by Jamie Davis
Cari pushed the Prince up on shore and stood up. Grabbing him by the collar, she dragged him farther up onto the bank so he wouldn't slip back into the water. She turned him on his side to help drain the water from his mouth and lungs in case any had gotten in there. She didn’t want him choking on anything he coughed up before he awakened.
Standing from tending to the Prince, she scanned the trees for Quint. A flash of movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye then disappeared. She stared through the trees and got another glimpse of the assassin. He ran through the trees, not too far away.
She bent and scooped up her rapier in her right hand. It felt strange to hold the longer blade in this hand rather than her dagger but she had no choice. She had to chase after Quint. If he got the chance to reload, he could return and kill both her and the Prince. Worse, still, if he managed to escape, he’d be able to set up another attempt in the future when they weren’t expecting it.
As she headed into the tree line, Cari listened for any sign of Stefan and the others coming. Where were they? Hopefully they'd arrive and find the Prince and tend to him.
With no sign of Stefan, it was obvious no one was coming to help her with what she had to do. Cari had to finish this, now, before Quint regained his nerve and came back.
Gritting her teeth against the pain in her left shoulder and the grinding of the broken ribs on the right, Cari half jogged, half stumbled into the forest after her quarry.
She started off blind for the first hundred yards into the woods. She couldn’t see him anymore and tried to approximate the bearing Quint took when she last saw him running away.
Cari stopped, trying to gasp past the fire in her chest with each breath while she listened for any sound that might tell her where Quint was.
She checked her health status again.
* * *
Health: 44/90
* * *
Cari winced. She was hurt worse than she thought. If Quint got in one or two good hits, she'd be finished. She wondered at the moment what would happen to her if she died here? Would she just wake up at home or was death here in Fantasma as permanent as back on Earth?
She continued her search while she pondered the question of life and death in this world.
The crack of a breaking branch behind her was the only warning she got.
Despite the pain, Cari activated her acrobatic dodge skill and dropped and rolled to the side in what had to be the ugliest somersault of all time.
It worked, though.
The blade whistled through the air, cleaving the space her head had just occupied.
Cari rolled through the dodge and struggled back to her feet, holding her sword in front of her.
"You are one lucky girl, I'll give you that, but you're already dead you just don't know it yet."
"You have no idea, Quint. You are right on one point. I am luckier than you. If you run now, I might just be too tired to chase after you."
"If I run now, I won't get paid. I have to kill you so I can get away clean. You already know too much."
"You fool, the Prince is alive. I saved him. You've failed all the way around in this thing."
"Well, after I kill you, girlie, I'll have to go back and finish his Highness off."
"Killing me isn't going to be easy." Cari decided to try to taunt him. Hopefully she could force the man to lose his temper.
"You must be the dumb brother. I guess I killed the smart one back in the capital."
Quint laughed.
"What are you trying to do? Make me mad? I'm already pissed at you but I'm looking forward to savoring this moment too much to let you taunt me into something foolish. Look at you. You can barely stand. You're down to one hand and I know you're left-handed. That's not even your good arm."
"People have underestimated me before." Cari sneered. "They're all dead. Why don't you come over here so you can join them?"
"Gladly, girlie."
Quint darted at her in a feint to the right and then jumped to her injured left side with a slashing overhand cut. His heavier blade came down and it was all Cari could do, even with her quicker sword, to bring it around and push aside the blow so it missed her.
It was an awkward parry, but she managed the task.
Taking advantage of his overbalanced strike, Cari whipped her sword back across his chest, cutting open a large flap of skin. Blood flowed, staining his dirty brown huntsman’s jerkin with a spreading wet stain across the embroidered Duke’s crest.
Quint stumbled back cursing at her. He brought his sword up, ready for any more attacks she might launch.
Cari knew she had to keep the initiative and tried a stomping lunge, using the movement of her foot and leg to try to distract Quint from her actual attack. It was far clumsier using her right hand than her left and he easily batted the blade aside.
She used the movement his parry imparted to her sword's tip to swing it in a narrow arc orbiting Quint's sword arm so she ended with her point inside his guard. Extending a little more rewarded her with an inch or so of her blade sinking into his leading thigh.
Quint shouted in pain and swung at her with his free hand.
Cari was a little slow pulling back. Her ribs protested the motion enough that it allowed Quint to bring his hand around, smashing his fist into the side of her face.
The strike twisted her head to the side and her vision doubled. She heard a clamor of ringing in her ears.
* * *
Health damage - health -8
* * *
Cari stumbled backwards, trying to get out of Quint's reach while she shook off the effects of the jarring blow. The punch had split the skin over her left eye and blood started to drip down into her face on that side partially blinding her.
It was hard to wipe at her eye while holding onto her sword. She managed a swipe with the back of her hand and cleared some of the blood.
Cari knew she had to land some consecutive shots to power up her burst of speed. It was her only chance.
With her off-hand wielding the sword, she couldn't put the right combinations together to win this in a straight up duel.
She was losing this fight.
Cari blinked again to try to clear blood from her eye and dodged backward just in time to avoid Quint's next swipe at her head with his saber.
He pivoted and continued the swing all the way around, bringing the sword in again at waist level this time.
Half-blind the way she was, Cari barely caught the direction of his attack in time and swung a desperate parry towards his blade a split second too late.
Quint's blade bit deep into her hip, buckling her left leg.
* * *
Health damage - health -12
* * *
Cari cried out in pain as she toppled to the ground. She dragged herself backward until she came to a downed tree trunk.
Levering herself back to her feet, Cari held the sword in front of her trying to force Quint to stay back with wild, unpredictable swings. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.
Quint laughed at her.
"Girlie, you're about finished. Give up and I'll make it quick. You won't feel a thing and it'll be over."
"Never," Cari growled. "If you want to kill me, come over here and earn it. You might be used to other women giving up to your bullying. I won't be one of them."
* * *
Taunt engaged
* * *
Quint snarled, his face turning red. He charged in, his sword held up over his head for a two-handed downward blow.
Surprised that line of taunts worked where his brother's death didn't, Cari brought up her blade in one of the first moves she'd ever learned in her HEMA fencing classes, a simple disarming twist with her rapier.
She'd never tried it with her right hand before. Hopefully it worked the same. She could use a break in her favor.
Cari caught the descending blade high up near the hilt of her sword. She slid her blade down his while she twisted he
r wrist in an intricate motion that moved her blade around his and used her greater leverage in this position against him.
Quint called out in surprise when his sword spun away from the battle to land in the brush a few feet away.
He didn't give up, though, instead he brought his other arm down, hammering at her wrist just above the pommel of her sword.
He struck downward, once, twice, and again. The third hit broke her grip on the sword and it fell to the ground.
* * *
Health damage - health -6
* * *
Cari worked her hand open and closed to return the feeling to it after the heavy blows from Quint's fist set it to tingling numbness.
She tried to twist and back away from him but he reached out and gripped her shirt, pulling her close and punching his other hand down twice into the open wound on her hip.
"Unngh," Cari gasped.
* * *
Health damage - health -5
Health damage - health -4
* * *
A red warning flashed in her vision.
* * *
Health: 9/90
* * *
She was down to only nine health points. Cari knew she couldn't hold out much longer. There was one desperate ploy to try. It shouldn't work, but what else could she do?
She refused to surrender. But, Quint didn't know that.
"Stop," Cari gasped, backing away from him. "I'm done. No more. Please."
She sank to her knees, looking up at Quint as he limped towards her.
"I told you there was no way you could win, girlie. Maybe I'll gut you and leave you here to die slowly while the forest animals feed on your entrails."
"You promised a quick death," Cari croaked staring up, holding his gaze locked with hers.
He shrugged.
"I lied."
Quint drew back his sword, preparing a thrust to run her through.
Cari waited until she caught the forward motion of his blade out of the corner of her eye.
This was her last chance.
Cari lifted up her hand, revealing the dagger she'd held hidden with the flat of the blade against her forearm until this moment.
She flicked her wrist, timing the parry with perfect precision even using her off-hand.
* * *
New skill learned - Ambidexterity
* * *
Quint's blade swung wide as her dagger batted it aside, missing her torso by a hair's breadth.
In a continuation of the same motion, Cari drove her dagger upward, lunging forward with all her remaining strength, digging her heels into the dirt of the forest floor to gain leverage.
Quint's own forward motion did the work for her, though.
The point of her dagger took him in the chest. She felt the scraping of the edge sliding between the ribs before sinking home to the hilt.
A sighing groan escaped Quint's lips as he fell forward atop her. With his life draining away, he pinned her to the ground.
Trapped by his body's weight, Cari stared up into his face, unable to look away.
Quint's lips moved, as if he was trying to say something, but no sound came out.
The light dimmed in his eyes and his head sagged forward to rest against her shoulder. She felt the faint warmth of his last breath on her neck and he went limp.
* * *
4,500 experience awarded
Quest completed - stop the assassin
6,000 experience awarded
* * *
The emotion of the fight for her life swept over her and tears welled in her eyes.
She'd done it.
She'd survived.
Chapter 35
Cari gathered what little strength she had remaining in her one good arm and pushed at the bulk atop her again.
It was no use. Between her injured arm and her near total exhaustion, she couldn't budge Quint's body from where it lay pressing down on her.
She was going to die here, bleeding out while trapped beneath this disgusting, smelly, pig of a man. Cari closed her eyes. Exhaustion took over and she drifted into unconsciousness.
Cari didn't know how long she'd been out when she opened her eyes again. Quint still pinned her against the ground, helpless to move or save herself.
All she could do was stare upward past the dead man's head.
A puffy, white wisp of a cloud drifted through the narrow gap of blue in the green leaves of the trees above her. It looked a little like an upside-down turtle to her, rocking on his back to try and turn over.
"How appropriate, you're trapped just like me." Cari said as the cloud drifted by.
"Who is?" Timron said.
Cari craned her neck, twisting to see where the Prince was. She couldn't see him. What an annoying man.
"Where are you?"
"Here." The Prince's face popped into view staring down at her with a smile. "Do you need help?"
"What do you think?" Cari snapped.
"You have to ask. Nicely."
Timron donned a sickly sweet smile and waited for her to say something.
"You'd leave me here, just to prove a point. Wouldn't you?"
"Is it so hard for you to ask for help, Cari? Or, should I say Princess Cari?"
Timron winked at her.
"You know? For how long?"
"It wasn't until you showed up here, actually. I had an inkling back in the Crystal City, but then you were captured and we didn't see you for so long. I figured my instincts were wrong. I thought you’d been tortured and killed by the Duke for sure."
Timron laughed as he continued.
"Then you showed up out of nowhere this afternoon, just in time to save the day. It's just the kind of thing my grandmother said your father used to do. Your age threw me off for a while, but I remembered an offhand comment Gram once made about time passing and something your father told her about a difference between our two homes. You see, I was the only one who ever paid attention to her when she told the old stories. None of the others gave her the time of day when she reminisced about the old days of her adventurous youth. They all deserved to die. It's only right you waited until the others were all gone to come back and save me."
Cari tried again to push Quint’s body to the side. She grunted in exasperation when she failed once more.
"Can you please pull this brute off of me? It's a little hard to breathe. I’m not sure I'll be able to stay awake if you keep talking and leave him where he is."
Prince Timron chuckled and reached down to grab Quint by the shoulder, rolling the lifeless body off Cari.
"My goodness, you're a mess," Timron clucked as he studied her wounds. “Still more proof of who you are. Anyone else would be dead from those injuries."
"I still might die if I don't get help."
Timron waived a dismissive hand at her.
"Nonsense. You're THE Cari Dix. The Lost Princess. You're not going to die. You will survive, be recognized as the hero and, if all goes according to plan, eventually marry the Prince. Me!"
Timron hooked a thumb at his chest while he planted a huge grin on his face.
Cari started to make a rude remark in response to the Prince’s ridiculous statement, then she remembered something she heard the Prince say earlier to Quint during the initial standoff.
"Why'd you do it, anyway?"
"Do what?"
"Why'd you side with the Duke against your family?"
"I wondered if you heard that. Well, it doesn't matter now. I'm the only heir remaining so there's really nothing anyone can do to me. I'll be Emperor soon."
"But, they were your family. Some were only children. How—?"
"How could I do it? I did nothing. I only made an agreement in order to survive when the Duke sent his men to kill me first. He thought it’d be easy to stage my accidental death. He was wrong. Afterwards, once he and I reached an understanding, the Duke of Charon took care of all the real dirty work. I would think you'd understand. After all, you made it here
despite all the odds against you. You're a survivor, just like me."
"I'm nothing like you."
"You say that but you've killed people while you've been here in Fantasma, too, just like the Duke. I’ve never killed anyone. My hands are clean."
"It doesn’t matter how clean they are, you got in bed with the devil and he betrayed you. You know that."
"But his little plot against me didn't work. You made sure of that. Now I have you and your friends to defend me. They'll fight to the death against anyone who threatens me. I'm safer now than I've ever been in my life."
Distant voices sounded from back near the water fall.
"That will be the rest of the hunting party, come to see where the Duke of Tandon and I are," Timron said. "Let me call them to us. The game keepers will have healing potions. They keep them on hand in case of hunting accidents and injuries caused by some of the more dangerous game beasts. Wait here. I’ll fetch them. They’ll want to make sure to save the heroic Lost Princess of legend."
"Timron, stop," Cari said. "Don't tell anyone who I am. I'm not a princess and I don't want to become one."
"You really mean that. How curious. Well, I suppose I could consider keeping your secret, Princess Cari. The question is, can you keep my secret as well?"
Cari stared at him, even more disgusted with him than before after all she’d learned about him. He could rationalize his reasons and justification for the things he'd done and the alliances he'd made, but that didn't make it right.
But, he was probably correct in his assumption. His treachery made no difference in the long run. Without another heir, he was the last of the Imperial family. He would be Emperor when his grandmother died. What was more, Cari would need Timron and his access to the palace and his grandmother if she ever made up her mind about going home again.
