It had to be the half-lives, though I could not see them any longer. Not with my faded abilities. But they could certainly see me, and hear me, I hoped.
“Harm me and who will heal you?” I asked. “Joth? Hasn’t he already proven he intends to keep you as you are, as his half-life army? I am your only hope to return to life again, but I will not restore another person until you first prove your loyalty to me.”
The pressure on me yielded, but this time when I tried to stand, my foot collapsed beneath my weight. I wasn’t going anywhere. I stifled a cry just as Harlyn rounded the corner, her disk bow trained on me.
“Enough running,” she said.
“Prove your loyalty now,” I said, but not to her.
Almost instantly, Harlyn was knocked against the wall by some unseen action. And even through the darkness, I saw a silver disk somehow reverse from its intended motion, flying backward and lodging in Harlyn’s arm. With a cry, she slid to the ground, out of my reach, but not out of theirs.
Finish the job.
That was what I intended to say to the half-lives next, but suddenly they were gone, as quickly as they had come, as if Joth had summoned them back to himself. Obviously, he had their true loyalty.
Which left Harlyn on one end of this small tunnel room, and me on the other. Neither of us able to leave; both of us capable of killing the other.
I could do it. Everything in me wanted to do it.
Yet as I contemplated how to do it, she shifted her position and gasped with pain as she pulled the disk from her shoulder. I didn’t need to do anything after all. The bleeding would take care of everything, in time. Her own weapon would become the cause of her death. That was better justice than I could provide.
“We have no cauterizing powder here,” I said. “How badly are you injured?”
“Why?” she replied. “Trying to decide how much effort it will take to finish the job?”
“Not half the effort as you expended in chasing me this far. I completed my task as Infidante. I had hoped you would choose a different way of thanking me.”
“You must understand why I have to do this,” Harlyn said. “If a wolf kills a bear, as grateful as you are, that doesn’t mean you are safer with the wolf.”
“That wolf spared your life—twice—in the throne room!”
“And why did you?” Harlyn paused to draw in a deep, stilted breath.
“Whatever my reasons, it was obviously a mista
ke.”
“Why did you?” Harlyn asked again.
Rather than answer, I reached for my injured ankle. It must have been swelling within the boot. If I were to drag myself closer to Harlyn, with a single touch, I could pull enough strength from her to heal myself. I could pull everything from her if I wanted to.
And in that moment, I absolutely wanted to. The only reason I was even down here was because of her.
“Come any closer and you’ll get a disk too.” Harlyn quickly loaded the pocket of her bow. “The one that got me is silver—I’ll recover from it. But this one is black. Get it and—”
“You forget that I am immortal now, Harlyn.” Or mostly immortal. I wasn’t sure how the black disk would affect me, but it was enough to keep me at a distance. To make myself feel better, I added, “I can afford to be patient, but you cannot. I suspect you only have a couple of hours left to live.”
“Will you still have your sanity by then?” Harlyn’s strike back at me was cruel. “In this small, dark passage, I imagine you feel like the walls are closing in on you.”
“That’s enough.”
“It’s almost like being buried alive,” she continued, then drew in a loud breath. “The air down here is already becoming thin. I’m sure that I’m taking more than my fair share.”
“Enough, Harlyn!”
She breathed loudly again, taunting me.
In a greater panic, I flung out an arm, intending to frighten her, but the passageway shook, violently enough that the tunnel from where we had just come collapsed.