"Leaving Dohru by Jonathan L Fesmire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fesmire Jonathan L)

Garum tumbled and kicked Aseris in the leg. Aseris fell forward, dropping his sword. Garum raced to his feet, and saw that Aseris already stood, blade raised again.

"The demon returns, is that it?" Aseris's mouth twisted.

"Who was your partner, the one who killed Maroa?"

Aseris swept in. Garum grabbed Aseris's sword hand and brought his knee up to his enemy's wrist. The large man cried out, his hand opening. Garum seized the hilt. Aseris's thick fingers grasped Garum's throat.

_Strike!_ Vayin's voice screamed in Garum's mind.

Garum swung the blade with both arms and felt it slice through clothing, into skin and meat. Aseris, gasping, stumbled and fell, clutched his wound as blood rapidly stained his clothes. In the candlelight, the shadows on his face gave him the look of a corpse.

"I killed her," Aseris said.

"Roasa used her magic to see. She said a woman killed her."

"I told you . . ." Aseris squeezed his eyes shut, panting. Garum did not know if he should try to stop Aseris's bleeding or just listen.

Aseris's body warped, like ripples across water, his features rapidly changing. Within a moment, a woman lay before them, unwounded. Garum stepped back, his face tingling as it flushed.

The woman rose to her feet and stood nearly a head above Garum. She began to laugh.

Garum tried to speak, and finally forced out a word. "Why?"

"Maroa threatened to tell everyone if I wouldn't leave her alone. She wouldn't perform the spell to separate us."

"There is no spell . . ."

She shrugged his words away. "They would have killed us, like they tried to kill you."

"_You_ tried to kill me! Another dual! That's insane . . ."

_They are insane! But by exposing us, no one would suspect Aseris of being a dual! He was afraid someone would find out._

"And you thought Maroa wrote your secret somewhere, is that it? You came here to find any evidence?"

She stepped toward him. "I couldn't risk it."

Garum hefted the sword, regretting he had not shifted with Vayin. Now he had no time, and although he carried a weapon and the woman stood unarmed, he doubted he could defeat her in his exhaustion. The woman pulled a dagger from behind her back.

She sprang, plunging the dagger toward his heart; Garum raised the sword to block her blade. He deflected her dagger, but she pressed ahead. Her blade sliced across his shoulder. With a cry of anger, Garum took one hand off the sword and slammed it into her belly.

She clutched at herself and Garum punched her in the jaw. She staggered backward but quickly regained her balance. Before she could charge again, however, she froze, staring at a figure in the doorway.

Garum squinted in the candlelight, trying to identify the newcomer. The silhouette stood motionless. In the faint light Maroa's necklace glowed around the figure's neck.

"How -- you can't be alive . . . I killed you before throwing you in the river . . ."

The woman in the doorway came forward, her face white, her hands raised. Ivory light churned between her fingers.