Nomvula

60. Mathematician of the Gold Ring

Ice poured down Asanda's back. The cuffs.

Leopard-quick, the Sunspear charged at her. A black blur crashed into it and sent it crashing into the door frame, hard enough to rip the wood from the brick. Asanda spotted Anathi through a mist of dust and splinters, wrestling once again.

"Hold her," Asanda said. She was about to sprint into the room before iron glinted in her periphery. 

"No!" Anket stopped Ndoda in his tracks and ripped the knife out of his hand.

"We need to cut her tendons," Ndoda said. "She's too dangerous on her feet."

"If you cut her skin, you become the next target. She'll kill you."

"Khaya," Asanda said, "the cuffs on the roof."

And like that, her brother was off. 

She ducked under the ruin of the doorway. "Ndoda, come. I need you here."

Not entirely true, but she needed him out of the way, for his own good. Anathi clubbed the Sunspear with her forearm, and their grapple spilt into the room as Ndoda leapt over them.

"Where's the rune-eye?" he asked.

Asanda opened a secret compartment under her desk. "We won't need it."

"It's the only other way to weaken the Sunspear. Look at them, Asi."

He pointed at the bricks torn from the wall, at the cedar boards that splintered under the demon's weight each time Anathi threw it to the floor.

Asanda unclenched her jaw. "Get in the pool."

"What?"

"The Sunspear won't chase you in."

"So what then, I must hide away while--"

"Idiot!" She slammed her hands on the table, once, twice. "The Sunspear's cut was made with the fireglass spear. A spear that, by ancestral law, belongs to the king-in-waiting. You."

The warmth clearly left Ndoda's face.

Asanda ripped off a small iron box adhered to the underside of the desk. "Dumani made the cut, and he is dead. Anathi made a challenge, so for now, the Sunspear is distracted. As soon as that challenge is done..."

"No." Ndoda was shaking his head. "Ma would never try to kill me."

The Sunspear grabbed Anathi's head and threw her halfway across the room. With fluid speed, it rolled onto its feet and tackled her before she could land, ramming a shoulder into the Bound's clay chest. When it rose, there was an indent there. It stomped at the place Anathi's head had been a moment ago and snapped a thick floorboard clean through.

"No, Ma would never," Asanda said. "But where is she, little brother?"

"I--" He opened his mouth, shut it again. His eyes were on the Sunspear, glassy with fear.

"Get in the water. There is no cowardice in a wise decision."

He walked to the edge of the pool and knelt there for what felt like ages. With a slow, subtle grace, he slid into the water and waded to the middle of the pool, his back to the room. Anathi's shoulders twitched downwards. One problem solved.

Khaya slid down the ladder and lay the handcuffs on the table. "We won't be able to get them on with those two scrambling like that."

"I know."

"Can't Anathi just absorb the Sunspear's limbs again?"

"It's not as simple as it looks. It's like asking can't I push my fist through your body and my spirit through yours at the same time, twice, in a matter of minutes. And she barely held it the last time."