“She’s up there, isn’t she?”Buck asked.He paced, a malicious light dancing in his eyes.“Let’s give her a show.”
Bastion’s fingers closed around his long knife just as Buck seized his collar.He swung blindly.
The blade met flesh.Buck let out a guttural cry and backhanded Bastion.He landed on his broken arm, and another scream tore from him.Bastion struggled to rise, but his head swam.It took everything he had not to vomit.
A rough hand hauled him to his feet.Before he could fight back, the blade of his own sword thrust through him.
He felt, more than heard, Ulla scream with him.
Buck twisted.Bastion roared, his vision white as a corrosive smile swam before him.The blade withdrew, and hot blood poured down Bastion’s leg.
Buck turned him around, pulling him tight against his chest.He kept a large hand clamped around Bastion’s throat.They came to the rocky edge.Bastion would have tipped forwards into the black expanse if not for Buck holding him possessively.
“You put your faith in the wrong man!”Buck bellowed.“Your hero has failed!”
Buck kicked the back of Bastion’s legs.His kneecaps hit the stone with acrack!
Then, Buck leaned over his shoulder and whispered, “She’ll come for me, and I’ll end her, too.Slowly.”
Bastion sucked in a breath.It took so much effort to lift his gaze, but he did.
His heart swelled at the sight of Ulla.She gripped the crenelations with murder in her eyes.Beside her, a longbowman took aim while Lawrence tried to pull her away.Bastion shook his head, begging her to let him go.He had just enough wherewithal to think,I should have kept riding.
Buck stepped back.Bastion braced himself for the killing blow.
It never came.
Instead of the swing of a sword, a visceral squeal and the thunder of hooves cut through the night.The next thing Bastion knew, Buck hit the ground, his sword between them.
They looked at each other, and Bastion’s heartbeat seemed to stretch on forever.He summoned the strength to lunge for the sword, and Buck’s eyes widened.Bastion funneled everything he had left into a wild swing.The bastard rolled away and leapt to his feet, teeth gnashing.
A bolt impaled his shoulder.Buck screamed and staggered sideways.
Then, Finn slammed into him, and Buck soared into the void.A howl receded into the chasm until the roar of the sea swallowed it.
The world tilted.Bastion hit the ground, his sword grasped weakly in his hand.He blinked slowly, not really seeing the stars winking out overhead.
A gentle wind cooled his face while the grass swayed around him.He could feel his breath in his ears and an insistent tug in his heart.
Ulla.
Bastion ached to follow that pull, but darkness beckoned.
The clatter of a wood chime stopped him from falling further.
Bastion furrowed his brow and closed his eyes against the pain of his swollen face, his broken arm, the wound in his side.A familiar giggle sent his heart into a frenzied ricochet.
His eyes shot open, and a blurry face came into focus.A turnip with a mad smile.Bastion tried to sit up, but his body wouldn’t obey.
The face turned suddenly, and the giggle became a growl.
“Don’t worry, little friend,” a voice like the clatter of bones said.“I’m not here for him.”
Bastion wanted to turn his head, but his body may as well have been carved from stone.
“You know as well as I that his end lies in another time and place,” the voice continued.A tall figure came into his field of vision, a black cloak moving around him like smoke.“And she will need him, yet.”
The figure knelt, and a manacled hand reached for Bastion.
