The Syvrak responded with a chorus of offended, sibilant rage. "Arrogant," the Eldest spat. "Like your passenger."
One of the younger hunters, a thirty-foot shadow with talons like scythes, could not contain its bloodlust. It lunged. It crossed the distance in a blur of motion, its jaws unhinging to reveal rows of serrated teeth aimed directly at Eris's throat.
It never reached her.
Soren intercepted the beast mid-leap. He moved with a speed that was almost supernatural, a blade of pure, compressed ice forming in his hand even as he lunged.
The strike was a masterpiece of lethal geometry. The ice-blade sheared through the Syvrak's neck as if it were parchment.
The head separated from the body, and the momentum of the beast sent its twitching halves crashing past Eris to slam into the ruins of the tribunal bench.
The creature died before it hit the floor.
