by Thomas Green
A minute had passed, and the booing of the crowd intensified. Some from the audience threw fruit at them, but the protective barrier of the arena worked both ways, foiling their efforts.
The enemy team advanced at a steady, but fast pace. Since the team belonged to the local slavers of Grimdawn, Salazar assumed they had some unofficial extra practice and insider knowledge of its traps. What differentiated their opponents from the other slaver teams was that their monsters were not massive aberrations defying natural order, but rather something between demons and humans.
The tension in the air surrounding his team built up, for the enemy team was beyond halfway through. Salazar finished spreading the roots, opened his eyes, and clenched his fists, sending a pulse through the plants.
The entire maze twisted as if it was a muscle contracting in a spasm. The world fell silent. As the construction crashed onto the ground, looking like a dried octopus, red paste oozed from the remains as the only proof the team of Grimdawn had ever existed. The gem that marked victory lay in the sand in front of Salazar, not even five feet away.
Salazar prowled forward and picked up the gem, raising it above his head. “I win.” He tossed it back onto the ground, spun on his heel and waltzed away from the arena.
As he was passing the gate, the announcer recomposed himself and declared the official victory of the team of Xona.
Salazar headed straight to the changing room where he removed his robes and started unlacing the thick leather tunic he wore beneath.
Katherine caught up to him within moments. “Your Highness has a very different understanding of the word inconspicuous than I had thought.”
He shrugged. “Nobody saw the spell, and the victory was clean, so I see no space for you to complain, Captain.”
Mark reached them. “Please excuse my brashness, but why did you even make the team if you plan to do things this way?”
Salazar arched an eyebrow. “I will allow Katherine to lead the next match if that is what everyone desires. I will also pay out the victory rewards by the signed contract so your account will not be left at a loss.”
Mark sneered. “That’s not the point, your highness. All we needed to know was your plan so we could have acted accordingly. We stood there like idiots.”
“Then I recommend you to stand differently.” Salazar took off the leather armor and headed toward the cleaning room.
Katherine blocked his path. “You do realize that the Slaver Union will send at you every assassin they have, right?”
“Yes and I expect you to keep them away from me, as you have always done, captain.” Salazar passed her, closing the door behind him, wondering if anyone caught onto what his aether manifestation does.
He dropped the prepared seed from his hand and pushed his aether into it. A thorny vine grew out of them within an instant, blocking the doorway of the barrel-filled hall. Salazar tested the water and slid into the barrel where it was the coldest, gritting his teeth as its icy touch gripped his skin.
With a bit of luck, the cold would make him appear as if he was having a backlash from the overuse of aether, or at least that he was close to having it. While he knew there was little need to hide his abilities from his team, they were a potential risk he dared not to undertake. Even if neither of them would betray him, the Union could well capture one of them and torture the secrets out of him.
And then there was the second issue, the contestants in the tournament. Raven, the Child of God. He pondered where Stallington dug him from, acknowledging that if both of their teams reached the semifinals in Redwall, he would need to make sure as little of his powers as possible is revealed beforehand.
16
Luna
Luna sat on her bed, tapping her fingers onto its wooden frame while Raven rested by the stone wall of their cell, cleaning his armor.
This waiting is killing me. She bit her lip and glanced at him. “How do you increase the amount of aether you can use before backlashing?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Where does that come from?”
“Just curious.”
He shrugged. “Spend what I regain every day, and my reserve grows over time.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You know way too much about these things.”
Raven’s face remained impassive. “Almost everyone who comes to fight me uses an aether manifestation of some sort. All strengthen their body while many cast spells that manipulate elements and few do something more complex. They all have a thing in common. Their manifestation has holes.”
Luna shook her head. “What’s the hole in my aether manifestation?”
His expression turned serious. “Promise me you won’t get scared.”
“Why would I get scared?”
He said nothing.
He makes it sound like it’s terrible. She sighed. “I promise.”
He gazed upon the ceiling as if reading from it. “Main one is poison, for your regeneration channels through your bones, muscle, and skin. Therefore, contaminated blood is the hardest thing to regenerate from as proven by toxins and alcohol affecting you. If we were to face each other in the arena, I would keep damaging you until your aether reserve ran out and you couldn’t regenerate anymore. Last, while you are inhumanly strong, durable and heavy, you aren’t that fast, so you have no good way to attack me.”
Luna stared at him with wide eyes. Her heart sunk in her stomach and her insides clenched like a fist. His every word further confirmed how weak she was in comparison.
A hint of sadness flashed through his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“How… how can you tell all that?” she asked, her voice shaking.
“It’s what I do. The only thing I’ve ever done.”
Talentless and weak. Those were the first two words she would use to describe herself. She had nothing of the talent of her father while her aether manifestation was pathetic in comparison to his. No matter how she looked at it, she was unworthy of the name James gave her.
He threw her an apologetic look. “Didn’t want to make you feel bad. If it makes things better, I have seen merely one person fight without having a hole in his aether manifestation.”
Okay, that helps. She gave Raven a hopeful glance. “Who?”
“Count Salazar. What he did in the arena today was on a different level compared to everyone else in this tournament.”
Not helpful anymore! She gulped. “But, we will face him at some point.”
“In Redwall, three matches from now. But you needn’t worry since I will handle him.”
“Okay.” Luna forced out a smile. “And thanks.”
“For?”
“Telling me the truth. I can’t get better if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Raven smiled.
She narrowed her eyes. “By the way, what’s with the name Rael?”
“I needed a way to introduce myself and Rael was the first name that crossed my mind.”
A name that hid he was a slave. He didn’t want Yvonne to see him the way she did so she wouldn’t treat like Luna did. I am sorry. “I need to go.” She rose to her feet and left the room. She waited by the crossroad where she was to meet Lucas, trying to steady her pumping heart.
Lucas’ voice echoed from behind her. “Fancy night, isn’t it?”
She jumped in her skin. How does he sneak up on me so easily? He gave her a few minutes to calm down before he motioned her to follow him. She did. They walked through the stone hallways in awkward silence.
He stopped once they were approaching the bottom level. “There are a few things you will need. Catch.” A featureless white mask appeared in his hand before he tossed it to Luna. “You don’t want them to remember your face.”
She put it on. Although the mask had no holes for eyes or mouth, she could see and breathe as if she wasn’t wearing it at all. She turned to Lucas. He wore the same mask.
“You will also need this.” He handed her a satchel. Inside were gloves, shoes and a set of lock picks. “You w
ill do a lot of climbing, so this should help.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed. “Where will I be climbing?”
“By the wall of the cavern and all the way to the ceiling. You are to reach the grates through which the water is dripping down and open them. Once you are done, climb down by the eastern wall and exit through the passage there.”
She nodded, figuring she would do the little sabotage first and use it to convince him to save Addie and the rest of the people. There was nothing she could have done to help Yala back in the smithy, but that wasn’t the case with Addie. Nobody deserved to spend the entire life without seeing the sun.
The stern voice of Lucas disturbed her from her thoughts. “We have two hours from the moment we enter through the door. Not a minute more.”
“What if I am late?”
“You die.”
She gulped.
He shrugged. “What? I let you live because you can be useful. If you stop, well, not much reason for letting you roam around eating innocent people, is there?”
You don’t have to be so blunt about it! Yet his words did not make her feel as bad as she expected them to. The truth was something she had been starting to appreciate.
He threw a hood over his head, which made him look like a specter of darkness with a pale disk for a face. He headed forward. This time, three guards sat by the door, and neither of them was sleeping. Lucas walked straight toward them.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing here? Stop!” they shouted as they reached for their weapons. Lucas was faster. He disappeared and appeared before them, his black spear in hand. He signed their demise within but a moment.
I have an awful feeling about this. Luna stared at him, not sure what to think. From a distance, he was every bit as quick and terrifying as when she fought him herself, proving he was every bit as strong as she suspected.
He opened the door using the keys of one of the guards to drag the bodies through them.
She used the moment to study him with her gaze. “When things appear in your hand, you don’t pull them out of a secret pocket but rather move them into your hand with your aether, don’t you? Where do you store them?”
“Limbo.”
“I thought you couldn’t do that with mundane items.” She shook her head. “How you disappear and reappear, it’s not an illusion-type manifestation, is it?”
Lucas smiled. “No. It’s called the soulstep, and it’s me slipping between the fabrics of reality and of Limbo.” He passed through the door.
Like her sword, except that the sword was an ancient artifact that housed itself within her soul chamber without her having to do anything. Luna followed him, gazing upon the cavern with the city at its midst. Who the hell are you?
He locked behind them and broke the key within the lock. “Remember, you have two hours to do your mission and reach the eastern passage. There is no other way out of here.”
Before she could answer, he disappeared.
***
Luna put on the adhesive gloves and shoes and ascended by the wall of the cavern. As the city beneath lay calm and peaceful, the only sound came from the steady streams of water falling down through the grates in the ceiling. She kept climbing.
The locks were further than she thought they would be. She’s been at the wall for almost an hour, but I had yet to them. The town under her was still asleep, so whatever Lucas was doing did not cause an alarm.
Luna reached the first grate which had a massive, sturdy padlock at the side. She examined the lock, finding its mechanism simple. After she stuck her glove to the ceiling, she slid her now-free hand into her pocket to take out one of her a lock picks. She wondered if the ease with which she picked the mechanism shouldn’t have made her feel bad.
The second she finished, the grate swung open and the stream of water turned into a waterfall, almost knocking her down. A stench of fish oozed out of the liquid, which was greasy upon touch.
The stone walls became slippery after being splashed by the water. The shouts coming from below threw her out of her thoughts.
Luna climbed to the second grate and opened its lock, then the third, fourth and the fifth. She unlocked all the six of them and proceeded to descend by the eastern wall after dropping the padlocks. Since she had no way to dodge the liquid, it soaked her. The overwhelming stench of fish made her retch as it followed her every move while she climbed. Down beneath her, the people were starting to panic. The unregulated waterfalls were too much for the system of the reservoirs to handle, so the water was splashing all over the cavern city. Shouting filled the air, and she kept climbing.
She climbed as fast as she could, knowing the water would eventually dissolve the adhesive of her gloves and shoes and make her fall to certain death.
Luna noticed an unusual sound. She focused and realized it was a beating of wings and came from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. Three creatures flew through the air, closing in. Her heart sank, and fear flooded her veins. I am in no position to fight anything that flies!
The creatures were thin with leathery wings while scales covered their bodies. They resembled men but had long beaks instead of mouths and arms integrated into wings. Their legs ended with bird-like talons instead of human feet. Luna looked down, she was still way over a hundred feet above the ground and, more importantly, above the city.
I will heal if I jump down, but the soldiers will swarm me and finish me before I recover from the fall alone. She hastened her climb. The creatures flew around the open bars but could not close them.
She wanted to laugh but was too busy climbing. Soon, the beating of the wings approached. They noticed me… shit!
She attached her right glove to her torso and made the black longsword appear within her hand while she kept climbing as if nothing was happening. The fluttering of wings got closer. Luna spun to latch her left palm onto the wall. The closest of the demons whirled and dug its claws into her chest. She bit back the pain and slashed with her sword. The thin blade broke the creature’s wing. It shrieked and fell.
The second one was approaching her fast. She hid the blade behind herself, so the creature didn’t get to see its full length. The demon descended upon her, claws first. She waited. When it folded its wing to strike, she stabbed with her sword. They hit each other at the same moment. Her blade pierced the demon’s chest, but its claws sunk into her stomach. Pain exploded through her body when the claws detached as the demon started falling. The creature launched one last stab with its beak, grazing her forehead.
Her hand slipped. She bent away from the wall, and her featureless white mask fell off her face, broken. The adhesive on the legs held her, so she sprung backward to reattach her arm, and then flipped her body over to get her feet in position.
The third creature hit her with its beak into the back. Its sharp tip pierced through her armor and flesh alike, reaching her lung. Luna screamed out with pain, whirled, and slashed. Her sword cut the creature’s wing. The demon twisted the beak inside her before it fell.
She made her weapon disappear and focused on her regeneration, recovering. I can’t take more hits like this! She caught herself back on the wall and took a few long breaths to calm down. She had less than half an hour to reach the exit but still hung high above the city.
The panic on the hill below was becoming ever more palpable. The water kept pouring in six waterfalls while the stench of fish in the air made breathing almost insufferable. Luna kept descending by the wall of the cavern. There was no sign of Lucas. Then she heard another beating of wings, and her heart nearly stopped. That sounds much bigger!
Luna glanced over her shoulder and saw a massive demon flying toward her. The creature featured a sharp beak, two large fly-like eyes, and a torso covered by scales while four gargantuan wings kept its long, tail-tipped body with two pairs of legs in the air. Out of what nightmare did this thing come?
Her gaze darted around as the cold grip of despair filled her chest. The monster was a less than a mi
nute of flight away and while she was now above the outer ring beyond the abyss, the ground beneath thronged with Union’s soldiers. Chaos conquered the city, and the men were rushing toward the gate in the eastern passage. The cavern wall blocked her sight, but when she focused on listening, she recognized the sounds of fighting. They wouldn’t fight among themselves… what’s going on?
Luna started sliding down to hasten her descent. She slipped and barely held onto the wall with her right hand, dangling in the air. The demon was almost at her. Luna sprung her body upward. The creature rammed its beak into her back, piercing her brigandine. The hit crushed her bones and shattered organs, going all the way through her to exit from above her stomach.
She wanted to scream, but couldn’t as her lungs were destroyed. The creature swung the beak up, throwing her into the air. The demon opened its beak, revealing a mouth full of vicious teeth and bolted forward. She tried to spin to dodge. She couldn’t. Lucas’ black spear split the air and hit the demon’s side. The monster shrieked and contorted, grazing her instead of swallowing her, sending her into free fall.
Luna focused on staying conscious. Her regeneration had already started repairing her wounds, but her strength was waning. Before her fall ended, the creature detached from the wall above to fly again. She hit the ground.
Pain exploded through her as she heard her own bones break. She spat blood and her vision blurred with a shade of red. Luna could not get up. She turned her head to see the demon started making a turn.
Men ran around her, wearing black. Some stepped on her while one fell over her and scrambled to his feet, thinking she was but a corpse. She didn’t feel the pain anymore. Her ears were ringing, and her body was in so much pain that being stepped upon changed nothing. She felt so weak that moving was out of the question, so she traced the monster with her eyes and prayed her end would be quick.
The demon made a turn. The creature dove toward her, getting closer. Terror filled her insides, as she could not move, could not dodge, and could not scream.
