Adele ran at Scarlett to chop downward with Tyrfing, but she pulled up short, strike incomplete, when a startled Scarlett swung Excalibur in a wide horizontal arc two-handed, then took a long step closer and returned with another roundhouse swing that came within a foot of taking Adele’s head off. Unexpectedly, long narrow sparks snapped between the two swords when the weapons came within a few feet of each other. Though the fighting was clumsy and neither sword-wielder had hit, the Leopards gasped and pulled back even farther from the battle, finally grasping the danger before them. Adele began circling her foe counterclockwise, while Scarlett turned in place, crouched and waiting, her sword raised.
“We made lightning!” cried Adele, her face aglow. “What’s up with that?” She giggled, near hysteria. “Surrender yet?”
A reply was worthless. Scarlett steadied herself, waiting for another attack. A less-than-competent defense was better than anything else until she got the hang of what she needed to do to win—if that ever happened. Excalibur wasn’t doing anything to make the fight easier, like give her advice or take over the fighting for her. She was on her own. Damn stupid sword!
Scarlett did not have to wait long for more action. Adele suddenly grinned and charged again, stopping at the last moment to strike low at the smaller girl, the fiery sword slashing across Scarlett’s abdomen. Scarlett jerked, feeling a painful sting across her gut, but the attack had no other effect except to cut off the front hem of her sweater, which fell to the floor and was quickly kicked aside. Scarlett swung back, but too late—Adele had already moved out of reach. The blonde stopped circling when she had her back to the unoccupied corridor leading to the kitchen.
“You were lucky there,” Adele yelled, “but you won’t be lucky for much longer!” She charged once more—but Scarlett was ready and whipped Excalibur around to hit and deflect Tyrfing in mid-flight. A loud tone rang out like a high-pitched tuning fork as a shower of white sparks sprayed from the collision. The stunned combatants parted immediately, their arms shaken nerveless by the impact.
“I would have thought two magic swords like ours would cut each other in half,” said Adele. “Get it? They cut through everything!” Her high-pitched braying laugh spoiled her posture of confidence. “Nice to know that they can’t get ruined, isn’t it? Think of how expensive they’re be, out there in the real world!”
Scarlett still said nothing, keeping Adele solidly in view. For her part, Adele kept glancing around to make sure no one was creeping up on her.
“Go get ’er, Scarlett!” cried a Leopard. “Kick her ass!” A chorus of cheers rang out from Scarlett’s allies.
“Yeah? Well, screw you!” Adele shouted back.
Kick her ass, right, Scarlett thought in distraction. She stabbed my aunt, she’s trying to destroy the world, here we are trying to kill each other, and all I have to do is kick her ass. What a bunch of—
A hockey stick suddenly flew past Scarlett’s head and banged into the wall behind Adele, causing her curse and dance around, wary of more surprise attacks.
“Don’t throw anything else!” cried Scarlett, staying where she was. “You’re going to hit me too, damn it!”
“Why can’t we rush her?” called a Leopard.
“Because she’ll cut you to pieces!” Scarlett yelled back. “Her sword is too powerful! Stay away from her!”
“I can do more than cut you bitches up!” Adele shouted. “I’ll kill all of you if you don’t get out of here! Beat it!”
There was a little silence. The Leopards eyed the blonde, but none responded.
“I said, get out, now!” Adele shrieked, almost losing control. She scanned the motionless crowd around her. “Right now!”
“Nah, I wanna see this,” said Angel at last.
“Definitely,” said Tananda. The other Leopards chorused agreement.
“Listen to me!” said Scarlett, stepping slowly to one side to draw Adele’s attention. She wanted to keep the blonde from looking back, seeing Elaine, and possibly attacking her again for no good reason except sheer evil. “She may have a point! If you get too close to us, you’ll get hurt! But if you’re going to stay, and she comes after you, throw everything you can at her! Hit her with everything, and I mean everything, even tables and chairs! Knock her out at a distance—only don’t do it now! Not right now, no! I don’t want to get hit, too!”
“Not a lot of faith in our aim, but . . . okey-dokey,” said Angel. She took up a fighting stance with her hockey stick raised for an overhand throw. In moments, every other Leopard in the dining hall copied her movements until almost two dozen battered sticks were ready to be hurled.
Adele looked nervously around, then her face filled with anger—backed by more than a little fear. “Get out, damn you!” she cried. “You have no right to interfere! This is my right!”
“You have no right to destroy our world,” said Scarlett. She edged one cautious step closer to her opponent, looking braver than she felt. “We have every right to defend our planet from you. You will go no further.”
“Bitch!” Adele hissed. “Stupid little redheaded bitch!”
Scarlett shook her head in disapproval. A reply was beneath her.
“What was that part again about her destroying the world?” asked Tananda, glancing uneasily at Scarlett. “Are you like serious?”
“I am,” said Scarlett steadily. “She was about to do it, before you got here.”
“She’s going to destroy the world?” said Kristen. “You mean, this world, the whole freakin’ planet? Does she have like a bomb or something?”
“Something like that, yes,” said Scarlett. “She does. No time to explain, but you stopped her.”
Adele’s face became feral with rage. “No, you didn’t!” she snapped—and she lunged at Scarlett, sword pulling back for another swing. Scarlett instinctively swung to block the blow. Their swords collided in a renewed splash of lightning and fiery sparks. The blow almost knocked Excalibur from Scarlett’s hands, but she hung on. Adele reversed her swing in an eyeblink; Scarlett again tried to parry the blow but missed. It could have been a trick of the ever-shifting light, but Scarlett had a terrifying moment when she thought the burning Tyrfing had sliced right through her left arm between the wrist and the elbow. Her arm stung as if lashed by a hot wire, and she cried out in pain but kept the sword in her grip. Both opponents backpedaled with swords ready, puffing from exertion.
Scarlett felt something wrong with her left arm and looked down. Part of her sweater sleeve had been sliced through, and a tube of fabric had fallen down around her wrist. How the hell did that happen? she wondered as she quickly flung the cut-away piece aside.
Adele gave Scarlett a confused look, glancing from the shortened sweater sleeve up to Scarlett’s face, then down to the glowing, unbloodied Tyrfing in her hands. Her expression quickly darkened as she looked up again. “You don’t know how to swordfight!” she snarled. “You’re just a child!”
“I don’t think you know how to fight, either,” said Scarlett, feeling oddly calm as well as incredibly lucky. She moved her sword to one side, then to the other, observing how the rattled Adele stared at the tip of Excalibur with mounting fear. The change in Adele’s behavior was painfully obvious.
“You’re afraid you’re going to lose,” said Scarlett. “You’re afraid you’re going to die.”
“I’m not afraid!” Adele roared. “You’re the one who’s afraid to die! It’s you!”
“No,” said Scarlett in a low voice, and she realized that she wasn’t afraid. Her earlier nervousness was gone. She knew nothing about this insanely hazardous kind of fighting, but she was damned if she would let anyone get the better of her, especially now. She would stop Adele from changing history. She would do it because she knew she could, even if the details of how she would do that escaped her.
She realized, too, that this stupid fight had to stop soon, before someone else got killed or injured besides Aunt Elaine and that dog. Neither combatant was an experienced sword fighter; the battle would have ended long ago otherwise. The Leopards would surely get hurt if they decided to charge and end the fight themselves, which they might be on the verge of doing. It was clear that Adele wasn’t going to end this idiotic fight, so—
It’s up to me, Scarlett thought—and it came to her, then, how to end the fight. It was a trick, but she knew it would work if she did it right, and she adopted the plan without question. It was the only way out. I hope I am as brave as you were, Father, she thought, taking a deep breath. I hope you will be proud of me, wherever you are.
Scarlett relaxed her stance, then lowered her brilliant sword until the tip of Excalibur touched the floor. She then moved her feet closer together and stood erect, her left side turned toward Adele, feet at right angles. She did not allow herself to think of what was going to happen next. She allowed herself only to act.
“If you strike me down,” said Scarlett to Adele in a clear, loud voice, “I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
Every eye in the dining hall turned toward her. Adele’s mouth fell open. She blinked and winced as sweat ran into her eyes. “What?” she said.
“I said, if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Scarlett made sure her grip on Excalibur was solid, and she waited and watched.
No one moved. Adele’s face had turned white with fear.
“Ohmigawd!” Woot whispered loudly. “Ohmigawd, I remember this part!”
“Scarlett,” said Tananda uneasily, “what the hell are you—”
“Afraid to try it?” said Scarlett to her foe, ignoring everyone else. A tiny part of her mind shrieked disbelief that she was really doing this, but she was dead calm outside. She let go of Excalibur’s hilt with one hand, then stretched her left arm out to the side, palm open and fingers spread, offering Adele a clear strike. “Try it,” she said. “Come and strike me down. See what happens.”
Adele trembled where she stood. Drops of cold sweat fell from her hair and chin. Tyrfing, its fiery glow illuminating its mistress’s features, shook in her grasp.
“Scarlett,” said Angel in warning.
Scarlett smiled. She didn’t feel like it but did anyway, then she turned her face away from Adele to look at the assembled Leopards. “See?” she said gaily. “She isn’t going to—”
She heard the rush of footsteps she had expected, saw the looks of shock and fear on her friends’ faces, and instantly whirled around with Excalibur swinging up in her right hand. She then lunged and stabbed straight out with her sword, one-handed, taking a long step in the direction of the charging Adele, who ran up and thrust at Scarlett with Tyrfing, her face set in a rictus of madness. The orange sword of fire and the brilliant sword of light shot by each other in a wild halo of sparks, missing by inches, and found their intended targets. Each sank deep into an unarmored body, right up to the weapons’ golden crosspieces. Scarlett and Adele were thrown forward from the double impact to their chests, their wind knocked out but their right hands curled around sword hilts shoved against each other’s ribcage.
Scarlett was aware from the intense pain she felt that she had been run clean through the chest and had only moments left to live, though she was still conscious and able to stand. She did not dare breathe. The Leopards around the dining hall dropped their hockey sticks and screamed their lungs out in horror.
In wordless shock, Scarlett raised her head and stared into Adele’s pasty gray face, barely two feet from her own. Adele’s blue eyes were open wide as could be, with the white showing all around. Her mouth was a tiny o of surprise. The taller woman caught Scarlett by the right shoulder for support.
“You . . .” Adele gasped, then she coughed and her face twisted in agony. Long seconds passed before she could speak again. “You did this to . . .” She shivered, then her legs gave out and she sank to the floor with a thump, still clutching the hilt of her enchanted sword. She looked up in astonishment at Scarlett’s chest, at the bloodless spot where Tyrfing pierced the girl’s T-shirt. “How . . .” she gasped. “I don’t . . . understand . . . how you . . .”
I’ve killed her. Dear Goddess, I’ve killed her. Scarlett forgot about the pain in her own chest, which had miraculously subsided to near nothing. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, stricken with guilt. “I’m really sorry.”
Adele shook her head, trying to comprehend even as she weakened. Then she looked up again and her mixture of pain and puzzlement had been replaced by a mad, knowing smile.
“He said . . . it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t kill you.” Blood ran from her mouth, down her chin to her neck. “He said . . . suicide to . . . fight you . . . but . . . he said—” Adele’s smile grew, though her voice was barely audible. “I’ll be back,” she whispered.
Then Adele’s eyes rolled up. She fell to one side, effortlessly pulling Tyrfing out of Scarlett’s body as the taller woman slid off Excalibur’s shining blade. Tyrfing’s orange fire went out, and it fell with a clatter by the side of its former owner, changing again into a long-bladed dagger—with no blood upon its blade. The lightning bolts and swastika were now missing from the engraved hilt.
Scarlett gaped in horror at the body that gazed with empty eyes at her boots. A glistening smear of red ran down Excalibur from crosspiece to tip. Scarlett stared at her sword, then deliberately let it drop ringing to the floor as she took several steps back from the weapons and Adele.
Speechless, Scarlett looked down at herself, then reached up and felt her breastbone. Her gray T-shirt had a high clean slit in the center of her chest, cut by the passage of Tyrfing. The top of the center band between her bra cups had been sliced through as well, though the bra remained in one piece. She reached behind her and felt other holes in both her T-shirt and sweater. She had been stabbed right through the chest—but there was no blood and, when she checked, no wounds. She brought her hands to her eyes, gazing at them without comprehension, wondering why she wasn’t dead.
“Who are you?” said a voice in wonder.
Scarlett looked up. Every Leopard in the room stared at her in amazement, awe, or fear.
“Who are you, really?” Angel repeated. “You can’t be human. I thought she’d killed you. That sword came out of your back, I saw it, but you . . . you’re not . . . it didn’t even . . .”
“That’s right,” Scarlett replied, unable to think of anything clever to say.
“I’m sorry I thought you were kind of a wimp all this time,” said Tananda in an undertone.
“Who are you?” Angel repeated.
“Scarlett Pendragon,” said Scarlett.
“Are you from this planet?” asked Tananda.
If my father really was who Adele said he was, and my mother, too, then—I give up.
“No,” said Scarlett, though she wasn’t sure she believed it. “I’m not, but . . . I’m just me. I’m still like you.”
A long beat passed.
“Riiiiight,” said Woot.
Scarlett was about to reply, but she heard something odd and turned around instead.
“Scarlett,” said a low, gruff voice. It was the dog, Hermione, her head raised just off the floor.
She cautiously walked over to stand near the German shepherd’s head. “What?” she said.
“The scabbard of Excalibur,” Hermione wheezed in a thick voice. Bloody foam dripped from her tongue and teeth. “I saw the old woman give you something. It had to be the scabbard of Excalibur. Your wounds will not bleed and your injuries will be fully healed. As long as you bear it on your person, you cannot be killed.”
Scarlett knelt, then reached for the leather kitchen-knife sheath she had tucked into the waistband of her skirt. “This?” she said, pulling it out. “This thing is the scabbard?”
Hermione nodded, then eased her head down to the floor. Her dark eyes gazed up at the red-haired girl. “It must be disguised like the swords were, covered by a glamour. Enchanted.” She looked at the leather sheath for a moment, then turned her gaze back to Scarlett. “Magic,” she said in awe. “Real magic, like the gateway.”
On impulse, Scarlett laid the scabbard on the dog’s side near the bloody stab wound. “Does this help?” she asked. “Are you being healed?”
The German shepherd gave her a weak, toothy smile. “I wish, but no. Its powers work only if you were carrying it before you were hurt. So say the legends. I would know. I was . . . I was once a teacher.” The dog looked away, eyes dimming. “I gave myself to evil . . . and regret it.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered. She stroked the dog’s head. “I forgive you.”
Hermione’s eyes closed. She exhaled in a long sigh, trembled, then was still.
After a suitable pause, Scarlett took back the sheath and got to her feet. She felt too stunned to think clearly; even doing little things was an effort. She made ready to tuck the knife sheath back into the waistband of her dress—but after thinking it over, stuck it up inside her T-shirt under her damaged bra, next to her heart, so it would not be lost at an inconvenient time. She gave the dog a sad last look, then looked solemnly at her aunt’s body. For a moment she believed her aunt was dead—then revelation burst over her. Elaine was holding the scabbard when she was stabbed. Adele’s dagger could not possibly have hurt her!
Energized, Scarlett ran to her aunt and felt all across the old woman’s back. A slash through the fabric of her aunt’s sweater, yes, but no blood. “Elaine!” she shouted, shaking her aunt by the shoulder. “Aunt Elaine!”
Her ashen-faced aunt stirred, then opened her eyes a crack. “Chest,” she whispered hoarsely. “Hurts.”
“Your chest hurts? What’s wrong?”
“Heart . . . hurts.” A spasm of agony crossed Elaine’s face. “Hurts . . . bad.”
Heart attack? Scarlett wondered. She might have had a heart attack from the pain when Adele stabbed her! “I’ll get help, don’t worry! I’ll take care of it!”
“Wait.” Elaine tried to turn her head to face the kitchen door. “There . . . I saw . . .”
“What?” Scarlett looked down the corridor at the door to the kitchen. “What did you . . .”
She stopped and looked hard at the kitchen door. She had a sense that someone was back there. Rhonda? Hadn’t the police caught her already? Then what—
Something in the air was not quite right.
Goddess, no! Scarlett jumped to her feet and ran back into the dining hall to snatch up Excalibur in her right hand. She took Tyrfing in her left, but no lightning passing between the weapons with Tyrfing in its dagger shape. “Get my aunt and run for it!” she shrieked at the Leopards. “Get her out of here! Hurry!”
The Leopards stared at her, not comprehending.
“Grab her!” She yelled, pointing down the corridor with the dagger. “Bruno is back there! Get her out of here now!”
Several of the Leopards snapped out of it and hurried to obey. Under Angel’s leadership, they swiftly carried Elaine through the smashed glass doors, out of the building and into the night air. Tananda waved them on, then turned to Scarlett. “I want to stay,” she said. “I won’t leave you here alone.”
Scarlett knew from her tone that Tan meant every word of it. She looked down the dark corridor again, expecting Bruno to charge at her through the swinging doors.
“Please,” said Tananda.
Scarlett held up Tyrfing. “You saw her use it?” she asked.
Tan bit her lower lip and nodded.
“All right,” said Scarlett as she handed it over. “Be careful with it, and don’t get it too near me. I don’t think these swords like each other.”
Tananda stepped back a few feet, then held out the dagger and said, “Tyrfing.” The sword appeared instantly, its long blade rippling with orange flame. Tan’s face filled with awe as she lifted the sword and made a few gentle passes with it.
“Be very careful,” Scarlett repeated. “Adele said that sword never misses, and it’ll cut through anything.” She recalled that Adele had said something else about the mythic weapon, but she did not remember what. No matter now.
“If it never misses,” said Tananda, glancing from the blade to her friend, “then why didn’t it hurt you?”
I don’t need to mention the scabbard. “It can’t. I think I’m immune to getting hurt, at least for now. It doesn’t matter if anything hits me.”
“Oh.” A pause as Tananda thought it over. “You mean that lady couldn’t do a thing to you, when you were fighting? That’s kind of like cheating, isn’t it?”
“It’s not—” Scarlett rolled her eyes and dropped the issue. “Let me go first,” she said. “You watch my back in case one of the clones comes after us.”
“Clones, yeah, I was going to ask about that,” said Tan. “All those guys looked alike. So, they were clones like that sheep, Dolly Parton, or whatever its name was?”
“Well, they were more like . . . oh, forget it. Long story.” Scarlett looked at her friend and smiled. “Thanks for rescuing me, by the way.”
Tan laughed. “Oh, yeah, right, like you really needed it.”
“Hey, I did!”
“Shuddup, Supergirl.”
Scarlett looked down the corridor to the kitchen. “Tan,” she said, “Bruno is really dangerous. Are you sure you want to—”
“I’m not leaving. Forget the speech.”
“Okay, fine.”
“Question for you,” said Tananda. “If we do make it . . .”
“What?”
“Can I be in charge of your personal army, back on your home planet?”
Scarlett sighed. There was no way to get the truth across to Tan when Scarlett wasn’t even sure what the truth was. “Sure,” she said, giving in. “If I get an army, it’s yours.”
Tananda beamed with delight, then thrust her sword high and threw back her head to cry out in triumph, “Yesss!”
“That’s very special,” said Scarlett. “If you’re through celebrating, then . . .”
“I’m done,” said Tan, her sword lowered and her expression solemn. “Let’s get ‘im. I’m damned if I’m gonna let that big stinkhole Bruno hurt Uncle Max.”
“That’s the spirit.” Scarlett took a deep breath and steeled herself. “I’ll lead.”
“Hey, I can lead. Why can’t I go first?”
“Because I can’t get hurt, remember?”
“Oh, right. I still think it’s cheating, but okay. Lead on.”
Gripping Excalibur tightly in both hands, Scarlett headed down the short corridor to the door leading into the kitchen of Good Time Chinese. Light came through the cracks around the swinging door. There was definitely something not right in the air, and her premonition put her nerves more on edge with every step.
“You may come directly in,” said a coarse, deep voice on the other side of the door. Scarlett recognized Bruno at once. The voice added, “I promise not to bite . . . yet,” then chuckled.
“Scarlett!” shrieked a familiar voice. “Look out! He’s right—AAAAAAHHH!!!”
“Roger?” said Scarlett—then she set her jaw and rushed the last few steps to kick the door open, Excalibur pulled back over her right shoulder for a murderous slash.
It would have been an effective entrance, except that her huge, trench coat-wearing target was over twenty feet away and held an enormous black gun aimed at her face. In Scarlett’s startled vision, the gun’s muzzle was as big as a tank cannon’s.
Bruno Nagy smiled and revealed a mouthful of nonhuman fangs. “Scarlett,” he said, his voice a rumble of thunder. “Do come in.”
Last updated 12/26/06