elias,
Danica, Asa, and Lar climbed the dais as well so as to avoid the pressing mob.
    “Enough!” cried Ulric Bromstead.
    Asa had once confided in Elias that she suspected her
father’s success as Mayor was largely due to his voice, which could be heard
from miles away and had the thunder to shatter glass. Incidentally, the villagers
fell silent.
    “Everything is under control,” said the mayor. “This was
nothing more than a misunderstanding, so I would appreciate it if everyone
would just calm down and go about enjoying the fair. This contest is over.” He
waited a moment as the crowd lingered and then shooed them with a wave of his
hand. “Go on! Get!”
    With that the reluctant villagers melted into the night,
many casting furtive glances over their shoulders. Satisfied they were on their
way, Ulric turned his attention to those on the dais—Elias, Cormik, Roderick
Macallister, Danica, Asa, Lar, and the woman in the red