Chapter 17 | The Fight, Astreal Verse

Three cultists rushed Astreal before she reached the first bend.

The nearest swung at her shoulder.

She stepped inside his reach, struck his wrist with the tomahawk's haft, and drove him into the man behind him. The third tried to come around them.

There wasn't room.

Astreal put him down before he worked that out.

She continued along the passage.

At the next bend, four more were waiting.

Of course.

The corridor gave her little room to evade.

She used what there was.

A blade scraped the wall beside her head. She turned beneath it, struck, and moved past the falling man before another could take his place.

Someone caught her sleeve from behind.

She tore free, but a knife opened the skin beneath it.

Astreal struck the attacker back and kept moving.

None of them could hold her alone. Together, spread through the passage, they made her pay for every stretch of clear floor.

By the time she reached the hall, she had five cuts.

Two were still bleeding.

Her breathing was controlled. Her legs were beginning to feel the cost of maintaining that speed.

She paused inside the entrance long enough to check the room.

Four freestanding pillars. Statues around the walls. A ceiling high enough to disappear beyond the torchlight.

No one on the floor.

Then she saw the statues' faces.

Astreal stopped beneath the nearest one.

She knew that face.

The sculptor had made his expression stern. They usually did, when they wanted people to remember a ruler rather than a man.

She remembered him laughing.

That memory caught her before she could set it aside.

For three thousand years, she'd carried a face that no longer existed. Now it looked down at her from stone while blood ran beneath her sleeve.

Her fingers tightened around the tomahawk.

Matthias is in the other passage.

She pictured him in the basement, trying to hide how pleased he was when he held her away for several exchanges.

He looked nothing like this statue when he smiled.

She wanted to see him do it again.

Astreal turned from the plinth.

A soft laugh came from above.

A woman stood on the head of the largest statue.

Pale hands rested one over the other at her waist. Her chin was lifted, her posture composed, as though she were receiving a visitor from a raised chair instead of balancing above a stone floor.

Astreal knew her before she descended.

The woman drifted down without a sound.

"Elizabeth."

Her smile sharpened.

"Countess Báthory. You were never given leave to address me so familiarly."

Astreal raised her tomahawk.

"Sylvia broke the seal."

"She did. A courtesy for which I am most grateful."

Elizabeth smoothed a fold at her wrist.

"She required a Right Guardian. I required my freedom. Once she mentioned who might come through this passage, the arrangement became quite agreeable."

Her gaze moved over Astreal's face.

Slowly.

"Not a day older."

Astreal said nothing.

"Of course you aren't. All those years, and you have not even had the decency to age."

The smile remained. Her hands had stopped moving.

Astreal watched them.

"The seal should have lasted five hundred years."

"And you would have left me there for every one of them."

Elizabeth took a step forward.

"Do you remember closing it?"

"Yes."

"I remember your footsteps afterward. How calmly you walked away."

Her voice stayed low.

"I listened until I could no longer hear them. Then there was nothing. No light. No voices. Only the lid, and the seals you had placed beyond my reach."

She looked directly into Astreal's eyes.

"I have wanted you beneath my hands ever since."

Astreal shifted her weight off her injured leg.

Elizabeth noticed.

Her gaze dropped to the blood at the hem of Astreal's dress, and the pleasure on her face was immediate.

"They did manage something useful before you disposed of them."

"You let them wear me down."

"Did you expect me to deny myself an advantage?"

Elizabeth lifted her eyes again.

"You entered my home. Stripped me of my freedom. Shut me in steel as though my name meant nothing."

"Your name did nothing for the women you killed."

"Do not lecture me about those women."

The words cracked across the hall.

Elizabeth went still.

Then she drew a slow breath and straightened the cuff she'd already adjusted.

"You will forgive my impatience," she said. "I have rehearsed this conversation rather often. You were more attentive in the versions I preferred."

Astreal kept the tomahawk low and ready.

"I imagine I was less armed."

"Eventually."

Elizabeth's gaze settled on her wounded arm.

"Their blood never gave me enough time. Yours, however..."

She moved closer, and Astreal could see the dark necklace at her throat.

"Three thousand years without a line on your face. I wonder how much of that I could take for myself."

"You won't find out."

"Oh, I intend to."

Elizabeth smiled again.

"But do not mistake this for mere appetite. If your blood offered me nothing, I would still take it."

She rose from the floor.

"I want you to know who is taking it."

Black roses gathered around her sleeves.

They unfolded in the air, petals curling around narrow points. Then three tore free and shot downward.

Astreal moved behind the nearest pillar.

The first struck stone at head height.

An explosion cracked through the hall. Chips stung her cheek.

She was already moving when the second hit.

The third cut across her route, forcing her to stop short and change direction.

Elizabeth watched from three meters above the floor.

"Still quick. How tiresome."

Astreal swept her tomahawk upward.

Holy light crossed the hall and struck a shield around Elizabeth's body.

It scattered.

Beneath Elizabeth's collar, the necklace pulsed.

Sylvia's gift.

Astreal sent another arc toward her from farther left.

The shield brightened there before the blow landed.

Elizabeth turned with it, and another rose formed between her fingers.

"You cannot reach me from down there."

Astreal put the next pillar between them.

For now, the countess was right.

The roses came in measured volleys.

One drove Astreal from cover. Another struck the place she would have landed if she hadn't shortened her step.

A third waited until she raised the tomahawk to answer.

Elizabeth had thought about this fight.

Astreal abandoned the strike and threw herself sideways.

Stone burst behind her.

She landed hard on her injured leg and felt the cut pull open.

Elizabeth laughed.

"There. That was almost a stumble."

Astreal got her feet beneath her.

"Almost."

The next volley came faster.

She slipped behind a pillar and heard the stone split above her shoulder.

Her cover was failing.

She checked the distance to the statues, then to Elizabeth. Too far for a leap. Too little cover to approach unseen.

Another holy arc struck the shield.

It held, but Elizabeth had to turn toward it. The roses around her right hand thinned while the barrier brightened.

Astreal saw it.

Then she had to move again.

"Did you think of me?" Elizabeth asked.

A rose struck the floor beside Astreal's heel.

"During all those pleasant years outside. Did you ever wonder whether I could still hear?"

Astreal ducked behind the third pillar.

"I knew you could."

For a heartbeat, the attacks stopped.

Then the pillar shook under a direct hit.

"You knew."

Dust filled Astreal's mouth.

She moved before the next rose arrived.

Elizabeth's voice followed her.

"And you went on living. Dressing yourself. Walking beneath the sun. Waiting for your precious lord to come back to you."

Another impact.

"While I lay in that box."

Astreal's reply was flat.

"While nobody else died to keep you young."

The next volley broke what remained of the third pillar.

Elizabeth no longer laughed.

Astreal crossed toward the last one, sending a short burst of light behind her to interrupt the pursuit.

Her breath caught as she reached cover.

Blood had soaked through her sleeve. The muscles in her legs trembled when she stopped moving.

She could still fight.

She could not maintain this pace much longer.

Joseph had told her exactly that in the living room.

What happens when a fight lasts longer than you expect?

She pressed her free hand against her side.

A faint warmth gathered beneath her palm.

The last pillar took a direct hit.

Its upper section broke away, crashing between Astreal and the center of the hall. She crouched behind the remaining stump as smaller fragments rattled around her.

She let her breathing sound as rough as it felt.

Above the broken stone, Elizabeth began to descend.

"At last."

Her feet reached the floor without a sound.

Astreal watched her shadow lengthen across the rubble.

"Put down the weapon," Elizabeth said. "You have made your little display."

The warmth beneath Astreal's hand spread into her arm.

The bleeding slowed.

She kept still.

"I said put it down."

Elizabeth came closer.

"You will kneel when I address you. I have waited long enough to see it."

Astreal closed her eyes for one measured breath.

The spell cost her energy. It didn't return everything the passage and the fight had taken.

But it eased the pain, steadied her legs, and closed the cuts enough to stop the bleeding.

Enough for another exchange.

She remembered answering Matthias with those very words in the basement.

This time, she intended to make that exchange the last.

Astreal rose from behind the broken pillar.

Elizabeth stopped.

Her gaze went to the blood on Astreal's sleeve, then to the arm beneath it.

Astreal lifted the tomahawk.

"You should be exhausted."

"I was."

"You were barely standing."

"You gave me time to recover."

Elizabeth's lips parted.

Astreal saw the moment she understood.

Remaining above the floor would have kept her beyond reach. Continuing the attack would have denied Astreal the pause she needed.

But Elizabeth had wanted to stand over her. Wanted an answer to an order.

The countess drew herself upright.

"A healing trick does not make you my equal."

Dark roses gathered at her wrist.

Astreal moved.

The nearest intact statue stood beside Elizabeth, its heavy upper body leaning slightly over the hall.

Astreal reached its plinth before the first rose left Elizabeth's hand.

Holy light ran along the tomahawk's edge.

She struck through the support on the countess's side.

Stone cracked.

The statue tilted.

For an instant, its carved face turned toward her.

Her hand tightened.

Matthias is beyond this room.

She drove her shoulder against the remaining support and sprang away.

Elizabeth looked up.

The roses vanished as she threw both hands above her head.

A dense shield formed beneath the falling stone.

It caught the statue with a crash that shook dust from the ceiling.

Astreal was already at her side.

Elizabeth began to turn.

Too late.

Astreal hooked the blunt inner curve of the tomahawk's head behind her neck. One foot swept behind the countess's ankle, and she pulled.

Elizabeth hit the floor on her back.

The impact forced a breath from her lungs.

Above them, the statue settled deeper into the shield.

She couldn't let it fall. She couldn't turn all of her protection toward Astreal either.

Astreal planted a knee across her arm and held the tomahawk ready.

The countess stared up at her.

"Get off me."

Astreal reached toward the necklace.

Elizabeth's free hand caught her wrist.

"Do you hear me? You will take your hands off—"

Astreal pressed her trapped arm more firmly against the floor.

The order ended in a gasp.

Up close, the composure was gone. Dust clung to Elizabeth's hair. Her eyes moved from the tomahawk to Astreal's face, then toward the broken stone above them.

Something changed in her expression.

"No."

Her fingers tightened around Astreal's wrist.

"Not again."

Astreal kept her weight steady.

"There is no coffin."

Elizabeth searched her face.

"Then let me rise. We can reach an arrangement. Sylvia's bargain need not concern you."

Astreal's fingers closed around the necklace.

"Take the key," Elizabeth said quickly. "Take whatever you came for. I will leave this wretched place."

The shield shuddered above them.

Astreal pulled.

The chain held.

Elizabeth's nails dug into her wrist.

"I am offering you terms."

"I heard you."

Astreal pulled harder.

The chain broke.

Elizabeth screamed.

Darkness streamed from the torn setting, then from the edges of her body. Her hand lost its grip as her fingers dissolved against Astreal's skin.

The shield flickered.

Astreal pushed off the floor and rolled clear.

The statue fell behind her.

Stone struck stone. The noise swallowed the last of the scream.

Astreal came up on one knee, tomahawk raised.

Black mist drifted above the shattered carving.

Then it thinned and disappeared.

There was no one beneath it.

For several seconds, Astreal listened.

No voice. No gathering roses.

Only dust settling across the floor.

The key lay beside a broken piece of the plinth.

Astreal picked it up, then checked her wounds.

The cuts remained closed. Her wrist bore fresh marks from Elizabeth's nails, and her legs had begun to ache again.

The spell had bought her time to finish the fight. It hadn't made the effort free.

She stood slowly.

At the far end of the hall, a recessed lock waited in the wall.

She crossed to it, keeping clear of the broken statue.

The key fitted.

When she turned it, a heavy mechanism shifted somewhere beyond the stone.

The right lock released.

Astreal rested her hand against the wall until her breathing settled.

Then she turned toward the passage.

She passed the shattered face on the floor.

For a moment, she looked down at it.

The memory the statue had stirred was still hers. Breaking stone hadn't taken it from her.

But there was a man waiting somewhere beyond this hall who had bought her a red dress because he wanted to see her happy in it.

She wanted to go home with him.

Astreal stepped over the fallen stone and returned to the passage.