by Various
‘Why didn’t you inform me of this earlier?’
‘You said not to bother you unless it was important.’
The light from the glowglobes dipped for a moment.
‘What was that?’ Gue’run sounded more annoyed than concerned.
Bentu seemed embarrassed. ‘There have also been increasing power drains. I don’t know why.’
‘Gue’run,’ Aun’Shi said, ‘This archway, this entire structure, was completely encased in ice until you began thawing it.’
‘Yes, aun.’
‘So, all of this was inaccessible during Farsight’s time?’
‘Farsight?’ Gue’run gaped. ‘Well, uh, yes. Completely cut off. If you’d like to visit the surface ruins, the same as he would have, I’d be only too happy to…’
The glowglobes went out again, and this time they did not return. For a moment, the only illumination came from the blinking error message on the scanner’s display screen. Then, the Blood Wall seemed to radiate a flickering blue light that turned everything in the ice chamber a sickly purple. The three of them turned just in time to see a swirling vortex of energy appear. It stretched from the apex of the bone arch down to the flat platform, and looked like a pool of quicksilver turned on its side.
Creatures were now standing on the platform. Aun’Shi did not know how it was possible, but they had simply appeared. They were silhouetted by the flowing energy field behind them. Four of them looked like oversized canines whose skins had been removed. The other three were whip-thin, bipedal humanoids. In their hands they held a variety of nets and barbed spears. What clothing they wore was skin tight and adorned with blades and spikes. A flock of bird-like creatures broke through the silver pool, making sounds like screaming babies. They circled around the top of the chamber, pecking at one another.
Aun’Shi had dedicated entire decades to the study of the races that dwelt in the dark places out beyond the Empire. These had to be the Var Sin’da, the ‘dark raiding ones’: piratical monsters who struck from the shadows, took what they wanted, and vanished back from whence they came. To his knowledge, they had never been seen in tau space until now.
The hounds snarled as the three lanky figures surveyed their surroundings, and noticed the tau simultaneously. They said something in their native language, and smiled wickedly.
Aun’Shi shrugged off this thermal robe and walked a few steps forward. From his belt, he unclipped a heavy cylinder. With a flick of his wrist, it telescoped outwards from either end, forming a long, bladed staff. He twirled it like a windmill, and then spread his arms wide. Over his shoulder, he called out to Gue’run. ‘Take my skimmer. You and your men get back to Colony Twenty-Three. Tell them what’s happened.’
‘What about you?’ Gue’run cried.
Aun’Shi squared his shoulders. ‘I’ll be fine,’ he said, more to himself than in reply.
Gue’run and Bentu scrambled back towards the tunnel entrance. Two of the Var Sin’da moved as if to go after them, but Aun’Shi matched their steps. He shook his head, sure that his posture spoke clearly across any cultural gulf.
At some unspoken command, the skinless hounds charged forwards. Aun’Shi flipped himself backwards to land on top of the bulky scanning machine where he couldn’t be surrounded. The monsters yelped and swiped at him. He beat their claws away with his staff. They tried to leap at him. Again he stopped them from so much as touching him. His weapon was a blur, moving left and right, blocking and sweeping. One of them launched towards him, its jaws gaping. Aun’Shi stepped back, swung his staff in a wide arc, and decapitated it. The remaining three beasts paused to re-evaluate their target. He let them regroup and jumped down, putting the scanner between himself and the monsters.
One of the Var Sin’da made a piercing whistle, and the flock of birds responded. They rocketed towards the tunnel, intent on catching up with Gue’run. Aun’Shi hurled his staff at them like a javelin, then broke into a sprint. The blade pierced one of the birds clean through, and dropped into Aun’Shi’s waiting hand. The rest raced back up to the ceiling, crying in protest.
The grins had vanished from the faces of the Var Sin’da. Instead they looked perplexed. The one standing in the middle barked out an order, and the other two charged forwards. The hounds and birds did likewise.
‘I’ll be fine,’ Aun’Shi reminded himself.
They hit him all at once with an avalanche of claws, beaks and blades. Nothing could find purchase. Aun’Shi gripped his staff loosely, tucking it in close to stop a spear, sweeping it high to strike a bird, jabbing it straight forwards to knock a hound away. He was the eye in a storm of violence. Their inability to hit him, let alone hurt him, made the two Var Sin’da boil with anger. They screamed obscenities at him. The birds wailed. The hounds roared.
Aun’Shi said nothing. His face was impassive. Even when a serrated blade at last slipped past him and gouged a deep hole in his arm, he stayed silent and focused. There were too many, he realised. He was only holding them off, instead of inflicting casualties. He tried to back up into the tunnel. In the closer confines, he thought, he might be able to focus on killing his foes, rather than simply stalling them.
One of the hound creatures snapped at his ankle. He reflexively kicked it in the face. His knuckles were scratched and bleeding, torn up by the birds. The wound in his arm began to burn terribly. His vision blurred. The spear, he thought. Something on the spear. Toxin. Very underhanded.
He was nearly to the tunnel when he lost all feeling in his right arm. The agony was spreading across his chest now. His skin felt like it was on fire. He tried to compensate, but his defence crumbled and he dropped to one knee. Something slammed into the side of his face, twisting his head. Blood sprayed from between clenched teeth. The world swam, and he went down. They kicked him in the spine, and something was chewing on his legs, but these were distant, secondary things. The knife wound consumed his thoughts. He had never felt such agony. The ice did nothing to soothe his skin.
After a few moments, he realised dimly that he was still alive. Cold, smooth hands were holding his head, rolling it from side to side. He fought to stay awake.
‘Thenalus nen ithyn?’ a voice asked. The words had a disturbing vibrato to them. After a moment, he was slapped across the face. ‘Chith’nai! Yinare theniben marj mol quaryon?’
One of his attackers was leaning over him. Aun’Shi focused his vision with all his might, and noted pointed ears, pale skin, and high cheekbones.
‘I don’t… I don’t understand you,’ he muttered.
‘Tyathe,’ the Var Sin’da replied. His fellows laughed at the shared joke.
Aun’Shi was dimly aware that they were binding his hands and feet with barbed chains. They felt sharp and cold. Then he was being dragged roughly across the ground. ‘What are you doing?’ he slurred. ‘Where are you taking me?’
Aun’Shi managed to lift his head. The archway and the flowing silver portal were looming close. He managed to spit out one final word before the agony of his wounds made speech impossible. ‘Why?’
The Var Sin’da leader stooped down over him once more. He patted the wound on Aun’Shi’s arm in an almost sympathetic manner. Then he pulled back, and punched the tau in the jaw.
His last thought before he lost consciousness was that he hadn’t failed in his duty as an aun. He had secured Gue’run and his men enough time to get away. They would find help in Colony 23, his bodyguards perhaps, and return to save him. All he had to do was wait, and stay alive.
At the sight of the three tau huddled together and terrified in their cage, the audience laughed uproariously. The band struck a tune and the beastmasters pranced merrily back towards the entryway. Aun’Shi gripped the bars of his hexcage until his knuckles turned white. Gue’run, Cha’la and Bentu hadn’t evaded capture after all. They’d never made it back to Colony 23. No one was coming to save him. His life was over.
He looked towards the gallery in despair. Cerraine was playing the hostess to several other Var Sin’da nobles, passing out goblets filled with golden wine. She threw back her head and laughed. Then she walked to the front of the platform. She had something in her hand which she raised. The audience quieted down in anticipation. At Cerraine’s signal, the cage containing Gue’run, Cha’la and Bentu collapsed. As they ran off the platform, the beasts were freed of their restraints. An excited cheer swept through the house. It was going to be an easy slaughter, and all Aun’Shi could do was watch.
No, he realised. He didn’t have to just sit up here helplessly. Cerraine had told him that his hexcage would be unlocked. Free to go or free to stay, she had said. He pressed on the bars in front of him. They swung away easily. It would be a simple matter for him to jump down to the sand below, slay the beasts, and save his fellows. He could also abstain from performing before the Var Sin’da, as he had sworn to do, but then he would be knowingly shirking his duty as an ethereal. Cerraine had surely known the impossible choice she had presented him with: to either betray himself or his people, but betray something nonetheless. No matter what he did in the next few seconds, he was beaten. Either by his actions or his inactions the crowd’s thirst for blood would be satiated.
The epiphany took his breath way. Aun’Shi saw that he had come to understand yet another alien species. The Var Sin’da were co’tau: anti-tau. Their existence was based entirely on selfishness and the misery of others, both physical and emotional. They were the absolute opposite of the Greater Good, and they had to be stopped.
They had to be destroyed.
He hit the ground and rolled. There were no weapons in the arena, he noted. Apparently, he was supposed to either fight the spinebacks hand to hand, or improvise. He chose the latter. He grasped a bar from the collapsed cage, and swung it around just in time to catch one of the monstrosities in the face. Part of its head caved in, spraying yellow ichor. It gave an ear-piercing cry and whirled. A spike-encrusted tail caught Aun’Shi in the thigh, tearing out hunks of blue flesh. He brought the bar down again in a killing blow, but the beast leapt back.
‘Aun’Shi!’ he heard Cha’la cry. ‘Behind you!’
The other two monsters, attracted to the scent of his blood, were circling around him. They charged in a loping gait, but Aun’Shi was ready. He leapt high into the air, and drove the bar through one of their quilled haunches. He let go of his weapon, rolled in the sand, and came up, panting. All three of the fiends were still alive. The one with half a skull gibbered horrifically. The crowd seemed delighted.
The earth caste tau had sheltered underneath the hovering dais. Aun’Shi scrambled to join them, as the sole uninjured beast charged forwards. It slammed into the side of the platform, causing it to rock violently. The monster spat and hissed, but was too large to reach its targets.
‘What will we do?’ Gue’run sputtered. ‘What will we do?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Aun’Shi admitted. He pressed his hands down over his gushing thigh, and looked about hastily. ‘I need a weapon.’
All three spinebacks were now circling the dais, trying to get at the tau. Things had come to a standstill. The audience was getting restless.
‘Does this platform have controls?’ Aun’Shi asked.
‘Yes,’ Bentu replied. He seemed the most collected of the three. ‘Some pedals and a manoeuvring stick.’
Aun’Shi tore a strip of material from his robe and tied it tightly around his leg. He winced as he cinched it. ‘Can you pilot it then?’
Bentu swallowed hard. ‘I can try. But how do we get out from under here?’
The spinebacks growled. One of them was lying on its side, pawing at the tau like a cat unable to reach a mouse. Its breath was foul and hot.
‘It was an honour to serve you, aun,’ Cha’la said quietly. Then he bolted out from underneath the dais and sped away across the sand. The spinebacks abandoned their efforts and bounded after him. The audience laughed to see the boy flee, and cheered joyously when the monsters pounced on him. They each grabbed a limb, and pulled Cha’la in grotesque tug of war. There were a series of ripping, tearing sounds as his body parts flew off in several directions.
‘Go! Go!’ Aun’Shi yelled.
The tau dashed out from their hiding place and climbed atop the platform. Pieces of purple material still flowed down off the sides. Aun’Shi and Gue’run grabbed the bottom of the cage. Bentu took precious seconds to look over the controls and then stomped down on one of the pedals. The machine lurched forwards.
A ripple of surprised laughter went through the crowd, followed by a smattering of applause. The dais was barely more than an enlarged, floating wagon. It was certainly no escape vehicle. Yet the fighting blue man and his little friends acted as if it was their salvation. Delightful.
The monsters looked up at the sudden movement and gave chase. In a matter of seconds, they were closing on the tau. Gue’run screamed at Bentu to go faster. The platform lurched again, titled wildly, and then rocketed forwards. The spinebacks surged to keep pace.
Up in the gallery, Cerraine spoke into the small device in her hand. ‘Skelban, let’s give them some obstacles.’
A moment later, several of the trap doors in the arena floor popped open. Short, flat-topped towers emerged, their bases ringed with blades. From nozzles near their crown, they began to spray thick green tar in long torrents. Aun’Shi had seen these before. They reminded him of the sprinklers used on his arid home world to help manicure lawns. Only instead of water, the Var Sin’da were using corrosive bio acid.
Bentu saw the towers appear and veered the dais to one side. The spineback with only half a head left caught a full jet of the deadly chemicals. It dissolved into two separate halves that twitched and kicked in circles.
The platform levelled out again and Aun’Shi turned to Gue’run. ‘Help me flip this!’ he yelled, indicating the bottom of the cage. Struggling to keep their balance, they dug their hands underneath the heavy frame, and lifted. Aun’Shi could never have done it by himself, but Gue’run’s earth caste arms were strong. With a loud grunt, they heaved the iron framework up. It wobbled for a moment, then came crashing down on one of the spinebacks, pinning it.
A stream of acid washed across the platform. Gue’run’s right leg vanished out from under him, leaving only frothing, purple goo. He screamed and tumbled backwards into space. The final spineback, which still had Aun’Shi’s improvised fighting staff protruding from its side, opened its jaws wide to snatch up this tasty treat.
Aun’Shi launched himself off the back of the dais. He tackled Gue’run in midair, knocking him clear. They hit the sand together and rolled for some distance before coming to rest. Aun’Shi looked up in time to see the dais crash into a wall. Acrid smoke was belching from the undercarriage. He couldn’t see whether Bentu was still alive or not.
Aun’Shi stood despite his shaking knees. The final spineback was circling around. Its head was low. Its tail whipped back and forth. The crowd was chanting.
‘Tonesh! Tonesh! Tonesh!’
He had lost a significant amount of blood, despite his makeshift bandage. Colours swam at the edge of his vision. Sweat dripped from his forehead. If this was going to end, then it had to be now.
‘I’ll be fine,’ he told himself.
His charge took the spineback by surprise. As it turned its head to the side guardedly, Aun’Shi leapt through the air. He extended his hoof and drove it straight into the creature’s eye. It exploded with a sharp cracking sound, covering his leg with ruptured jelly. The beast reared up and howled. Aun’Shi recovered himself, planted his injured leg in the sand, and kicked again with all his might. He caught the spineback square in the stomach, driving it backwards into an acid stream. Its head and neck dissolved. What remained of the body crashed down before him, vomiting forth blood and organs. The audience cheered.
&
nbsp; Aun’Shi hobbled over to the corpse and yanked the metal bar free. The hexcage in which he had entered was being lowered from the ceiling and additional slaves were running out onto the field to begin cleaning up for the next event. He stood and watched as they gathered up Gue’run and hauled Bentu’s limp body from off of the platform. When they had been taken out through the main entryway, he stepped into the hexcage. The door swung shut and he began to rise up once more, his performance finished for the time being.
It wasn’t long before Cerraine came to see him again. By that time, attendants had stitched his leg wound closed and applied foul smelling salves everywhere else.
She leered at him. ‘Laria sana’yijel shuthel chos nai rukal,’ she said. A moment later, her brooch translated her words as, ‘I had a feeling you’d join in the fun.’
‘I’m fighting for survival,’ Aun’Shi replied tersely, ‘not entertainment.’
Cerraine pouted her lips and said, ‘It’s adorable that you still think there’s a difference.’
They stared at each other a moment.
‘What did the Master of the Revels think?’ Aun’Shi asked.
Cerraine’s eyes hardened. ‘Cidik thought it was… fine. Let’s just say he won’t be closing me down any time soon.’
‘So long as I do not give him a reason to, that is.’
‘You must be hungry,’ Cerraine said, abruptly changing the subject. ‘I’ll have food brought to you.’
‘My friends, as well.’
Her lips twisted in a sly smirk. ‘A bit of celebratory fun with your underlings, eh? I thought as much.’ She snapped her fingers. Gue’run and Bentu were shoved through the door. Like Aun’Shi, their wounds had also been tended to. The overseer had been fitted with a metal prosthesis.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ she said. Before leaving, she paused dramatically in the doorway and added, ‘You two owe him your lives. Be sure to treat him well.’
No one spoke for some time. Finally, Gue’run broke the silence. ‘I know I should thank you for saving us, aun,’ he said, ‘but perhaps you shouldn’t have. Would not death be better than a life of slavery?’
