The single serpent of the Khrynsani insignia gleamed in vivid, red enamel over the heart. The etching in the steel made the armor look delicate, but I knew better. There were a few vulnerable points, but those were next to impossible to reach without getting yourself carved up in the process. Care and patience was called for here. Unfortunately, I wasn’t well known for either quality. I let my breath out slowly and willed myself to relax. Let the goblin make the first move.

The first cut came at my left side, near the ribs. It was meant to annoy and test my defenses, not inflict serious damage. I parried it with my dagger, but wasn’t lured into riposting. Not yet. The goblin was just out of my range, and I would have to completely turn my back on one of the two others circling Phaelan. I didn’t want to find out the hard way that goblins were willing to share.

The goblin’s grin dimmed. He lunged at my legs, but at the last instant flicked the blade’s point up toward my abdomen. I leapt back and managed to deflect the blade, but just barely. The goblin’s grin returned. He was playing again, but I wasn’t.

I attacked, something he obviously didn’t expect. The temple guard retreated, but not fast enough. My rapier darted out, giving me just the reach I needed. Only the top inch of the blade penetrated, but it was enough. I struck where his armor buckled at the top of the leg near the groin. The goblin’s face blanched in pain and surprise, and a low hiss escaped from between his clenched teeth. His blade slashed down. He was aiming for my sword arm, but instead took a sizeable chunk out of one of Nigel’s prized rose bushes. I grabbed the falling branch in my gloved left hand, and lashed out with it. The hooked thorns raked furrows in the goblin’s unprotected face, and I was treated to language you wouldn’t expect he learned in the temple.

I jumped back as the goblin’s blade sliced through the space I had just vacated. Pain and the sudden absence of his target threw him off balance, and I slipped the tip of my rapier under the section of armored scales connecting his chest and back plates. His forward momentum pushed the blade on through. A tug and a sharp twist of my wrist extracted my blade as the dead goblin slid to the ground.