by Erin Johnson
“Understand?” Ryuu’s lip curled back into a snarl.
Kai bowed deeply, his forehead almost touching the desk. “I won’t let you down, sir.”
Ryuu gestured at Cat, then jerked his chin in dismissal. “Prep your monsters. We’re starting the fights soon.”
Kai grabbed the little guy by an ankle and lowered him back into his pack. He slung the bag over his shoulder and spun on his heel. Sam and I pressed tighter to the wall, hiding in the shadow of the low-ceilinged entryway. Kai took a step toward the door but paused when Ryuu Tanaka spoke again. “That Captain Kenta has been a thorn in my side. Make him pay for it.”
I gasped. They still had Captain Kenta?
A ghoulish grin spread across Kai’s face. “Yes, sir.” He stalked toward the exit, purpose in his step. As he neared, I realized too late that though I’d pulled my upper snake body tight to the wall, I didn’t have a good sense of how long I was. My tail trailed out into Kai’s path, a fact I realized only a split second before his foot came down hard on my tail. The bottoms of his boots were made of soft leather, otherwise it would’ve been worse, but still, he was a big guy and the weight of him sent shooting pains throughout my body.
I cried out, a hiss that turned into a yelp as the pain broke my concentration—and my transformation spell! I looked up into Kai’s wide-eyed face. His mouth hung open, aghast, his foot still planted heavily on my ankles.
“The foreigner!” Ryuu Tanaka hissed.
I gasped.
“There’s another one.” Kai pointed at Sam, hunkered against the wall.
“Run, Sam!” Or slither, but whatever.
Sam, the little green snake, made for the exit, moving as fast as lightning. Kai raised his wand, but I grabbed his leg and yanked as hard as I could, which tripped him flat on his back.
“Catch him!” Ryuu Tanaka ordered.
I closed my eyes and pulled power from the roar of the crowd outside, magic to defend myself and Sam. “Ow!” My breath caught and I opened my eyes to find one of the gold-clad guards holding a blow gun aimed right at me. I patted the stinging part of my neck and found a feathered dart in it. “Again? Really?”
My connection to the magic died as I tugged the dart from my neck. It undoubtedly contained the antimagic serum Misaki had hit us with a few days ago. I rolled over and whimpered when I spotted Sam. Three red-feathered darts stuck out from his green scales. The poor little guy looked woozy, slithering in aimless swerving lines.
I gritted my teeth and scurried past the splayed-out Kai. I gently lifted Sam into my lap and carefully pulled out the darts. I stroked his head with my thumb. “It’ll be all right, Sam.”
Kai shoved to his feet, his face purple with fury. He stalked toward me, and I cradled Sam to my chest, hunkering over him to protect him. Kai’s shadow loomed over me and I tensed for a blow. “Where are the others?”
I peeled an eye open, my mind working fast. “They’re nearby—and they’re bringing even more people, backup.” I glared up at the beefy guard.
Kai turned away from me, and he and Ryuu Tanaka exchanged looks.
The older man’s face glowed with a sick glee. “They’re alone.”
Kai sneered, and my stomach sank.
The older man leaned forward. “Shifters, hm? I quite think our audience would enjoy seeing them as bait.”
Kai grunted and grinned cruelly at Sam and me. Then he frowned. “But how will the audience know they’re shifters—that one just looks like a dumb snake.”
“Take them to the stables and get them ready.” Ryuu waved a hand, dismissing us. “After you dump them in the pen, we’ll hit them with the antidote.”
Kai chuckled.
Ryuu Tanaka bit his lip as he looked me over. I willed myself not to shrink back. I lifted my chin and he grinned wider.
“I’ll enjoy watching you try to squirm and slither your way out.” He glanced at Kai. “Now, go.”
The burly guard grabbed me by the collar of my standard-issue ninja shirt and dragged me to my feet. He snatched Sam away and clutched the little snake in his beefy fist.
“Hey! Be careful with him. Don’t squeeze so hard.”
Kai shook me, then snarled as he dragged me toward the raucous party in the big cave. “Trust me—that’s the least of your worries right now.”
25
Captain Kenta
Kai dropped Sam into my hands without warning and shoved me into the giant, barred cage. I stumbled forward, fumbling to keep hold of my snake friend. My feet clanged on the metal grate floor. BANG! I hunched up my shoulders and whirled around as Kai slammed the door shut with his wand. CLICK. The lock turned, trapping us inside.
He moved off down the line of cages. I held my shivering snake friend close to my chest and edged back toward the stone wall behind me. Bars formed the other three walls of the cage, with more grating above. I let out a shaky breath, the moisture forming mist in the chilly space.
I nearly dropped Sam, my hands shook so badly. I hugged him closer and looked around, every nerve on edge from the monstrous shapes and noises and smells that surrounded us. The cages around us, there had to be at least fifty of them, held monsters of all shapes and sizes.
An enormous black spider with a woman’s face and long black hair scuttled around the cage across from us. She fished her legs through the bars and pawed at a dog-sized toad in the cage beside her. The toad cowered, as far from her as it could get. The tips of the spider’s spiny legs just barely brushed its shoulder. The little green creature squeezed its eyes shut and let out a continuous whine. A torch on the wall above it illuminated the horrifying scene and the spiderweb of scars, some red and fresh, others old and crusted, on the poor toad’s wet skin. When the spider woman failed to catch him, she let out a piercing wail. I frowned—how could she have? Her beautiful, pale face didn’t even move. Then I realized—the woman’s face was a decoy, a sort of hat it wore above its true face. Dozens of black eyes, like fish eggs, shone in the dim light and its wide mouth split open to wail again.
The hairs rose on the back of my neck.
ROOOAARRR.
I spun. In the cage to my right, a lion with wings lay hog-tied on its back. Its tawny wings beat helplessly against the hard floor, which sent feathers flying. A metal brace held its mouth open while a greasy man with long hair and pale skin held up his wand and used magic to file the creature’s teeth to razor-sharp points. I staggered back, and had almost put my back to the cave wall, when I glanced over my shoulder and recoiled.
“Ugh!” I staggered back to the middle of the cage, the grating ringing under my feet. An enormous metal chain with two shackles at the ends hung bolted to the stone wall. Dark red stains surrounded it.
My chest heaved as I spun around, my senses completely overwhelmed. I choked and covered my mouth to keep from being sick when I spotted another man whipping a giant bear that moaned with every lash. Its ribs showed through its brown, matted fur. They must have been starving it.
“Oh, Sam.” I held my trembling friend close. “I think we’re in trouble this time.” Suddenly I remembered that Kai still had Cat in his pack. I rushed forward and slid my head through the bars at the front of the cage. I looked down a long aisle of shrieking monsters and cruel men beating and teasing the beasts. Kai stopped, pulled the limp little guy out of his pack by the ankle, and tossed Cat unceremoniously into a cage. He held his wand up and the door slammed shut.
Chest heaving, I backed away. “Maybe Hank and everyone will get through that avalanche and find us.”
Sam blinked up at me. It was hard to tell with his snake face, but he didn’t seem convinced. Yeah, I wasn’t either. Even if they did find a way through and managed to find this hidden tunnel before the storm broke, then what? This place was packed with armed guards and vicious monsters. I let out a shaky breath. Sam and Cat and I were on our own.
“Hello.”
A hoarse, raspy voice startled me and I whirled to the left. A man who looked to be in his early
thirties sat in what amounted to a large birdcage hung from the ceiling of the larger pen. He hugged his knees to his chest as an alligator with two heads crawled below him. One head appeared to be asleep, eyes closed, but the other held its triangular mouth open to the sky, right below the man, ready to snap.
The man bowed his head. Sam and I exchanged surprised looks (I assumed, it was hard to tell on a snake), then turned to the man and bowed back. As I took in his raggedy black ninja clothes, realization dawned on me. “Captain Kenta?”
The man sat up straighter, a bit of life coming into his sunken eyes. “You know me?” He had a heavy accent, but still, I was amazed I could understand him.
I nodded. “I’ve heard of you. You speak English?”
He dipped his pale chin. Bags hung under his eyes and his gray cheeks looked sunken. “I come from a wealthy family. They insisted on a thorough education.”
I lifted my brows. Thank goodness, because without that or the magical translation spell, we wouldn’t have been able to communicate.
“Where are you from?”
I opened my mouth to answer “St. Louis,” but these days, Bijou Mer felt more like home. “The Water Kingdom. My name’s Imogen. I came here with others. Misaki and Jun and—” I frowned. “Kai, and the other guards were escorting us to gather kusuri and to look for you.”
The man’s chest heaved and his face darkened. “And Kai betrayed you?”
I tipped my head side to side. “Yeah. We followed him here and he found us out.”
“We?”
I held Sam up. He’d wrapped himself around my wrist. “This is Sam. He’s a shifter.”
Kenta’s eyes widened. “Pleasure to meet you, Sam.”
I let out a shaky breath and jumped a little as the winged lion behind me roared again. “What is this?” I used my free hand to gesture around us.
Kenta pressed his pale, chapped lips together. “From what I overhear, it is a monster convention. A huge fighting event organized by Ryuu Tanaka.”
I looked around me, my breathing coming in little pants. They planned to fight these monsters? “Why?”
Kenta gave a small shake of his head. “I had no idea this went on, on our island, till those traps started turning up empty. Apparently Ryuu Tanaka recruited Kai to steal monsters for him, to train and fight them. I suspected something when Kai started buying fancy new clothes and showing up for his shifts late and tired. He acted differently too, more confrontational and cocky.” Kenta looked down. “I followed him, at night, and found him stealing a monster from a trap. I confronted him, and would’ve stopped him too, but some of Ryuu Tanaka’s goons who were there to transport the monster overpowered me.” Kenta scoffed and looked up and away. “He taunted me. Kai loved that he had me caged.” He shook his head. “We’d never been close, but I thought the bond of being guards, the honor we shared, meant something to him.” His throat bobbed. “He bragged to me that night that he’d been working for Ryuu Tanaka for months, stealing monsters and breeding and training them.” He curled his lip back. “By training I mean he tortures them, starves and beats the poor things. They keep bait in their cages, just out of reach.” He smirked wryly and gestured at himself, hanging over the two-headed alligator. “To drive them crazy and make them more aggressive.”
I shook my head. “This is horrible. Why do all this?”
Kenta shrugged. “They bet on it, big bets, so there’s lots of money to be made.” He sneered. “Ryuu Tanaka’s brought several councilmen through on a tour of the stables, as he calls these cages, so I suspect it’s a way to network and gain influence, a sort of social club, too.”
I shook my head. “That’s messed up.”
“Kai said he’s paid huge bonuses if his monsters win. I think he feels important in this world. He has money, power, prestige.” Kenta dragged his hands down his face. “He told me he hated me from the day we met, because I come from a rich family.” He pressed his lips tight together and looked away. “As much as I hate him for this, I can’t help but feel I should have tried harder to connect with him.”
The alligator below Kenta hissed, and Sam wrapped tighter around my wrist.
I stood still. I wanted to collapse, but really couldn’t bring myself to touch that stained, stinking floor below me. My breath came in short gasps. “What are they going to do with us?”
Kenta leveled me a hard look. His sharp cheekbones protruded from his gray skin. “My guess is, we’ll be fed to the monsters.”
I had suspected that was coming, but still, it sent a shiver of fear through me to hear it said out loud. We had no magic, though Ryuu had said something about giving it back to us once we were in the pen. I thought he assumed I was a shifter too, and that the audience would enjoy seeing Sam and me change. I gritted my teeth. We’d be novelties for these people’s cruel enjoyment.
I shook my head. There was a chance, a small chance, that we might be able to fight a monster off with magic, but then what? Shrieks and roars and cries filled the air, a horrifying cacophony. There were many, many monsters confined here, more than we could handle. Sooner or later, they’d take us down.
My ears pricked as the roar outside the cave quieted.
A muffled voice boomed, “Five minutes to showtime.”
26
Dragon Sound
Kai and a few of Ryuu Tanaka’s gold-clad guards came for us. The guards yanked me out of the cage. I fumbled to keep ahold of Sam, and he helped by wrapping himself tightly around my wrist. Kai used his wand to stun the alligator next door and dragged Captain Kenta from his cage.
They marched us past the rows of monsters, some snarling and vicious, others cowering and terrified. I felt as though I was in shock, barely able to process what I was seeing, much less form a plan to save myself and my friends.
We rounded a corner and the deafening cries of the creatures were replaced with the roar from the jeering crowd. The guards, one on each side of me, practically dragged me down a long stone tunnel. My legs seemed to have stopped working, and gave out from under me every few feet.
We stepped out of the shadow of the tunnel and passed under an iron portcullis into a large, round pit carved from the dark gray stone of the cave. I slipped and the guards caught and righted me. The ground was wet and slick, as though it’d been hosed off. I looked up.
Spectators leaned over a half wall to watch us. People were packed into every available space along the circular arena, with more looking on from behind. The room seemed to spin around me. I could barely think, the crowd roared so loud. Their voices echoed off the rough roof of the cave and the tall walls of the pit.
Kai shoved Captain Kenta forward and sent him stumbling into a hard fall on his knees. The crowd cheered and Kai’s face split into a cruel grin. He punched a beefy fist into the air and turned back toward the tunnel they’d marched us down. My guards walked me forward and released me, then followed Kai. After they’d reentered the tunnel, the iron portcullis dropped into place behind them with a heavy bang. We were trapped in the arena.
I took a few shaky steps to Kenta, grabbed his cold hand in mine, and helped him to his feet. I got a better look at him in the bright lights of the pit. Torches lined the circular wall every few feet and spotlights shone down on us from above.
Kenta stood a few inches taller than me and might have been handsome if he hadn’t been starved and dehydrated. I could see why Jun might feel jealous, but from my talk with Misaki, I didn’t think he needed to be. My stomach twisted. Not that any of that mattered now. I’d probably never see them or any of my friends again.
I wished Iggy were with me. He’d make some terribly timed joke that would somehow make me smile in spite of the pit in my stomach that made me want to hurl. I gulped. I was grateful Iggy was somewhere undoubtedly safer than here, though.
I spun in a slow circle, willing myself to take it in, to form some sort of plan. Several more arched doorways opened into the arena, each blocked by a heavy metal gate.
“G
ive a big welcome to the bait for tonight’s first match!” The faceless announcer’s voice bounced off the walls, as though it came from every direction. The audience broke into applause and Kenta and I exchanged grim looks.
I frowned. “Wait—I can understand him.”
Kenta nodded. “He’s put a translation spell on himself—for the different dialects spoken on the island.”
I shook my head. There were so many more people in the Badlands than I’d even imagined.
Something whizzed by my face and I jumped back, my feet slipping on the wet stone. I caught my balance and looked at the half-eaten apple that rolled around the ground. I frowned up at the crowd, squinting against the bright lights. Oh come on, I was bait, wasn’t that enough torment? Did they have to throw fruit at my head on top of it? I narrowed my eyes and tried to find the culprit among the jeering crowd above.
Women and men munched on snacks or passed money around or shouted down at us in a language I didn’t understand. I sighed. That was probably for the best; I doubted they were shouting encouragement. I raised a hand to block the blinding spotlights.
“And now,” the announcer boomed again. “Let’s welcome our first fighters!”
The crowd broke into applause and three monsters came up to three separate gated entrances. They lurked, mostly hidden in the shadows.
“First up, we have Furio the dragon!”
The gate directly across from me lifted and a gold-and-green-scaled dragon clawed its way into the light. A thin woman with one long, black braid over her shoulder led the dragon forward by a thick chain around its neck.
“Furio is led by monsterwoman Tish Miyagi, sponsored by sake magnate Riko Akita!”
The crowd cheered again at the announcer’s words and the slight woman bowed and waved at the crowd. The dragon threw its head back and roared, a stream of flame shooting from its mouth. The crowd gasped, then laughed and applauded, apparently thrilled with the display.