Hallow Point Read Online Free PDF Page B

second time.
    Which was why the defensive stance.
    Which was why he
did
fall for the matador trick a second time.
    No stab on this pass. I spun on one heel, letting the wand slide up a coat sleeve, while I thrust out with both hands. Nice solid grip on his tunic, I helped him on his way, throwing him hard enough that he’n the floor were gonna have to write each other to stay in touch.
    I didn’t just throw him wild, mind—I ain’t a bunny either, I had to end this
fast
, if I wanted to be the guy ending it.
    Those fighting elephants? Yeah, the tusks are the real goods. One set of them’s pretty well blocked off, since their owner’s trying to stab the other elephant, but the second? Got his trunk nice’n raised.
    Wouldn’t kill Herne, but I figured that dangling impaled on a spike fatter than my thigh would make him docile enough to jaw a bit—or at least stop tryin’ to croak me.
    But he wasn’t hurting bad as I’d hoped, I guess.
    Herne crashed hard into the elephant, yeah, but
between
the tusks, not against ’em. Even in mid-air, he’d twisted himself around tight enough to make a corkscrew jealous. Not only steered himself a hair to the right, to less pointy environs, but flipped over so that his goddamn
feet
hit the thing before the rest of him.
    Well… Shit.
    I dunno how he did it, but he knifed forward when his dogs hit the thing’s face, as if he was doing a real back-breaking sit-up. His hands cleared the top of the beastie’s head, he flexed his arms, and just like that he was outta sight, somewhere on top of the damn thing.
    My crouch was real this time as I swept the wand in a fan out in front of me, ready to fire wherever he appeared from next.
    ’Cept he didn’t.
    Nothing. A minute, and more, of nada.
    Know how I don’t sweat? Good thing, because I think the room woulda been flooded knee-high on the pachyderms if I did.
    I didn’t wanna go up there after him. I mean I
really
didn’t. Coming in that close, with him waiting for me? Recipe for some serious
sidhes
ka-bob. I should wait. Better yet, I should make tracks.
    But…
    Not even worrying about what he’s doing here, if I left this hall, he could come at me from
anywhere
. Way too fast and sneaky. Just stand there like Lady Liberty until he showed his mug? I couldn’t see all sides of the elephant display from any one spot. Didn’t seem
likely
he’d jumped for one of the archways again without me noticing, but I couldn’t say it was impossible.
    Unoriginal as it might be to say it:
Shit
. Again.
    I really hope I have the opportunity to regret this.
    More power through the wand, everything I’d taken from Herne on that first strike, little bits from the exhibits like I’d done in the Hall of Africa. The wood damn near buzzed with the magic current I was channeling through it. I twisted it around, conducting an invisible orchestra, until I’d woven all of that fortune, all that power, around me. If I was sticking my noggin in the lion’s mouth, I was at least gonna file down his teeth some.
    So where would he expect me come up after him? Same spot he’d climbed? Opposite end?
    Screw it. I sprinted over, tumbled beneath the first elephant, and climbed the second with the L&G in my teeth, like some pirate spider.
    And whaddaya know, all that extra luck made a difference.
    The kick, when it came, was off-balance. He’d been waiting elsewhere, had to jump to this side to hit me, and whatever elephants may be, they ain’t the most stable things to land on. So he
didn’t
hit me hard enough to crush in a part of my skull, dry-gulch me into dreamland, or even toss me back to the floor.
    It
did
make my eyes ring and stars dance in front of my ears, or whatever. I went sliding, spinning sideways, and only a
real
solid fingertip grip kept me’n the elephant acquainted. I tried to turn that spin into a roll, so I could come up onto the creature’s back and face Herne proper, but I knew I was seriously behind the eight ball.
    Not as