CHAPTER 398: 398: THE BATTLE SHIFTED TO ENEMY PART TWO

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He spoke the offer like a man who thinks words make truth. The hand holding Miryam trembled a fraction. Only Silvershadow, two steps behind his blind side, saw it for certain.

Kai didn’t answer at once. The old rage wanted to come back. He kept it in a tight rope and used it for warmth, not fire. He looked at Miryam’s face. He made his voice soft for one breath so the next hard breath would not scare her.

"Little one," he said, "I see you. I am here."

Miryam’s eyes were wet. She swallowed. "Papa," she whispered again. "My friend—"

Kai looked at the Friend’s body on the sand. "I know," he said. "You were brave. Keep breathing. Keep your eyes on me."

Mardek’s mouth twitched at the corner. "Enough," he said. "This is not a family visit. Kneel."

Kai set his spear down point-first into the sand. He didn’t drop it. He planted it like a flag. He spread his fingers to show they were empty, then closed them again.

"You want my name," he said. "You have it. I want yours and your rank and your command mark."

"I told you," Mardek snapped. He thumped his chest with the dagger hand so the plates rang. "Vice General Mardek. Scarlet Ant Kingdom. Siege cohort on my back, runner cadre on my left, shield line on my right. I have a cord from General Vorak. I am the mouth in this sand."

"What do you want," Kai asked. "Truly."

"I want proof," Mardek said. "Proof that the white hair who Killed Darius is you. Proof for my mark-stone. Proof to make Vorak laugh when he squeezes your throat."

Kai took that in. He let the information sit alongside the picture of the hand on Miryam’s neck. He breathed once.

"Then take your proof from me," he said. "Not from her."

Mardek’s lip curled. "You think I am foolish? Your roar made my camp fall. You wear a black crown I have not seen. You kill with one step. You expect me to drop this little golden coin and let you pay me in blood instead?"

Kai didn’t move. "I expect you to fear me more when I have both hands."

For a moment —just a moment— Mardek’s eyes showed the truth. He feared. Then he wrapped it up in his grin again and shook his head.

"No," he said. "I will put her down where she cannot bite what I grab. Then I will beat you. Then I will walk you to me."

He lowered Miryam into the cage. He did not set her gently. He put her down like you set a jar on a shelf in a kitchen you don’t live in. He slammed the bar down across the door and twisted the rope lock twice. He did it fast. His hand shook only a little.

Silvershadow slid half a step closer and stopped because the angle was wrong and the rope he wanted had shifted and he would not waste the move until it would end with metal in his teeth and rope dust on his tongue.

Mardek turned back with the dagger in his right hand and picked up a short mace with his left —a knotted iron weight on a wrist cord— from the stool where he had been sitting. He walked toward Kai with both.

"I have seen men like you," he said, voice almost kind. "You are always the same. You think the world ends in your name. It does not. It ends at mine."

Kai’s system chime scraped his skull again.

[Ding! 65% ... 1:41 minutes. Aura disabled. Passive fear field—40%... 35%...]

He rolled his shoulders once, set his feet, and met Mardek halfway.

He could not channel aura, not one thread. He could not harden bone with it. He could not speed a hand. He had breath, muscle, bone, and the weight of his will.

Mardek was strong. Six-star strong. He moved like a fighter who had done this after drill and before dinner for years. He came in with a jab of the dagger to make the eye flick, then a low step and a snap of the mace at Kai’s ribs to make the breath leave.

The dagger kissed skin. The mace slammed the plate. Kai’s breath left him in a grunt. He didn’t fold. He stepped in and tried to grab the wrist with the mace. Mardek twisted and slipped out. The dagger flashed again. It scored a line across Kai’s bicep.

A ring of soldiers found their legs, found their voices. Seven hundred was a rumor you could feel now. Three-star lines reformed clumsily outside the center circle, lifted shields, pointed spears. The ones who had fainted were awake and ashamed and angry. Orders ran through them and made them move as if moving could erase the memory of lying down. The hum of many feet on sand rose like a low drum.

Kai kept his eyes on Mardek and did not let the size of the ring into his head.

Mardek pressed. He wanted to end the man fast while the crown still scared his own soldiers. He wanted to finish the tale he would tell later in tents where boys listened with red faces.

He feinted high, smashed low again, stepped across and drove a knee into Kai’s hip. Pain flared. Kai absorbed it, set his jaw, and punched Mardek in the mouth. Teeth cut his knuckles. Blood spattered. Mardek rocked and came back with a flat-handed slap with the dagger hand—sideways, blade first. It cut a two-finger line across Kai’s cheek. Warm blood ran down. Kai saw red again at the edge of his sight. He dragged it back inside and turned it into weight.

He hooked his foot behind Mardek’s ankle and shoved. Mardek stutter-stepped, nearly fell, didn’t. The mace punched Kai’s ribs again. Something cracked. The taste of iron swelled in his mouth.

[Ding! 70% ... 1: 08. Minute. Minor fractures detected. Recommend distance. Aura unavailable.]

He couldn’t take distance; the ring would fill. He did what he had. He gave the man in front of him the worst of himself.