The general grit her teeth and disengaged her blade. They spun around each other and met in a mid-cross. “It was my love for my son that kept me from marrying him. You know this.”
“I know what yousay.What youdois always another thing entirely, whore.”
Name-calling now as another distraction. It wouldn’t work.
“What I do is what is best for Ardenia.”
“Which is why you planned to breach the Itspi with lies and a pirate in the Warlord’s clothes?” Geneva’s smile was that of a cat in the sun. “What would you have done if you had to face down Ferdinand and he was truly on the opposing side? What if he hadn’t turned to your cause, nor met you on your way to the castle like the gift-wrapped advantage he was?”
Koldo caught Geneva’s sword at a high angle. Using her height, her strength, and the terrain, she pushed Geneva hard. The other woman stumbled back, trying to hold her balance and her sword.
“I can love both my son and Ardenia.” Another deep push from Koldo and Geneva’s steps stuttered as her heels scraped the base of the Hand. “Canyoulove power and the children you call yours? They obviously do not believe you capable.”
Geneva tried kicking at Koldo’s feet, but the armored braces of her boots made her pay for it. Accordingly, Geneva lost further ground, trying to stabilize against the monolith but not be pushed totally against it. The general’s strength and experience would ensure she would be prone against the Hand’s wrist within the next moment.
“They are fools.” Geneva bared her teeth in the same way Amarande did. “You know both of them have had the chance to kill me and neither did.”
“Loving you enough not to kill you isn’t a weakness—I don’t say that lightly given you also had the chance to kill them both and did not, so perhaps it affects you, too.” Koldo’s sword shoved Geneva’s all the way back over her head until both the weapon and Geneva’s skull were pressed against the Hand. “I don’t have that problem.”
“No, you’d kill me in a heartbeat.” Geneva smiled, teeth gritted as her arms shook under the weight of the general’s strength and leverage against the Hand. “And I would kill you.”
In a flash, Geneva’s hands dislodged from her sword, and she dropped and spun away. Koldo anticipated, scooping it up and pivoting, ensuring her back was not exposed. She came to face Geneva with both swords out on guard. Geneva was bent low, her hand moving from her boot. Koldo’s vision narrowed on a dagger, hurtling straight for her, end over end. In one smooth motion, she deflected it off into the main battlefield with her left sword.
“Was that your only remaining weapon?”
Geneva grinned. “No.”
Koldo advanced, both swords out. Attention focused on this woman who had altered every trajectory of her own life.
Her right to love, her right to her family.
Geneva had saved Sendoa from Domingu’s coordinated regicide scheme, yes, and she’d let Ferdinand live, yes. But she’d wielded manipulation and fear even when she did the right thing. And definitely when she did the worst.
As the general and her blades came closer, Geneva wheeled back. Her hands were up, placating.
“Mother!” Ferdinand’s voice came from their right. Distraught and loud.
Geneva’s head turned toward him, instinctual. Koldo’s right-hand sword went up, ready to slash down, but then Geneva’s face welled with pain. Koldo’s blade halted. Her attention shifted from Geneva to her son. Koldo’s head turned right, west, where he’d been sent on horseback, a drop of fear dislodged from her incredible focus.
Ferdinand, in trouble.
The scope of her vision changed, and she honed in on a charging horse. Ferdinand atop, having looped back. Away from safety and again into the fray.
Alone. Not in trouble.
His distress was forher.Not himself.
And in the moment Koldo realized that, the bite of a blade lodged through the low sliver of her belly that her chest plate did not reach.
Koldo’s attention bobbled from her son to the blade, and the hand attached to it. Geneva was smiling as she pushed it in further, all the way to the hilt. It was the sword that Koldo had deflected from Geneva’s hand at the beginning of the fight. They’d worked their way back around the Hand to where they’d started.
“That,” Geneva scowled, triumphant, “was my other weapon.”
Koldo was unsure if Geneva meant the blade itself or her twisted use of Koldo’s love for Ferdinand.
The general’s knees gave out. Koldo listed to the side, and then all the way to her back, the perfect blue of a new Torrentian sky above. Geneva loomed over her, dark hair falling forward, eyes flashing the same color as the risen day behind her.
“And now you shall be in the stars together as you were on earth.AtSendoa’s side but neverbyhis side. Leagues of night sky between.” She smiled. “I hope it hurts.”
