by Rob May
‘He likes you!’ one of her guards laughed.
Kal looked at the creature pacing its cage. It was a panther. Its coat, which should have been glossy velvet, was patchy, and there was more rib showing than muscle.
‘It’s hungry,’ Kal said. ‘Do you ever feed them?’
The guards laughed again. ‘Well, let’s see … the next show is in about half an hour!’
They pushed Kal onwards. In the centre of the chamber, and presumably right underneath the arena above, was a circular walled-off room. A guard at the door stepped aside, and Kal went through into General Cassava’s lair.
The room within was lined with racks of weapons. Colourful rugs with tribal patterns softened the tone a little, although they were worn thin and dirty. The general was sitting at a table eating lunch: a whole roast chicken that she tore at with a heavy dagger. As Kal entered, she stood up and held out a greasy hand in greeting.
Kal ignored it. Her attention was caught by the cage off to one side. Will Straightarrow, stripped to the waist, was locked inside. There was no room in his new home to stand, so he sat on the floor. Cuts covered his torso, and blood matted his hair. He looked up at Kal with hopeful eyes.
She took in his predicament. ‘I trust you have a cunning plan for getting out of there,’ she said.
Will gave her a lopsided grin. ‘I’m looking at it,’ he said.
Kal turned to Cassava. The general was dressed in the simple uniform of a soldier of the legions: a leather breastplate and skirt. She had lowered her hand and was now watching Kal with the affected easiness of a trained soldier—relaxed, but alert and coiled. Cassava said nothing, she simply eyed Kal with a curious stare, and Kal realised she had inadvertently started a game of ‘first to speak, loses.’
Kal was standing face to face with Cassava for the first time. The general was tall, with coal-black skin. She might have been beautiful once, but a lifetime of warmongering had transformed her body: she was heavily muscled, her shoulders were broad and her chest flat. She had shaved her head smooth with a blade, and when her lips parted in a half-smile, Kal could see that her teeth had been filed to points.
A minute passed by slowly. Then Kal decided she had no time for this game, so she started a new one: ‘I need your help,’ she said to the general.
Cassava blinked in surprise. Then she laughed—a warm, rich laugh that was at odds with her appearance. ‘And why should I help you, Kalina Moonheart?’
Kal was pretty sure that Cassava wasn’t the killer. So that made her an unlikely ally instead. ‘You need to round up the Senate, and put your army to guard them,’ Kal pleaded. ‘It’s for their own protection, until we know who the next murder victim might be.’
She decided to let Cassava know what she suspected about the descendants of Feron Firehand. The one thing that she could be almost completely sure about was that Cassava was not one of them. The general had been the only surviving soldier in an army from far-off Nubara that had attacked Amaranthium some twenty years ago. Cassava had impressed the general who captured her so much that he took her as a lover, a wife and finally as a protégé. After his death, there was nobody better qualified to lead the legions.
Cassava was shaking her head even before Kal had finished speaking. ‘I don’t care about the safety of the Senate,’ she said. ‘My job is to protect the entire city, not to babysit some backstabbing politicians.’ Cassava cocked her head to one side. ‘Do you think you know who the murderer is, Kal? Tell me, and I’ll solve all your problems right now. I can arrange a very spectacular and public end for them.’
‘I have a suspicion,’ Kal said, ‘but I can’t say until I’m one hundred percent sure. Protect the Senate, and give me time to get that proof.’
Cassava spat a great gob of phlegm to one side. ‘Proof!’ she exclaimed. ‘Do you think I had proof when I executed those traitors in the Forum yesterday? If you wait for proof, Kalina, you’ll never act, and more people will die.’
‘What about justice?’ Kal said. ‘A fair trial? I suppose you don’t think the killer deserves that either?’
Cassava laughed again. ‘My way is justice, Kal. Justice delivered by a decisive leader, and presented to the public for their approval and satisfaction. Senate justice is just a room full of professional speakers tripping up a jury with verbal trickery and arguments, and where the punishment for corruption and murder is often just cosy prison time, the perpetrators swept underfoot and hidden away from the public eye.’
‘You’re standing for election to the highest office in the Senate!’ Kal reminded her. ‘You must have some respect for its methods.’
‘No, none,’ Cassava said. ‘I only know that I must fight my way into the Senate in order to tear it apart from the inside. I have no time for intricate political manoeuvring. Why do you think I am here, overseeing my games for the people, and not sitting in a comfy chair on the Field of Bones counting votes on my fingers? I don’t need to go out and beg for votes with empty promises like other politicians: people can see what I am doing—putting soldiers on the streets, and working for the public. The city, and the Senate, will soon be mine, Kal.’
Cassava wasn’t going to offer any help to Kal at all. She was obsessed only with her own rise to power.
‘What are you going to do with him?’ Kal asked, nodding towards Will, who was following the exchange with interest from his cage.
‘I’ll have some fun with the King of Thieves later,’ Cassava said. ‘Nobody can ever say that my own style of justice doesn’t give thieves a sporting chance.’ She went back to sit at her table and tore another leg off the chicken. ‘The question is, Kal, what am I going to do with you?’
‘I know what you want,’ Kal said. ‘You admire me. You want me to join your cause, as your lieutenant, troubleshooter or pet, right? That’s why I’m here, but I’m not a pushover, general; we have to help each other. Release Will, lend me your legions, and I’ll work with you for the good of the city …’
Cassava said nothing. A grin spread across her face as she chewed her food. Kal felt a growing sense of unease rising from the pit of her stomach. Then she realised …
Like Will, she had walked into a trap.
‘You’re right about one thing, Kal,’ the general said. ‘I do admire you and respect your abilities. Since I’ve been back in the city, I’ve heard stories about you all over, from the dockside taverns, to the halls of the Senate. You’re a dragon killer, Kal: a mythic hero to millions … even though most people wouldn’t recognise you as they passed you in the street.’
Kal said nothing. She knew what was coming next.
‘But there’s only room in this city for one hero,’ Cassava said, slamming the blade of her knife deep into the table for emphasis.
Kal tried to remain calm. The door behind her was still open, so far as she knew. She was only yards from a busy, public place. From his cage, Will mouthed the word go, and that made up her mind.
She turned and fled the room. Cassava’s laughter followed her out. There was no guard outside anymore, but something was different. The avenue between the cages had been closed off. Instead of running straight out, she was forced to turn left down a new path that led her to a different part of the amphitheatre. She cried out in terror as bestial shapes slammed against the bars of the cages as she ran. A cacophony of howls and roars filled the underground chamber.
And then Kal was at some stairs. She stumbled up them, and at the top she raced towards an arch of dull daylight. She was just in time: a gate rattled down behind her as she made it outside.
It took her a few seconds to work out where she was. She had visited the amphitheatre a few times before, but she had never seen it from this perspective. She closed her eyes as if to block out the eyes that were staring at her. Maybe, by some miracle, she would open them and find herself somewhere else.
But no. Even with her eyes clenched tight, Kal could still feel the soft sand of the arena beneath her feet.
V.iii
Thunder boomed from the encroaching black clouds. In the arena, Kal opened her eyes and stared back at the thousands of faces that packed the wooden terraces all around her. The low rumble of their excited voices was just as threatening as the imminent storm.
The arena itself was a sunken sandy pit. Smooth concrete walls, fifteen feet high, prevented an escape into the crowd. Kal turned her head slowly, taking in every detail, a habit that was instilled in her no matter how dire the situation. There were other gated entrances opposite her and to the right, and on her left was a built-up gatehouse and a larger portcullis, perhaps for letting chariots in. Up in the crowd, her eyes fell on the blond head of Nim, who was hurrying down one of the aisles to the front benches, waving frantically. Kal raised her fingers to her temple, and flicked Nim a calm warrior’s salute.
Kal heard the scrape of another gate. The excitement of the crowd increased in pitch as a new combatant entered the arena on the opposite side. He walked confidently across the sand, sweat shining on the muscles of his bare chest. Kal stepped forward to meet him.
‘I’m not going to fight you, Kal,’ Will said when they stood facing each other. People in the crowd were calling for blood, or throwing down obscene taunts.
‘No,’ Kal agreed. ‘She can’t make us.’
To Kal’s right, another gate opened and then closed as a third person stepped out onto the sand. The crowd’s jeers turned to cheers at the sight of their master of ceremonies. General Cassava held her giant lochaber axe in one hand, and a gladius in the other. She lobbed the short sword in a gentle arc, and it landed blade-down in the sand directly between Kal and Will. The crowd whooped at this pantomime.
Will shrugged and gestured for Kal to take the blade. She pulled it out of the sand and examined it: the gladius was steel and fairly well-balanced. The blade was sharp too, but badly nicked and stained with someone else’s blood. She handed it to Will and drew her own dagger from her boot. Even a sword would be no good against Cassava’s axe, but at least the chrometal daggers that Nim had supplied had proven their worth: they were so sharp, a child could kill someone with them. A child had done exactly that.
‘People of Amaranthium!’ Cassava roared in her rich voice that carried her words to the top tiers of the amphitheatre. ‘Allow me to present to you a man who, if he wasn’t here now, might otherwise be sneaking around your homes and businesses, helping himself to your possessions and profits. I give you: the King of Thieves!’
The crowd booed. If any among them recognised Will Straightarrow, generous citizen of Crab Corner, they were drowned out by those looking for a villain. Will looked stricken. ‘I wouldn’t,’ he said to Kal. ‘I’d never steal from the people.’
‘I know,’ Kal replied.
‘But!’ Cassava said. ‘I can do even better then that! I can give you someone whose notoriety tops even the city’s greatest thief! Someone who once was regarded as a hero, but has recently been exposed as a traitor of the highest order. For Kalina Moonheart has confessed to conspiring with Senator Ganzief Greatbear, an agent of Zorronov! Taking foreign coin as payment, Moonheart has brought murder on some of our most respected leaders!’
No! Kal was too stunned to protest. The lie was as audacious as it was brilliant, smashing the reputation of two of Cassava’s opponents in one neat story.
‘She calls herself Dragon Killer, and he boasts that he can steal the gold from underneath a sleeping dragon. I have faced these fearsome beasts myself out in the Wild, and I assure you that such feats are not easy. So perhaps we should give our friends here one final chance to prove their idle boasts!’
Cassava raised her axe, and Kal turned to face her, but at the same time she became aware of the larger gate behind her rattling up. She spun around and had to control her impulse to run when she saw what lurked behind the rising bars of the portcullis. It wasn’t the red eyes that brought back the memories, or the sweeping, sleek shape of the creature’s head; it was the sharp tangy smell of its excretions that terrified Kal the most. She could almost feel the sticky oil on her body, setting her nerves on fire as it burned. The dragon could kill you in a hundred ways, not least by fear alone.
The beast squeezed its sinuous body through the gate. Its head was the size of a horse, and the neck that followed was two yards thick; not even Cassava’s axe would dispatch this one in a single blow. When the dragon dragged through its wings and unfurled them, the crowd gasped and there were more than a few screams. Kal heard the stamping of feet as some terrified folk made for the exits.
But Kal stood her ground. She could see the thick iron collar bolted around the dragon’s neck that seemed to weigh down its head; and trailing from the collar, a heavy iron chain passed between the dragon’s two hind legs and disappeared into the darkness beyond the gate.
Cassava shook her axe one-handed above her head. She screamed, ‘There can only be one dragon killer!’ and charged the monster head-on. The dragon opened its jaws to meet her, and Kal was sure that the general was going to get herself bitten in half. But the chain pulled tight and the dragon’s head was yanked back. However, its long tongue flicked out and whacked Cassava with such force that she was lifted from the ground and flung ten yards to one side. She pulled herself to her feet with an insane grin on her face.
Adrenaline coursed through Kal, and she too found herself running at the dragon the second she saw it turn its head to face Will. But with eyes on opposite sides of its skull, the dragon was never going to be caught off-guard. A dark slit of a pupil rolled backwards and spotted Kal. She slid to a halt in the sand, and was about to hop back, when her feet were taken out from under her by the bony claw at the tip of the dragon’s arm. Kal tried to roll away as a leathery wing was dragged over her. When she finally got clear she found her left arm and leg slick with the dragon’s oil. Sand from the arena stuck to her as if she had just emerged from the sea.
The dragon had turned its attention back to Will. Kal guessed he was running around to try and confuse the beast, for she could see it awkwardly trying to shift position, dragging its chain as it turned to attack. The dragon was slower and clumsier than Kal had expected, and she could see why: there were patches of missing scales on its neck, where cuts and lacerations leaked black blood. She could even see a broken spear-tip poking out from its shoulder.
Cassava was circling around towards Kal now, also positioning herself behind the dragon. Both Kal and the general had to keep an eye on its thrashing tail, which whipped about unpredictably. Cassava turned to Kal and bared her teeth. ‘It’s mine, Moonheart. And then you are mine!’
Kal didn’t reply. There was a time and a place for backchat, and this wasn’t either.
Then Will made his move. Kal saw him suddenly appear as he dived forward and rolled under the dragon’s belly. The dragon twisted and tried to bring its jaws to bear on its tormentor, but it only succeeded in getting itself tangled up in the chain. As the dragon kicked at Will with one great taloned foot, the chain pulled taught and its head was yanked down to the sand. The dragon’s jaw slammed shut on its tongue, biting a good yard off the end of it.
But Will didn’t pause to allow the dragon to regain its senses; instead he dashed straight back at it … and then hopped up and stamped on its head. With arms held out for balance, and with the crowd shrieking in delight, he scooted up the dragon’s neck, onto its back, and then hurled himself into the air.
Will managed to grab the top of the wall around the arena and pull himself up. He turned and extended an arm back down. ‘Kal!’ he yelled, his palm open for her. ‘Come on!’
Kal started over to him, leaving Cassava facing-off with the dragon. But then she stopped. ‘Wait!’ she shouted up to Will. ‘One minute!’ And before Will could reply, she changed direction and sprinted across the sand, leaping over the dragon’s swishing tail as if it was a skipping rope. She plunged into the gloom beyond the dragon’s gate, and followed the chain back down a sloping passage.
At the bottom of the dragon’s pit, two handlers were operating a huge metal wheel, around which the chain was wound. They fled as Kal approached, fury in her eyes, her dagger held out in front of her. She kicked the handle that unspooled the chain, and released the hook that held the end to the framework of the wheel. The chain immediately flew up the tunnel as the dragon pulled free.
Kal ran back up the slope, and without looking at the chaos she had unleashed, turned and launched herself up at Will’s outstretched hand. He easily hauled her up into his strong arms, and they held each other as they looked back out over the arena.
The dragon had risen twenty feet above the sand, treading air as it beat its powerful wings. Cassava stood below it, screaming insults and challenges, but the dragon’s gaze was swinging back and forth over the crowd, most of whom were on their feet applauding. They were convinced this was the greatest show they had ever seen.
‘Go!’ Kal shouted to the dragon. ‘Fly away!’
But the dragon’s attention was fixed on two of Cassava’s soldiers who were trying to ward it away with spears. Did it recognise its tormentors? The dragon twisted its lower body forward, spread its legs, and let loose a wide-angled spray that drenched the soldiers, as well as thirty or so members of the audience in the front row of the terraces. There was a moment of stunned silence, after which the soaked spectators all began clapping and laughing again.
Then the dragon scraped its clawed wing tips forward along its scaly thighs and followed up its spray with a shower of sparks. When the sparks hit the flammable excretion, the group of cheering people were turned instantly into screaming human torches. The excitement around the arena turned quickly to terror as the flames began to spread.
Kal felt a sudden stab of guilt. She let that happen. No—Cassava let that happen! She was the one who had brought a wild animal into a public place. Kal turned to Will. ‘We have to get out of here,’ she said.