The Prey

by Joseph Delaney

  ‘When Hob enters the arena, first you stamp, and then you spit. Run up as close as possible and spit into the slit in his helmet. You need to get it into his eyes. He is not going to like it.’

  ‘Nobody would like it!’ I declared.

  ‘But his dislike will be extreme,’ Ada said. ‘You see, there are certain djinn that form virulent poisons in their bodies. They can project that poison accurately over a great distance, killing or disabling an opponent. Thelogical part of Hob’s mind will know that you are just a human and that your saliva can have no effect on him. But fear of such a weapon is deeply embedded in djinn consciousness. It will unnerve him.’

  I nodded. Ada seemed to know all about the djinn. I was happy to follow her guidance. There was logic in what she said.

  ‘I also want you to stamp your feet, but immediately in front of Thrym, as Kwin is now. That will unnerve him even further. He will remember Math defeating him and will not cherish that memory. The name of thegame is intimidation. We carry the fight to Hob and teach him to be afraid. We’re going to beat him, Leif! We’re going to win! Start to believe that!’

  ‘I do believe it,’ I said with a laugh. ‘We will win!’

  Ada had astonishing confidence and self-belief. I suddenly felt so relaxed and at ease that I spoke without thinking.

  ‘Did you know that Math was Genthai and that his true name was Lasar?’ I suddenly blurted out. ‘I’m half Genthai . . . Math was my father!’

  Immediately I regretted my outburst. Tyron had told me to keep it a secret.

  ‘You never told me that!’ Kwin cried out in surprise; Deinon just stared at me.

  ‘Well, we all have our secrets, don’t we?’ I countered. ‘You never told me that it was really Deinon’s patterns that enabled my lac to beat Palm’s tri-glad. In any case, your father told me to keep it quiet – that waywe’d get better odds from the gambling houses and win a lot of money.’

  Kwin wrinkled her nose in disgust. ‘Money, money, money! That’s my father all right. He’s always grubbing for money!’

  ‘That’s not fair, Kwin!’ I said in defence of Tyron. ‘Do you know why gathering money is so important to him?’

  She shrugged. ‘He wants to maintain his position as the best artificer in Gindeen with the best stable of fighters and lacs. He’s a businessman first and foremost.’

  ‘Not true!’ I snapped. ‘He paid out a fortune to bring back Kern’s remains so that Hob couldn’t torture his soul. And he didn’t mind you borrowing money from him that night we fought the tassel.’

  ‘But that’s because of family. Any father would do it.’

  ‘It’s not just that,’ I said quietly. ‘That plan he told us about . . . he’s had it for years. He’s been striving to create a sentient lac for the purposes of defeating Hob. He wanted money for that – lots of money – to buywhat he needed from the Trader. Earning money has merely been a means towards the destruction of Hob. Believe me, it’s true.’

  ‘As we’re revealing secrets, I have something else to say about Tyron,’ Deinon said. ‘He’s a generous man. My father’s had a couple of bad years on the farm. The crop failed, and then his herd of cattle came downwith a disease and had to be destroyed. When the payment for my second year’s training was due, he couldn’t find the money. I thought my time as a trainee was over. But guess what? Tyron waived the fee. This yearhe’s training me for nothing.’

  Kwin fell silent and looked down at her red boots.

  ‘There was another reason why your father wanted me to keep quiet about my father,’ I told her. ‘If Hob knew that, he would be much more likely to visit the Wheel and seek me out. He wanted to try and keep mesafe.’

  ‘Things have changed, and that’s exactly what we want now!’ cried Ada. ‘Let us tell the city who your father was, and word will get back to Hob. That will unsettle him further. For me the biggest danger is that Hobwon’t visit Arena 13 until next season. I just can’t wait that long.’

  Neither could I! So I still withheld the fact that Hob had visited me in the Commonality and already knew that I was the son of Math. If Tyron found out about that, he might be even more reluctant to allow me to fightthis year. Despite our current preparations I didn’t think he was totally convinced. He could call a halt at any time and delay my entrance into the Lists.

  I began my first practice session with Thrym under Ada’s guidance, fighting to the rear, as I would do in my bout with Hob.

  It went well. I began to develop Ulum further, and Thrym was quick to learn and respond – far more adept at it than I was. Additionally, Ada showed how I might allow my lac to take the initiative and guide me – athing unheard of in Arena 13.

  There would be times when Thrym might see the opportunity to attack before I did. Then I would be in the same position as Kwin when our ankles were tied together fighting the tassel champion on the heights aboveGindeen. I would need to respond rapidly and follow close at his heels, or be left unprotected and at the mercy of enemy lacs, forcing him to take risks as he fell back to protect me. So we developed elements of Ulumthat Thrym would initiate; his warning to me.

  Of these, the most important was the sudden, fully committed surprise attack.

  A MIGHTY EMPIRE

  Asscka are the highest classification of djinn.

  These are true shape-shifters.

  They can number up to 10,000 selves, and scores of shateks.

  We must know our enemies.

  Amabramsum: the Genthai Book of Wisdom

  Tyron had mixed success in his mission to recruit allies.

  Ontarro didn’t feel he could offer help. Although sympathetic to what was to be attempted, he was afraid for his family. However, both Wode and Brid offered their full support and called for volunteers from theirrespective stables.

  I had already met Wode. Tyron told me that he and members of his stable of combatants would provide back-up in case the first part of our plan failed. But it was Brid who would provide support in our attempt toseize Hob’s body. He was a stranger to me, although I’d often watched his combatants win in the arena.

  Brid visited us after dark, and we gathered in the study – which Ada now referred to as our war room. Tyron, Ada, Kwin, Deinon and I were there to meet him. Tyron had already told us a little about Brid: he’d foughtfrom both the mag and the min positions and was adept at both. As an artificer, his stable was now, like Wode’s, composed exclusively of mag combatants.

  He was small and wiry, greying at the temples, his bushy eyebrows meeting above a hawkish nose. His face was almost without expression, but his eyes flicked from side to side like live things, independently sentient,and when he spoke, his words tumbled out one upon the other in their eagerness to be free of his thin lips.

  ‘How’s the training going?’ he asked, addressing Ada as we took our seats. ‘Are you confident that your lac can defeat what Hob brings?’

  ‘Yes, we will win,’ she said.

  ‘But the boy’s still a novice,’ Brid protested. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to select someone with more experience – a combatant already high in the rankings? I know one we can trust—’

  ‘Leif may be raw, but he is faster than anyone who presently fights in Arena 13,’ Tyron interrupted. ‘And he is the son of Mathias.’

  Tyron knew that I had told Kwin, Deinon and Ada about my father. At first he had been angry, but Ada had persuaded him that the news should be filtered out into the city – though this had not yet been done.

  Brid’s jaw dropped open. ‘You mean the Mathias? You mean Math?’

  ‘The first time he fights and wins, watch him bow! Then you’ll know.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Brid, staring at me hard. ‘In spite of those tattoos, I can see the likeness in your face. I’ll tell you something, Leif. I fought your father in the arena and I won. But that was in the early days – his first year.We fought exactly eleven times after that, and he defeated me each time. Still, I can say that I once defeated Math. It’s my proudest boast! If
you’re half as talented as he was, Hob is as good as dead.’

  ‘He’ll be good enough to do the job,’ Tyron said quietly. ‘But how are we going to deal with the consequences of his victory?’

  ‘We’ll gather our forces in the Commonality.’

  ‘What if Cyro finds out? He’s likely to object,’ Tyron pointed out.

  ‘Cyro can be bought.’

  ‘I don’t trust him,’ Kwin objected. ‘He just serves his own interests.’

  ‘Yes, and his chief interest is making money. Place enough gold in his fat hands and he’ll turn a blind eye,’ Brid insisted. ‘Cyro won’t cause any problems. Once the fight is underway, we should move our men intothe green room. Nobody will think to go in there. It’ll be empty. The other combatants will all have gone up to the gallery to watch. That’s where we’ll take Hob’s body afterwards so that you can work on it,’ Brid said,glancing at Ada.

  ‘There is one more thing to concern us,’ Ada said. ‘That self of Hob will be dead, but as I begin my wurde-probes, it may become violent. It will need to be restrained.’

  ‘We’ll find a way,’ Brid said, raising his eyebrows at that.

  It was indeed strange to imagine a dead creature moving. But this was but one self of a djinni, and the gorestad, its high mind, which controlled all its selves, would still be directing it. As Ada had said, there would bereserves of energy in the corpse.

  ‘Now we have to think about timing,’ continued Brid. ‘After Hob is defeated we must get into the arena quickly. When he arrives, everyone will be trying to get out of the Wheel. It will be chaos. You know how thecandles and torches flicker and go out when Hob comes?’ Brid asked, looking at Tyron.

  Tyron nodded.

  ‘Well, each time Hob was slain by Math, the same thing happened.’

  ‘Aye, I remember it well,’ answered Tyron.

  ‘So when the lights dim, it will mean that the bout is over. That should be our signal to come out of the green room and into the arena.’

  Tyron nodded. ‘Do you think Pyncheon will try to make a fight of it?’

  ‘He’ll resist, but hopefully there won’t be any bloodshed. I think we should use minimum force – just clubs and staves. We don’t want to kill anyone. After Hob is destroyed, we want Arena 13 to go on as before.Let’s hope there are no further consequences – I mean, from those beyond the Barrier.’

  ‘From what I’ve learned so far, I think that’s unlikely,’ Ada said. ‘Hob appears to be a rogue djinni – one that has cut himself off from others of his kind.’

  ‘I hope you’re right,’ Brid said. ‘We’d be foolish to attract their wrath.’

  ‘But one day, might it not be possible to do something?’ Tyron asked, looking at Ada. ‘I mean, using the knowledge and skill that you have. Do you remember what I suggested? Couldn’t we raise our own army ofsentient lacs and fight back against those who hold us prisoners within the Barrier?’

  ‘That might be possible in the future,’ Ada replied, ‘but who knows what deadly strength lies beyond that Barrier? In this little domain called Midgard we’ve no way of knowing how insignificant and vulnerable weare. In ancient times, a race called the Romans ruled almost all the known world. They invaded a small island called Britain, intending to add it to their empire.

  ‘But there was a rebellion led by a fierce queen called Boudicca. Though she defeated the Romans in battle, the struggle continued, and eventually she was slain. But imagine this. What if she had driven the Romansout of her little island and had then decided to build a fleet of boats and pursue them, thinking to sack Rome in revenge for what they had done?’ Ada paused and smiled at each of us in turn.

  ‘She would have found the task impossible,’ Deinon said. ‘She would be greatly underestimating the military might that she faced.’

  ‘Yes, she would have found a mighty empire stretching thousands of miles, with great armies called legions that would have driven her small force back into the sea. I believe this is similar to the position we are in.We need to build our strength slowly and cautiously, in a way that does not attract attention.’

  I was filled with curiosity about the land beyond the Barrier. ‘What will the djinn there be like?’ I asked. ‘Are they roughly human in appearance, like Hob or the rasire we saw at the Sea Gate?’

  ‘In truth I have no idea how they might have developed since the Empire fell,’ Ada replied. ‘I can only speak of what I remember – the djinn from my own time. The vast majority were not like humans. For example,there were some called catara, commonly known as sea-djinn. They had many subcategories, like crustacea, with hard shells and many legs and arms, which lived underwater, close to the shore. Imagine hundreds ofsuch creatures emerging from the Sea Gate and moving down the canal to attack this city!

  ‘There are more types of djinn than you can imagine; some were exotic indeed! There were hybrid djinn with ten selves called decidons, containing elements of both animal and vegetable, though from a distance youmight just think they were unusual-looking trees. They communicated by wind-blown pollen. Their purpose was to be spies and sentinels, but they could be deadly, creating both poisons and antidotes. I dread to thinkhow far the djinn might have evolved by now. But this is not natural evolution. The higher categories of djinn can decide the way they change from generation to generation.

  ‘Like Hob,’ Ada continued, ‘many djinn are shape-shifters. They could enter Gindeen in human guise and spy out our weaknesses in order to devise the most effective method of attacking us.’

  ‘They might walk amongst us even now!’ suggested Kwin.

  ‘Indeed they might,’ Tyron said. ‘No doubt the Protector’s palace has one or two to keep an eye on us as well as him. There could be djinn that we don’t know about inside that palace – spies from beyond the Barrier.’

  I kept silent, but I remembered what Konnit had said – that they planned to remove the Protector and attack our enemies beyond the Barrier. The djinn might not react if Hob were removed, but it would be folly toattack the Protector. In view of what Ada had just said, it might call down upon us a terrible retribution.

  HOLDING HANDS

  Love never fails.

  But where there are prophecies, they will cease.

  The Compendium of Ancient Tales and Ballads

  The week before I fought my first contest in the Lists, Tyron summoned Palm to the house for some final practice bouts.

  Ada, Deinon, Kwin and Brid were present, the latter eager to see me and Thrym in action. Walking onto the training floor, Palm kept glancing at them nervously. He clearly didn’t like this unexpected audience.

  When Thrym and I faced his tri-glad, I noticed the layer of sweat on his brow. His face was even paler than his hair. Palm was terrified of being cut again.

  ‘Full Trig rules but one!’ commanded Tyron, putting him out of his misery. ‘We’ll dispense with the ritual cut for the loser.’

  Palm rolled his eyes in relief, and Tyron pressed the lever on his timer. We attacked immediately, and pressed Palm and his tri-glad backwards. For a moment they rallied and held their ground. But then Thrym wasamongst our opponents, his blades flashing in the torchlight, calling endoff on all three of his lac adversaries.

  Everyone was grinning, except for the dismayed Palm, and Tyron, who kept a poker face.

  Palm lost all three bouts; each defeat took less than a minute. He left the training floor with more scratches on the armour of his lacs and an even bigger dent to his pride.

  Once Palm had left, there was backslapping all around. Brid was clearly impressed.

  Only Tyron seemed somewhat subdued. ‘That was hardly a workout,’ he said. ‘You need something more challenging. It’s time for you to fight in Arena 13. This time the contest will be in public. You’ll be on theLists.’

  ‘What if Hob arrives before Leif is ready?’ Kwin asked, frowning with concern.

  ‘It’s a risk we’ll have to take – Leif needs full combat practice, this time with a full galler
y. He needs to adjust to the arena and feel comfortable.’

  Ada gave Kwin a reassuring smile. ‘Even if Hob does arrive, Thrym and Leif are ready. They’ll win.’

  The thought of fighting in Arena 13 excited me. It had been my dream, and now it was coming true. Soon I would get my chance to fight Hob. The moment of my revenge was approaching.

  So it was that, two weeks later, I stepped into Arena 13 to face a man with white hair and a short beard, his bare arms crisscrossed with scars, some old and some new.

  It was Epson, that veteran of Arena 13, the winner of the first contest I’d ever watched. Then he had fought behind a single lac and defeated a young man called Skule. Epson fought from both positions; tonight he hadbrought a tri-glad into the arena.

  I was nervous. It was partly because it was my first contest in the Lists and a capacity crowd was watching from the gallery. But mostly it was because Tyron thought that Hob might come to the Wheel the very firsttime I fought. I kept glancing up at the torches in the huge thirteen-branched candelabrum, expecting them to flicker and go out to signal Hob’s arrival. It could still happen, even though the evening’s bouts wereunderway.

  But I had to concentrate on what was happening now. I wanted to win, but I knew that Epson would be difficult to beat.

  It took a while to gain the upper hand because Epson was very cautious and directed his lacs with great skill. But I danced effortlessly behind Thrym, and the lac responded quickly to each direction I gave him. Wehad agreed that tonight Thrym would not take the initiative and use Ulum to signal his intent to me. We would keep that surprise for when I fought Hob.

  It proved to be exactly the workout I needed. I had to be put under pressure and taken beyond five minutes. The gong sounded the end of the first stage, and I had to fight to the fore of Thrym. This was the practice Ineeded more than anything. When I fought Hob, the bout would almost certainly extend into this more dangerous stage.