The captain licked his lips, and with a glance back at Anji and Kit, slumped off down the dock, calling for his crew to get off their asses and back to work. Anji wished for a fleeting moment she were part of the crew, her only concern the pain in her back and her next meal. But a peal of raw anger was coursing through her, a thirst no menial work would quench.

“Give me a sword,” she said, and without a word, the Hawk unsheathed both her longsword and her short, handing the latter to Anji. Anji let the sturdy blade cut once through the air and stood her ground at Kit’s side.

“You will not win, Hawk,” said the Bear. “Even with your hapless cripple.” She shifted to the balls of her feet and pointed toward the dock’s exit. “Take what little respect I still hold for you, make your way out of town, and hole up with your drugs. Spend your few remaining days in what comfort you can. I’ll say it for the final time: give me the girl or die by my hand.” She pointed to Anji. “She is a traitor to order. She would drag the One’s Decree through the muck.” Her voice rose in pitch. “I’ll see her strung up in Laurelside Square for all of Linura to see. Her blasphemer guts will festoon the Pearl District—the Sun Wardens will make such an example of her as to cast all would-be dissenters in the glorious light of truth. The One Path will reign supreme, and I will be its spear! All has been preordained. This is the One’s will! We will have peace. We will have law and decency once more in our streets. I will usher in a new reign of prosperity and wipe the degenerates from—”

“She really goes on, doesn’t she?” Anji said.

Kit spat to the planks, the glob of inky mucus laced with blood. “She’s only gotten worse.” She placed a hand on Anji’s shoulder. “Remember what I showed you at the lighthouse,” she said. “Focus.”

Anji had barely taken a breath in before the Bear lunged forward with a yell. The woman covered the space between herself and Kit in two strides, clashed, rebounded, and was already twisting for a second attack by the time Anji had found her feet.

The woman was a flurry of steel and leather, jarring left and right so fast Anji could only hold her sword out in shaking hands as the Bear danced between her and Kit. Kit slumped forward, lashing out with her sword, her legs shaking with each step. The Bear’s steel scratched against Kit’s outstretched blade and slid down with a squeal. Anji lunged forward at what she thought was an opening, but met only empty air as the Bear vaulted back, swinging in a wide arc that barely missed Anji’s chest.