Marie raised her finger and pointed at the huge man with the two swords. “Adelus.”

Adelus stepped forward into the ring. Isabelle’s stomach clung to her spine.

The chorus sang, “The challenge begins with the champion of—”

“Vexatious.” Marie pointed to the woman, who looked startled. The whole crowd muttered in surprise.

“And Gath”—Marie pointed to another fellhand, bare-chested and bedecked in tattoos—“for the first round.”

The muttering intensified.

Barnabus sounded perplexed. “You can’t hope to defeat three fellhands at once.”

Marie called, “If I have to beat them one at a time, we’ll be here all night.”

The crowd guffawed with laughter at her bravado.

She’s getting them on her side, Primus said.

It’s going to take more than a joke, Isabelle replied. It would take her beating three of her would-be peers at once. If she could manage that, the rest of the duels would seem superfluous.

Marie drew two short curved swords and took up a wide stance. “Begin!”

The other three fellhands looked at one another with a degree of wariness, then approached Marie from three points of a not-quite-equilateral triangle. Isabelle bit her knuckles in worry.

When the noose had constricted and the fellhands were almost within striking distance, Marie began to sing. She did not have a practiced voice, and her rhythm was that of a chanty, but it gave her opponents pause:

Hear the life of Jackhand Djordji

Champion of the Tall Clouds clan

He fell from grace, no king afflicts thee

Thus he earned his wicked brand

Her opponents approached even more cautiously, keeping a weather eye on one another.

Solitaire sailed the deep sky

Bold was he upon the wind—

Adelus pounced, his sword a blur to the eyes. Marie dipped away into Gath’s path and he swept his quarterstaff to take out her legs.

Marie tucked and tumbled over the quarterstaff and came up with a kick at Gath’s knee. He dodged, but the move took him into Adelus’s path and fouled the big man’s follow-up cut. Vexatious circled to get out from behind them.

Isabelle’s heart hammered against her ribs, and a terrible hope filled her mind. Marie had spent weeks and weeks fighting men in bunches, but the fellhands weren’t used to working together. She’d got them to cut each other’s wind, making her own kind of home ground.

Still singing, Marie pressed Gath, her short blades flashing, driving him back into Adelus, who shoved him aside with one hand and slashed at Marie with the other.

Marie spun away from the blade. Vexatious hurled a throwing knife.