by Will Wight
The watching Travelers loved that. They roared and stood, some of them literally glowing with excitement. Those few shone like bolts of lightning themselves.
A gong rang out, echoing through the stadium, apparently announcing the end of the fight.
After about five minutes of non-stop cheering, Corthis raised a hand. He had once been a truly enormous man, but now age was catching up to him. His hair and beard were as much gray as black, and Leah suspected that he hadn’t had his huge gut for long. But his arms were as wide around as Simon’s waist and thick with muscle.
“Men and women of the Wastes!” Corthis announced, his voice ringing like a town crier’s. “We have a royal visitor!”
A few people laughed, a handful even booed, but most stayed silent. Everyone in the stadium, even the bleeding man on the floor, turned to look at Leah.
Well, her parents had prepared her for nothing if not speaking in public. “I would speak with you, Corthis, if you represent these people. May I approach?”
Without waiting for a response, she walked toward the stairs leading up to Corthis’ box.
“Anything for my queen!” he shouted, and a dozen spectators laughed. Leah walked up into the box, her guide and her bodyguard following.
Up close, Corthis seemed to fill the entire box. Between his loud voice, his expansive gestures, and his physical size, he had a sense of presence that made him almost overwhelming. Also, he had a huge snake wrapped around the head of his chair, and he was leaning against it like a pillow. That was the sort of disturbing detail that she was sure he used to throw people off track.
“So, Your Highness, what can I do for you?” he asked smoothly, as soon as she entered the box. She did not let herself be rushed. Instead, she pulled up a chair, angling it so that she could look him in the eye.
“I suspect you know,” she said. “The Endross Travelers have settled here instead of seeing to their duties in the kingdom. We have an Incarnation running around loose, and none of your Travelers to help contain it.”
Corthis opened his eyes wide, as though startled. “Only one Incarnation? Why, this situation must be better than I’d heard! Let’s all pack up and go home right now!”
Scattered laughter from the nearby seats. Corthis was making no effort to moderate his voice.
“You are all Damascan Travelers. Your duty is to your country.”
“Let us speak seriously,” Corthis said, which had to have been a deliberate insult. “We have no Overlord above us. We cannot stand against an Incarnation. What are we to do? Who is to tell us our duty?”
Leah let a little heat into her voice; it was appropriate at this point. “I’ll tell you what your duty is not, Traveler Corthis: hiding while the citizens of Damasca die beneath the lightning of your Incarnation.”
Corthis smiled and spread his hands, not at all put off by her words. “I still see no reason why we should return to a devastated kingdom instead of staying here to secure our own lands.”
“Because I command it,” Leah said. She had intended to wait a little longer before playing that card, but he had set her up too well.
“And who are you to command me, little girl?” Corthis asked, amused.
Leah shrugged. She raised her voice to match his, letting her words echo through the stadium. “Let’s find out. You value bravery in combat here, don’t you? Let’s meet in the ring.”
She didn’t move, exactly, but she shifted so that the light caught the rubies set into her crown and spear.
Corthis coughed. “None of that, now, none of that. No one doubts the strength of Ragnarus, that’s for sure.”
A few people in the crowd murmured uneasily.
“But it’s not the strength of your Territory that’s in question,” he continued. “And what is the strength of a leader if not the strength of his men? Let’s test two of yours against two of mine, and see who comes out on top.” He smiled as though he had finally trapped her. In that moment, she almost pitied him.
Endross Travelers had a reputation for being brave, vicious, and slightly insane. They were also known to be stubborn, stupid, and notoriously predictable.
Leah saw nothing here to refute that belief.
“Agreed,” Leah said, pretending to be reluctant. Helene, to her credit, didn’t hesitate. She loosened the sword at her side, checked a couple of knives, and walked down the stairs to the center of the stadium.
Simon, on the other hand, stopped and gave Leah a questioning look, which was not the image she wanted to present in public. He should have given every appearance of accepting her orders without question.
“You’ll be up here alone,” he said, in a low voice, which made it a bit better. Her bodyguard was supposed to worry about leaving her unprotected.
“Don’t worry about that,” Leah said, loud enough that Corthis could hear her. “I have nothing to fear from him.” It was true; she could activate her crown as quickly as she could speak, she held her Ragnarus spear in her hand, and she had a couple of other surprises prepared in her pockets. She could handle a couple of ordinary Endross Travelers.
“He’s right here, though,” Simon said, in the same low voice. “Why don’t we just deal with him?”
What did he mean by ‘deal with?’ Did he literally mean make a deal with the man, or was he suggesting execution? Or perhaps torture? With Simon, she wasn’t sure.
“I have every confidence in your ability to ‘deal with’ anyone. However, please proceed into the arena and do as your queen commands.”
Simon winced, but he managed to execute a fairly credible bow. “And what does my queen command?”
“Win.”
“As you wish,” he said. His cloak trailed behind him as he walked down the stairs.
Corthis shouted a couple of names, and two big leather-clad brutes walked from the seats. One of them held a huge two-handed sword, and the other walked with something like a glowing blue crocodile at his side.
“The Queen’s men will be put to the test of the storm!” Corthis called, in his booming voice. The crowd’s cheering drowned even his bellowed words. Helene, Leah noticed, rolled her eyes at being counted among the Queen’s ‘men.’
The four combatants stood on the sand. The three Endross Travelers looked like dogs at the ends of a series of chains, each straining to reach the others but barely holding themselves back. Simon, in contrast, hadn’t lowered his hood or summoned his sword. He wasn’t crouched, or in any kind of stance Leah could recognize. He just stood there.
“What’s wrong with your boy there?” Corthis asked in a whisper. “Is he carrying a doll?” Leah didn’t respond, hoping he would take it for mysterious confidence.
From somewhere in the stadium, a gong rang out, and the Endross Travelers started moving.
Not faster than Simon, though.
In an instant, he had crossed the space between him and his two opponents, and had one hand around each of their necks. He heaved his shoulders, tossing them three paces backwards, over the short wall and into the stands.
The gong rang again, weaker this time, as though the one ringing it hadn’t been quite prepared. The glowing crocodile hissed and ran up to Simon, but Simon leaned down and stared it in the eyes. He didn’t do anything but stare, as far as Leah could tell, but the reptile froze. Then it backed up, moving in a reverse waddle until it got far enough away to scurry out of the arena entirely.
“Are they out of bounds?” Simon called up to the box. Leah didn’t think it mattered whether they were disqualified or not; they lay motionless on the steps and didn’t show any signs of stirring.
Corthis cleared his throat. “Indeed they are, indeed they are. That was…a remarkable display.”
Helene had her head cocked and was looking at Simon as though she had never seen him before.
Leah shouted down into the ring. “Simon, why don’t you keep going while Corthis and I have a talk?”
Simon swept another bow in her direction.
“What d
o I do?” Helene muttered. She was probably talking to Simon, but Leah could still hear.
“Relax,” Simon suggested. “Get a good seat, have a drink. If Leah needs me to keep going, I’ll have to switch out sooner or later. You can take over for me then.”
Leah turned to Corthis, making a point of not looking into the arena as the gong rang again. “We were discussing my Travelers?”
“Yes…” Corthis said absently. He seemed to be having trouble tearing his eyes off the spectacle below. This time, lightning flashed in the corner of Leah’s eye before a body hurtled into the stands. “Look, Your Highness, I’m just trying to do right by my people. There’s really nothing they can do to help in the outside world. More importantly, they believe there’s nothing they can do. And there’s nothing more deadly to an Endross Traveler than a lack of self-confidence.”
The gong sounded, and Leah pretended not to notice. “I could debate this with you, Corthis. I don’t agree with your assessment of the situation, and I could explain why. But I don’t have to.” She leaned closer, forcing him to look away from the fight and meet her eyes. “It is my place to determine when and where I need my people. It is not yours to question and second-guess, do you understand me? Not now.”
This was a tactic Leah had seen her father use to great effect on more than one occasion. There were two possible outcomes: either Corthis would collapse and do what she said, or he would act out of wounded pride and…
His eyes hardened, and the beginnings of a sneer grew on his face. The ghost of fear chilled Leah’s heart. Maybe she had miscalculated. If he stood against her here, she would have to kill him. Or have him killed. Either way, the Endross Travelers would at best divide, at worst rebel.
He started to respond, but his eyes were drawn to the arena floor. His words died. Leah followed his gaze.
Simon stood, his hood down at last, surrounded by four Endross Travelers and just as many summoned beasts. One of them was a snake as big around as a tree trunk. Its eyes glowed shining blue, and its exposed fangs sparked with lightning.
Leah’s breath caught. Simon had seen one of those serpents before. It had killed his mother and almost killed him. If he froze up now…
Simon leaned in, looking the giant snake in the eyes, ignoring the other monsters and Travelers around him.
In a voice audible from her box, he announced, “I’ve seen bigger.”
Then he held his hand out to one side and summoned his blade.
It was, as usual, awkwardly long, probably seven feet from hilt to point. It gleamed in a graceful, slightly curving arc, and Simon held it in one hand.
“What kind of Traveler is that?” Corthis asked.
The gong rang.
Almost as one, the four Endross Travelers and their creatures blasted a wave of sparks, light, and crackling lightning, all directed inwardly, toward Simon. For a second, Leah was blinded.
When she finally blinked her eyes clear, Simon had landed with his feet on top of one of the other Travelers, slamming the man chest-first into the sand. With the back of his blade, he knocked a second Traveler backwards, sending him staggering into the back wall of the arena. In the reverse stroke, he sliced one reptilian monster’s wing off. It screamed and writhed on the ground.
Simon leaped again, landing on the third Traveler and bisecting his beast from head down to tail. The final Traveler screamed and raised a sword, which flashed a bright white. Simon looked down at the redheaded doll—Rebekkah—in his left hand, and then looked up at the last Traveler standing.
He stabbed his blade down at an angle into the sand and walked toward the man with the sword. The other man struck, but Simon swayed to one side.
Then he punched the man in the face, laying him out on his back.
The snake slithered up behind him, catching him apparently unawares, and Leah had to resist the urge to call out. Without turning around, Simon stepped back, slamming his heel down on the serpent’s head with a wet, audible crunch.
The rest of the snake’s body spasmed and went still.
The sound of the gong floated over the utter silence in the rest of the stadium.
Corthis’ sneer had transformed into a look of complete disbelief.
Leah raised one eyebrow. “As I said, Traveler Corthis, you don’t have a choice.” And, just in case that threat wasn’t blunt enough, she added, “I wonder how quickly he could jump up here, given a reason.”
Either he somehow heard her across the distance of the arena, or else he had the world’s best natural timing, but Simon’s shadow fell across Leah’s face. He was crouched on the railing of Corthis’ box, his cloak falling behind him, his ridiculously long, gleaming sword held out to the side in one hand.
He didn’t say a word, and he didn’t look toward Leah. He just stared at the big Endross Traveler, who was steadily losing color.
Leah stood. “Every Traveler who is capable will come with me right now. I expect to see the rest of you in my camp outside Cana within three days’ time. If you do not arrive by dawn three days hence, I won’t come back. He will.”
Simon kept staring. Leah could have sworn that she heard the doll’s distant, whispered laughter.
Corthis cleared his throat. Then he did it again. “Yes, my Queen.”
“Good answer.”
***
Only a handful of minutes later, Leah was walking back across the Lightning Wastes with Helene beside her. A dozen Endross Travelers walked behind them, keeping a healthy distance back, and behind even them was Simon, hanging around the area like a watchful sheepdog.
For some reason, Helene kept shooting glances backwards. “So, that Simon of yours,” she said at last.
“What about him?” Leah asked. She couldn’t help but feel a little pleased with herself. If Simon could repeat this performance, she could think of several scenarios where just the demonstration of his talents would prove very useful indeed.
“That was an impressive display,” Helene went on, taking a drink from her flask again. “If I were fifteen years younger, I’d have caught a guy like that. He’d have never stood a chance. Does he belong to anyone?”
Well, this conversation had rapidly taken a turn into uncomfortable territory. “He’s not a dog. But if you’re asking me if he’s in a relationship, no, I don’t think so. He tends to spend most of his time alone.”
Helene shrugged. “You can cure him of that. If I were your age, I wouldn’t let him get away.”
Leah stared straight ahead, determined not to show any reaction. Her aunt had droned on this topic with disturbing regularity, though more often than not, she had tried to set Leah up with Alin. “He does have a way with swords, I’ll give you that.”
“What other virtues does a man need?” Helene nodded decisively, as though that settled the matter, and then she upended her silver flask over her own head. Water. Had it just contained water the entire time?
Helene probably wasn’t the best source of advice, but she had played her role in this operation well. So had Simon, and she would need to thank him for that.
As they stepped through another Endross Gate and back home, Leah let her thoughts slide to the next item on her list.
The Endross Incarnation wouldn’t go down easily.
Maybe Simon could help with that as well.
Valor unfettered is no more than recklessness.
Your bravery must be matched by an equal measure of patience, compassion, and understanding. Otherwise, it is worthless.
-Elysian Book of Virtues, Chapter 7: Gold
CAVERNS OF FLAME
Perhaps due to the harsh and unforgiving nature of life in the Caverns of Flame, Naraka Travelers do not consider mercy a virtue. Tragically, it is often seen as a weakness, rather than as a component essential to true justice.
-Elysian Book of Virtues, Chapter 8: Blue
The ash hound looked up at Rasmus, one of its eyes cataract-white, the other glowing orange like a hot coal. It growled once, flame licking up its
mane and back, before it hopped around playfully.
Rasmus took a step back, lest the pup scratch up his shoes. This was the first creature he had called, and he knew he should feel grateful. Ash hounds were useful, summoned all over the kingdom to sniff out murderers. With proper control and training, they could find one murderer in the center of a crowded city, even if he had been hiding for decades. They were handy beasts, he could admit that, but they were just so...common.
First off, they looked like ordinary charcoal-colored dogs. What kind of Naraka Traveler inspired fear and respect by walking his dog around? Any villager with a leash and a mutt could strike just as much of an imposing figure. Besides, he had barely to turn his head to see a pair of ash hounds worrying at a well-worn haunch of meat, or another pup burrowing deep into a pile of yellowed human bones. His own small hound whined, as if he wanted to join them in their play, but was afraid to leave Rasmus alone.
He didn’t share a bond with this creature—he was no Helgard Traveler—but Rasmus knew that a simple mental call would bring the dog running back, so he released the creature with a simple psychic effort. The flames on its back flared up with its joy, it left one lick of scalding-hot saliva along the side of his leg, and then it bounded off to dive into the stack of bones.
For Naraka Travelers, the trick was modifying your mental call to attract exactly the creature you wanted, and getting it to do what you intended. There was rarely a long-term bond between summoner and summoned, except in certain special cases.
At least he had finally commanded a beast of Naraka, and it had responded. He had taken three days of preparing bait, patiently waiting, and constant mental effort to lure even this pathetic specimen close. This should be a day of celebration, but he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
That disappointment flared into hot, sickening shame when the ground rumbled around him, and Taichon's shu'kra erupted from Naraka's red stone.