She was his mate. He would protect her.
He would win her freedom…even if it meant losing her himself.
“Do not fear for me.” With one last kiss, he drew back, tightening his grasp on his sword. “I have honor on my side.”
Neridia took a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, their sky-blue depths were resolute. Her mouth set in a determined line.
“Yes,” she said, her tone so clear and commanding that the very waves seemed to fall still to hear her. “You do. If you would challenge the Knight-Commander, do it for the right reason.”
“Yes!” John’s sister called, her own tone fierce. “Tell him, Neridia!”
The Knight-Commander wheeled on his heel to confront Neridia, muscles bunching in rage. “Don’t you dare-!”
Neridia faced him down without a trace of fear, her spine straight and her head up. “You sent assassins to kill my father, the Pearl Emperor. You tried to kill me too, and when you could not, you sought instead to force me to do your will by threatening my mate. You are an honorless traitor, and at last you will pay for your crimes.”
Now, now he understood why she had fled, what she had not been able to tell him. The mate bond opened wide, showing him her whole soul.
He had thought to protect her…but she had been protecting him.
“Oh my
mate, my heart,” he whispered. “My Empress.”
Words failed him. He could only open his heart to her in return, showing her all that he felt. His sorrow at the burden she had been forced to carry alone. His fierce, awestruck pride at her courage. His love for her, wider and deeper than the ocean itself.
The sea wind blew her hair back from her face as she turned to him. She stood proud as a queen, as an Empress, as a very goddess.
“My Champion.” With steady hands, she removed her pearl pendant. “Take this as a mark of my favor. Punish the traitor. Avenge the Emperor. Uphold my honor.”
“Vile lies,” the Knight-Commander snarled, as John knelt so that Neridia could fasten the chain around his own neck. “I deny them all. Make what accusations you will, human. It will make no difference. I will wash my honor clean in your Champion’s blood.”
John rose. The Emperor’s pearl rested in the hollow of his throat, warm from the heat of Neridia’s skin. Setting his feet, he looked levelly across at the Knight-Commander.
“You may try.” He swept his blade up to a guard position, deliberately forgoing the customary salute to an honorable opponent. “Traitor.”
The Knight-Commander leaped forward with a fierce sequence of strikes. John did not even try to follow the dazzling flicker of the twin blades. Instead, he concentrated on the Knight-Commander’s eyes, half-hidden as they were beneath his helm. He let himself flow as easily as water, without thought.
The power of the Knight-Commander’s blows vibrated down John’s blade and through his bones…but he blocked every one. The Knight-Commander hesitated for a moment, as though surprised that his first assault had failed. His left blade dropped fractionally.
Suspecting that it was a trick to lure him out, John firmed his own stance. Though he had seen the Knight-Commander duel many times—and even sparred with him, during his own training—it was all several years in the past.
He will have mastered new techniques unknown to me, while I was away on land. I cannot rely on my memory. I must bide my time, until I have learned his style.
Until I can find a weakness.
“You will be waiting a long time, Knight-Poet,” the Knight-Commander taunted. “Drop your guard, and I will at least allow you a swift death.”
As a powerful Seer, the Knight-Commander could read thoughts directly from the tides of a person’s blood. It was another of the things that made him such a dangerous opponent. John tightened his own mental walls, and waited.
The Knight-Commander sighed. “And to think that I once thought you might become a worthy opponent, in time. How disappointing.”
He attacked again, faster this time. His swords spun in interlocking patterns. John caught and deflected the right blade, but the left was already darting in to strike at his exposed side.
On pure instinct, John pivoted. The Knight-Commander’s sword missed him by a hair, passing so close that he felt the whisper of it against his skin. Distantly, he thought he heard his sister stifle a shriek of fear, but he could not spare her a glance. All of his attention had to be fixed on his opponent.
He didn’t need to spare a glance for Neridia. He felt her presence at his back like the heat of the sun. Her courage filled him, more powerful than the tides.
The Knight-Commander pressed his attack, seeking to catch him off-balance. John danced away on the balls of his feet, his own sword a blur as he parried. He still had yet to venture an attack of his own…but a deep, calm certainty was forming in his mind.