Beneath the Sunless Sky

Chapter Thirty-Two

—Khae Falairas—

In retrospect, probably a poor decision. Not the worst. No, Lulu had failed far more spectacularly than this before. And, yet, despite the poor decision making, the cracked bones, the split lips, the gaping wounds—she always lived to see another day. So, yes, she conceded. This was an incredibly stupid decision made by anger, worry, and a fair amount of alcohol, but this would hardly be the last time she made such a choice. Out of everything in the worlds that could possibly, one day, kill her, she was absolutely certain that it would not be this sorry excuse for a bad guy that ended her story.

A man named Lemon the Living would not get the better of her.

And, so, Lulu redoubled her efforts, throwing herself forward the moment she found a modicum of balance. Her shoulder plunged into his abdomen, just below his ribs, interrupting whatever incantation he had just been uttering. Where was her sword, she wondered? But there was hardly time to search for it. She was bleeding steadily from a blow to the head, her eyes could barely focus, and she was pretty sure she had broken a finger, maybe two in her left hand. Lemon's lackeys descended upon her, but still she fought. She had been in enough bar scraps to know how to fight without a weapon.

She was also smart enough to know when she was losing. And she was. Badly. Ducking under the arm of one of the men, she bit back a cry of pain when she caught his arm and forced the blade he held from his hand. Yep. Fingers were definitely broken, and there was no Idelle to fix them.

The thought riled her further and Lulu lashed out wildly, not caring which lackey she took out first. Wait. There were more of them now. Why were there—? Ah. Silly, Lulu, she thought. She was fighting a necromancer, in a city that had obviously been full of people when it suddenly and mysterious crapped itself.

So, maybe she wouldn't live to make another bad decision.

This was Idelle's fault, she told herself as she continued to fight, blood stinging the corner of her eyes. No, nothing was ever Idelle's fault. This was somehow Ori's fault. Yes, that made far more sense. Wait. No. It was the Path of Light's fault. Yes! How could she have ever blamed someone else for what was currently happening? They were somehow involved; she was sure of it. They had given Idelle that stupid vision. They had lured them to this barren world. They had bound them up in the hunt for some weird ancient god-being in the Grave and had forced Lulu to run headfirst into Lemon's camp with absolutely no plan whatsoever, only a desire to bash some heads in.

Lulu could almost feel the unamused glare Idelle would have given her if she knew her thoughts. She had to concede that if the Path was involved in any of this, they likely would have heard from them by now. Kellaran, in particular, was not wont to hide from her involvement.

Which meant, she had no one to blame but herself. And that just wouldn't do.

So, she blamed Lemon. If he would just die faster, then—One of the men sliced across her arm. Lulu growled, cutting him down in the next moment with the stolen sword. It was a hopeless cause, she realized as she finally regained a moment of clarity from the pain. She had come to Lemon's camp by herself. The others had been asleep when she left in the dead of the night. They didn't know she was gone.

"Ah, and there it is," a slimy voice slithered through the mayhem. It made Lulu wrinkle her nose in disgust as she glanced at Lemon. "The moment she realized how stupid she truly was. Did you really think a thug like you could take down a vaunted warrior of the King of Bones?"