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welts across her skin and forcing her to fight the sheets as though they were the opponent rather than the
living, breathing man who was controlling them.
Kirigi s taunting laughter echoed around the room and Elektra ground her teeth, reminding herself not
to let him get to her, commanding her mind to stay focused. He was toying with her now, mocking her
by slapping the sheets against her face, then using his katanas to slice them away. The pieces of fabric
writhed and jumping in humanlike forms, tricking her eyes and sabotaging her judgment.
Enough she was through playing little man-ego games. She let herself shift into instinct, then whirled
sharply in a different direction, letting her body find its own way when her mind might have told her
something else. In a split second she came up and sliced viciously at a sheet directly in front of her.
Finally, she faced Kirigi.
He was standing at the foot of the stairs, calm and relaxed. Elektra slashed at him quickly with her sais,
but he was too fast he met her strokes with his katanas and, to her dismay, literally sliced off the tips
of both of her weapons.
When he spoke, at least now Elektra knew where he was. Your blades are not strong enough, he said
scornfully, becauseyou are not strong enough. Before she could retort, her sais were gone entirely,
knocked out of her hands and spinning away across the dark floor as she blinked. Kirigi grinned at her
evilly.
Thanks for the lesson.
Both Elektra and Kirigi started and turned at the sound of Abby s voice. The girl stood, smiling
congenially not three feet away, and Elektra had just enough time to be alarmed before Abby charged
Kirigi. The necklace and bracelet were gone, traded in for a genuine and quite deadly pair of kusari-
fundos that spiraled through the air with dazzling speed.
Even so, Kirigi sidestepped Abby s attack with a speed of his own that was nothing less than incredible,
and while Elektra was still shocked to see Abby, Kirigi was clearly delighted. Brave girl, he
practically purred. He smile was absolutely hellish. You taught her well.
Oh no Elektra had not come out here to battle Kirigi just so he could murder Abby. She leapt toward
him, but he ducked and countered with a graceful but powerful uppercut that sent her sprawling. The
sheets still streaming around the room suddenly exploded with movement, whipping into a frenzy and
knocking Abby flat. Down on her knees, the girl tried to crawl away from them, but they buried her and
Elektra.
And finally, all was quiet.
Kirigi stood in the center of the room, surrounded by white debris and shredded pieces of fabric. Elektra
lay somewhere beneath the jumbled piles of white, unmoving and silent, but Abby threw off the
material covering her and rose.
But now, Kirigi told her, it s time for a new master.
Looking more serene than she felt she was terrified Abby brought up her chains and spun them, but
every time she struck at Kirigi he easily deflected her blows, retaliating with strikes of his own that
forced her to slowly go on the defensive. She backed away, unwillingly allowing him to guide her
across the room, remembering only too well Elektra s previous lesson against allowing herself to
become trapped but helpless to stop it from happening again.
Kirigi advanced again, but this time Abby saw something move within the sheets on the floor behind
him.
She kept blocking his strikes and inching backward, still searching for that elusive opportunity to
sidestep on her own and wrap a chain or both around his hands so she could relieve him of those
katanas. In another two seconds, Elektra soundlessly eased aside the last sheet covering her, then
sprinted for the staircase. She and Abby locked gazes, and before Kirigi realized what was going to
happen, Abby went on the offensive one last time. The attack took Kirigi by surprise he didn t give up
his ground, but for once he wasn t forcing Abby backward, either. At the highest arc of her strike, Abby
twisted her wrist and whipped out with her arm
and let go of one end of the chain in her hand.
It soared up and over Kirigi s head and he automatically followed the movement, then scowled when he
saw Elektra leaning over the bannister. The second he took his gaze off Abby, she sprang; Elektra
caught the weighted end of the chain, wrapped it around her wrist, andpulled, jerking Abby up and
swinging her out of Kirigi s range. Still hanging on to her end of the chain, Abby landed almost halfway
up the staircase, and then Elektra had her safely at least until Kirigi got his bearings again on the
second floor landing with her.
Elektra let go of the kusari-fundo, and Abby expertly reeled it back in. Then Elektra grabbed Abby by
the arm and hauled her down the hallway, trying to put as much distance between them and Kirigi as she
could. Abby, she told her as she steered the girl through the doorway into the master suite. You need
to go
I mnot leaving you!
Before Elektra could retort, she saw Kirigi appear in the doorway to the room. There was no way to go
but out, so Elektra lashed out at the window, smashing it with a vicious sidekick. You re just like me,
she complained. A real pain in the ass! Before Kirigi could get closer, both of them sprang out the
window.
They landed easily on the soft grass and weeds below, both rolling back into a standing position and
dashing away. As they fled, Elektra glanced back and saw Kirigi watching, unperturbed, from the
window. Something passed overhead and Elektra s gaze snapped upward it was that elusive hawk
again, its shadow bisecting the light of the moon as it glided past.
A final glance over her shoulder at Kirigi s figure in the window, and it didn t make Elektra feel any
better to see that he was smiling.
They re coming.
Tattoo heard Master Kirigi s voice in his head as clearly as if the man had been standing next to him. He
nodded and slipped off his robe, folding it quickly but still with ceremonial precision. His skin glistened
with perspiration and movement, the slender, knotted muscles making the color-soaked tattoos pulsate
across his flesh. Inked around his arms and across his back was one of the more complex pieces of his
body art, an intricate meshing of arabesques and hieroglyphics that the casual eye might mistake for
nothing more than a pretty design, but when someone looked closer& Tattoo closed his eyes and
concentrated, and after a moment the pattern began to shiver, then twist. The twisting increased, then his
back bulged as the first of hundreds of venomous snakes pulled free. Just as suddenly they transformed
again, this time into thousands of tiny, winking lights. They burst off his back like a fireworks display
and fell to the ground. A moment later they streamed across the ground and toward the bridge leading
into the maze.
Abby and Elektra clambered over the bridge, no longer trying to be stealthy. Up ahead, way too close
for comfort, they could see countless spots of light flooding toward them like an eerily silent display of
sparks. Elektra didn t know what they were, but she was sure of one thing she and Abby needed to
avoid them. Getting into the maze,deep into it, was their only hope to get away from Kirigi Tattoo was
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