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.But Ellery was quick as well, and the shield tapped down appropriately.On came the woman with a growl, and Jarlaxle had to step back fast and spin out to the side.He brought both his swords in one desperate parry and accepted the shield bash against his arm, glad that the momentum of it allowed him to put some distance between himself and the surprisingly skilled woman.“If I win again, will I find your bed?” he teased.Ellery didn’t crack a grin.“Those days are long past us.”“They don’t have to be.”Ellery’s response came in the form of another sudden charge and a flurry of blows that had Jarlaxle furiously defending and backing, stride after stride.Entreri rushed out past Athrogate.“I have the point,” he explained.“Follow with caution, but with speed.”He sprinted down the corridor, pushing through the door and into the room where Mariabronne lay still, his sword held in both hands over his chest, its blade running down below his waist.Entreri shook his head and dismissed the tragic sight.He went across the room to the other door, did a cursory check for traps when he saw that it had not recently been opened, and pushed through to find another curving, descending tunnel.He sprinted down and carefully set the first torches burning by tapping the pressure plate.Then he turned and rushed back to the door, scrambling up beside it to the top of the jamb.Using just that tiny lip and the ceiling above him, the assassin pressed himself into place.A few moments later, Athrogate moved out under him, followed closely by Olgerkhan and Arrayan, with Canthan moving last.They passed without noticing the assassin, and before they had even disappeared around the tunnel bend, Entreri hooked his fingers on the lip of the door jamb and swung down, launching himself and landing lightly back in the room with Mariabronne.He hit the ground running and ran back up the corridor.Her movements were very much in line with the fighting style and skill level she had shown to him in their sparring match those days before at the Vaasan Gate.Ellery was no novice to battle and had practiced extensively in single combat techniques.Her efforts tested Jarlaxle at every turn.He had beaten her then, however, and he knew he could beat her again.She had to know that too, as Canthan, who had sent her, had to understand.Unless.They were the “Citadel of Assassins,” after all.Ellery continued the flow of the fight, working her axe with quick chops and cuts, generally playing out more and more to Jarlaxle’s right.She followed almost every swing with a sudden popping thrust of her shield arm, leaving no openings for the drow’s swords and also balancing herself and her turns to keep her feet properly aligned to propel her side-to-side or forward and back as required.She was good but not good enough, and they both knew it.It almost slipped past the observant drow that Ellery had crossed her feet, so smooth was the transition.Even noting that, Jarlaxle was taken aback at how efficiently and quickly the woman executed a sudden spin, so that as she came around, her axe chopping hard, shewas aiming back at the drow’s left.And he couldn’t stop it.Jarlaxle’s eyes widened and he even smiled at the “kill swing”— that one movement assassins often employed, that extra level of fighting beyond anything any opponent could reasonably expect to see.Jarlaxle had expected something of that nature, of course, but still, as he saw it unfolding before him, he feared, he knew, that he could not stop it.Ellery roared and chopped hard at the drow’s shoulder.Jarlaxle grimaced and threw his swords across in an effort to at least partially defeat the blow and threw himself aside in a desperate effort to get out of the way.But Ellery’s roar became a scream, and in mid-swing her axe wobbled, its angle pulling aside, her arm falling limp, as Charon’s Claw slammed hard atop her shoulder.Her fine silvery breastplate rattled and loosened as the shoulder cord tore apart under the force of Entreri’s blow.She staggered and turned, trying to come around and get her shield up to fend off the assassin.Entreri’s other hand was under her shield, however, and his dagger easily found the seam in her breastplate and slid in between the woman’s ribs into the left side of her chest.Ellery froze, helpless and on the precipice of disaster.Entreri didn’t finish the movement but held her there, his dagger in place
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