Page 39 of The Neverfear

When they arrived back in the circle, Vigo had procured a magnum of dryad wine and was sitting on his throne drinking it from the bottle. Liquid ran down his chin. His pirates stood around the circle, laughing, drinking. The stars shone bright enough to perform surgery by. The fairies darted overhead.

‘Quick then!’ Vigo called. ‘Knock her down, Skadi, an’ the little dragon’s mine.’

Anya stood opposite Skadi Finnesse. The two bowed to each other. Then Skadi reached across her back, and pulled her sword from its scabbard. It was long, curved like a crescent moon, and its edge was thin as a razor.

Christopher wanted to stop the fight, to roar that it had gone too far, it wasn’t a joke, it was death – but he held silent.

‘Set to!’ roared Vigo, and the fight began.

It was an instant disaster.

Anya was quick and nimble, and she moved like what she was: a princess who had had fencing lessons – but Skadi Finnesse was a warrior. She had been trained from childhood to fight and she was capable of ruthless action. Anya’s lips were bitten together in concentration, and she swung both swords hard and desperately. Every jab and cut and dart Anya made, Skadi parried as easily as if she were swatting away flies.

‘Stop messin’ about, Skadi!’ Vigo shouted. ‘Give us a show!’

Skadi moved like a cat, her bare feet spinning in the sand, and every ten seconds she darted forwards and picked a hole in Anya’s dress; a slice from her hair; a tiny scrap of lace from her collar. She was very deliberately not hurting Anya, Christopher could see.

So could Vigo Nex.

‘Cut ’er down, Skadi! If you let ’er win I’ll have yer buried alive in the sand dunes. I won’t lose this belt!’

Skadi sighed, but the mood was darkening, and Vigo’s hand was at his cutlass. The men were jeering. ‘Do it, Finnesse!’ – ‘Get on, girl!’

With her mouth turned down at the corners she advanced, parried right, and cut a long red flare into the skin of Anya’s forearm. Anya hissed.

‘She’s going to be hurt,’ whispered Jacques at Christopher’s side. ‘This must not happen. I will stop it. I will surrender for her. I will go to Vigo—’

But in that moment, Skadi struck again, and Anya leaped backwards, dropping one of her swords. She swore, scrambling to pick it up, and as she did so, the very tips of the two rapiers struck against each other.

There was a sudden smell of gunpowder and dragon’s breath, and Anya’s twin swords burst into flame.

She gasped and her face was suddenly pure wonder.

She swept a long, sparking line through the night air. The two bright spots on her cheeks spread: the scarlet flush swept over her face, down her neck. She began to shake. Her head came up – slowly, as if she were hearing distant music. And then Anya Argen attacked.

She was like a Catherine wheel, a girl-firework. The blades were white hot – Christopher could feel it from where he stood at the edge of the ring – but Anya seemed to grip the two hilts without pain. Her nostrils flared and her teeth were bared, and she almost seemed to fly as she leaped forward, both blades slicing through the air.

A cry went up from the crowd. ‘By the Immortal! The girl can fight!’

Anya darted left, right, right again – she moved across the sand on feet so light she barely seemed to land. She feinted; Skadi lunged, and Anya dropped and rolled in the sand to evade the point of her sword.

Skadi parried fast, but the sparks of flames flew in her face, and she had to put up her hand to protect her eyes. Anya advanced, step by step, across the sand, until she and Skadi were exchanging blows just inches from Vigo’s face.

Then Skadi gave a scream as Anya’s sword, burning white, sliced through the top of her sword.

‘I surrender!’ Skadi dropped her sword on the sand. ‘I can’t fight fire with steel.’

‘Keep fighting! It’s not over!’ said Vigo.

‘Vigo. She fought fair. Give her the belt.’

Vigo stared at her – then he gave a great bellow of laughter. Flecks of spit landed on the faces of his courtiers. ‘I’m no’ goin’ to give some squitty little kid the Belt o’ Hippolyta! It wasna a real bet. Ge’ lost, kids. Be glad I’m not throwin’ you to the kludde.’

‘The belt, Vigo,’ said Skadi.

‘You keep yer mouth shut, you young chit.’

The young woman met his eye. ‘I’m old enough to know a deal when I see it.’