"A simple no works."
"You are the worst-"
"Don't start on me!" I snap. "I'm so fed up with you telling me I'm something I'm not. Is it my fault I don't know how to use this thing" - I pull the medallion from the bodice of my dress -"the way Queen Naia did a thousand years ago? Even with it and all the battles she rode in, she didn't know her husband was about to die until it was too late! So cut me some slack!"
His boar's mouth drops open. Nothing comes out. Something I said shocked him. I don't have the chance to wrench away, grab my squire and run, which is still my intention.
The troll issues a roar and charges us.
"Any last words, witch?" The Shadow Knight tightens his grip around me and lifts his axe.
"Maybe you should use your sword instead of the axe."
"If we survive this, witch, I swear you will know the -" His words are lost as the troll reaches us.
Certain I didn't want to hear them anyway, I close my eyes and hold on for dear life.
The Shadow Knight moves fast enough to knock the air from me, an impossible feat in the real world. It's more intense than going downhill on a rollercoaster. My stomach drops and my equilibrium is thrown. There's nothing I can do but hang on.
I feel the troll's first blow; its force ricochets through the Shadow Knight into me, and my head snaps back. I right myself the best I can in the tornado conditions of the battle when suddenly, I'm torn out of his arms and flying through the air.
Too shocked to scream, I open my eyes and stare down at the roof, a good twenty feet beneath me and closing fast. The troll and knight are deep in battle. I don't know which one flung me, but I'm falling fast towards the both of them and I have no second thought about who the worst off is about to become.
Guess we'll find out if I really am invincible in this world.
Covering my head, I don't have time for my life to flash before my eyes. I brace myself for a very rough landing.
Something winds around my wrist and snatches me out of the air. The Shadow Knight's whip breaks and then stops my fall.
Gasping, disoriented, I flinch as I bump lightly against the cool stone of the hold's wall, not quite understanding what happened.
"Quickly. Climb." The Shadow Knight is wrapping the whip around his hand, winding me up. I'm dangling over the edge of the roof. He's on his belly, the axe in one hand.