All That Lives Must Die - Eric Nylund [119]
She knew people like Donald van Wyck; they always got away with things like this.
Unless she did something to stop him. Now.
Fiona took a step back and peeled off her jacket. She no longer felt cold. Her blood was hot and pounded through every cell. “Fine,” she said. “You have to fight? You fight me then.”
“I don’t think so,” Robert said, looking just as mad.
“Yes,” Fiona told him. “You voted me Team Captain. Well this is a team decision.”
“Let her fight,” Jezebel told Robert, looking pleased at the potential for violence. “I shall be her second.”
The glee on Van Wyck’s face drained at this. He glanced at his team, and they nodded back. “Okay,” he said. “Suits me. A Captains’ Duel.”31
Robert gritted his teeth, but said nothing more.
Eliot stood by Robert, looking ready to kill . . . either Van Wyck or her, Fiona wasn’t sure.
She’d intervened in his behalf to save him, but Fiona also knew that Eliot probably resented it, thinking he was “man” enough to handle this himself.
Sure, he could have handled it.
To win against Van Wyck and his wolf pack, though, Eliot would use his music. And if he pulled Lady Dawn out and played it on campus—Fiona was sure something bad would happen as it had at Groom Lake . . . something that would have ended with more than first blood. People might get killed.
This fight required force, but the right amount of it. It had to be swift and decisive, but more than anything, controlled. First blood, that’s all.
One cut.
A girl from Team Wolf opened a case and handed Van Wyck the gilded rapier within. It glistened needle sharp.
Fiona unzipped her book bag. She undid the clasp on her bracelet and dropped it inside. She didn’t want to use the chain. It cut too easily—almost like it wanted blood.
She touched the rubber band on her wrist and shuddered, recalling how she had used it to slice Perry Millhouse in half. That wouldn’t do, either.
Fiona spotted something round and wooden at the bottom of her pack: a yo-yo.
Uncle Aaron had made a gift of it last summer. It was the first weapon she’d ever used in a fight; its string had taught her how to cut.
That would do.
She looped the yo-yo’s string about her middle finger and faced her opponent.
Several students laughed.
Van Wyck looked at her and blinked. “Are you kidding?”
Fiona flicked the yo-yo. It ran down the string and twanged—for a split second she felt the urge to cut run though her and along its taut length. The air pulsed with raw energy.
That shut them all up.
“Try me,” she whispered.
All mirth vanished from Van Wyck’s face. He slashed his rapier back and forth—and attacked.
31. A Captains’ Duel shall adhere to all previously described rules for duels with the following provisos (1) Terms must be mutually agreed upon by the Captains. (2) Terms must be adhered to by the Captain’s entire team. (3) Captains’ Duels are not allowed within the Ludus Magnus nor shall affect the outcome of any gym match. Your Guide to the Paxington Institute (Freshman Edition). Paxington Institute Press LLC, San Francisco.
33
THREE WORDS THAT CHANGED HER LIFE
Van Wyck struck at her.
It was a crude attack; Fiona easily sidestepped. She’d sparred with her uncle Aaron, the supposed God of War, Ares. Van Wyck was no master swordsman.
Almost too quick to follow, however, he angled his rapier up and it plunged straight at her heart.
Her last step had left her flat-footed, off balance.
Fiona twisted awkwardly aside.
The tip of the rapier grazed her jacket, neatly puncturing the heavy wool. Van Wyck ripped it free.
Too close. Fiona wouldn’t underestimate him again.
Sure this was to first blood . . . and if his one and only “first blood” wound pierced her heart, it might be okay as far as the rules covering Paxington freshman duels were concerned . . . but Fiona would be dead.
A smiled flickered over his face.
He was toying with her. Enjoying this.
Well, Fiona wasn’t about to let him play a lengthy game of cat and mouse.
She flicked out her yo-yo.
The smirk on his face vanished when he saw how fast it came at his head. He parried