Hyandai sat up, seeing the drawn weapon; she was as awake as he, now. She rolled out of the bed and silently moved beside him. There was a soft creak outside the bedroom, on the stairs, from the sound of it.
Someone was climbing the stairs, someone trying very hard to not be heard.
Harlen held out an arm and pushed Hyandai back slightly as he stepped back from the door, getting himself out of its path, should it swing inward suddenly. There was a minute click as the thumb latch on the far side was pushed down. Harlen brought up the knife and prepared to lunge.
The door swung open, followed by a cloaked shape. Harlen waited until it was mostly into the room and waited too long, the shape gasped and turned toward him, steel flashing in the dim moonlight coming in through the windows.
Harlen swung his knife, connecting with the figure's arm as it came up with a sword. There was a rasping sound as his blade slid over steel rings. The figure was wearing a mail shirt. It forced Harlen back with a feint with its sword, swinging it toward his head.
Hyandai was forced back also and was near the bed. She dove for the side of the bed, under which she had concealed the Ehladrel.
"Run, Hyandai." Harlen grunted as the shape pressed him back and another shape slipped unhampered into the room.
"No!" Hyandai shouted, "Never again!" She stood up, holding the Ehladrel in its leather covering.
The shape fighting back Harlen hissed something to the other in elven. Harlen recognized only the word 'Ehladrel.' Hyandai's eyes widened and she said a single word in elven, then reached into the leather case.
The second shape said a single word that seemed to fill the room with ambient noise as she spoke. She had a beautiful soprano voice, similar, but even richer than Hyandai's. The sound filled the room and as Hyandai pulled the leather, a flash emerged from the second elf's outstretched hand.
The air before that hand turned into an imperfect lens, as it seemed to compress, and form a tight, thick wave. That lens then shot forth and struck Hyandai in the chest.
Harlen watched, helpless, as his lover was lifted and flung bodily out the back window of the room, shattering it and the wooden frame it was set into. There was a soft thudding sound as she rolled down the sloped roof of the bathing room. The elven woman was hot on Hyandai's path, leaping to the window in one graceful jump.
The sword came down at Harlen again and he parried it with the small knife.
"You cannot beat me, human." The elf before him said. "Your little whore is already dead, and you will die too, just slightly sooner than your short-lived kind normally do."
The blade whistled around as the elf took a wide swing with it. Harlen leapt back and watched as the blade sank into the corner post of the bed with a solid and satisfyingly loud thunk.
Harlen came around with the knife and tried to stab his attacker, however, the elf raised his forearm and met Harlen's own forearm on the downward swing, knocking the knife from his grip in the process.
The huntsman, however, had learned a trick from Hyandai. His left hand had already started an uppercut as his knife arm was being blocked. He caught the elf in the chin with the sneaky punch. The elf flew back as if struck by a really big man, which coincidentally, was exactly true. The slight creature lost his grip on his sword and landed, sprawled upon the floor.
"You'll have to do better than that, elf." Harlen growled as he grabbed the slender man about the waist and lifted him from the floor. Accelerating across the room, Harlen aimed for a solid section of wall to smash this little man against.
Fists battered Harlen's head and shoulders, and boxed his ears so that they rang.
However, the hail of blows stopped when his momentum was cancelled by the solid stone and mortar wall. There was a huge whoosh of air by his ear as the elf was pinned against the wall and slammed into it with a human smashing him. There was a dull cracking sound in the elf's chest, and Harlen knew he had broken some of the smaller man's ribs.
Stepping back, Harlen let the elf go. The elf seemed to be toppling forward into a fall, but at the last second, changed course and lunged up at Harlen's throat, another blade gleaming in his fist. This one shorter than the sword, belatedly, Harlen realized it was his own knife.
The blade gouged deeply into Harlen's arm, and then across his chest in a shallow cut. Harlen dove back across the bed and landed nearly off the foot of the large four-poster. His upper half hung over the side precariously, but he saw above him the elf's sword. Gripping it in one hand Harlen lifted himself with it, then yanked it free of the wood with one quick pull.
The elf was leaping over the bed toward him as he brought the sword around in an intercepting motion.
Unable to still his forward momentum, the elf impaled his own leg upon the sword, running it through his upper thigh and out the back. He growled something in elven at Harlen and swung the knife again.
Pain seared through Harlen's chest again as the dagger bit deeply into his flesh. "You will wish you had killed me first, you arrogant elven shit!" Harlen screamed, pulling the sword to the side, severing many tendons of the elf's inner thigh and ripping the large vessel and vein that fed blood to that leg.
Harlen could see the elf's eyes widen in realization that he was going to die in seconds. Blood sprayed from the wound in a huge fan. Dousing the bed and Harlen in a crimson mist.
The knife came back around, but Harlen caught the elf's wrist with his left hand, clamping down with every ounce of strength in his muscles. Harlen heard bones grinding together in the elf's wrist.
"And now, you self-righteous prick, you die." Harlen said and brought the sword's blade around and nearly cut through the elf's neck. There was a soft whimper from the elf as he collapsed onto the bed and ceased moving.
Harlen did not watch him for more than three heartbeats though, and bolted out the bedroom door.
---
Hyandai felt the flesh of her back pierced and cut by many shards of broken glass as she smashed bodily through it. Stunned, she was unable to control her fall, and landed upon her back on the sloped roof of the bathing room, still sliding.
The sound of tinkling glass and wooden thuds followed her as she slid inexorably downward. Her mind cringed realizing what was next, and in slow motion, she felt herself falling to the ground behind the house. The thud knocked what little air she still had in her free.
Attempting to lift her head, Hyandai found herself now lying upon her stomach, her left leg bent at an improbable angle. One eye was unable to see, something thick and opaque was flowing freely over it. Blood.
She gasped in air in a great gulp and felt around for the Ehladrel. As her fingers closed on the leather pouch that contained the weapon, a booted foot kicked it away from her.
"Let us help you join your short-lived human lover, shall we?" The female elf said in elven. Her voice was hard and cold, and just the sound of it sent a chill through Hyandai.
The same boot kicked Hyandai in the ribs, causing her to roll over to get away from the pain of another blow. She looked up with the one eye not covered in blood. The elven woman had tossed back her hood, and, much to Hyandai's relief, she was not known to her.
Interesting, Hyandai thought to herself, would knowing that her murderer was someone she knew and loved have made it so much worse? Yes, another part of her mind answered.
Hyandai locked her emerald eyes onto the silver orbs of her attacker. Nothing happened.
"Don't bother, human-breeder." The elf said, again in their native tongue. "I know of your mental abilities, it is why I was chosen to come after you."
With dreadful slowness, the elf drew out a long, triangular-bladed stiletto.
Hyandai cried out. "You would not!" Eyeing the ritual dagger.
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