Kaji Warriors: Shifting Strength

by Kelly A Nix

  “What is going on?” Atae yells at no one in particular.

  “Atae.” Jeqi peeks out from the same staircase in which Sepkie arrived.

  “Jeqi.” Atae rushes to her packmate’s side, and Beast’s golden storm lightens a bit. “What happened?”

  Jeqi ascends the stairs with Marqee’s arm draped over her shoulder for support. The purebred’s lower leg is shattered with several bone splitters poking through the skin. It looks like Jeqi used Marqee’s torn pant leg as a tourniquet, and it seems to have clotted for now.

  “I broke his leg.” Jeqi grimaces and hands Marqee off to Atae, who groans under the weight of him against her bruised ribs.

  “Why’d you do that?”

  “I attacked her,” Marqee says. He cringes in pain as he follows Jeqi up a staircase with Atae’s help.

  “Well, why’d you do that?”

  “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  Jeqi chooses another stairwell at random. Along the way, she digs her energy blade into the clay wall, scraping out a groove to mark their path.

  “He was poisoned, just like the rest of them.” Jeqi motions toward the insanity around them. Everywhere they go, students act out in crazy ways.

  “That’s what’s going on?” Atae asks. Then realization dawns on her. “It’s the tunnel rodent farts.”

  Jeqi stops to gape at Atae, and Marqee struggles to keep from giggling despite the pain from his injury. The blonde doesn’t say anything for a moment then cracks a smile.

  “I’m pretty sure it came from a gland, not a butt. Although it did smell awful.”

  “Did you get sprayed?” Atae asks as a camera buzzes past her ear, and she swats at it. Jeqi continues up the stairs with her blade digging into the clay wall.

  “Yes. It doesn’t seem to affect hybrids, just the purebreds.”

  Atae realizes then that only the purebreds are acting crazy. Most hybrids slip past everyone unfazed, although several try to calm their insane packmates. A few end up fighting the enraged purebreds. Atae, Jeqi, and Marqee shuffle past the chaos with little interference from the surrounding younglings, even when they have to double back after running into a dead end. Jeqi marks the wall next to the staircase with an ‘X,’ and they select an alternative.

  “Were you affected?” Jeqi asks. She glances over her shoulder, and Atae notices her concern.

  “No, not really,” Atae says. She cringes from Beast’s anger. “So when does this stuff wear off?”

  “We’re not sure. I don’t know anything about these things.”

  “Really?”

  “I don’t know everything, Atae.”

  “They’re trestoids. My mother told me about them once,” Marqee says. “They secrete a poison that alters a Kajian’s mind. It was like my beast went crazy and tried to take control. Plus, I was hallucinating. I thought-”

  “You thought I was someone else, and that I was going to kill you,” Jeqi says. Atae wonders if there was more to it.

  “So, you broke his leg?” she asks.

  “First, she tried to drown me.”

  “Well, it snapped you out of it, didn’t it?” Jeqi says.

  She glances over her shoulder at Marqee as they ascend another staircase, and he flashes a half-smile at her. Spinning back around, Jeqi purses her lips to stop the corners of her mouth from quirking upward as her tail wriggles against her waist. Atae curses when they hit another dead end. Marking the wall, they double back.

  “Wait, the drowning or the broken leg snapped you out of it?” Atae asks Marqee, and he shrugs.

  “I don’t know. They happened right after each other, and I wasn’t really in the right state of mind.”

  So trauma might negate the effects of this poison, Atae muses, and Beast perks up with a bit of hope.

  “Have you seen Sloan?” Marqee asks. When Atae shakes her head, he continues. “We were separated when a tunnel flooded. We ended up in a nest of trestoids. I found a key, but I lost my mind. I don’t know what happened to Sloan.”

  “We’ll find him,” Atae says. Jeqi glances over her shoulder at them with a knitted brow.

  “Atae, Sloan already has control issues. It might not be a good idea to approach him if he’s been poisoned.”

  “But he’s pack, and he has to reach the gate to qualify. We can’t leave him,” Atae says.

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Marqee says. “Let’s get to the top and see if Sloan’s there and in his right mind.”

  We are not leaving Sloan. He’s pack, Atae says to Beast to which she agrees with a growl. How could Jeqi and Marqee even consider doing that? If Sloan doesn’t qualify in the tournament, he won’t have any points to help in the Gridiron. If Debil’s brother is any indication, entering the Gridiron with Sula Academy without points is suicide. Sloan wouldn’t compete in the Gridiron if he has no chance of surviving; that would be insane. Would Marqee enter without Sloan? Either way, why would he be okay with leaving Sloan behind?

  Atae contemplates the situation as the three continue in silence up several staircases, marking each dead end, until they find daylight. After blinking off the dim light from the glowing moss, Atae sees dozens of hybrids and a few purebreds rallying among a large circle of poles. It takes Atae a moment to realize the poles are the structures they saw assemble before the round began.

  “No one’s on the platform yet,” Marqee says. He points upward, and Atae finds the spinning platform empty and taunting every youngling on the hilltop to attempt the jump. Poles, extending from the hill, circle the gate, and each bends at the top with knotted ropes dangling down to the mountain top. At first, Atae doesn’t think the poles are tall enough to be of any help reaching the spinning disk until Sepkie latches onto one rope.

  The pole advances upward, and the arm stretches out toward the gate. Atae wonders if Sepkie will be the first to reach the platform until the pole ejects the other end of the knotted rope. The brunette hybrid plummets down into a giant hole in the hill below the platform. Atae steps close to the edge of the large crevice and realizes that it curves and twists like a tunnel so that she can’t see the bottom. Atae watches several younglings fall then tumble down the most massive slide she’s ever seen.

  “What are those?” Jeqi asks. She points toward a small pipe behind them. Atae twists, leaving Marqee at the edge of the slide as he requests. He’s more interested in the sounds emanating from within the discard tunnel. The pipe sticks out from the ground to about Atae’s height before bending down to face a hole in the dirt that runs through the entire mountain from top to bottom.

  “Look, there are several of them circling the mountain.”

  “But why?” Atae asks. Before Jeqi can offer an explanation, Marqee calls to them.

  “I think I found Sloan.”

  “Where?” Atae searches the hilltop. She didn’t see him when they first stepped out; maybe he just arrived.

  “I think he’s down there.” Marqee points to the giant slide. “I can hear him fighting.”

  Both hybrids tilt their heads to listen, and, sure enough, his angry voice and creative curses echo through the tunnel.

  “Yep, that’d be him,” Jeqi says.

  “Let’s figure out how to get you on that platform, then we’ll decide what to do with Sloan,” Marqee says to the blonde.

  “Well, we can see what not to do.” Atae watches one student scale the pole, and when the pole extends, she leaps from the arm to the platform only to fall short of her goal. She screams as she plummets down the discard slide, and Atae can’t help a small giggle. After watching several more classmates drop, Jeqi points to a hanging rope and nods at Atae.

  “I see it,” Jeqi says. “It’s a balancing act. It takes two people to do it.”

  Atae’s eyes light up at the realization, and she smiles. “It’s so simple.”

  “Once we do it, everyone’s going to know how,” Jeqi says.

  “There’s only a handful left up here,” Marqee says.
<
br />   “Which means, I’ll have some time but not much,” Atae says.

  “Wait, what?”

  “She has to go after Sloan,” Jeqi says. “It takes two to get to the platform.”

  Marqee sighs in resignation once he realizes what they mean. He can’t go after Sloan with a broken leg, and Jeqi has to step on the gate before anyone else. Atae shrugs and swivels toward the giant slide again.

  That kind of looks like fun. Atae says. Beast swirls in a golden blue confusion. This would be a lot easier if I had your help.

  True, Beast says, to which Atae smiles.

  “Atae,” Jeqi says. “Be careful, Sloan might not be himself.”

  “Pff, are you kidding me? I’m his favorite person.” Atae smirks, then she steps off into the pit.

  Chapter 42

  The giant slide is not as much fun as Atae hoped. The dirt and stones tear at her exposed arms, but the Sula Academy uniform protects the rest of her body from harm. Too bad that doesn’t extend to her bruised ribs. At the bottom, Atae tumbles into the midst of pure chaos as numerous trestoids converge onto several Kaji at once within a small cavern. The tunnel rodents spring from all directions and rip into their prey. Several hybrids scream from the shock and pain of their wounds and fail to react fast enough to prevent serious harm. The trestoids snap their jaws around an arm or leg then wrap their serpent-like bodies around their victims with surprising speed. Their multiple rodent arms and legs latch onto Kaji flesh with sharp claws that were honed for digging.

  A few purebreds fall victim to the creatures’ poison and fall into dangerous hallucinations, as is the case with Tukk. Jent, in his second form, stands in the center of the fray with his arms stretched out toward his packmate, trying to calm the raging purebred. Dozens of cameras circle the commotion, documenting everything. Tukk seems determined to rip the head from every rodent in reach, and Atae considers it a worthy goal. Trestoid teeth shatter against Jent’s armor, and he ignores their attempts to eat him.

  That is so cool. Atae muses, and Beast whines at her oblivion.

  Atae draws her hilt and dispatches every threatening trestoid in her path as she crosses the cavern in search of Sloan. At the back of the cave, Atae finds three connected chambers, a tiny one with a simple stone staircase, a second with several tunnels ending in a central pool of water, and a third that is littered with trestoid carcasses, a couple of unconscious and crippled Kaji, and one enraged heir. Atae suspects that the flooded tunnels dumped Marqee and Sloan in the pool, and when they were attacked by trestoids, each must have followed a different path. A mad purebred screams in terror at his pursuing camera and runs up the staircase in the hope of escaping his hallucination.

  “That’s extremely odd,” Atae says.

  As she steps into the chamber of dead trestoids, Atae grimaces at the amount of blood and innards strewed everywhere. Sloan crouches in the center of the room over a struggling purebred. Atae winces when she recognizes a beaten and bloodied Quin, and she wonders how the youngling ended up in this mess. Quin tugs at Sloan’s uniform and yells nonsense while spitting out blood and teeth.

  “Stop saying that. Shut up. I said, shut up,” Sloan says. He shakes the other purebred and snarls.

  Unnoticed by either delirious Kaji, Atae pauses at the doorway and considers her options. A sneak attack would be the fastest way to land a traumatic hit that could nullify the effects of the poison, but Atae might be able to talk him down as she did during the second round of the tournament when Sloan went berserk on the energy platform. But if she can’t get through to him, a brawl with Sloan is the last thing Atae needs. Judging by their previous matches, they’d run out of time before either youngling defeated the other. Atae hesitates, unsure which strategy to choose, and frowns in frustration. Beast’s insight would be beneficial right now.

  A loud bang echoes down the discard tunnel behind Atae. Then water gushes from a hole in the ceiling to the left of the doorway. She glances back in concern, but no one tumbles down the slide. Several purebreds still argue incoherently, but the trestoids stop attacking. They burrow back into the mountain and disappear, leaving the remaining key bands. An instant later, Atae realizes that Kaji were falling down the giant hole non-stop since she arrived, but not anymore. Jeqi and Marqee must have made it to the gate, revealing the trick to everyone on the hilltop. Reaching the gate must have also triggered the water pipes that circle the mountain.

  But why? Atae wonders as she swivels back to the tiny waterfall that flows from the ceiling and through the floor. She realizes that Sloan is watching her, and she freezes. Blood and flesh drip from Sloan’s fists, and Atae can see numerous holes in his uniform from trestoid attacks. His red eyes are the most telling aspect of his condition, and they glare at Atae with more hatred than she’s ever seen from her rival. When he speaks to her, his tone makes the hairs on Atae’s neck stand on end.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ve come to help.” Atae takes a deep, calming breath. The camera buzzing her ear is a welcome distraction, since the last time she faced red eyes, they brought her back to her nightmares. But Atae refuses to let them affect her now. She’s not the same person she was in that forest with Kandorq, and she isn’t afraid of monsters in the dark anymore. Atae has to prove to Beast that she can handle this, and her pack is depending on her too.

  “Liar,” Sloan says. His upper lip twists into a snarl, and he drops Quin in an unconscious heap. The dark heir steps forward in a threatening charge, and Atae struggles to remain in her spot. She cannot give ground to him while he’s in this state. If she runs, she’ll become prey. Beast cannot see or hear anything outside Atae’s mind, but her counterpart’s mixture of anxiety and determination worries Beast. With no other way to help the hybrid, Beast flutters around Atae’s consciousness and peppers her with calming, blue flurries.

  “I’ve never lied to you, Sloan,” Atae says. Her steady voice enrages the dark heir further.

  “That’s all you do. Every word you speak is a lie. Just like Father.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t pretend!” Sloan stomps closer to the smaller hybrid. “You trot around the empire like you’re the only heir of worth.”

  “Sloan, it’s me. It’s Atae,” she says. Deep down, she’s relieved that Sloan’s rage isn’t aimed at her but at his sister, Royce. Sloan calms at hearing Atae’s name, and he blinks like he has something in his eyes.

  “Atae? When did you get here? How?”

  “You’re hallucinating, Sloan. You need to focus on me.”

  “No, you’re lying again. You’re always-”

  “Where’s your rope? Do you have it? Do you still have control?” Atae asks. She tries to keep Sloan focused on her voice and not what he might be seeing.

  “I have it,” Sloan glances down to one bloody hand. “I have it right here.”

  Atae stares at his open palm and raises an eyebrow. She nods while Sloan watches his empty hand.

  “That’s good. You should hold it tight.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can,” Atae says. She slips her hands over his larger fingers and closes his fist for him. “I know you can do it. You are Kaji.”

  When Sloan meets Atae’s fuchsia gaze, his eyes are back to his familiar black, and she smiles. Atae isn’t sure what to do next, but at least Sloan isn’t on the verge of shifting. An insane Kaji in his first form is much better than a rampaging battle beast. Before she can decide on their next step, Tukk screams a battle cry behind Atae. She jumps in surprise and tries to twirl around to face him, but Sloan reacts first.

  “Stay away from her,” he says.

  Pushing Atae to the side, Sloan knocks aside a wild punch and kicks Tukk backward on to the ground. Jent jumps in to help his fallen comrade.

  Meanwhile, Atae, who was not prepared for the forceful shove, bangs face-first against the wall by the waterfall. Clutching her head, Atae stumbles into the waterfall before scrambling away. She wipes the water f
rom her face, and Beast rejoices.

  I can see. I can hear. I can feel. Everything.

  Fantastic, so now we know that a painful hit is a cure. Atae flinches at the bruise swelling on her face. We have to get Sloan to snap out of it too.

  Hit him, Beast commands. Atae rolls her eyes but does as she’s instructed.

  Sloan and Jent tussle in the center of the room as they slip in the mud created from the bloody trestoid carcasses. Jent’s armor protects him from the dark heir’s heavy blows, but Sloan’s rage offers little protection from the hybrid’s clawed hands. Jent slashes the purebred’s chest and blood pools from the shallow cuts, but, unfazed, Sloan continues his assault. Beast growls at the sight of Sloan’s blood, and Atae isn’t prepared for the sensation that fuels her body.

  “Don’t hurt him!”

  Jent glances at Atae with a confused expression, but Sloan doesn’t notice her. She uses it to her advantage and launches at him from behind. She slams her foot into the side of the larger purebred’s face and smiles when something cracks.

  “That’s my job,” Atae says to Jent. Sloan stumbles away, and Beast smiles within a greenish-yellow flurry of excitement and pride for her counterpart.

  “You’re crazy,” Jent says.

  “No, he’s crazy,” Atae points to Tukk as he rubs dead trestoid blood over his face. Jent curses with wide eyes and rushes to stop his packmate.

  Sloan climbs to his feet, and Atae watches him with a hopeful grin. Her smile slips when the purebred twists to her with enraged red eyes. He snarls and makes a guttural sound that she’s only ever heard from a battle beast. Atae watches the facial bones under Sloan’s skin fluctuate, and she curses.

  He’s about to shift.

  Not yet, Beast says. Hit him.

  Atae blitzes the dark heir with several punches, but he doesn’t react, so she shifts gears. She sweeps his legs out from under him, and Sloan tumbles to the ground. Forcing him to find his footing distracts the purebred from his shift, but Atae needs to think of something else. A hand-to-hand fight with Sloan is a bad idea, but a sword fight is worse. Beast frowns in distaste at the thought of using a hilt, and Atae remembers her preference for their natural weapons. If given a choice, Beast would fight barehanded rather than handle an energy blade. Atae wonders if Sloan’s beast has the same aversion.