
scapula. She caught the blade and cut toward his knuckles, but he parried with
distance, pulled his weapon free of the bind, and lunged deep with the
venomous tip. She caught it in a high sweep and stepped in, cut to his
shoulder where the vonduun crab armor shed its fury in a shower of sparks,
then dodged past, reversing the weapon and plung-ing its fiery point into the
vulnerable spot in the armpit. The warrior gasped and sank to his knees, and
she whipped the weapon around to decapitate him even as she launched herself
at the next foe.
Combat was a blur, after that. Eight warriors had dropped from the flier.
Seven were left, and fully half the Shamed Ones were bleeding on the ground.
She had an image of the tracker, his arms knotted in a neck-breaking hold. She
saw another Shamed One strike a warrior on the temple with his club only to be
run through from behind.
Mostly she saw the lightning-quick amphistaff strikes of the two warriors
trying to flank her. She cut at a knee, smelled the scorch of flesh as the
blade severed through armor. An amphistaff whipped toward her back and she had
to roll be-neath the blow.
Parry, thrust, and cut became her entire existence.
Spattered with Yuuzhan Vong blood and bleeding from several cuts of her
own, she suddenly found herself back to back with the tracker. He was all that
remained of the six who had initially been following her, but there remained
only three warriors.
For a moment, they stood like that. The warriors backed away a bit. The
leader was massive. His ears were cut into fractal patterns; great trenchlike
scars stood on his cheeks.
"I've heard of you, abomination," he snarled. "The one-who-was-shaped. Is
it true what they say? These pathetic maw luur excretions worship you?"
"I don't know anything about that," Tahiri said. "But I know when I see a
dishonorable fight. They were not only outnumbered, but poorly armed. How can
you call yourselves warriors, to attack in such a way?"
"They are Shamed Ones," the warrior sneered back.
"They are outside honor. They are worse than infidels; they are heretic
traitors, not to be fought but to be extermi-nated."
"You fear us," the tracker rasped. "You fear us because we know the
truth. You lap at Shimrra's feet, yet Shimrra is the true heretic. See how
this Jeedai has laid you low. The gods favor her, not you."
"If the gods favor her, they do not favor you," the war-rior snapped.
"They are delaying us," the tracker told Tahiri. She no-ticed he had
blood on his lips. "They delay us while another tsikvai arrives."
"Quiet, heretic," the war leader bellowed, "and you may yet live to
snivel a little longer. There are questions we would ask of you." His
expression softened. "Renounce your heresy. This Jeedai is a great prize. Help
us win her, and perhaps the gods will forgive you and grant you an honorable
death."
"No death is more honorable than dying by the side of a Jeedai" the
tracker answered. "Vua Rapuung proved that."
"Vua Rapuung," the warrior all but spat. "That story is a heretic's lie.
Vua Rapuung died in disgrace."
For answer the Shamed One suddenly bolted forward, so quickly he took the
leader by surprise, bowling into him be-fore he could raise his weapon. The
other two turned to help, but Tahiri danced forward, feinting at the knee and