The nine remaining disks went white at the edges. Blue fire rose behind the Judge’s shoulders in two columns. Their light reached the rocks on both sides of the summit.
“Restraints lifted,” Qi Shenxiao said. “Purge authorized.”
The shaft of the Void-Severing Halberd went white as the Judge fed it what he had left. Black cracks opened around the crescent. The heat was coming from farther down the shaft than it had the first time. Pei Jing could see the cold part of the metal shrinking toward the Judge’s hands. Where the falling sparks touched the plateau, little veins of quartz vanished in steam.
He came forward with both hands on the weapon.
Pei Jing planted the Astral Bone Blade point down in the black glass. The star iron had two nicks already. He could feel how much heat was in the halberd before it reached him. He let go of the blade and stepped inside the sweep with his left shoulder raised.
He had first felt that collarbone break in the alley behind the Cloudford grain stalls. The Black Tiger men had asked for twelve copper cash. All he had in his pocket were peach pits. The boot that caught him had driven his shoulder into the stone. For a long while afterward, he had measured every breath against what his ribs could bear. Even setting down a bowl had taken thought. He remembered how strange it had felt to wake one morning and be able to roll onto…
