by Sam Ryder
I spun around, searching for the two Enders. But they were nowhere to be found. The area was silent. Gehn made a motion with her hands for us all to be patient. Ahh, I thought, finally understanding. They are making us wait. Showing that things happen when they want them to happen.
Finally, the sound of boots on dirt shattered the silence. In walked two massive Ender men, big, ugly, and blue. Skin mutations were fairly common amongst their ranks, but still, they looked like over-sized Smurfs, except without any of the cuteness. They wore dark brown pants and beige shirts that stretched out over their massive frames. Leather belts were clasped at their waists, bearing the weight of several weapons, both blunt and sharp. They wore no shoes over their massive, boat-like feet. The sound we’d heard was not boots slapping the dirt, but the leathery soles of their feet.
One of them wore a stern expression. He looked annoyed to even be here, meeting with us. Zodos then, I thought. The other one looked slightly less annoyed. His blank was neutral. Hello Guzron.
Without saying a word, the two of them lumbered across the room and past us to a pair of stone seats that barely fit their girth. They sat down. The seats reminded me of thrones. Zodos crossed his arms. Guzron leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
Man, this is some bullshit, I thought. If they told us to bow before them and kiss their feet I was going to lose my shit, all of Gehn’s warnings going out the window.
Before I could open my mouth to say a word, someone struck me hard in the back, launching my body forward violently before being driven face-first into the ground. It felt like someone had tackled me.
I shook off the cobwebs, lifting my face out of the dirt to see a large, angry-looking Ender man glaring down at me, breathing heavily in rage. That’s when I realized the entire display from Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had been to distract me, allowing this other Ender to sneak in from behind. It was a dirty move, but smart under the circumstances.
“Go,” I said to the women. “Get back.”
“No,” Belenie said. “We’re staying here with you. We can help.”
“No, you can’t,” I said. This was something the three women, being females, would not understand. But I did. This was a challenge, made to me specifically. “This is my fight. Do you trust me?”
Belenie looked ready to resist, but Gehn grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. Hannah also looked unwilling to budge, but finally complied when I nodded in her direction. Zodos frowned at our actions, uncrossing his arms and stroking his chin, looking deep in thought as he watched me.
All right, you son of a bitch. Let’s dance.
I stood slowly, cracking my neck.
The Ender pulled out a large knife and brandished it in front of his body. A devilish smile spread across his face. No fair play here, I guess, I thought. They’d taken my weapons knowing I was walking into a fight with an armed man-beast. I also knew this was some sort of a test, one I needed to pass or I’d be six feet under in no time.
The lumbered toward me, his girth slowing him slightly but not as much as I expected. He was like one of those three hundred pound NFL linemen who could move their bulk quicker than if they weighed half as much. As he approached, he swiped at me with the knife. I danced out of the way, but not before the blade of the knife slashed my arm, leaving a nasty-looking laceration that bled almost instantly.
“Shit!” I shouted, stumbling back out of his reach. This guy was hand-selected by someone, perhaps Zodos and Guzron, to fight me, so I couldn’t underestimate him. I needed to work faster now; if I lost too much blood I might pass out and then it would be over.
I feinted like I was going to try to run away, pretty much begging him to give chase like a shark smelling blood. Trusting in my instincts, I turned back rapidly and kicked, using my momentum and the force of my body to propel my booted heel forward into his midsection. He doubled over, the knife narrowly missing my leg as I retracted it. My arm was hurting, but I had two of them. I used the good one to swing a brutal right hook into the side of his jaw. The blow sent him spinning, and should’ve knocked him out. Somehow, he remained on his feet. Damn, this guy can take a hit.
I checked my wound quickly. It was a bleeder, but nothing Belenie couldn’t fix if I could only end this contest quickly. Dripping blood in my wake, I strode forward, watching as the Ender wavered unsteadily on his feet, slowly turning in my direction. I swung an uppercut just as his jaw came into view. The only problem:
He’d been faking the extent of his injury from my best knockout punch.
He dodged the uppercut, my momentum carrying my forward right into his strike zone. He shoved the knife at my gut this time, and I twisted hard to make myself a small target. The maneuver saved me, the knife slashing into my shirt. Still, the knife’s handle and the side of his fist punished my ribs and abdomen.
Distance was my friend, and I dove hard left just as he grabbed for me. He caught only air and I landed hard on the ground, dust kicking up and coating my bloody arm. It was my turn to play a little possum. I pretended to struggle to my feet—the act wasn’t difficult given the shooting pain in my arm—and clutched at my midsection, as if his knife had wounded me. His strike had been fast—he wouldn’t be able to know for sure whether he’d managed to slash me as his blade whistled past. I groaned.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the three women leaning forward in concern. The two Ender leaders were watching intently. Zodos was licking his lips, probably wishing he was able to participate in the violence.
In any case, my little act paid off. The Ender took the bait, charging at me with reckless abandon to finish the job. Instead of moving out of the way this time, I came out of my injured stance at the last moment, kicking straight up, as high as I could go, driving the front of my steel-toed boot into his face.
He went down, and hard. His nose was crooked and gushing blood and he had a deep cut running diagonally across both lips. He turned his head to the side and spat. Three large yellow teeth popped out, skittering across the courtyard and coming to rest in the dust.
I took three steps forward and placed the same boot on his throat, making him gag. I glanced to the left and saw Gehn watching me, still concerned but for different reasons. However, this time she didn’t admonish me to back off.
She didn’t have to.
I pulled my boot off his throat, and he inhaled sharply, restoring his breath. He stared at me with a mix of hatred, pain and surprise. “Good fight,” I said, offering him a hand. He stared at it like it was a venomous snake, but then took it. It took all my strength to pull his bulk up to standing. He touched his nose, cringing. “Sorry about that,” I said. “And your teeth. Belenie should be able to help with the nose—not sure about the teeth.”
“If you can recover them, I should be able to repair them,” she said, overhearing.
I nodded. “Good. Do your thing.”
Then I spun around to face the two Enders on their makeshift thrones.
The burning sensation of the wound on my arm nearly made me wince, but I didn’t want to show any weakness, so I stood there in front of the Enders, dripping blood.
Zudos spoke first. He didn’t hold back. “I was hoping he would kill you.”
“Thanks for that,” I said, unable to hold back.
“But now I am glad he didn’t. The stories going around the city are true, it seems.”
Stories? I thought. I wondered whether it had to do with what we’d done in Rome or in our short stay in Paris. Maybe both. In any case, it seemed our reputation was growing.
“I don’t want to kill Enders,” I said. “Not unless they are opponents to peace.”
“Peace?” Zodos said. “That word is extinct.”
“Maybe we can revive it,” I said.
“You would kill your own kind in the name of peace?”
“You are my own kind. These women. Enders. Humans. We are not so different.”
“Tell that to the other humans.”
“I w
ill.”
“And they will listen to you?” The large Ender scoffed at the very notion.
“I don’t know, but I’m willing to try. If not, I will fight this war myself if I have to.”
Belenie had made short work of repairing the large Ender I’d defeated, and now the man nodded in my direction as a sign of respect, and then lumbered away. All three women joined me in front of the Ender leaders. “You will not be alone,” Gehn said, jutting her chin out. “We will stand with Cutter.” Hannah and Belenie nodded in agreement.
“What will four against the masses be able to do?” Zodos asked.
It was my turn to speak again. “Not a lot,” I admitted. “But if others join us…if the Enders join us…perhaps it will be enough.”
“I want to fight the Rising as much as anyone,” Zodos said. “There are others who would fight too.”
This was starting to sound promising, but I sensed a ‘but’ coming. “Then what’s the problem?”
Zodos glanced at Guzron, who’d remained silent up to this point. Guzron said, “There are those, myself included, who are against war. The queen is against war.”
“Why?” I asked, incredulous. Why would a male Ender, who should have violent tendencies, be against war when his own people had been mistreated so badly?
“We will be slaughtered,” he said simply. “We are safe in Paris. The Rising will not threaten us here.”
I shook my head. “You’re wrong about that.”
“You have seen the Rising army marching on the city?”
I gritted my teeth in frustration. I didn’t expect this, didn’t expect to require proof that the Rising was planning to exterminate the Enders. I didn’t think I needed it given the track record of the humans residing in Rome. “No,” I said. “But Gehn has seen war.”
Guzron focused on our gray-skinned companion for the first time. “What does he mean, ‘seen’?”
“I have visions,” Gehn said. “Well, more like dreams. But they are real. They are visions of what is to come.”
“And they involve this human man?”
She nodded. “The world will be bathed in blood because of him.”
I didn’t think it was the best sales pitch, but I kept silent. Maybe talk of blood-bathing would resonate with these Enders.
OK, fine. I didn’t keep silent. I had a big mouth sometimes, what can I say? “Look, since we entered Paris, I’ve been gawked at, threatened, slashed, beaten, and thrown around. And yet, ask anyone who has seen me in the past day or so—I haven’t killed one Ender. I could have on multiple occasions. But I haven’t. That tells you all you need to know.”
“He’s right,” Gehn said. “Cutter may not be an Ender, but he respects our kind and our right to live in peace. When I first encountered Cutter, I was being threatened by other members of the Rising at an outpost. They surrounded me, threatening to kill me or even worse. Cutter stood up for me when no one else but my sister would do the same.”
“I agree,” Belenie said. “Cutter saved my life. And Hannah is also with us, and she has done nothing but help us. Another human. I believe there are more human allies out there, but they just need to be found and convinced. Cutter can do that.”
I’m not ashamed to admit, my vision got a little blurry at that point. Their words meant a great deal to me. Also, the loss of blood was starting to get the best of me. I swayed on my feet. “May my healer tend to me?”
Zodos didn’t look thrilled with the idea, but Guzron nodded. Belenie immediately got to work while I continued to converse with the leaders.
“I am sympathetic,” Zodos said. “But you will need approval from Queen Sierra.”
“We are aware,” I said. “But we don’t want to ask her without your support first. You represent the males, the warriors of this city. Your approval would carry a great weight.”
Okay, maybe I was blowing a little smoke to try to get them on our side, but hey, flattery gets you everywhere, right?
The two Enders looked at each other with skeptical looks. Guzron said, “I will remain neutral for now.”
I wanted to tell him off for not taking a position, but it was better than a rejection. “Fair enough. May we see the Queen?”
Zodos and Guzron conferred via a few harsh whispers. Then Zodos spoke: “Cutter, your prowess in battle has earned you an audience with the Queen. But the rest will remain here.”
We weren’t expecting that news. Still, they waved me forward. It was progress, and I would take it. We were one step closer to our goal.
Chapter 8
The cleansing ritual
Is this a trap?
That was the thought on my mind as the guy I’d literally knocked the teeth out of returned to lead me away from the others, alone.
Guzron and Zodos had seemed sympathetic to us, but that didn’t mean they weren’t acting, nor that the Queen wouldn’t see things differently.
Just before we left the courtyard, I turned and looked back at the women. Hannah looked pissed off she hadn’t been invited. Belenie was stoic. Most importantly, I checked Gehn’s reaction. She gave me a reassuring smile, which warmed me to the core.
My prior foe led me under an arched doorway and down a covered corridor, daylight leaking through cracks in the makeshift wooden walls. “You didn’t crush my throat before,” he said. “I owe you my life.”
“Don’t worry about it. What’s your name?”
“They call me Jarro.”
“What was your name before you were changed?”
He glanced sharply in my direction and I wondered whether I’d broken some unwritten Ender rule. What happened in the old world stays in the old world. “I don’t remember,” he said, surprising me.
“Really?” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my tone.
“’Tis true. None of the males remember the time before. It is simultaneously our greatest blessing and curse.” He was remarkably well spoken. Shit, I thought. I prejudged him just like everyone else. I needed to stop doing that. Yes, these people had been changed because of exposure to radiation, but that didn’t make them all monsters, just as those who were humans weren’t necessarily peaceful allies.
Jarro led me through the doorway of a smaller room. A lone skylight illuminated a square on the floor. In that square sat a small wooden bench next to a pool of water surrounded by stone. The large Ender turned toward me. His dagger gleamed, catching a bit of the light. I took a step back and he laughed. “I won’t cut you again,” he said. “Though it was rather fun the first time!” He slapped his knee as if he’d made the funniest joke. Then he did something very expected. He extended his palm and drew a line across it with his blade. Blood welled up and he squeezed his hand into a tight fist. When he reopened it, his fingers were stained with his own blood. “May I paint you?”
“Come again?”
“It is an Ender blood oath ritual. I want to make you an oath.”
“I—I don’t understand.” I really didn’t. The whole situation had suddenly gotten bizarre.
“You said it was no big deal, but that is not the case in our cultural. You spared my life. My life is now yours. This will seal my fate to yours.”
“Really, it’s not necess—” I started to say but the large man cut me off.
“Then I will take my own life.” He lifted the dagger to his throat, pressing the blade tight against his skin.
“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” I said. Jesus, this guy was drastic. “I’ll take your oath or whatever. You may paint me.” Whatever that meant.
I soon found out as he smiled broadly, like the thought of his own potential suicide was amusing, and then raised his blood hand to my cheek. He pressed his finger into my skin in three places—each cheek and the center of my forehead. Then he played connect the dots, painting bloody lines between each spot. A triangle. “What does it represent?” I asked.
He touched one of my cheeks again. “My life.” He touched the other cheek. “Your life.” He touched my forehead. “The
Queen.”
Interesting. This Queen lady was apparently very important to everyone in Paris. I nodded as if I understood, though I didn’t. “Thank you for your…your oath.”
“No thanks are necessary.”
“What now?” I asked.
“Sit,” he said, gesturing to the bench. “I may not enter, but I will wait outside.”
“Perfect.”
I entered the darkened room and sat on the lighted bench, resting my tired feet. I heard the door click shut behind me. For a few beats, I sat in silence, just enjoying the calmness of the atmosphere.
The latch clicked on the door. I leapt to my feet.
The door swung open to reveal a tall, slender woman. She wore a dark navy blue dress that covered everything from her knees to her neck. A white towel was slung over her shoulder. After she stepped into the room, she closed the door again. From where I was standing, she looked human.
“I am here to prepare you for the Queen,” she announced in a meek little voice.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I will care for you,” she said. “Please sit down and place your feet in the pool of water.”
As if Jarro’s blood oath wasn’t weird enough, now this? When in Paris…, I thought. This was their city, so I needed to play by Ender rules. I sat once more and pulled off my boots and socks. Carefully, I lowered my feet into the water. To my surprise, the water was warm. My feet sunk in, and the water soothed them.
With her head down, the woman walked to the pool and knelt down, dipping the towel in the water. I hadn’t gotten a good look at her when she was standing in the doorway. From this vantage point, however, I got a much better view.
She wore long jet-black hair pulled back into a tight braid. Poking through her hair were her silvery horns I’d been unable to detect before.
The woman was thin, but rather curvy. Though she appeared meek, her features were strong. High cheekbones. Full lips. Exotic almond-shaped eyes. It was like she was holding her own beauty back.
After wringing all the extra water out of the towel, the woman stood and carefully pulled off my shirt, which was dusty and sweat-soaked. She moved the wet cloth over my skin, the warmth of the water soothing me even as it cleaned the events of the day away.
