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. I call it confidence. Mask
had power. I had a plan, and the means to execute it.
A flagstone tore itself loose from the floor, turned into a cloud of
gravel amid a grating, crunching noise, then flew toward me like a charge of
shot. I spoke the words of the Net and gestured.
All of the fragments were collected before they could reach me. Then I
dumped them upon Mask, who was still struggling to rise.
"Do you realize that I still don't know why we're fighting?'' I said.
"This was your idea. I can still-"
For the moment, Mask had given up on trying to rise. He had placed his
left hand in a simmering puddle of light and had extended his right, palm
toward me. The puddle vanished, and a shower of fire emerged from the right
hand and sped at me, like drops from a lawn sprinkler. I was ready for this,
though. If the Fount could contain the fire, then it had to be insulated
against it.
I threw myself flat on the other side of the dark structure, using its
base as a shield.
"It is likely one of us is going to die," I called out, "since we are
not pulling our punches. Either way, I won't have a chance to ask you later:
What's your bitch? What am I to you?"
The only reply was a chuckling sound from the other side of the Fount,
as the floor began to move beneath me.
From somewhere off to my right, near the foot of the undamaged stair, I
heard Jurt say, "A fool in all places? What about close quarters?" and I
looked up in time to see him appear before Jasra and seize hold of her
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