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 stil
l 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.
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?’
‘I had thought that very thing,’ Aun’shi answered. ‘However, I now realise that our duty to one another doesn’t end just because we’re no longer in the Empire. No matter where we go, the Greater Good is our strength and shield.’
‘Even here?’ Bentu asked weakly.
He laid a hand on each of their shoulders. ‘Especially here.’
Someday, somehow, he told himself, I will bring the righteous fury of our people down upon the heads of the Var Sin’da. From now until then, that is all I will strive for.
‘Do not worry,’ he reassured them. ‘I am Aun. I will lead and protect you. Always.’
About The Author
Braden Campbell is the author of Shadowsun: The Last of Kiru’s Line for Black Library, as well as several short stories. He is a classical actor and playwright, and a freelance writer, particularly in the field of role playing games. Braden has enjoyed Warhammer 40,000 for nearly a decade, and remains fiercely dedicated to his dark eldar.
The expansion of the Tau Empire meets the might of the Imperium.
As the two empires clash across the Damocles Gulf, the fate of a hundred worlds will be decided.
A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION
This edition published in 2014 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd., Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.
Cover illustration by Paul Dainton.
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