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He spends several minutes destroying the clearing until he rounds on Kian, glaring at him, and spits in his face.
Kian lifts his arm and calmly wipes the spittle and blood off his face.
“Fine.” Kian’s voice is eerily calm. “Prove that you are no weakling. Fight me.”
The general’s eyes bulge, almost popping out of their sockets as he looks at Kian with disbelief.
“You’re halfway to death, you idiot!” the general snarls. “I like a fair fight!”
“I have said several times that I am not a weakling.” Kian’s voice is measured, devoid of emotion. “And I know that I can fight. We’ll fight one-on-one. You can prove which of us is better.”
“And what are the terms of this fight?” the general asks, his eyebrows raised with curiosity.
“If I win, you let us go.” Kian shrugs with some difficulty. The edges of his wound are still ragged, but the bleeding has stopped slightly.
“And if you win, you can do whatever you like,” he continues. “You can take my head to my brother. Or torture me. Or use me as a hostage so that you can win the war. You are welcome to do whatever it is you were planning to do. Whatever your heart desires.”
I let out a strangled noise as Kian relays the terms of the fight.
And all the general does is smile.
26
KIAN
“Are you sure about this?” Amara asks, looking at General Mithil and then back at me. “We can put up a fight, you know. Me and all of the wolves. We’ll make any army regret coming for you.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I tell her, doing my best to sound more confident than I feel. “I’m not an invalid anymore. I can take him.”
“Are you sure?” she replies, laying her hands on my shoulder. “Your chest is still wounded.”
That’s true enough, I think. It doesn’t hurt much, as long as I don’t think about it. But it does make it harder to stretch my arms. If he catches on, which I’m sure he will, he’ll realize he has more range than I do, and that’s a dangerous advantage.
“You heard what he called me,” I say. “Kian the undefeated. I must be pretty good to have gotten a nickname like that.”
I smile, but she doesn’t. “Don’t joke about this. You’re important. To me.”
I’m taken aback, both by her words and the way she looks at me. I want her to understand that I’m fighting him for her. I’d rather die than let her or any of her family get hurt by these orcs.
But maybe that’s the easy way out. She doesn’t want me to die. And if I’m really doing this for her, doesn’t what she want matter?
I look at General Mithil again. He’s tall and powerful. He isn’t injured the way I am. And yet, I don’t think fighting him is simply suicide. He’s certainly a powerful opponent, but he’s also very confident in himself. More importantly, everything I’ve seen of him tells me that he’s a very formal fighter. He does everything the way you’re taught to do it in base camp.
He hasn’t fought against lions in the forest. He hasn’t watched a human who learned to fight from wolves. He hasn’t stood in a gladiator arena against all comers long enough to earn the name ‘undefeated.’ He only knows one way to fight, and that’s going to be his undoing.
“I’m going to promise you something,” I tell Amara, looking her straight in the eyes. “I promise you that I’m going into this fight because I think that I can win. Do you believe me?”
She nods solemnly. “Don’t lose. For me.”
I pull her close to me. “For you.”
We hug each other for a moment, and then I step forward and face the General.
“No weapons,” I tell him. “Just bare hands. We go until one of us is knocked out or submits. Other than that, anything goes. Agreed?”
Mithil smirks and steps forward. He’s solidly taller than me, and he’s clearly enjoying it. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. When I beat you, I want you to know it’s because I’m better.”
He slaps me on the chest lightly. However, he goes out of his way to land precisely on my wound. I wince.
