29
Paying Tribute
Isenholf rose to a sitting position. He clutched at his wounded leg with his left hand, but grabbed his sword from the ground with his right. Looking up at Raedrick with a cruelly triumphant grin, he said, "You should have taken my offer."
Raedrick strained against the force holding him fast. They had come so close! He had long since stopped believing in fairness, but all the same the injustice of losing this way was too much to take.
Isenholf pushed himself across the ground using his good foot and drew his sword back. "Time to die," he said as he thrust upward with his blade.
All at once, the force holding Raedrick vanished, and he brought his saber down. The two blades met in the air before his belly, but not before Isenholf's sword tip struck home. For a heartbea
