Griffin's POV
King Simon, or whatever he was calling himself, unsheathed his own sword in response, and slashed at me. He missed, but it was close. This guy might well be insane, I realized, but that didn't mean that he couldn't swing a blade. I raised my own weapon again, and managed to nick his arm. It wasn't enough to stop him, and I grew concerned. If I had enough time, I was fairly certain I could beat him. But the entire reason I was there was Dominique, and I had to get her to a healer before the poison reached her heart. That put us in a bit of a time crunch.
"Just let us take her," I said to him, hoping to appeal to whatever conscience or sense of reason he might still have buried within him, "I don't want to kill you, not if I don't have to." I didn't add that I'd stopped want
