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I took the spear in sweaty hands, gripping it as I’d seen Dagda do. I spread my legs and squatted low, mimicking his thrusting movement, feeling absolutely ridiculous.
“Not too bad.” He looked at the dense forest we would soon enter. “I shall get us through. You stay close and attempt not to become struck.”
I gave a tentative nod as we entered the trees.
“How will we know when we’ve gotten through?” I asked.
“A door will appear.” He pointed through the timbers. “Just up ahead. It shall not show until we have made enough hits.”
“And strikes detract from our overall hit score.”
He glanced at me. “Do they have such tournaments in the human world?”
“Only on my computer screen,” I mumbled.
We crept through the forest. The very rustles of the leaves had me jumping out of my skin.
“That was a new smile,” Dagda said. He tipped his head toward the way we had come. “Back there, by the wall.”
I stared at him. “You’re keeping track of my smiles?”
“I suppose when they come so few, it is not that hard to keep track. That one was delighted, proud.” He peered ahead as he spoke, his eyes on every movement of the forest. “Genuine.”
Oh. He’d even been tallying my fake smiles. “Well, you have…” I paused to count. “Three frowns.”
“Do I?”
“Yes, one when you’re really upset with me. One when you’re mildly upset with me. And another for when you’re upset with everyone else.”
He chuckled. “Three frowns.”
“Oh.” I snapped my fingers. “Nope, there’s four. One for Palon.”
Dagda’s eyes narrowed.
“See, there it is,” I said.
His frown deepened. “I—”
A twig cracked, and Dagda paused. I paused. I swear the whole damn forest paused.
“Get ready,” he said, sword clenched in his hands.
I gripped the spear and sank into a crouch, reminding myself that what was coming couldn’t hurt me. It was as if I was in a giant virtual game and instead of winning, all I had to do was hold my own.
Three creatures appeared out of the trees, made of mist and shale. Thousands of tiny pieces of obsidian, held together by the grayness that leaked between the millions of cracks in its body. The parts shifted with the mist, stuck collectively into a humanoid form.
My mouth went dry. They were just a spell. Just a spell.
Whispers pulled at my mind.
Dagda’s eyes flicked to me. For the first time, actual concern filled them. If Badb or Macha came out, then we’d have a real problem.
The creatures rushed toward us. Dagda advanced to meet them, raising the sword and striking it through the stomach—or where I’d guess the stomach might be—of the closest shale creature. It let out a high shriek and crumpled into nothingness, the mist sweeping up into the sky.
Dagda moved like lightning, drawing a knife and slamming it into the head of another before taking his sword and swiping it across the neck of the third. I watched, the whispers receding, open-mouthed at his effortless movements, at the strength in his attacks, at the swift ruthlessness with which he’d taken each one.
Dagda turned. “Behind you.”
