by Rex Jameson
***
Lucifer turned his body and walked sideways down the aisle, but the elves were so tightly packed into their stadium seats that he still managed to brush against naked arms, hips, and legs poking out from the plushy chairs. Above the path were lush tree foliage and more exposed flesh that rubbed against him wherever he went. On more than one occasion, a travelling vendor pushed him into the seats and onto an elven lap.
Sariel, however, appeared to be stumbling into swarms of elves at every step. “Sorry … my apologies … Was that your breast? Pardon me.”
On one particular occasion, they didn’t let him go.
“Brother, you go on ahead! They’ve got me, I’m afraid.”
Lucifer pushed his way back to his brother and found him in the arms of about twenty painted female elves. Unlike most of the green and gold-colored spectators, these were pink and purple, and they had obviously taken more time in the application of their body art. Black tattoos lined their faces and accentuated their feminine body parts. They stroked his brother fluidly and with intent.
“Hello, Rosaline,” Elandril hailed the elves.
“My King,” a red-haired woman who held Sariel in her lap said.
“Lucifer and Sariel,” Elandril said, “I’d like you to meet Rosaline. Rosaline runs the finest escort service in all the cosmos. She has offices in each of the major elven cities, and if she had any interest in politics, she would have given me a run for my money.”
“One doesn’t have to be a politician to have a hand in politics,” Rosaline’s singulus said.
“So wonderful to have such a talented globus in attendance,” Sariel said, smiling.
The girls giggled.
“May we borrow this demon prince?” Elandril asked.
“Only if you promise to return him,” Rosaline’s singulus said. “Don’t be a stranger, now!”
Elandril bowed his head and pulled Sariel back into the aisle, and as Lucifer nodded in recognition, she smiled as he gazed at her. Apparently, she liked to be watched because as he stared at them, the singuli began kissing and touching each other.
“Lucifer!” Elandril called.
“Coming.”
He broke from looking at Rosaline and gazed at the center of the Coliseum as he worked toward the top floor behind his brother and Elandril. The floor of the main event area was barren, which was a stark contrast to the mossy, opulent seating and trees that decked everything else.
“So, what is it like?” he yelled ahead.
“What is what like?” Elandril asked.
“The Certamen. The games.”
“It’s just one game, and it’s fantastic. You’ll see. Each globus is allowed ten members in the maze.”
“What maze?”
“It will be in the center. Anyway, each globus can enter ten of its members, and the competitors use stun sticks to incapacitate each other. The surviving globus wins.”
“Where do we place bets?” Sariel asked.
“Seriously? You’ve never even seen it played before.”
“I don’t need to. Where is a bookie? All I need to know are the odds.”
Elandril led them to a vendor, who took Sariel’s bet of zinanbar on Ganymede, the heavy favorite.
As the bookie was handing him his ticket, Lucifer heard a roaring sound from the center of the Coliseum. “What the hell?”
An earthen structure was rising through the ground. The jumbotron circled around the erecting, humongous series of pathways and displayed a five minute timer. The countdown was on.
Elandril pulled Sariel behind him and rushed through the aisles.
“Where are we going?” Lucifer yelled ahead over the screaming crowd.
Elandril pointed toward an extended platform that arched over the other floors of the stadium. Lucifer pushed his wings through the back of his suit and launched himself above thousands of spectators who cheered and gasped as a shadow passed over them. He grabbed Elandril and started to grab Sariel, but his brother gave him a disappointed look before apparating next to him on the balcony.
Underneath, the rising mountain greeted them, and Lucifer could see green lines tracing around the mound. As the earthen dome came closer, he could see that the lines were actually very tall, thick hedges and shrubbery.
“It takes two thousand years to grow that kind of hedge,” Elandril said. “They keep the matches interesting.”
“Unless someone takes the higher ground,” Sariel said.
“Higher ground has its advantages, but it has nothing to do with line-of-sight. Those plants are two stories tall, and too thick to peer through. You’re just as blind above as you are below.”
The jumbotron showed a minute and a half and counting.
“So they just go around the maze?” Sariel asked. “Why don’t they apparate?”
“It’s against the rules,” Elandril said.
“I thought you guys had freed yourselves from archaic rules. Wouldn’t that make it more interesting?”
“I mean that the rules of nature don’t allow us to apparate as a globus. It breaks the links that bind us across the pattern.”
“Oh,” Sariel said, appearing to understand. Lucifer, however, was completely puzzled.
Far below them, groups of elves appeared at the entrances to the maze, and an announcer bellowed across the stadium.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the finale of the games. The Great Certamen is upon us. From thousands of globi, ten champions have fought their way to the top and earned their places in our collective memory. Tonight, one of these contestants will bask in eternal glory!”
“Which one is Ganymede?” Sariel asked, rubbing his hands together.
“Green one. Directly underneath us.”
From this height it was hard to discern the colors, so Lucifer watched some of the floating screens instead. In front of him was the hulking singulus that he had fought in the stateroom. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the rest of the globus members were at least a foot shorter, more like his own height.
“Will it be the two-time champion Rorschaz?”
All screens focused on the gold-clad globus at the opposite end of the stadium. Rorschaz waved to the fans and smiled at the chorus of boos and cheers that hailed him. The screens then split between eight different competitors.
“Or will it be the first championship for Daniel, Shep, or Sellys and the five teams that upended Callisto, last year’s third place contestant?”
The crowd cheered and heckled but not as loud as they had for Rorschaz.
“Or will this be five in a row for the reigning champion, Ganymede?”
The platform under Lucifer shook as millions of feet stomped the aisles around the stadium and hands banged against the hollow tree trunks.
“Perhaps, I should have bet on him, too,” Lucifer said. “He certainly seems to be the crowd favorite.”
“People love a winner,” Elandril said. “But Sellys and the other five teams that beat Callisto in the semifinals are skirting the edge of the game rules. They’ve allied into a sort of super globus. When they start losing, they push to Sellys so he has ten members throughout the match.”
“And that’s legal?”
“It is this year but not likely to be next year.”
“Clever bastard!”
Lucifer elbowed his brother discreetly. “At least they don’t appear to fret much about rule breaking.”
“That will come in handy,” Sariel smiled.
They were interrupted by the announcer. “Let the games begin!”
Far below, the ten globi filed into the maze from their respective corners and worked their way up the mountain.
“Does it matter if they reach the top?” Sariel asked.
“No, but that’s almost always where the champion gets decided.”
“It is the most dramatic place to stage a final battle,” Lucifer said. “Makes for the best show.”
Elandril nodded and leaned against the balu
strade that separated them from a very long fall. The screens followed the color-coded elves as they twirled glowing stun sticks around them. Each of the sticks had a string that connected it to its wielder, so it could be hurled and retrieved with a series of flicks of the wrist.
Lucifer whispered to his brother again. “We could tie those to our wings …”
“Yeah …”
Elandril squinted at them. “What are you two up to over there?”
“Just watching the match,” Lucifer said.
“Uh huh.”
“And Sellys has lost two members in a brilliant assault by Ganymede!” the announcer said. “What a sequence of throws!”
The jumbotron played the strikes in slow motion as two of his singuli ran by the blue members and struck them soundly in the face. The cameras froze and panned in three-dimensional views of Sellys’ bodies flying down one of the maze corridors.
“Not to be outdone, Rorschaz knocks out two of Daniel. Whoa, looks like he got a radix on that one! That’ll teach him to use a centralized mind!”
The Jumbotrons focused on the Daniel globus and circled around the singuli as they froze and shook in place. They twitched and cursed, and the crowd loved it.
Lucifer looked at Elandril, who was biting his lip. “Radix? What does he mean?”
“Not everyone is setup to have a fully decentralized mind like I do,” he replied. “For the games, many contestants have a special singulus that controls the others. If it gets knocked out, they have to elect a new radix.”
“Fascinating,” Sariel said.
Elandril shook his head. “Maybe I shouldn’t have shown you guys this.”
Lucifer smiled and edged closer to the banister, even though he could see the huge, hovering screens just fine. “Don’t worry, friend. I will never attack your kind again.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
They both laughed.
“Fair enough. Let’s just say that I have no intention of killing an elf ever again.”
“Archimedes’ anus, folks! Did you see that triple kill? We’re going to check the record books for a moment, but boy, Ganymede is really on a tear tonight! Sellys is down to five members, and his allies have dropped another three to Ganymede within five seconds. We have it on confirmation. We have it confirmed by the record keepers, folks! Ganymede has set new records for fastest sequence of triple kills in different quadrants! Amazing!”
Lucifer swiveled to watch the screen. In two separate parts of the arena, members of Ganymede’s globus whipped their stun sticks through the air and incapacitated members from four different squads.
“Wow,” Lucifer said.
“Why do you think I picked him to lead my royal guard? He’s something else.”
“Daniel took out four of Shep’s members,” the announcer said, “but lost three of his own in the effort. Rorschaz is working his way toward Ganymede, folks. The two-time champion is making his way to the reigning champ! Here’s where the real show begins!”
Sariel wormed his way between Lucifer and Elandril and put his arms around them. “This is great.”
Below them, the crowd was on their feet. The excitement was palpable and a buzz of energy seemed to permeate the stadium. Lucifer got caught up in the movement as well, beating his hand against the banister to the same rhythm as everyone else.
Bum bum bada-da-dum. Bum bum bada-da-dum.
“They missed! Did you see that, folks? Eight total throws, but the champions ducked away and moved toward easier prey. Excellent feint-and-rolls. Picture perfect! Take ’em as they present themselves. They make this look too easy!”
The monitors in front of him flashed “Cheater! Cheater!” as members of the super-globus pushed singuli to Sellys. Their outfits changed colors to blue.
“He’s a disgrace to the royal color!” Elandril growled.
“Easy there, tiger!” Sariel said.
“And Sellys is back to ten members! Looks like he’s using a radix as well. He’s very vulnerable now, folks, and here come Daniel and Rorschaz! Better get through that forced relearning quickly or this is going to be the fastest ten singulus kill in history!”
A stun stick surprised one of Rorschaz’s members and the weapon twirled back to a green hand, causing the gold team to duck through a break in the hedge wall.
“Rorschaz got out of there with just one member lost. Looks like Daniel is going to be nowhere near as lucky. Two. Three. Six down. Daniel’s out! Daniel’s out! Ganymede, you are just a beast, sir! Just a beast!”
Lucifer watched as Ganymede dashed down the corridor, and Rorschaz moved in parallel toward Sellys. He moved around the other side of the hedge and plucked out three of the twitching blue elves before retreating back into the greenery. Shep sprang into an open area in front of Sellys just as the radix had apparently been elected in the globus, and he paid for it dearly. Sellys’ seven members devastated Shep, leaving just one member to stumble back into hiding.
“Quick look at the scorecard, folks,” the announcer said as the jumbotron flashed the leaderboard. “Ganymede 10, Rorschaz 9, and Sellys 7. There are a handful of others, and Shep is holding on with just 1, but the champions are dominating yet again!”
Sellys incorporated three more of his allies, drawing loud jeers from the crowd, but he didn’t show any concern on the jumbotron. His globus took in these newest members quickly and efficiently, unlike when the new radix was being elected, and moved confidently around the maze. He managed to surprise two of Ganymede’s members and quickly dispatched them.
Thinking that he had the upper hand, Sellys moved into the corridor, but Ganymede was waiting for him.
“Sellys has been utterly destroyed. Seven members gone in an instant. From the sound of the crowd, he will not be missed.”
Lucifer laughed as the crowd spat out long strings of curse words and exaltation of Ganymede’s kills. Ganymede stepped over the stiff bodies and moved on, twirling his glowing batons.
“Oh, lucky strike for Shep, and Rorschaz is down to 8! Worthy sacrifice there, Shep! You went out with a bang, didn’t you? It’s evened up for the final confrontation, ladies and gentlemen. Ganymede 8, Rorschaz 8. It doesn’t get any better than this!”
“Go Ganymede!” Sariel shouted. “Daddy needs a date with Rosaline!”
The screens showed past championship matches from the six years previous. Rorschaz apparently won the first two matches between them, but Callisto in pink had beaten most of Ganymede in that first encounter. In the second one, Rorschaz dominated Ganymede in a corridor, felling five singuli.
The third year Ganymede apparently won with a final lucky throw, but as Lucifer watched replays from the next three years, Ganymede got better. Five members left, then seven, then nine. This year he lost two to Sellys, a small setback, but these two globi were obviously the best of the bunch. What a match!
They were separated by three hedges and both globi kept recon parties of two singuli at each end of a corridor before moving on. Rorschaz lost a recon first, but Ganymede didn’t follow up and lost one of his own along a separate section of maze. The globi were converging on the top of the mountain, and there was less and less room to maneuver. The ultimate showdown was imminent.
Another Rorschaz singulus fell.
“Seven to six, folks. Here it comes!”
The crowd chanted for their respective heroes, and for the three royals in the balcony, that hero was Ganymede.
“Come on, Ganymede!” Sariel yelled.
As if in response, Ganymede unleashed a volley. Seven stun sticks flew through the air and four connected. Rorschaz’s remaining two singuli ran around the mountain pinnacle, and one of them unleashed his baton at Ganymede and struck true.
“Six to one, ladies and gentlemen! If you are not on your feet, you should be! What a championship!”
The Ganymede globus split into two groups of three and rushed the remaining target, but they didn’t throw their stunners. Instead, they struck him dire
ctly on top of his head and raised their hands to the stadium rafters, allowing the deafening applause to course over them.
Ganymede turned in all directions from the mountain top and bowed to the crowd. He made a formal curtsy to the balcony overhang before playing the crowd some more.
“You ready for this?” Lucifer asked his brother.
“All of them at once, right?”
“Yep, but after the viewing orb.”
“Of course.”