The last three minutes were the only part of the fight James ever remembered clearly afterward.
Alice went in from above. Fossor came at him along the ground on the surface. James came in at the middle with a black blade.
And Cormac defended all three, over and over, and there was nothing else in the world for either of them.
Ice went up to turn Alice. Ice went sideways to stop half a tonne of burrowing summon. Ice came off the floor in a wall between James and him.
He did it again. And again. And again.
And around the fourth time, James stopped watching the ice and started watching the *order*.
Alice first. Always Alice first — she was the thing that could end him and he answered her before anything else, every time, without a fraction of hesitation.
Fossor second, and cheaply, because it could be turned rather than stopped.
And James last, with whatever was left, because James was a man with a sword who had to cross open ground to reach him.
