I needed help.
Without most of my magic, I couldn’t see any easy ways to a win a duel under the rules Zuberi had set. I was more than a little tempted to just refuse the whole thing, but then I’d be right back to square one. If nothing else, I wanted to make sure I couldn’t come up with a way to win before I gave up on the idea completely. It was still my best option for putting this whole issue to rest without anyone getting killed.
Too bad I had even less in the way of options when it came to getting advice. If I had more time I could’ve gone to the Doos for a crash course in close combat, but with the duel set for tomorrow I wouldn’t have time for anything more than a couple of pointers. Certainly not enough to handle someone who had years of training in fighting with melee weapons. If I was going to win this fight, I needed a sneaky plan. Thankfully, I had a couple allies who were good at that sort of thing.
When I stepped into Puzzle’s safe house I discovered that Strumming had woken up. Whatever they’d given her at the hospital had evidently worn off. She was handling her convalescence with about as much grace as I’d expected she would. Her bed was almost completely covered in discarded books and magazines, and the floor around it was already developing a thin coating of empty snack bags and wrappers. She grinned and waved when she saw me. “Hey, bacon-mane. Hope you brought some fresh snacks with you—bug-boy’s threatening to make me eat healthy hospital food instead of the good stuff.”
That got a bit of a chuckle out of me. “Not even out of bed yet and you’re already back to your old self. Good to see you’re awake.”
She shrugged and smirked. “Yeah, you know what they say. Can’t keep a morally ambiguous mare down.”
Puzzle stepped out of the kitchen and cleared his throat. “Shimmer-mare. How is your investigation going? Do we have any suspects yet?”
“It’s going,” I answered carefully. “I’ve got a few promising leads, but I want a bit more time to make sure we’ve got something solid. No sense in going on the vengeance warpath against the wrong target. How are you two holding up?”
“I’m doing just fine, aside from bug-boy trying to finish killing me with health food.” Strumming rolled over a bit, showing off her bandage. “The docs did a good job of plugging up all my leaks, and I am on so many painkillers right now.” Her eyes slowly took in the room before focusing on me. “Are you melting because it’s so hot and humid outside, or is that the meds?”
Puzzle cleared his throat. “This one is almost certain the Heartstrings-mare is exaggerating.” He turned to face me. “So what brings you by? It sounds like there aren’t any major updates on your case. Did you need this one’s help with anything? It hopes that the agents it provided to assist you have proven adequate.”
“Yeah, no complaints.” I tried to think of the best way to get him out of the room. “I just wanted to check up on you two. Maybe relax for a bit and get a bite to eat without worrying about someone watching me. Would you mind getting me something warm and filling?”
Puzzle frowned skeptically. “This one is sure the Shimmer-mare is capable of feeding herself.”
Strumming cleared her throat. “Actually, as long as Sunset’s here, there’s some health stuff I wanted to go over, and some things I was hoping she could pick up for me.” Puzzle opened his mouth, but Strumming held up a hoof to cut him off. “Feminine issues.”
“Ah.” Puzzle shut his mouth, shifting uncertainly on his hooves. “This ... this one sees. Very well then. It will go get the Shimmer-mare’s food, then.” He cleared his throat and quickly trotted over to the door, but paused right before he stepped out. “When this one returns, it will knock three times, then twice. Do not answer the door under any other circumstances.”
“Yeah, yeah...” Strumming rolled her eyes. “Now get your cute little butt outta here so we can talk about icky girl stuff.” Puzzle wasted no time following her advice. Once he was long gone, Strumming grinned at me. “Always works. You ever wanna get rid of a stallion, bring that up. Even an information broker doesn’t wanna know all messy details of his girlfriend’s monthlies.”
“It’s not just stallions who don’t want to know that stuff,” I grumbled. Just because I shared a gender with Strumming didn’t mean I wanted all the messy details of her personal health.
Strumming leaned back on her pillows, grinning at me. “So ... what’s up that don’t you want bug-boy finding out about?” She held up a hoof. “Reminds me, before we get started you might wanna knock out the listening device he’s got in the lamp. Actually just toss up a privacy spell after you do that. If I spotted one, he might have others I haven’t seen.”
“Right.” I disabled the first device, then gave into the temptation to scan for more. A second later, I took Strumming’s advice and just tossed up a privacy spell around the two of us instead. “He’s got a lot of wards over this place, and I don’t think we’ve got enough time for me to untangle which ones might be there to spy on us.” It irked my professional pride to admit that Puzzle had given me a magical problem I couldn’t solve, but denying it wouldn’t do any good. Besides, I could’ve taken his wards down if I’d really wanted to, it just wouldn’t have been subtle. Puzzle would be very annoyed if I ripped down all the defensive spells on his safe house just to get rid of a few eavesdropping spells.
Strumming got straight to business. “No idea how long we’ve got until bug-boy makes it back, so let’s not waste any time. What’s going on, and why don’t we want him knowing about it?”
I slumped down onto a cushion near Strumming’s bed. “I think I might be in a bit over my head, and I need a sneaky plan to even the odds.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “I figured out who shot you. Turns out it was the nephew of that bokor you killed during the whole Rising Fire thing. He was acting on his own.”
Strumming snorted and shook her head. “Should’ve figured the crazy necromancer might have some minions lurking around.”
I frowned and shook my head. “I don’t think they worked together. He’s just mad you murdered his uncle.”
“Executed,” Strumming corrected. “Though I’m gonna be honest, why exactly he wants to avenge his psycho uncle by murdering me is kinda academic. So why don’t you want Puzzle to know about it?”
I took a deep breath. “Because if Puzzle find out who shot you, the kid’s dead.” I scowled and shook my head. “He’s not that much older than I am, and it sounds like he didn’t even like his uncle that much. But ... well, family is family.”
“Oh.” She thought it over for a second, then nodded. “Okay, I get that. You think he’s a stupid kid who made a bad call, and bug-boy's kinda on the warpath right now. ‘Course, I could point out the problem of coming to me for help. The guy shot me. I think you’ll understand if I take that a little personally.”
I grimaced and couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “Because you’re not as mad about it as Puzzle is, and you don’t have his resources. He’s been talking about starting a war with Blood Stripes and clogging the gutters with blood.”
“Aww, he really does care.” Strumming stretched out a bit. “Still, you’ve got a point. Though that’s not the whole picture, is it? You need someone who can give you sneaky-backstabby advice, and now that bug-boy’s out I’m your only option.” She paused, then amended, “Well, I suppose you could always try Princess Celestia thanks to that magic book of hers, but I don’t think you want her advice on something like this.”
She was right about that. I didn’t want to run to Celestia every time I was in a tight spot, since the whole point of coming out here had been to establish my independence. Besides, I didn’t want to go to the mare who was pretty much my mom for advice on how to fight a duel. She’d probably try to interfere and keep me from doing it at all.
I sighed and shook my head. “Most of the time when I have a problem with something going on in Freeport, I talk to Puzzle about it. He knows most of what’s going on, and his advice is usually worth listening to.”
“Not this time though.” She grabbed a pillow, fluffed it up, and stuck it behind her back. “Thus, you need the advice of a brilliant genius spy. So what are you planning to do about the zebra guy who shot me?” She paused thoughtfully. “He got a name?”
“Zuberi.” I sighed and shook my head. “He works for the Blood Stripes. I agreed to a duel with him to try and settle this whole thing before anyone dies. If I win, he goes into exile.”
Strumming’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “Wait a duel?!” She scowled and angrily shook her head. “Cancel it.”
I crossed my forelegs over my chest. “You know I can’t. Puzzle’s agents were there for the whole thing. I’ve got them occupied running around confirming Zuberi’s story, but eventually they’re going to report back to the guy who signs their paychecks. Once that happens, it’s only a matter of time before Zuberi’s found floating face-down in the harbor.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” Strumming groused, pointedly looking down at her wound. “If he’d been a slightly better shot, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. In case you didn’t know, duels are dangerous. You obviously didn’t agree to a death-match, but if things go wrong one or both of you could still end up dead. That’s a pretty big risk to take for a total stranger who put a bullet in me. Why are you doing this?”
I scoffed and turned my head, refusing to look at her. “Maybe I just don’t want anyone dying because of this stupid thing. What’s so crazy about that?”
“The insane chances you’re taking for no real gain.” She shifted towards the edge of the bed. “I get it, you don’t want anyone dying. That’s totally reasonable—noble, even. The problem is you picked a horrible place to make a stand. How do you think Puzzle’s going to react when he finds out you’re going against him to take the side of the guy who shot me?”
“It’s not like that.” I grimaced and shook my head. “I’m just trying to find a solution before this escalates into a street war. If Puzzle kills Zuberi, how do you think the Stripes or the rest of his family will take it?”
“How do you think Puzzle’s gonna take it if you let the guy get away?” Strumming paused, glowering at me. “For that matter, how do you think I feel about it? You’re bending so far over backwards to keep this guy alive that you’re betraying your friends and allies.”
“So what do you think I should do then?!” I snapped.
Strumming took a deep breath. “I’ll handle it. Just sit this one out, Sunset. I started this, and I’ll finish it. Pretty sure I can convince Puzzle to stand down if I’m going after the guy myself. The whole protective boyfriend thing is cute, but I have first dibs on the guy who shot me.”
I scoffed. “You’re going to take care of it? How? You can’t even get out of bed right now. I can only keep Puzzle in the dark for a bit, and he’s going to find out what’s going on way before you’re healed up enough to do anything.”
“So maybe Puzzle kills the guy,” Strumming conceded with a shrug. “Maybe it even touches off this street war you’re so scared of. Maybe the gutters run red with blood until the Blood Stripes are wiped out. I’d take that deal in a heartbeat if the alternative is you getting killed in a stupid duel. If you think it could get bad now, imagine what happens if you die: Puzzle would go on even more of a rampage, and you know Princess Celestia wouldn’t take that lying down.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Then I just need to win.”
Strumming groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “You think it’s that simple?”
“Of course it’s not that bucking simple!” I snapped again. “I have no idea how I’m going to win! I just don’t see any other option to clean up the mess you made! The only alternative you’ve given me is murdering someone just for trying to avenge his uncle’s death!”
“So that’s it.” Strumming leaned back against her pillows and crossed her forelegs over her chest. “This is some sort of atonement thing?”
I turned my back on her. “I was there, Strumming. I helped bust down his defenses. There’s no way you could’ve killed him without my help. Pretty sure that makes me an accessory.”
“Oh for the love of...” Strumming threw her hooves up into the air. “He was a warlock. An enemy of all civilization and ponykind. It’s not murder, it’s justice.”
“You stabbed him in the back after we agreed to a truce,” I growled.
“The safest way to kill a warlock is to get them when their guard’s down.” Strumming shrugged. “Sure, maybe it’s not fair, but I’d rather cheat to take down the bad guy without losing any of our people than fight him fair and bury some of my soldiers at the end of it. Speaking of which, we only agreed to that truce because he was holding one of my guys hostage. Pretty Celestia taught you enough law to grasp that agreements made under duress don’t count.”
“Guess that means I better keep a close eye on you,” I growled. “You arrested me for using dark magic once. Do I get a spike in the back of the head once I let my guard down?”
Strumming crossed her hooves over her chest, refusing to look at me. She stayed quiet for a long time, long enough that I was wondering if I’d killed conversation entirely. Not that I would’ve minded, considering how it had been going. Finally she spoke very softly, her voice lacking its usual bravado. She sounded ... almost humble. “I was wrong about you. Back when we first started, with the whole ‘arresting you’ thing. That was a bad call.”
I glowered back at her, refusing to give an inch. If she wanted to apologize, I was going to make her work for it.
Strumming sighed and ran a hoof down her face. “You're a good pony. Not a perfect one, but I think you’re at least trying to do the right thing. Yeah, you used dark magic, but you were stuck in a rough spot with no other way out, and a whole lot of innocent lives at stake. You made a tough call. The sort of call a magus is supposed to make. I misjudged you, and I’m sorry.”
I sighed and shook my head. “I probably didn’t make it easy on you. I was still going out of my way to do the exact opposite of whatever Celestia wanted from me, and you got caught in that. Granted, it would have gone better if you had helped me a bit more instead of criticising everything I was trying to do.”
“Yeah, I messed up.” She cleared her throat, then held up a hoof to cut me off before I could respond. “That said, you have no idea just how bad dark magic can make a pony. You think that because you’ve had years of training from Equestria’s moral center and you’re grounded enough to use it once or twice without going off the deep end, that means it’s totally safe. Don’t get up on your high horse about how just because we didn’t personally witness a crazy necromancer doing anything evil, that means he’s a pure innocent who’s never done anything. We only had his word he never killed anyone for his horde of zombies, and that’s hardly a reliable source. When a necromancer looks at a living pony, all they see is another potential corpse to use.”
“You’re making an awful lot of assumptions,” I grumbled. “Aside from him using a bit of dark magic, you don’t have any evidence of wrongdoing.”
Strumming flicked up the wing from her uninjured side, counting her points off on her feathers. “First off, using necromancy on a large scale is already pretty heavy evidence of wrongdoing. It’s like saying ‘aside from the pile of dead bodies hidden in his basement, there’s no evidence he’s a murderer.’ Speaking of, the guy also had a bunch of corpses in the basement. Second, think about who you’re dealing with. This guy admired the necrocrats. Anyone who looks back fondly on the days when Freeport had an undead ruling class and is building up his own force of zombies is dangerous. Third, he tried to kill my soldiers. Finally, three ships have gone missing in that area since the necromancer set up shop. Funny enough, all his zombies look like they drowned.”
I frowned and shook my head. “At best, that’s circumstantial evidence. Ships going missing in the out-islands isn’t exactly rare. Storms, pirates, smugglers, monsters, and a dozen other things can sink a ship with no necromancer involved. I’m not sure if you recall how the justice system works, but we don’t go executing anyone because they might have done something. You crossed a line, Strumming.”
My scowl deepened as something new occurred to me. “Puzzle. When he found out what you’d done, he said there was some reason you’d done it. That it wasn’t about him being a criminal or a necromancer. You got real pissed at him for bringing it up, too.”
“Because it was none of his damned business,” Strumming growled. “It’s none of yours either.”
“It kinda is once you start making me an accessory to murder,” I countered, deliberately stressing the last word.
Strumming grunted and turned her back on me. After several seconds of silence, she sighed and nodded to herself. “Fine.” She took a deep breath. “Back when I was starting off, my first partner got caught by some bad guys. He’d been doing some undercover stuff, and they wanted to know how badly he’d compromised them. Of course Moonstone wasn’t gonna talk, and they didn’t have enough time to force it out of him. So ... they broke into his head. Pretty sure you can guess how it went from there.”
I grimaced, all too familiar with the effects of mind magic. I’d been forced to break into Metal Mome’s head to stop his golems, back when I first moved to Freeport. Last I heard, the Council still had Mome in a secure mental facility. On a good day he was capable of feeding himself with a little help. Breaking into someone’s head that way ... it was sort of like going into their mental library and pulling all the books off the shelves until you found the right one. You could end up tearing their psyche to bits in the process.
Strumming nodded glumly. “He’s about as bad off as that pirate you fought. Used to go visit him from time to time, when I had time off work. Figured if anyone should check up on Moonstone, it should be me.”
I was about to say something sympathetic when a thought occurred to me. I quickly dug up Strumming’s medical chart to confirm it. My sympathy vanished in an instant. “Moonstone is your middle name!”
Strumming’s face fell. “I was hoping you didn’t know that.”
I snarled and got to my hooves. “You know what? There’s a lot I can get over. The snacking, your flippant attitude, the way you muck around my business. I could even give you a pass for being too aggressive with a warlock.” I got up and started pacing. “But the one thing I am utterly fed up with is your lies!”
Strumming met my anger with an uncaring shrug. “Don’t take it personally, I lie to everyone.” She pulled out a bag of nuts and opened it up, tossing one into the air.
I telekinetically snatched the nut before it landed in her mouth. “‘Don’t take it personally’?!” I repeated incredulously. “You’re lying to me! Of course I’m going to take it personally!” My jaw tightened and my teeth clenched as my outrage built. “I’m going out on a limb for you and trying to give you a chance to explain yourself, and you’re still lying to me! Why should I trust you with anything when you pull stuff like this? You want to know why I don’t trust you, and we got off to a bad start? Because of horseapples like this! Because you go off and murder some zebra minding his own business and get me mixed up in this big mess, and you won’t even tell me why! No, worse than that! Not telling me would still piss me off, but lying about it is twenty times worse!”
“Why do you think I told you to drop this and let me handle it?” Strumming growled. “You think that because you’ve mixed yourself up in my business, you get to know my secrets? Well maybe I don’t want either of those things.”
“No, clearly you’d rather murder another zebra who didn’t deserve it!” I snapped.
“Oh please.” Strumming rolled her eyes. “If you’ve got some weird guilt thing over having a small supporting role in killing a bad guy, don’t take it out on me.”
I scoffed. “Right, the bad guy. Except I’ve only got your word that he’s actually bad. Why should I believe a thing you say? You freely admit you lie all the time!”
Strumming snorted and turned her back on me, wincing from the effort. “Fine then, you’re right. You really shouldn’t believe me anyway.”
I started pacing again, trying to make sense of her behavior. Maybe some of it made sense if she was trying to get me so pissed at her that I abandoned the situation out of pure spite, but there was more to this than that. She’d been a chronic liar for as long as I’d known her. Puzzle had once shared a theory that she lied so much she couldn’t even keep the truth straight in her own head. Why would a pony even do that to themselves?
The answer came in a flash of inspiration. “So who was it?”
“Who was who?” Strumming shot back, still not looking at me.
“You were right about one thing. You do lie a lot.” I trotted around the bed to face her again. “But Puzzle told me something once. That even the lies a pony tells can be used to find the truth. Then there’s one of the lessons I got from Celestia: how to defend my mind against a mental attack. There were a lot of different techniques, but one of them seems particularly applicable. You lie.” I held up a hoof to forestall her response. “Someone trying to break into your head wants information, and they won’t stop until they get it. So give them what they want, or at least something close enough to make them think they’ve won. Of course, lying to someone who’s inside your brain isn’t easy. You’d have to lie so well you couldn’t even tell the difference between your own truth and lies.”
Strumming raised an eyebrow. “Interesting theory. Of course, somepony who can’t tell the difference between their own lies and reality would be ... well, a total nutbar. Completely divorced from reality. That’s not me.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Depends on how much you do it. Normally someone would only do that if they expected an immediate mental attack. You’d have to be ridiculously paranoid to use that technique all the time.” I fixed a knowing gaze on her. “The sort of paranoia that comes from seeing someone close to you suffer the after-effects of a massive mental assault. You used your own middle name for that story. Makes a pony wonder if maybe that story hit a bit closer to home for you than you want to admit.”
“You’re reaching,” Strumming grunted out, scowling at me. “That’s a ridiculously complicated theory. Maybe I just lie because I enjoy it. Or I’m a pathological liar. Or just because lying’s a skill, and skills need regular practice.”
All those answers made sense, but my instincts told me I was onto something. “So who did you get your middle name from?”
Strumming rolled her eyes. “My parents, same as everypony.”
That sounded like an straightforward deflection, but I had to wonder if maybe that was another case of a lie revealing some of the truth. “The EIS is a family business, right?”
Strumming’s eyes narrowed. “You know, if I’m not telling you the truth it’s probably because I don’t want to, not because of some elaborate conspiracy theory.”
She was getting angry again. I was tempted to push her a bit harder, but that might be a wasted effort. She was getting more and more defensive the more I probed and the closer I got to the truth. I was probably better off comparing notes with Puzzle. However, I had to get the last word in. “Yeah, it was somepony close to you. Close enough to make you go around on a personal crusade against warlocks.”
Strumming scoffed. “What a load. I don’t need some deeply personal childhood trauma to be opposed to dangerous black magic users. I just need to be after them because they’re loonies who use forbidden dark magic to kill and hurt innocent ponies.”
I sighed and shook my head. I still suspected I was a lot closer to the truth than she was admitting, but I was honestly tired of dealing with her. “Whatever. I still have to figure out how to get out of this mess without there being a body count, which means winning the duel.”
After a long, awkward silence, Strumming asked a question. “What are the duel terms?”
“We’re going by Zebrican terms, so each of us agreed to ban one weapon.” I grimaced as I got to the bad part. “He’s not allowed to use firearms and I can’t use magic. Well, I can’t use magic to do much more than basic telekinesis to wield melee weapons. I’m sure I could find a few loopholes to exploit in the rules if I really wanted to, but...”
“That’d probably just make him say you won by cheating, so the results don’t count,” Strumming concluded. “If the Stripes don’t think you won legitimately, they’ll probably refuse to honor the outcome, or at least turn a blind eye when he breaks his exile.” She frowned and scratched her chin. “So, it’s melee weapons only? Presumably not to the death, considering you want this to give you a way out without killing him.”
I grunted and nodded. “It goes on until one side submits.”
“Might want to be careful,” Strumming cautioned. “With those terms it’s frowned upon to go for the kill, but accidents happen.” She frowned thoughtfully. “Now, if you want some advice on how to win this, I’d suggest...”
Once Strumming and I had hashed out a plan, it was up to me to put it into action. Thankfully, I had the resources to pull that off without needing Puzzle’s network. The Doos were more than willing to rent out the gear I needed, and for a bit more I got a few quick lessons. There wasn’t time to learn more than a few basics, but if everything went according to plan I wouldn’t need more than that.
I arrived at the dueling ground ten minutes before we were due to start. My equipment was a little different from my usual cloak and armor. I’d managed to find a set of full-plate in the Doo armory that made for a good enough fit with a few adjustments. It was still a long way from perfect, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem with what I had in mind. I didn’t plan to do a lot of maneuvering, and as long as I won the duel, I could live with some chafing. It wasn’t like I planned to use this stuff long-term.
The rest of my equipment was even less typical. A longspear and a heavy shield that I had almost no prayer of properly wielding without telekinesis. Good thing I was allowed to use my magic for that, as long as I didn’t extend my reach and maneuverability past what I could manage with hooves. Or rather, what I could manage if I’d done proper combat training and exercise. If I made it out of this in one piece, I would have to work on physical fitness.
Of course, my visit to the Doos ensured that I would attract an audience. Naturally Kukri was in the front row, along with her father and a few other members of the clan. That made me all the more determined to win this thing. I certainly didn’t want Kukri to see me fail or get hurt; it would break her hero-worshipping little heart.
Zuberi stood at the other end of the ring, chatting with several of his fellow Blood Stripes. His war paint had been freshly done up, and he was wearing a much lighter quilted gambeson and suit of chainmail. The cluster of zebras noted my approach with raised eyebrows, quite taken aback by my heavy wargear. Zuberi confidently strode over, a scimitar hanging from his hip. “Magus Shimmer. It seems you have arrived.”
I smirked and nodded. “Well spotted.” I put just a hint of mockery into my tone.
The very serious young zebra frowned at me. “You can still back out.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “We both know that’s not happening.”
His frown grew into a scowl. “I have heard it said you are a mare of honor. Why are you protecting the pony responsible for killing my uncle?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure we already had this conversation when we were setting up the duel. I thought you came here to fight, not talk.” Poking at him like that wasn’t something I normally would’ve done, but Strumming had suggested it. I wasn’t going to beat him with pure martial skill, and even with a few clever tricks up my sleeve I needed every edge I could get. If I managed to get under Zuberi’s skin and annoy him so much he started making mistakes it might give me the edge I needed to win.
Zuberi’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded sharply. “Fine then. We fight.” He sharply turned on his hooves, going over to the two judges who would be inspecting our gear. Per Zebrican tradition, each of us had named one of them. Knives Doo served as my judge, since I knew her reasonably well and she had some experience with dueling protocol. Unsurprisingly, Zuberi had picked his commanding officer to be his judge.
Knives only gave my gear a cursory inspection, since she’d helped me pick it out. Commander Volkan subjected it to far stricter scrutiny, hefting the shield, spear, and several pieces of armor to make sure I hadn’t put any weight-reducing spells on them. Zuberi seemed to share his concerns. “How can she even carry all that without magic?”
“They’re called muscles,” I countered. “I can see why you wouldn’t be familiar with them.”
The young zebra flushed with wounded pride, whirling to his Commander. “What about heat? Is she using any spells to keep from overheating while wearing all that metal?”
Volkan carefully looked the armor over, poking each piece of it to see if he could find any evidence of spellwork. “I see no sign of that.”
He wouldn’t. I wasn’t planning on cheating in the duel. Granted, some might say I’d exploited a bit of a loophole by using a bit of subtle biomancy to drop my body temperature down by a few degrees. I had dropped the spell right before we approached the duelling grounds, but starting off on the cool side would buy me a bit more time before the heat started getting to me.
Zuberi grimaced, but he couldn’t find any legitimate grounds for complaint. “Fine then.”
I took the opportunity to needle him a bit more. “Problem?”
“No,” he answered sourly.
I smirked confidently. “If you don’t think you can win, you can always back down.”
Zuberi glowered balefully at me. “If you think you can beat me before you suffer heat stroke from dressing up in that tin can, feel free to try.”
“I’ll manage,” I answered confidently.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Check to make sure she isn’t using any spells.”
Before the judge started, I held up a hoof. “I do have one contingent teleportation spell set up to take me over the medics if I’m severely injured. Needless to say, that would be a de facto forfeit. I can remove the spell if that’s an issue, or I can cast it on Zuberi too if he wants.”
Volkan nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds useful. I don’t see any issue with that spell. The whole point is to close this out with no deaths. Zuberi?”
“I don’t need a spell for a contingency that won’t happen,” he declared confidently. “Besides, she would probably try to use it to teleport me out as soon as I received flesh wound.”
“I don’t need to cheat to beat you,” I shot back with a dismissive wave. “Just like I don’t need any spells to crush you.” As if to emphasize my point, the sky rumbled as a storm began sweeping in from ocean.
Zuberi grimaced, his eyes flicking to the sky. “We better get started then, it’s going to rain soon.” I heard the barest hint of nervous fear in his voice, and he swallowed heavily as he took the first steps towards the ring.
I saw another opening. “Afraid of a little water? Don’t worry, I’ll finish this before you get your mane wet.” I levitated my weapons up, grinning as I trotted into position.
Zuberi’s teeth clenched as he drew his scimitar. “Let’s see if you can fight half as well as you talk.”
“Works for me.”
Knives and Volkan nodded to one another, and the mare stepped forward. “You will remain in position until I give the word. Neither party may exit the dueling ring once you begin. Exiting the ring is a forfeit. The battle will continue until one of you yields, steps out of the ring, or is unable to continue.”
“Understood.” Zuberi settled into his place, flicking his scimitar through a quick series of slices in an effort to impress the crowd.
I didn’t try anything flashy. I just got into position, my spear and shield facing my opponent. If I’d tried to dramatically flourish my weapons, I probably would’ve just made a fool out of myself. “I’m ready.”
Volkan did the honors. “Three. Two. One. Begin!”
Zuberi began with a slow, cautious approach. It was the prudent thing to do against an unknown opponent who was up to something suspicious, but it wasn’t the best move. If he’d rushed me, he might’ve turned it into a very short and embarrassing duel. With my heavy and imperfectly fitted armor, I wouldn’t have had a chance of keeping up. He could’ve easily outflanked me and started stabbing me from behind.
Caution stole his chance. As he advanced I fell back and to the side, until I’d put my back to one of the corners of the dueling arena. With my back secured and both flanks protected by the boundary, he had no choice but to fight me head-on.
Zuberi paused and frowned as he realized what I’d done. He knew I was in a strong position, and digging me out of it wouldn’t be easy. With no better options, he tried to taunt me out of it. “Afraid to fight me, Magus?”
“Nope.” I smirked at him, though now that I had a helmet on it didn’t work as well. “Just playing smart. You’re the one who was too scared to face me while I could cast any spells. Here I am, the magus without any magic. Come and get me.”
Zuberi scowled and closed in, trying a few quick jabs to probe my defenses. None of them came close to getting past my huge shield, but blocking those attacks didn’t leave me with many openings to counterattack. Not that I planned to do much of that at this stage. The few pokes I made with my spear were little more than a token effort. I would’ve been utterly stunned if I’d actually landed a hit.
Just as I’d hoped, the longer I held him at bay with relatively little effort, the more frustrated Zuberi got. His attacks became less and less careful as he tried to find a way past my shield, or barring that just batter through my defenses.
I was more than content to sit back, snug and safe in my corner and let him do exactly that. As Strumming had put it, winning the fight wasn’t a matter of me pulling off some brilliant and complex maneuver. I just needed to survive until he made a mistake. I threw out another taunt to help move him along. “Looks like you’re having some trouble.”
He snarled and stepped in, swinging for my spear. He succeeded in knocking my weapon aside, but he’d forgotten a lesson Knives had drilled into me during my crash course. The shield isn’t just a slab of metal you use to block attacks—it’s as much of a weapon as a spear.
Zuberi saw the attack coming in time to partially dodge it, but the rim of my shield still caught him across the jaw. He staggered back, and for a moment I was tempted to pursue and try to take him down while he was off-balance. I suppressed the instinct. In a magic fight I could afford to be aggressive, but not now. Stick to the plan, and stay defensive. If I went on the attack too soon, it could end very badly for me.
Zuberi slowly regained his bearings, then spat out a mouthful of blood accompanied by half a tooth. It was a good thing he’d managed a partial dodge; if I’d caught him full in the mouth, he probably would have been stuck eating his meals through a straw for months. He glared furiously at me, picking up his dropped scimitar and pacing back and forth as he searched for an opening.
I saw another opening for a weapon that hurt nearly as much as my shield had. “Have I made you angry?” I turned to the crowd. “I think I made him angry.” That got a few chuckles out of them, mostly from the Doos.
A soft growl left Zuberi’s lips at the laughter, and he rushed in again. This time he kept a wary eye on my shield. His swing went wild, and I put my spear into his path. However, he caught me by surprise when he kept barreling forward, trusting his armor to keep my speartip at bay. His chainmail was good enough to keep my strike from penetrating too deep, and the long shallow gash along his side wasn’t enough to kill his momentum.
I grunted in surprise when he body-slammed my shield, pushing it back against me. A second later I realized what his plan was as I felt my hooves beginning to slide back. My position in the corner meant he couldn’t flank me, but it also put me perilously close to the edge of the ring. He only needed to force me a short distance back to knock me out. I tried to bring my spear back to bear against him, but he was too close for me to get a good angle. At least, not without breaking the duel rules by attacking from an angle that couldn’t be managed with hooves.
Zuberi grinned as he saw his advantage, pushing hard to try and drive me back the short distance he needed to clench his victory. He tried to sneak a punch past my shield, but thankfully the awkward angle robbed the strike of enough force to do more than lightly clang off my helmet.
I couldn’t beat him in a contest of raw strength, so I changed the rules. One of the rules of magic duels was to never use a brute force shield when you could just redirect the attack so it missed. I tried something similar, ceasing the shoving match in favor of angling my shield and taking a half-step to the side. The sudden shift in position left Zuberi unbalanced, and he nearly stumbled out of the ring before he managed to catch himself.
I didn’t let the opening go to waste now that I’d opened up some distance. I brought my spear to bear and jabbed at his foreleg. The armor there wasn’t as thick, and I managed to score a passable hit. His armor kept the blow from penetrating too deeply, but that suited me. I didn’t want to cripple him or risk hitting a blood vessel that might bleed him out. I just wanted him slowed down.
Zuberi yelped and jumped back, retreating back the center of the ring. I let him fall back, content to reclaim my defensive position. “Is that all you’ve got? Not so hot when you’re not shooting someone in the back, are you?”
He snarled at me. “Come out of that corner and fight me, coward!”
“Why should I?” I asked bluntly. “I’m winning. Not my fault you’re too stupid to figure out a way to beat me.”
Zuberi’s teeth clenched, and he tried to charge in again. He made it about halfway before his wounded leg gave out on him, turning his rush into an off-balance stumble. This time I took the opening, stepping forward and thrusting with my spear. He barely managed a parry, but that left him so badly out of position that he was helpless for my next attack.
With another step forward, I slammed my shield into his face. This time I used the boss instead of the rim, mostly because the rim probably would’ve smashed several bones in his face. As it was, he fell to the floor of the ring with a painful thud.
I let the rim of my shield fall onto his main foreleg—not hard enough to break it, but more than enough to make my point. Then I leveled my speartip at his throat. “Yield.”
Zuberi twitched beneath me, trying to find some way out. There wasn’t any. I had one of his legs pinned, and a spear at his throat. He screamed in frustration, refusing to meet my eyes. Finally, he spat out the words like a bitter curse. “I yield, damn you.”
Knives Doo nodded, a hint of a smile on her lips. “Zuberi of the Blood Stripes has yielded. The victory goes to Magus Shimmer.”
Zuberi groaned as I stepped away, and one of the medics entered the ring to see to him.
“Well fought.” I nodded respectfully. “Sorry about the trash-talk. It was just part of the match.”
Zuberi grunted, refusing to meet my eyes or respond. I decided to back off and let the medics patch him up. Hopefully, the damage to his pride was worse than any of the wounds I’d put on his body. He was getting out of this alive, which was more than anyone else could’ve offered him.
As soon as I was outside the dueling ring I spotted a young changeling leaping into the air and cheering her lungs out. Once I’d put my weapons aside, Kukri rushed over and immediately hugged me. “This one never thought it’d say this, but you did a hell of a good job fending off the Heartstrings-mare’s attacker.” She paused for a moment. “Just don’t make a habit of it, alright?”
I nodded and idly ruffled Kukri’s head-crest. Once things settled down some, I should probably bug Strumming to apologize to Kukri. If she’d apologized to me, she could do the same for the kid. However, there were happier things to focus on. “So, I won. I think that calls for a victory party. Who wants ice cream?” Kukri’s widening smile answered my question.
“This one would like some as well.”
As soon as I heard that voice I froze, then slowly turned around.
Puzzle was standing right behind me. And he didn’t look happy. At all.