Dying Is My Business by Nicholas Kaufmann Page A

felt as hard as rock. Pain surged up my arm. The Black Knight didn’t so much as stumble.
    Still, he moved slowly in all that armor. I could use that to my advantage. Before he had a chance to get his sword up, I spun again, and this time I swung the staff up and out. The Anubis Hand struck the Black Knight’s helmet full on.
    I waited for the flash of light, for the Black Knight to be thrown backward in a blazing inferno, but nothing happened. Instead, he shrugged off the blow and came at me again.
    Shit. I backed away, holding the staff defensively in front of me. I risked a quick look over my shoulder. Thornton was out of the car and helping Bethany through the door. His limp right arm was crooked at the elbow in a way that looked painful. The leather bracelet hung cockeyed at his wrist. Bethany had an angry cut on her right knee that dripped trails of blood down her jeans leg. I turned back to the Black Knight just in time to see him raise his sword, preparing to strike.
    As the blade came down, I brought the staff up to block it. The sword cleaved the staff in two, and suddenly I was holding two useless pieces of wood, one with a mummified fist attached to it. Damn, I thought, now what?
    “Run, Trent!” Bethany shouted. “You can’t win! He’ll kill you!”
    Maybe I couldn’t win, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave them here for the Black Knight to cut to pieces. I held the two halves of the broken staff like clubs and took a deep breath. I didn’t have a plan, let alone a strategy for fighting him, but there was no way I was going to let this asshole get past me.
    I ran at him and got past his sword before he could swing it. The Black Knight pivoted, and hit me across the face with his armored forearm. It felt like getting hit by a steel girder. I fell onto my back. The two pieces of the staff fell out of my hands.
    The Black Knight loomed over me. He lifted his black-bladed sword high, its sharp point gleaming above my face.
    “Fuck you,” I said, “and the horse you—”
    Before I could finish, the Black Knight drove his sword down toward me.

 
    Nine
     
    I rolled aside. The Black Knight’s sword clanged against the pavement where my head had been only a moment ago. He raised his sword and brought it down again. This time I rolled in the opposite direction, narrowly avoiding the sharp edge of the blade as it buried itself deep in the concrete. As the Black Knight struggled to pull the sword free, I got back on my feet.
    There wasn’t enough time to run. The Black Knight yanked the sword free, sending tiny bits of concrete showering through the air. He advanced on me again and swung the sword. I jumped back, feeling how close the point came to my chest as it cut past me. I took another step back and bumped up against the Explorer. The Black Knight kept coming. With nowhere else to go, I climbed on top of the overturned vehicle.
    On the sidewalk, Bethany sat leaning against the wall of the clothing store. She grimaced in pain and rubbed her injured leg. Thornton stood feebly beside her, his broken arm preventing him from carrying her to safety. In this condition, they were helpless. It was up to me to keep the Black Knight away. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish that. Bullets didn’t hurt him. Neither did the Anubis Hand. I needed a weapon of some kind, but I didn’t have anything.
    The Black Knight started toward Bethany and Thornton, the metal of his armored feet hammering the sidewalk. Desperate to draw the Black Knight’s attention away, I shouted, “Hey!” The Black Knight stopped and looked up at me. I was surprised it worked.
    The Black Knight remained as stoic and silent as ever, staring up at me through his visor. I grinned back at him. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but at least I had his full attention. He kept looking up at me, not making any attempt to climb up onto the car after me. I wondered if his armor was too heavy to let