“Gene! Get back!”
Gene had still not shaken off the battle and did not immediately recognize the voice. But there were very few people in Delphinad who would address him simply as Gene. Tahyang, perhaps? And…
“Get back, quickly!”
A woman’s voice. Rosa. Taking a step, Gene instinctively tried to find where the welcome voice had come from. Then he noticed a suspicious shadow and looked down. A strange pattern spread across the stone floor. It looked like streams of black water. But water could not be winding around his feet. It was more like the roots of a tree…
Suddenly, cold blood seemed to spread through his entire body. Then he heard an unfamiliar sound. He raised his head. Nikephoros, whom he had thought dead, was slowly rising. Black roots spread from his feet. Growing steadily larger, they seemed to be Nikephoros’s shadow. No, it was as though Nikephoros himself had become a gigantic tree.
A strange voice emerged when Nikephoros opened his mouth. It sounded less like a human voice than iron scraping across an anvil.
“Wretched one, I command your death.”
Gene could not move, as though he were glued to the floor. Nikephoros gripped his sword and raised it high. At that moment, a radiance flew from somewhere like a net and wrapped around Nikephoros. He stopped for a moment with his sword still raised.
“Heh heh heh…”
It was the laughter Gene had heard during their fight. With it, the radiance faded, and Nikephoros brought his sword down. A single scream burst from the spectators on every side. It was as though the Grand Theater had become one living creature crying out in its death throes. Most of the Hawk Brothers had rushed forward, but a few turned their heads, unable to watch.
“Damn it…”
A moment later, cheers broke out here and there. Gene had raised his sword and blocked the blow. But his sword was trembling now. He had no strength in his body. He could barely stand, let alone fight. His energy and spirit seemed to have been snatched away, leaving his mind blank and his sight dim.
Unable to endure it, he buckled at the knees. As his sword fell, Nikephoros’s greatsword struck his shoulder and cut deep. Blood spurted from a severed artery. Nikephoros raised his sword high to cut off Gene’s head. Just then, someone leaped between them. The intruder struck with a dagger at the shadow stretching between Nikephoros and Gene. A faint, piercing shriek rang out. Suddenly coming to his senses, Gene raised his head and saw the man before him.
“Tahyang…”
Without answering, Tahyang wrapped his arms around Gene and retreated several steps. An enormous quantity of blood poured from Gene’s shoulder, drenching Tahyang as well. The spectators murmured excitedly, not understanding what had happened.
Then Nikephoros shouted.
“The loser’s life is mine! Do not interfere!”
This time, it was Nikephoros’s own voice, not that strange metallic sound. The black shadow on the floor had vanished. But Nikephoros had indeed come back to life, and was even completely healed. Raising his sword again, he advanced a step. Without replying, Tahyang shifted his sword into his left hand and took a defensive stance. His right arm still supported Gene.
Neither the witnesses nor even Quissus knew how to settle the situation. Who had won, and who had lost? Arguments broke out throughout the seats, and the theater grew extremely noisy. Some people stood and shouted. Those who had watched the duel from nearby had entirely different opinions from those farther away. But the latter inevitably outnumbered the former, and even among those who had watched closely, few understood magic well enough to follow what had happened.
At last, Quissus called out.
“The circumstances are complicated, but since this is a duel between two men, I believe we must follow the victor’s wishes. Would you not agree?”
As he spoke, Antonia and Binias brought their subordinates to stand around the general, as though they had prepared for this. At the same time, the Hawk Brothers rushed down from all sides of the audience. Everyone was terribly agitated. At this rate, a bloody brawl would break out in the Grand Theater. As the guards came running, a mighty roar erupted from one side of the seats.
Huka was charging down an aisle through the audience. The people seated along it panicked and scrambled inward. Stopping beside Tahyang, Huka roared thunderously once more. The startled crowd fell silent all at once. Many had fled the theater in fear, but quite a few remained, holding their breath because they wanted to know the outcome. Almost no one noticed the man who had walked down behind Huka.
That man, Luke, climbed casually onto the stage. Since both combatants were below it, the stage was empty, and his presence naturally drew everyone’s eyes. But Luke was not looking at the audience. His gaze was fixed on Nikephoros.
“General Nikephoros. You remember the duel twenty-eight years ago, I trust?”
His voice was not as powerful as Quissus’s, but it carried considerable force. Those familiar with Luke’s ordinary voice opened their eyes wide. They knew him only as a poet and had no idea he had once tried his hand at acting.
“Did the Shadowhawk, who won so overwhelmingly that day, kill you, General?”
Nikephoros said nothing. Luke walked to the very edge of the stage. Although he had never stood on the Grand Theater’s stage before, he showed not the slightest hesitation.
“If he had, you could not be alive today, nor could you have achieved your victory at Edeka. That was fortunate indeed for Delphinad. And yet you mean to take the young Shadowhawk’s life in repayment? When you yourself survived by the mercy of the former Shadowhawk, Garon Vendigate?”
Luke deliberately wore a mocking smile as he spoke Garon Vendigate’s name, staring straight at Nikephoros. Inwardly, he prayed earnestly to the goddess Anir that his assessment of the general’s character would prove correct.
“That day, Garon could have killed you whenever he wished, but he did not. Though you were a boy he had defeated, he believed you had a future. Now that you have become a finer and more respected hero than Garon was then, must you insist on taking the life of a mortally wounded young man? If you wished to repay that day’s victory, would it not be a fair reckoning to repay that day’s mercy as well?”
Of course, Garon was no such paragon. He had simply not wanted the trouble that killing Nikephoros, the descendant of a distinguished family, would cause. But there were not many people here who remembered Garon’s day. Gene would certainly have disliked this story if he had been listening, but this was no time to quibble over such things.
“As a citizen of Delphinad, I firmly believe that you, its hero, are a finer and more merciful man than a ruler of its back alleys.”
Luke bowed respectfully to Nikephoros. The audience was silent. Delphinad’s people loved a defense speech, and would applaud a persuasive argument even from a prisoner being dragged to the gallows, regardless of time or place. Delivered in the silence Huka’s roar had created, Luke’s defense was easy to hear and undeniably persuasive. Before long, people began to shout.
“Mercy! Mercy!”
“Show mercy!”
Nikephoros was glaring at Luke. His eyebrow twitched. He had certainly been looking forward to the moment when he would kill Gene. But that was not because of any personal hatred for him. And now that he had regained his senses, he felt a measure of humiliation. Was he truly the victor of this duel?
As he listened to Luke, he also vividly remembered the humiliation he had felt when Garon spared his life. Perhaps it was that feeling which had kept him from forgetting their duel and brought him here today. Then what of Gene? If he survived his mortal wound, would he not feel exactly the same?
If so, that was enough.
Nikephoros turned away. The officiant emerged from among his subordinates and spoke sharply.
“Surely you do not mean to forgive him? After it has come to this? That man has committed an outrage against Your Majesty! Slay him in the name of Sing.”
Antonia, who normally detested the officiant, agreed with him on this occasion. She approached, shaking her head.
“You must not leave him alive. That was truly dangerous. Finish him now.”
Nikephoros shook his head.
“No. Let him learn what it means to suffer while living.”
He passed through his bewildered subordinates and left the stage by the door on the left. They hesitated, then followed him. The Hawk Brothers gathered around Gene and Tahyang. The spectators were cheering. Whether the wounded Gene actually survived seemed to matter very little to them.
Luke climbed down from the stage and glanced at Gene, cradled in Tahyang’s arms. He was suddenly worried about how Gene might have taken his words. Fortunately, if it could be called that, Gene was already unconscious. Blood was everywhere.
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