by Cheree Alsop
I spun behind him and caught him in a choke hold. I looked up in time to see David throw his attacker to the ground. He gave me a wild grin. The young Galdoni then turned to his opponent as he rose unsteadily from the ground. David did a fancy back kick that was more for show than effect. But his opponent ducked the kick. Before I could move, the Galdoni pulled a knife from his belt and drove it into David’s back.
David’s eyes met mine, his own wide with shock. “Kale?” he asked, his voice strangled. He fell to his knees.
“No!” The cry tore from my throat before I could even comprehend what had happened.
I shoved Blade to the side and ran to David. The young Galdoni sputtered and fell forward. I caught him before he could hit the ground. Blood trickled from the side of his mouth to the bottom of his mask. The Galdoni that had struck him picked up a sword from the ground. I spun so that I crouched over David protectively.
“Touch him and I kill you all,” I growled; a feral rage lifted my lips in a snarl. I heard several Galdoni land on the pillars above, but nobody moved toward us.
David coughed and red-tinged foam bubbled at his lips. I pulled him up so that he rested on my knees, his head cradled in my arms. Warm blood flowed down his back to pool on the indifferent sand.
“I didn’t want to kill him,” he wheezed out.
“Shhh, don’t talk. Save your strength,” I told him gently. Inside, I tore myself apart. He wouldn’t have gotten hurt if it wasn’t for my stupid plan. He could have killed the Galdoni earlier instead of worrying about keeping him alive. I gritted my teeth and cursed myself, my plan, and everything that had led up to this moment.
Steps came to my side. Goliath crouched next to me. He sniffed and I looked over to see tears drip from under his mask. He reached out and touched David’s shoulder. “You fought hard,” he said softly.
David gave him a weak salute with a hand to his chest. “Brothers to the end,” he forced out. He held up a fist.
Goliath tapped the knuckles with his own. “Brothers to the end,” he said before his words choked off. He rose and turned away; a sob tore from his throat.
“You’ve got to hang in there, David. Don’t give up on me now,” I told him.
He gave me a weak thumbs-up, then his arm fell heavily to the ground. His head rolled back on my arm. I gritted my teeth and lifted my arm so that he looked at me. “No, not like this, David. You’re gonna get out of here. Stay with me.” I looked around wildly for help. The enemy Galdoni stood a respectful distance from us. Blade leaned against a pillar, his eyes unreadable. Varo knelt on the ground a few feet away, blood streaking the armor across his chest.
“Kale?”
I looked back down at David and leaned close to hear the soft words from his innocent lips.
“Do you know what I’ll miss most?”
I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak.
“Flying.” The word left his lips like a sigh. His eyes drifted from mine and stared into space.
“No, David,” I commanded. When he didn’t respond, I shook him. “David, come on. You’re going to be okay.” I had to force the words out as my throat tightened. “You have to be okay.” I shook him again.
A hand touched my shoulder and I knocked it away.
“Kale, he’s gone,” Goliath’s pain-filled voice said above me. It took a few minutes for the words to sink in, for the finality of their meaning to cut through my chaotic thoughts.
I lowered David to the sand. A blind, red rage filled my vision. I rose to my feet and tore out the knife Blade had sunk into my thigh. With a cry of agony, I used it to cut the bindings on my mask. Gasps escaped the Galdoni around me when I threw the mask to the ground.
“You kill the innocent for your lies,” I shouted up at the Arena dome. “Are you happy now with your pocketbooks padded in blood money?” I turned to the Galdoni around me. “And you! Curse you for fighting for their pleasure. We are not animals, yet you persist in acting like blood-thirsty beasts because they tell you to. You have a right to live your own lives, but you have to believe that you are better than how they see you.”
I threw the knife at the pillar next to Blade; it sunk to the hilt in the red sandstone. The Galdoni around me had waited quietly in respect to David. Now, to my surprise, they dropped their weapons. One Galdoni pulled the knife from the pillar and used it to cut away his own mask. He then handed it to his companion, who did the same. The other Galdoni passed the knife around, dropping their masks to the ground beside mine. Only Blade met my eyes and turned his still-masked face away, his head held high.
When the last Galdoni had removed his mask, I held out my hand for the knife. I used it to gently cut the bindings on David’s mask. I gripped the cooling metal in my hands for a moment, then hurled it with all my strength across the Arena.
“He is not an animal. None of us are animals!” I shouted up at the dome. “And none of us deserve to die like this.” I tore off my armor and threw it after the mask.
A grating sound heralded armed guards that streamed from openings in the Arena floor. The Galdoni backed up at the sight of spears and whips. I crouched over David’s body as the guards surrounded me, lowering their spears threateningly.
I wouldn’t kill them, but I would do whatever I could to make them pay for David’s life. I motioned with my left hand; a strange, fierce, primal joy filled me at the anticipation of the fight. I flexed my wings with a snap and grinned wildly. “Bring it.”
The guards stepped closer. One on the left stabbed at my side.
I spun, narrowly avoiding the point, and pulled the handle with me so that the guard fell forward. I chopped him in the throat with my fist and he fell to the sand. I spun, spear held handle-out, and parried four more spears thrust my way. I knocked their points down and to the left, then brought the handle back with enough force to crack all four of them across the face. They staggered as I spun to the right.
The point of the spear cut into my left hand, but the pain focused my strength and I held it tighter. I ducked under one spear, then knocked away a second and cracked the holder on the nose with the butt of my spear. A blade tore through my shoulder and I turned. I tore the spear away from the guard, then drove the butt of my own into his stomach. He doubled over in pain. I elbowed him in the back and he fell to the ground.
Another spear cut across my back. I arched backward with agony as a second guard forced a spear into my side. I turned toward him, driving my spear down behind his ear. The sound of it connecting with his skull echoed against the pillars as he fell to the ground. Another stab in the thigh drove me to my knees. My spear was yanked from my hands.
“Stop!” a voice shouted. My mind reeled with the pain, trying to place the voice within the Academy.
Someone kicked me and I fell to the side. My hands found the head of a spear embedded in the sand. I grabbed it and rose in a crouch. Two guards stabbed at me and I knocked their spears away, but the effort and loss of blood caught up to me. I fell forward onto my hands and knees and coughed. The motion tore through my ribs with agony. I tasted blood.
“Drop your weapons,” the voice commanded. “You’re surrounded.”
A movement caught my eye and I turned my head. Armed humans dressed in black dropped from the ceiling on ropes and streamed across the Arena floor. They pointed guns at the guards surrounding me. The leader met my gaze with a relieved expression, then his eyes widened. He opened his mouth to shout, but something cracked against the back of my skull. I fell forward into the sand. Ringing filled my ears as darkness stole my vision. I felt vaguely grateful for the relief to my light sensitive eyes.
Chapter Twenty
Urgent voices and sterile scents beat down on me. I opened my eyes to see blinding lights checker past. I shut them again and felt the rush of air as I was pushed down a hallway. Something beeped near my head. A plastic mask had been fitted over my mouth; my lungs burned as I fought to pull in enough oxygen. Someone held my hand. I forced my eyes open aga
in, turning my head to avoid the blinding lights. Several forms hurried along each side of me. I tightened my hand. The person closest to me leaned down.
“Kale?”
My heart slowed at Brie’s voice. I tried to talk, but couldn’t get the words out. Tears blurred my clouded vision.
“Kale, can you hear me?” Her words sounded distant as though she shouted them across a huge, empty room. They echoed in my head as unconsciousness stole me away again.
***
It was harder to push through the dark this time. It clung to my hands and feet; fingers of shadow caressed my cheeks, urging me to stay in the comfortable unknown. Steady beeps sounded in the distance, reminding me of something I had to do. With regret, I pushed past the darkness and pulled myself toward the light.
Pain. Before I opened my eyes, pain tore through my chest and raced down my arms and legs, awakening every wound. It was a different kind of pain than I had ever experienced before. This pain was weakening, desperate, the kind of pain that forces the soul back to the blackness and rest beyond.
But I don’t have a soul, I reminded myself grimly. The pain let up only slightly, but it was enough. I forced my eyes to open.
An oxygen tube had replaced the mask, and the cool air rushed against my nose. I breathed in shallowly, aware of the deeper pain of my ribs and side. I took a few breaths and tried to slow my heartbeat. It raced as though I had just finished a fight, and it took all of my concentration for a few minutes to bring it down to a more normal pace. The beeping slowed.
“Doctor, is everything okay?”
I looked toward the sound of Brie’s voice. Tension seeped out of my body at the sight of her. She stood next to three white-jacketed people near machines in the corner. Two of them consulted the third who studied the machines.
“If he was human. . . .” The man shrugged, frustration and concern evident in his voice. “I just don’t know.”
“It’d be nice if we had access to the lab records,” one of the others replied angrily. “They have no right to keep those from us, especially given the fact that we’re trying to save him. Who knows what valuable information they could have?”
I tried to swallow, but my throat was dry. “Their records were a little biased,” I managed to rasp out.
They all turned in surprise.
Brie ran to the side of the bed and fell to her knees. “Kale, we thought we lost you!”
I lifted a hand to touch her cheek and was alarmed at how hard it was to do even that. “I’m pretty hard to kill. You know that.” I gave her a smile.
She smiled back and tears filled her eyes. “They took you to surgery for hours, and when you were back in your room your heart stopped. They had to use a defibrillator.” She glanced back at the doctors who now stood behind her, their eyes on me.
I remembered the rush of pain from my chest and gave a slight nod. “Thank you. I felt that.”
One of the doctors laughed at the dry sarcasm. “Better than dead.”
I shrugged, then winced at the pain that knifed through my shoulders. “Let me know next time you try it.”
He chuckled and turned back to the machines. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said. He tapped some numbers that didn’t mean anything to me. “You lost so much blood that we had to give you a transfusion. Your friend Goliath donated the blood. He fought everyone else who offered.”
I smiled at the thought of anyone trying to argue with the huge Galdoni. Then I remembered David. Regret filled me. It hadn’t been enough.
Brie read my expression. “We couldn’t get in any earlier. After showing the video, we were able to convince everyone.”
“The video worked?” I asked, surprised.
She nodded and squeezed my hand. “Yes, the video worked. People were ready to tear down the gates before it was even over.”
I nodded and swallowed dryly.
Brie noticed and took a cup with a straw from the nightstand. “Can he have water, Dr. Benson?”
The doctor nodded.
She gave me the straw and I drank until I heard air gurgle at the bottom.
“Wow, thirsty,” she said.
We both smiled. Heaviness stole through my body and I fought to keep my eyes open.
“Doctor?” Brie asked.
“He needs to sleep,” Dr. Benson replied. He put something in the IV. It ran with a cold sting into my arm. “He’ll heal faster that way.”
Brie squeezed my hand. I shook my head. “I don’t want to sleep.” I slurred the words.
“Don’t worry,” Brie whispered as my eyelids closed. “I’ll be here when you wake up. I’m never leaving your side again.”
***
True to her word, Brie was there. Nikko, Jayce, and Dr. Ray beamed down at me from behind her. I smiled uncomfortably at the attention. “Is it too late to pretend that it was all a dream?”
Dr. Ray smiled. “Yep. Now you’ll have to face the tidal wave your heroics have caused.”
I met Jayce’s eyes. He gave a huge smile. “Were you surprised it worked?” I asked him.
He laughed. “Almost as much as you, I think. I ran in with the others at the gate, but those Galdoni were ready to tear us apart if we so much as laid a finger on you.”
I glanced at Brie for an explanation.
“When Jayce and Nikko stormed the Academy, the Galdoni there rushed to the Arena. Jayce’s group made it just before the other Galdoni broke through. Looks like they had their own plans to stop the fight.” She grinned at Jayce. “You could say it was a battle for who got to help take you out of the Arena. It almost became violent.”
Nikko chuckled. “Yeah, lucky for us you had that ‘no fight’ policy.”
“It was more of a ‘no kill’ policy at the end there,” I amended with a slight laugh. I shifted to find a more comfortable position. Pain knifed up my side. I winced and settled back against the pillows that kept my weight off my wings and the wounds down my back.
“Well, you managed to do a pretty good job of making your point,” Dr. Ray said. He squeezed my hand. “Good to see you’re okay.”
Nikko looked me over critically. “I don’t know if I would call this okay. You’re still not in the clear yet.”
Jayce gave his trademark grin. “I don’t know if he was ever okay in the first place.”
“Hey,” I protested. “As I recall, it took you a while, but I finally broke you down.”
He nodded. “Well, you’ll have to get use to charming your way into the hearts of the people. You’ll have a lot of that to do when you get out of here.”
“Jayce,” Brie said in a warning tone. She threw me a worried look.
“What?” I asked.
Brie glared at Jayce, then she sighed and turned back to me. “You’re kind-of the press’ golden boy for Galdoni rights now.”
My eyebrows rose. “How’d that happen?”
Everyone turned to Nikko and his cheeks actually reddened. “I, uh. . . I might have changed the video a bit with that intention in mind.”
“A bit,” Brie scoffed.
Intrigued and a little concerned, I asked if I could see it, but the doctors were still worried about my heart rate and wouldn’t let them bring in anything that might cause excitement. My friends refused to give any details and made me wait a few more days before the doctors pronounced me fit enough to see it.
Chapter Twenty-one
The video opened on the picture of the tiny Galdoni baby asleep in the white gloved hands of a lab tech. The wings looked delicate and perfect, but they weren’t white like the first time I had seen the picture. The wings had been altered so they were the black-purple hue of a raven’s feathers. Their simple beauty matched the angelic, innocent smile on the sleeping baby's face.
The pictures then rotated to the toddler learning to walk, the toddlers in the classroom, and the toddler about to be whipped. Music started slowly, rising at the picture of the whip in the air.
But then the video changed to the next scene, an
d the mood of the music shifted subtly, darker tones taking over the simple cadence of childlike innocence.
The scene showed the boy with the katana, wings lowered and a tear on his cheek as he stared down at the dying Galdoni boy at his feet. It, too, was different than the first time I had seen the image. Instead of tawny wings, the feathers had been changed to black, just as Nikko had done to the children in the slides before. The boy’s hair had likewise been darkened. I wondered why until the video showed the next scene of the younger me fighting the other Galdoni. In that transition, it looked like I had been the one in all the pictures.
My heart slowed as several more images I hadn’t seen flowed through, images that were really me. I wondered how long they had searched for them.
I watched the younger me in the training room twirling a blade above my head. In the next image, I knelt next to a small Galdoni with brown wings and showed him how to hold a blade larger than he was in a firm grip.
Next, it showed the closing of the Arena, winged forms silhouetted against the morning sun. None of them were me, but it didn’t matter because no one else could tell.
There were a few pictures from high school that I hadn’t known had been taken, me in my coat at the back of Dr. Ray’s classroom talking to Brie and Jayce, a room full of students at Zach’s place with me in the background throwing darts. I had to smile at that one because I realized the tip of my feathers were visible at the bottom of the coat when my arm was raised to throw the dart. There was a picture of Brie and I standing in the rain in the backyard. A lump formed in my throat. I glanced at Nikko.
He shrugged. “I thought it would come in handy,” he said apologetically.
Then there was a video of three figures on top of the old city building. Two looked like they were talking, and the third stood a bit further from the edge. The video blurred a bit and moved slightly, but it still did the job. I watched the first figure turn and fall backward off the building; the second caught his hand and was pulled over with him.