by Kelly A Nix
“Your eyes…your arms…”
“My hilt,” Atae says, pulling Jeqi from her stupor. “I need to find my hilt.”
“Don’t worry. I got it.” Jeqi hands it to her with a nod and glances around the darkness. Sloan and Marqee jog to their side with slobbery but triumphant expressions. Atae searches for Debil and Seva, hoping to find their unconscious bodies. Instead, she spots them scampering off toward the other end of the arena.
“You let them go? Why?” Atae throws her hands into the air, and Sloan huffs at her. He tilts his head as his red beast eyes watch Atae. Hoping he doesn’t catch the change that Jeqi found, Atae refuses to meet his gaze. She doesn’t know for sure what’s going on, but she definitely doesn’t want Sloan to know.
“We should head for the bright side. It’ll be easier to fight the hybrids that gather there than the battle beasts here,” Jeqi says.
Sloan and Marqee sprint toward the light barrier that separates the two halves of the arena, and Atae and Jeqi follow suit. A few strides in, Sloan snaps at a hybrid classmate that gets too close. He bites down on one leg and pulls the younger Kajian to the ground, dragging him like a toy. When Sloan drops his victim in the dirt, the male hybrid tumbles into a crumpled heap ahead of Atae and still tries to climb to his feet. Atae admires her classmate’s determination and strength but doesn’t hesitate to slam her fist into his jaw as she sprints past. The whiplash from the attack knocks her classmate unconscious, and Atae can’t help but wonder if she or Sloan wins the ten points. Either way, they take down two more younglings on their way to the light barrier.
Weaving between the battling younglings throughout the arena, Jeqi uses her hilt to hamstring unsuspecting victims. She dodges a wild tail blade and slips underneath to slice at a passing battle beast’s hind legs. When he snaps at her with his powerful jaws, Jeqi leaps from her run to slam her knee into the side of his head, stunning him. With a final elbow jab to the forehead, the beast crumbles into unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, Marqee defends his little pack against one or two lone battle beasts that attack on separate occasions. He deals with the first attacker, who’s already injured, with a quick and crippling tail strike to her ribs. When they reach the edge of the pool, Tuk barks, dodges Marqee’s tail blade, then tackles him to the ground. With Sloan’s mouth full of hybrids and Jeqi slicing into her latest victim, Atae jumps to Marqee’s rescue.
She digs her small energy blade into Tuk’s side and smiles when he recoils away from her and Marqee. Tuk swings his tail blade around, aiming for Atae. This time, she holds firm to her hilt and deflects the attack, but she can’t stop his jaws from crunching down on her arm. She screams, and Marqee, back on his feet, snatches Tuk by the neck with his powerful bite. Marqee yanks on the battle beast and digs at him with his clawed paws until Tuk yelps and releases Atae. A moment later, Tuk falls to the ground in another unconscious heap.
Atae stumbles to the edge of the water, cradling her arm, and waits for her pack to join. Jeqi climbs over the body of her latest triumph to reach the shore and tears a strip of cloth from her pant leg. Sloan joins them as Jeqi tightens the makeshift bandage around Atae’s bleeding wound.
“Your arm is broken, but this should help with the bleeding,” Jeqi says.
“Figured that was the case,” Atae says. She watches the tranquil water and ignores the warm blood dripping from her fingertips. A couple of bubbles interrupt the glass surface, and she frowns. “Anyone think we should swim it?”
As expected, Sloan and Marqee back away from the shore and growl in warning.
“I agree,” Jeqi says. “Maybe the bridge is a safer bet.”
“Has anyone tried to cross it, yet?” Atae stares at the small planks stretching across the pool. Barely wide enough for a battle beast to walk and no railing, she wouldn’t call it a bridge.
“I don’t think so,” Jeqi says.
“Maybe there’s a reason for that.” Atae glances at Jeqi with a shrug. Sloan snorts at her hesitation then darts across the planks. When he reaches the other side and barks at his packmates, Atae grumbles, and Jeqi smiles.
“If he can do it-”
“Yeah, I get it.”
Atae sprints after Sloan with Jeqi at her back. Halfway across the bridge, Atae breaches the light barrier, and light floods her senses. The pain from her scorched corneas doesn’t slow her down, but the sudden onslaught of sharp knives and pressure behind her eyes comes close. She stumbles to the shore, falling to her knees, and rubs at her closed eyes until the pain dissipates. When she opens them again, Sloan stands at eye level, staring at her with his red, beast eyes. Much to Atae’s surprise, he steps closer and sniffs her face with his wet nose. Sloan has never shown any type of concern for her. Why is today different?
Jeqi screams, and Atae spins around toward the bridge. Moments before, a giant tentacle erupted from the calm water and wrapped around Jeqi’s leg mid-step. The slick, green limb oozes a foul-smelling slime that burns Jeqi’s skin. She screams in pain as her flesh boils, and she slams face-first into the wooden planks. The tentacle pulls Jeqi across the bridge toward the water, but she latches onto the opposite edge with a vice-like grip.
“Jeqi!” Atae runs to her friend’s aid as Jeqi claws at the beast with her free hand, but the ooze just eats away at her fingers and nails. Marqee bites at the creature but drops his prey in a yelp of pain. Gagging on the acidic ooze, he stumbles into the water on the opposite side of the bridge. Atae grabs Jeqi and pulls against the slimy limb, but the blonde hybrid screams. Atae kneels at her packmate’s side and tugs on the tentacle with her uninjured arm, ignoring her own burning skin. Atae will not let her packmate die. She will not fail her.
The creature lashes out at Atae with the end of another long tentacle and strikes her in the face. She cries out in pain and wipes at the ooze burning at her face and ear. Sloan slices into the offending extremity with his tail blade, and it flops into the water. Two more erupt from the pool and attack the battle beast, but Sloan dodges away from the bridge to draw the creature away. The attacking tentacles follow him, but the third remains wrapped around Jeqi’s leg.
When the creature tugs at Jeqi and drags its prey closer to the dangerous water, Atae ignores her own pain and doubles her efforts to free her friend. Without warning, a familiar sense of helplessness envelops Atae, squeezing against her lungs, as she flails against the tentacle with both hands. For a moment, as her skin boils from her fingers and her nails rip away, Atae remembers Kandorq’s hand on her throat and her futile attempts to pry it free. She can feel the insane panic darkening her mind and electrifying her body to act without reason. Amid the black madness, a silver tendril slips from the crevices of Atae’s mind and tugs at a hidden neuron.
But Atae ignores everything. She ignores the insanity building in her mind and the pain of her fingertips splitting open. She needs to destroy the tentacle that threatens her packmate. When the creature loosens its hold, Atae doesn’t notice. She keeps ripping at the tentacle’s oozing skin, happy to tear away chunks of tissue. She doesn’t stop until the creature whips its injured extremity away, leaving a screaming Jeqi behind. The beast’s blood stains the wooden bridge as the tentacle retreats into its pond, and Atae watches her thick claws recede into her bloody and burned fingers.
Claws. I have claws, too?
Oblivious to the silver swirl of mist that slips from her mind, Atae smiles at her newly discovered weapon and the damage it inflicted. Jeqi’s groan pulls Atae from her musings, and she hurries to help her injured packmate. Atae uses her uninjured arm to sling one of Jeqi’s arms around her shoulder and pulls the blonde to her feet.
“What were you saying about the bridge?” Atae asks.
“Shut up.”
As Atae helps Jeqi to the shore, a soaking wet Marqee waits with a large gash melted from his jaw. He whines in concern and shuffles next to Jeqi to help carry her weight.
“Your face looks like my leg,” Jeqi says. Marqee sniffs at the muscle sloughin
g from her leg to reveal the white bone beneath. Sloan trots over to join them, brandishing his own injuries. His tail suffers several burns along its length, and he sports a noticeable limp.
“Are we having fun yet?” Atae asks him, and he barks a confirmation. “Marqee, stay here with her. Sloan and I can take down a few stragglers.”
“We need to stay together,” Jeqi says. “Separated, we’re vulnerable.”
“We’re vulnerable now. If an entire pack attacks us, someone’s going down.”
“And how does separating improve our odds?” Jeqi cringes when Marqee grazes her injured leg as he dashes off after a limping hybrid that dared to swing his hilt at Sloan’s back. Dozens of younglings battle around them, and Atae scans the vicinity.
“We’ve already taken down, what? Fifteen competitors? The round ends after forty fall, so we have to be close. Sloan and I can speed things up by picking off the stragglers.”
“We’ve only taken down fourteen, including that one,” Jeqi says. She motions toward Marqee as he returns unscathed. “And it’s not about the numbers. It’s about the packs. A hundred of us could fall, but as long as one member from each pack remains, all 50 packs are still in play.”
“Well, then, how many packs still stand?”
“How should I know?”
As if in answer, the light barrier in the center of the arena disperses, and the giant hologram returns with Skiska’s and Frack’s large heads floating above the pond.
“Congratulations. If you are still standing, your pack has advanced to round two,” Frack says.
“Well, that was good timing,” Atae says. Most of her classmates breathe a sigh of relief and stop fighting, but several battle beasts continue with their skirmishes. Blood covers the arena, and scores of younglings litter the floor. Most of them are unconscious, but a handful cry out in pain as medical attendants rush in from the entrance to aid their fallen charges. When one reaches her pack, Jeqi shoos the medic away.
“Call us a transport. We’re going to the palace for medical treatment. The medical wing here is going to be swamped with injuries.”
Chapter 21
“Let me see them,” Jeqi says after Atae describes her new claws.
Jeqi and Atae relax on white metallic lounge chairs amid the chaotic palace medical wing. A dome, protruding from her chair, encases Jeqi’s injured leg, and inside the dome, blue healing gel soaks into her cells to stimulate rapid regeneration of injured tissue, muscle, and bones. Separate vaults on Atae’s armrests enclose her burned hands and her broken arm. She twitches her nose and cheek due to a tingling sensation from the healing gel slathered across her injured face. The slime smells odd, and she fights the urge to brush it away with her shoulder.
“How come they didn’t just put me in one of these recovery chairs after my attack? Or the tanks?” Atae asks. Busy medical specialists hurry all-around to tend the injured warriors in the royal medical wing. Atae and Jeqi lie at the end of a long row of recovery chairs with an equally long row of Kaji-sized containers behind them. Severely injured warriors submerge their entire bodies in healing gel within the large, spherical pods to reduce healing time. Recovery chairs and tanks are essential equipment for medical centers, and the palace medical wing has dozens. Atae and Jeqi claimed the chairs at one end of the medical office for more privacy. Jeqi’s fluffy tail curls in her lap as the blonde raises an eyebrow at her packmate.
“How do you know they didn’t? You were unconscious the whole time,” Jeqi says.
“Hmph. Did they?”
“Not that I know of. Besides, your injury was superficial. It was the illness that incapacitated you. Which, apparently, was due to you starting your shifting phase.” Jeqi unsheathes her Setunn claws and flicks her fingers at Atae. “Now, show me your claws.”
“What does that feel like?”
“What?”
“Your claws? Does it hurt when you call on them?”
“No.” Jeqi stifles a snicker. “Of course, not. It’s like flexing a muscle. Why? Did it hurt you?”
“Yes, it felt like the blades cut their way out of my arms,” Atae says. She inspects her uninjured arm, wiggling her fingers inside the healing dome on her hand. “Everything happened so fast. It’s hard to remember how it happened. But the pain, the pain made it real.”
“What about your eyes? They were different.”
“I think they shifted, too. I could see through the dark. It was amazing.”
“Did that hurt, too? Or did they just adjust to the dark?”
“No, it felt like my head was going to split open,” Atae says. She remembers the horrible pain behind her eyes. The last time she felt something like that was in the forest hiding from Salyn. Atae gasps at the realization. She forces her mind to relive that night, holding back the barrage of fear and guilt with a steel wall. Atae remembers hiding in the tree and knowing the Setunn was hunting her. The headache had come on fast and hard, but when it was gone, Atae could see Salyn as clear as day. As the truth settles into her chest, Atae shakes the horrid memories away with a heavy sigh.
How could I be this stupid?
“This wasn’t the first time I shifted,” Atae says.
Jeqi gapes at her packmate. “And you didn’t tell me? This morning you said you couldn’t shift. You lied to me?”
“No, I just realized it,” Atae says. “Salyn, the Setunn that attacked me, I thought she turned on a light so she could see.”
“Setunn have night vision.” Jeqi presses her lips together and glowers at Atae as she scrambles to explain.
“I know, but it was the only thing that made sense. It never occurred to me that my eyes had shifted.”
“Mother said that the doctor and Solum thought you could shift after your attack, but when they tried to make you, nothing happened. If you could shift then, why didn’t it work?”
“I don’t know,” Atae says. She recalls her father attempt to help her shift. The memory of her teeth snapping from the pressure of her clenched jaw makes Atae run her tongue over the back of her teeth. She fights the urge to run her fingers over her lips since healing domes still encompass both of Atae’s hands. She leans back into the chair and sighs at her confusing memories of fever and fear.
“I just don’t know.”
“Come on, Atae. Show me your claws.” Jeqi wiggles in her chair against the healing domes holding her in place as she implores her friend. Jeqi growls when Atae doesn’t respond, too distracted by her rampaging thoughts. The blonde opens her mouth to snap but pauses due to the unsettling sensation of the tendons in her leg reattaching to the newly healed bone. When the strange feeling passes, Jeqi repeats her command to Atae. The fuchsia-eyed hybrid jumps at Jeqi’s tone, then glances around the medical wing.
“Do you think this is a good place to try that? What if someone sees? What if Sloan and Marqee see?”
“So what if they do? You can shift, Atae. This is big.”
“I know, but-”
“But what?” Jeqi knits her brows at the anxiety plaguing her packmate.
“If we tell anyone or someone else finds out, they will tell my father,” Atae says.
“Why is that a bad thing?”
“He’ll want me to master this new…skill right away. Don’t you get it? Solum will pull me from the tournament. I can’t do that to you. I won’t fail you.”
“Atae, that won’t be failing me,” Jeqi says. “I’m the only one who has to compete in the tournament. If Solum pulls you from the roster, it won’t disqualify me, or Sloan and Marqee.”
“But you’ll suffer a loss. The first three rounds are designed for packs of four. Without me, you’ll be at a disadvantage.”
“I don’t like this.” Jeqi shakes her head. “I think you should tell Solum. You’re going to need help with this.”
“Just wait, okay? Give me a few days to think about it. Round two, at least.”
Chewing on her lip, Jeqi stares at Atae, then glances down at the healing domes repairing
her injuries. Jeqi suffered a lot of damage in just one round. If Atae weren’t there, Jeqi would be at the bottom of that pond. The truth is that they do need Atae, but it isn’t fair to her. Atae deserves proper training on how to control her new shifting ability. She needs it.
“What if you go feral?” Jeqi asks. Atae snorts and scrunches her nose.
“Come on, Jeqi. Those are just stories.”
“No, it’s real. It happens all the time in the overpopulated Gridirons.”
“Overpopulated? What do you mean?” Atae asks. She makes a funny face trying to scratch her gel covered nose without disrupting the domes on her arm or hands.
“Each Gridiron is designed to provide the same amount of food, but some have more participants than others. On occasion, the food supply isn’t big enough to support a large surge of entries—what are you doing?”
“My nose itches.” Eyes crossed, Atae wrinkles her nose, and Jeqi laughs at the odd twists to Atae’s face. She has mercy on her packmate and scratches Atae’s nose.
“Thank you,” Atae says. “That was driving me crazy. So what does an overpopulated Gridiron have to do with me going feral?”
“That’s how I know that it’s real. Starving purebreds lose control of their battle beasts and go feral in the GirdIron. It doesn’t often happen because it’s usually not overpopulated. But it does happen, Atae. What if it happens to you?”
“If I ever start to feel out of control, I promise to tell you. But so far, I haven’t felt anything like that. It’s just the same old me.”
“Except now you’re hiding claws and blades.”
“And night vision.” Both younglings smile at each other, and Jeqi nods.
“Fine. We won’t let anyone know. At least, for now. Round two will be held in a week. We will discuss this again afterward.”
“Fine by me,” Atae says.
“So, let’s see your claws.”
“No, I told you. I don’t want anyone to see. Especially Sloan and Marqee.”