Grinning, Biru pointed his sword at Xerxes. “‘Ope you’re ready to apologize, boy.”

Xerxes’ lip curled slightly. “For kicking your ass? Why would I do that?”

Biru bared his teeth and was about to talk, but Gem beat him to it.

“Calm down, everybody,” he said.

However, even as the words left his mouth, two more figures stepped out from alleyways and leaned up against the sides of the buildings. Between these two, one had a hatchet similar to the axes he and Bel had been training with earlier. The other had a short spear.

Men like this didn’t bring weapons and gang up on a small group simply to talk.

Biru twirled the bronze sword and took half a step forward. “We’ll calm down if two things ‘appen. First, chickenshit mageboy ‘ere will get onto his ‘ands and knees and beg me to forgive ‘im. Second—” his eyes darted to Bel, and his lips twisted lasciviously “—the lady soldier comes ‘ome with me for the afternoon.”

The second comment caused Xerxes’ jaws to tighten, and he was preparing some scorching profanity to hurl at Biru, but was beat to the punch by Bel herself. She was normally quiet and soft spoken, but not now. Looking the big man in the eye, she said, “Fuck you, piss-for-brains.”

Her words provoked a few chuckles from the other men. Biru glared at one of them and spat, “Shut the ‘ell up.” Then he looked at Gem. “I told you my terms. Yes… or no?”

Gem’s hand was still on his dagger. “You do know who we are, right?”

“I don’t care if you’re soldiers from the capital. We seven call the Yellow Forest our ‘ome. We ain’t Isinians. Understand what that means?”

Xerxes understood perfectly well. These men knew that if they caused trouble, even trouble as bad as murder, they could ‘mysteriously’ disappear into the woods and never be found.

“You’re a real idiot,” he said. “Two mages and one soldier versus seven woodchoppers like you? We could kill you all without so much as getting a bump on the head.”

His words caused a bit of a stir among the six other men. Their hands tightened on their weapons, and to a man, they stood up a bit straighter.

“You didn’t say she was a mage too, Biru,” one of them said.

“‘Ee’s lying,” Biru said. “The Mage Council sent two mages out ‘ere, and the other one’s a boy like this one. They were both in the tavern last night. Besides, if the foreign girl were a mage, she’d have one of those magic purses.”

Xerxes laughed. “My friend here is a mage, dipshit. By the way, it’s called the Mage Parliament, not the Mage Council.”

Biru’s fellows seemed to grow even more hesitant. Seeing that, the man took a step toward Xerxes. “Even if your girlfriend is a mage, who cares? You only got the upper ‘and on me last night with a sucker punch. If you’re so confident, why not face me in a fair fight?”

“Fine,” Xerxes said, throwing his hood back and rolling up his sleeves.

“Allow me to cut in again,” Gem said, raising his voice a bit. “Biru, my friend, the truth is that these two young mages are worth three of you in a fight. And that’s without casting spells. As for me, I’m a veteran of two wars, and I’ve killed more people than I’d care to confess to. So why don’t we just—”

“Shut it, old man!” Biru said, and he started walking directly toward Xerxes.

Xerxes grinned and settled into a fighting stance. “Great. Let’s do this!”

“Xerxes,” Bel said. “This…”

“We don’t—” Gem began, but then the rest of the woodsmen started taking steps forward. Gem drew his dagger. “Now listen….”

Xerxes’ attention was focused solely on Biru, who was now only two paces away. The woodsman was bigger than him, and had a weapon. It wasn’t an ideal situation. But as a Seer, Xerxes had the advantage in terms of strength and speed. And he had training on his side. In fact, he had trained on numerous occasions for this exact scenario; dealing with a sword-wielding opponent while being unarmed.

He wasn’t even thinking about the component pouch at his belt. There was no way he would resort to a spell in this situation.

As Biru neared, he gripped the bronze sword in both hands and threw it up like it was an ax to split wood. Xerxes kept his focus razor sharp, gauging the distances involved, and preparing to lunge forward at just the right moment.

Off to the side, his ears registered a shout as Gem clashed with two of the other men. At the same time, Bel had thrown open her bundle and had a stave in each hand. Xerxes tried to ignore them and remain focused on his own situation.

Biru’s sword descended, and Xerxes lunged forward and grabbed both of the man’s wrists. At the same time, he threw his ankle behind Biru’s calf. Twisting and pulling, he tried to throw Biru to the ground. Unexpectedly, Biru didn’t fall. Instead, he stumbled to the side. Worse, he managed to keep his grip on the sword.

Dammit, Xerxes thought. That wasn’t how the move had worked in training. And now he was locked in close quarters with an opponent who still controlled a razor-sharp weapon.

Xerxes had his hands clasped around Biru’s wrists, which, given his superior strength, gave him a measure of control over the direction of the blade. But as Biru caught his balance, he pulled hard, trying to free his hands. Xerxes was tugged off his feet, and then Biru kicked him. His hat flew off to the side.

Xerxes grunted in pain as the man’s boot heel connected with his inner thigh. Biru jerked again, and one of Xerxes’ hands slipped completely off of Biru’s wrist. He maintained his grip with the other hand, but it was now holding Biru’s forearm.

This is going from bad to worse, he thought. And it was no training exercise. A stray stab or slash from that weapon could cause major damage.

Xerxes heard cries from off to the side, and out of the corner of his eye saw flashes of motion as Bel and Gem fought the other woodsmen.

Biru kicked Xerxes again as the struggle between the two became more chaotic. Xerxes tried to knock him down, but failed. Biru kneed him in the side.

They struggled back and forth. Suddenly, Xerxes found himself on his back in the mud, not sure how he got there. By now, Xerxes’ confidence had evaporated, and he knew he was fighting for his life.

Biru tried to hack him with the sword, forcing Xerxes to roll to the side in the mud. He kicked out again and caught Biru in the knee. The larger man squawked as he dropped into a kneeling position, but simultaneously slashed out with the sword.

Xerxes barely avoided it. Maybe casting a spell wouldn’t be a bad idea. But did he have the time? He would have to untie his component pouch, draw out the crabnickel powder, trace the Asgagu Isten rune, then channel the melam energy in the proper fashion. Only then would the spell be cast, causing his right hand to transform into a destructive, burning expression of power.

Unfortunately, that entire process would take at least three or four seconds. And that wasn’t to mention that he could fail in tracing the rune, or in directing the melam. After all, he’d never cast a spell in an actual combat situation before.

Xerxes jerked his head back, barely avoiding the bronze blade as Biru waved it toward him. Then he managed to scramble to his feet. Very vaguely out of the corner of his eye, he saw that one of the woodsmen had been knocked onto the ground and was either unconscious or dead. Gem and Bel were on their feet, but were surrounded.

This isn’t working, he thought. Got to end this. Fast.