Stalling

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This part is a way to delay the battle scene. It had to be written anyway. I'm going to post it as I write it, I like the black backgorund and font coloring. Mainly, though, if anyone has a comment or suggestion while it's being written I'll thank them as one of my muses. Jestr, The Snail and others in the book are actually living people that have helped with the writing in one way or another.

The test was against impossible odds, Draven liked it. As the Snail walked up the dark tunnel he thought how much this mission was like their time in assassin school, Jestr needed him then, too. He looked back into the darkness, he wondered if he'd see him again. He still didn't understand his relationship with Jestr, they couldn't be called friends, they rarely talked, other than fight they didn't do anything together but some bond existed that the Snail couldn't understand. He risked his life to help Jestr many times and Jestr did the same for him, and would, the Snail knew he could count on Jestr to have his back but he couldn't say why. His mind returned to that time in the school, it was alot like the battle ahead, impossible, and that's what he liked best.

He didn't know the test had begun, the day after his captors' visit his cell door opened as usual and he walked to the other cell that would hold a weapon. When he got there he saw that things were different, instead of one weapon waiting for him there were racks of weapons. He looked them over, every weapon he used in his training was there, one for every day he'd been there, and several new ones added. Only by counting up the weapons did he know that he'd been there sixty-seven days, he would've enjoyed it if he wasn't locked up. Draven didn't like being caged, his cells had been prisons to him and he got out of them, with seventy-three weapons at hand there had to be a way out of this one. It wasn't something he had to think about right then, he had a test to face and no idea what it would be. At first it looked like more of the same, one person came in, Draven picked up a weapon and killed him. Draven turned to go back but saw something that changed the whole test, two more people were inside his cage, he picked up another weapon. He started flagging when it got to five, at seven opponents he was fighting a losing battle and had a faint feeling he might die. His keepers had other ideas, a door to the cage opened and Draven stepped through. As Draven walked down a new tunnel he wondered if he passed the test.

It swam to her out of the darkness, a knife thrown in battle and Dancr falling. Arleen knew Isu had changed her plan to hide her murder in the heat of the battle ahead. She made her way up the line to where she'd last seen Dancr, "Dancr?" she whispered. "Yes." "Isu's going to do it in battle, a thrown knife with strange markings." Arleen warned and fell back in place.

He didn't plan on staying around to find out if he passed the test, he knew what his reward would be if he did. Draven started looking for a way out, there were turnings to the tunnel but they were all barred off, he tried some of the bars but they were beyond his strength. Turning back got him to more bars, there was only one way to go, if he was going to get out it would be at the end of the tunnel. He kept a weapon, a ghjo, a curved knuckle knife, that he could easily palm but he also slipped a knife up his sleeve, he knew the ghjo would be found but he was hoping they'd stop looking when it was.

Isu wondered about what she was planning to do, it wasn't a matter of right or wrong on her mind, she knew she was right, it was a matter of savoring Dancr's death. The hurt Isu saw in M'Kael's eyes would haunt Isu the rest of her life, Dancr needed to pay for that and Isu wanted her to see who exacted her retribution.

Excerpt from Shadow Stalkers by S.E.Estes