Ti held her hand up. I stopped and crouched, waiting for a fight. She signaled me forward and then made a hrra, hrra sound deep in her throat. The beast moved forward sniffing the ground cautiously. He blew air out through his snout twice in quick succession. This must have been the signal she had been waiting for because she moved us forward again at a slightly faster pace. She seemed to have a plan because she made every turn with caution but with confidence. At the end of one hallway, there was the coppery smell of blood and the remnants of someone at least mostly human. The skin color was the pale cast of someone from the Catacombs, that is what little that had been left. Despite all I had been through, the site and smell overwhelmed me and I threw up the paltry bit of broth that remained in my stomach. The beast sniffed at it, making me gag even more. Ti seemed content to wait until I was finished before signaling that we needed to move again.
No sooner than I was standing with my stomach under control, we heard a great hair-curling scream that was cut short followed by the baying of several more beasts.
My nervousness got my tongue moving, just to distract myself from what just happened, “Ti, how many do they put in here? What other beasts will we see?”
“All survive like me, all new like you, any poor caught stealing.” Before answering the other question, Beast went to defensive mode, positioning himself in front of me and began his barely audible growl, not facing where we were going but facing where we had been. A human man and child came into our aisle from the last turn, sprinting. The man saw us and as he ran, shoved the child at my beast and ran all the harder in the direction we had been traveling.
Beast didn’t flinch but brushed the child aside and continued to face whatever was incoming. I reached around Beast and yanked the child back to where I stood. We had to wait only a moment before the swarm turned the corner. Battle ants, which were mutated bullet ants, were headed for us. They were the size of mice but they literally ate everything in their path. They were oddly avoiding the walls, which were all manner of makeshift materials. Even Ti flinched and signaled for us to run.
I grabbed the child but it refused to budge, almost as if it all life had already left the small frame. I picked it up and attempted to carry it cradled in front of me. Ti rolled her eyes at me, the most human gesture I had ever seen her use and hoisted the child on her much bulkier frame. Beast pushed against my side, none too gently to get me moving. I took his advice. The ants were only about 15 strides away. They would head for the remains first, before following us. At least, I hoped so.
Ti moved with much more urgency than before, though only a spec of less caution. We made so many turns, back tracks, and returns, that I was completely lost. I was unable to map our path in my own head. In that time, we did not encounter the man again, but we did see glimpses of others, fighting and mostly dying to more strange creatures. But we never paused long enough to see any defining features either of the dead or dying. I assume the last part was to keep me from trying to drag along every poor soul I came across.
Finally, at a long thoroughfare that had a small cul-de-sac and only two exits, we stopped. Ti lowered her burden, glared at me and took up guard at the closest exit. Making another hrra sound followed by a tongue click, Ti signaled Beast to come stand guard with her. This was obviously a signal that the child was my responsibility. I moved to it and pushed back the hair from its face. Its gender remained unclear. Its face was flushed with fever but also ghostly pale, so it was likely a child of the Catacombs. I tapped on its face and hands. The child’s eyes opened and greeted me briefly but they were clearly glazed over from the fever. I had nothing to offer so I moved to Ti.
“The child lives but it is sick.”
Ti shrugged and maintained her position, waiting for something. Beast simply cocked his head as if hearing a new sound. Soon a rustle was heard followed by quick but not urgent footsteps. Vorn jogged in from the nearest exit. I couldn’t help how my heart raced both in shame in remembrance of the other day but also because I had missed him.
He seemed to look past me and focus on Ti, “We must go soon. The ants and the pack of needle-coat hounds are about to trap a number of people near the heart of the maze.”
“But what about Blue and Spider?” I asked. I thought I knew the answer but hoped I was wrong.
“Go, now. We no help all,” Ti’s response was just as I had feared.
Vorn finally looked at me and the child behind me and his eyes turned softer before returning to their hard-as-iron look, “The center mostly has humans. I have not yet seen your blue friend or the Spider.”
I scolded myself for hoping but I did anyway. Ti once again shouldered the child and we headed towards the south wall of the Colosseum. Because we were moving slower, I was once again aware of the crowd and its horrid sounds and smells of blood lust. Anger began to replace the fear. Anger at where I was. Anger that people could place a child in this maze of death and torture. Anger that my life was being ripped from me, shred by indignant shred.
We soon found Blue and Spider. As we turned a corner, we saw Spider lower a ragged knife and rip open Blue’s stomach. She looked at us and hissed, “Is the favored toy going to fall into the dust and weep? Why do they care so much to keep your pathetic body alive?” her body shuddered and fell next to Blue’s with a scimitar protruding from her chest.
Ti simply shrugged and went to retrieve Vorn’s sword, he had another strapped to his side. His eyes were beyond cold. They were calculating and filled with a darkness that I had not known was there. Beast blew air through his nose again and that seemed to snap Vorn out of his glare.
“Thank you again, friend,” Vorn reached down and rubbed the sides of Beast’s face where the fur was still soft and not needle-sharp.
I couldn’t process yet what Vorn, my hero, had just done but I did go to Blue, who was still alive, but just, “My friend, thank you. You have been kind to me when others sought to hurt me and shame me.” I reached down and placed my hand upon his cheek.
He smiled, accepting my words then whispered, “You are my morning glory. You deserve to be free, now go.” I felt the rumbling of his deep voice through my fingers at his parting words. It is a feeling I vowed to never forget.
Ti shook my arm to get my attention. Beast also butted my hand as gently as he could with his nose and again blew air through his nose to say something. I felt the hot tears run down my cheeks as my remaining companions pulled me away from my blue, giant-hearted friend. Vorn now carried the child over his shoulder, Ti moved in behind him, and Beast and I took up the rear. Beast was practically pushing me to keep up.
We were at a steady jog within a few turns. I concentrated on keeping my limbs moving and air moving in and out of my lungs. I couldn’t let myself stay back there in that final farewell. Beast actually whined and licked my fingers, seemingly in sympathy. I accepted it as all I could have right now. We had to get ourselves and the child out of this death trap. We came to one edge of maze, which was partially sheltered from the crowds due to how close it was to one side and how far it was from the others. A guard stood above the wall on a raised platform. He could clearly see us. He went so far as to tip his head ever so slightly before becoming overly interested in another part of the maze.
Vorn parted the barbed wires in one corner of the wall. It had already been cut. Vorn motioned for me to go through first. Then he handed the child through and crawled through himself. Ti helped wedge Beast through but did not come through herself.
“Others need me. I live. I help more,” and then she was gone, never giving us a chance to argue.
Vorn shrugged and motioned for us to follow him along the outer wall of the colosseum. Here we risked exposure if someone from the crowd perpendicular to our position happened to look our way. We were actually near one of the other tunnels. Based on the smell that wafted out of this one, it was one they kept beasts in. Their conditions weren’t as poor as our own. I supposed they fed on each other when one died. There were pens of
needle-coats, alligator-like lizards, man sized serpents, birds with sharpened claws and beaks. There were even a few large striped felines that didn’t seem to be mutations at all; they bore none of the hallmarks of those who were changed. There was a wall of smaller cages and boxes whose contents were hidden from casual observation.
At the very back, there was a small door. Small enough that we would have to climb through on hands and knees. Vorn was able to open this. It wasn’t even locked and I soon discovered why. It was a waste shoot. The most recent remnants from cleaning cages, which definitely wasn’t recent, was just inside the hatch. Vorn crawled in and then pulled the child in behind him. I crawled through next and Beast came through last with much scraping and struggling. The chamber on the other side was bigger than the hatch by about another foot, so we still had to crouch.
It would be difficult to carry the child in here. I thought for a moment while Vorn worked on closing the hatch and shoving as much of the refuse as he could up to it. I grabbed something that looked like an old blanket from the trash and dung and threw it over Beast and tied it down as best as I could. I then lifted the child to his back and then secured it in place. Beast whined at first but I patted his muzzle a few times, looked him in the eyes, and simply said, “You must do this so the child can live.”
He must have understood for he stopped whining immediately and licked my hand. He then blew air through his nose, almost as if to say let’s get this over with.
“We will follow this tunnel to the outer parts of the city. This becomes part of the sewers about 100 yards ahead. We will head south and west within the tunnels. Once we make it to the poor parts of the outer city, we will need to travel above. Let’s hope that it is dark by then or we may have to leave Fratero behind. He will be able to follow and find us once it is dark, if we must,” It was the most Vorn had spoken to me in weeks and he was himself again, not the cold, aloof man of yesterday.
I almost sobbed in relief but I kept my tears in check. There would be time for mourning later if we escaped the city and if we did not, it was moot point. Instead I asked, “How do you know so much of this city? Why are you the Champion? How did you have so much freedom?”
“Come, I will explain some as we walk,” we both seemed to be using the conversation as a means to ignore some of the more unpleasant parts, such as the smell, of our surroundings. Vorn was not usually so talkative. “I was brought here just as you were many years ago. I fought and performed for over a year. None could best me and I grew weary of the death. At one, perhaps fortuitous, match, I stopped a knife from hitting the mayor. It had been by chance on my part but the knife had pierced my good arm and put me out of commission. They mayor knew what had almost happened and was also shrewd enough that he did not want to see his prize fighter bested.
He stopped the match immediately and praised me for my valor in saving his life. He pardoned me and offered, a much more mercenary me at the time, rewards for returning and fighting each year. At first, I did come back just to fight. This was before I was taken in by Mr. Emance. I was so angry at the world, I wanted no rewards and I enjoyed letting my rage out, even if it was to please this gluttonous town with the blood of my peers.”
At the tunnel’s end, we came out into a much bigger system of tunnels. I assumed these were the sewers that served the city proper. I checked the ties on the child before Fratero jumped down. Once down, Vorn took the child and carried it cradle style in front of him for a time. He was right to. The blanket under the child had been worn to shreds from the needle-fur on Fratero’s back. Thankfully, the child’s meager shirt was still largely intact.
“What happened after you met Mr. Emance?” I knew my former master was a key to some kind of change.
“He educated me. He helped me see that it would be better to help others than to keep feeding my anger. I started using the matches as a way to find others to rescue. The Mayor did not make me fight many when I came back; he did not want to risk losing one of his bets. I began to make contacts. I worked with those who wanted to see changes. I found others who needed contacts to get out, such as the guard back there. This child is his, though the Mayor likely didn’t know it. The man took in the child after the woman who bore her died in the pits. Because of her coloring, he had to hide the child away from the eyes of the city. However, he could not suppress her natural curiosity and one day when she ventured into the market, she was caught.”
We took several more turns but I was beginning to tire. It had been a very long day already. Vorn stopped us at one of the few walkways beside the cesspool that we had been wading in. He had a very small canteen of water but no food. He trickled the water down the throat of the still feverish girl.
“Why do you call this beast Fratero?” Fratero huffed at my question and seemed to roll his eyes.
“Even changed as those like us are, we do not always see how the animals of the forests have changed. I met Fratero down here during one of my tenures when I helped with managing all of the beasts. He was clearly more intelligent than the others. No one else saw it, so I cultivated our relationship whenever I could tend to him myself. Fratero was born a needle-coat like all the others, however, he had a greater capacity to learn. Obviously, he cannot speak the way we do, however, we developed a sort of code system for conveying general ideas. He understands you and I perfectly and he uses different sounds to convey different things; though, it still requires either a lot of guesswork or familiarity to know what he is saying sometimes.”
“But why did you name him Fratero?”
“Fratero means brother and he is my blood brother. We have saved each other countless times,” he was quiet while I digested this idea that an animal was truly as intelligent as a human. I knew I really couldn’t cast stones; I was very different than many humans and had been considered little better than a beast because of it.
I nodded to convey my acceptance and then spoke to Fratero, “I am sorry I have been calling you Beast but I did not know your name. Thank you for helping with the child.”
He seemed to understand. His head nodded up and down, just like mine would if I was agreeing to something and then he huffed air into the palm of one of my hands as if to accept the apology. Next, he looked at Vorn and made a small whine.
“I agree my friend, it is time to continue. Is it near dark yet? We will need to head up to the city soon.”
Fratero simply nodded again and stood up from where he had rested. He began to head down the tunnel some more and looked back as if to say, “Are you coming?”
I simply stood and picked up the child. I could carry her for a time. Vorn nodded and indicated I should go first. It did not take us long before we found an exit into the dark streets of the outer city. Though we took pains not to be seen, there were some in the darkest allies, that watched us pass. However, Vorn seemed to count on them dealing with their own troubles and not getting involved in ours. Many were showing signs of being so far gone with the help of starvation or drugs that we may have seemed like nothing more than an odd dream come to life, especially with Fatero among us.
There was a wall around this city but the river that runs into its southern side was largely unguarded by virtue of its smell. Essentially it was a cesspool of garbage and human waste washed down through the city to get caught here. We waded through the muck, which was even more foul than what the sewers had been. Vorn held the child through this, to keep her that much higher above the filth.
We walked into the ever-darkening night and escaped this city of gluttony and sin: two lost souls, an intelligent needle-coat, and a human child from the Catacombs.
About the Author
Coralyn's first dream at the age of 12 was to be a teacher. She succeeded and has worked for years with middle school students to help them to realize their potential as writers and readers of both fiction and non-fiction. It finally became time to realize her second dream, to be a writer. She has been an avid reader of science-fiction and fantasy since the tender a
ge of 9 when her father introduced her to Anne McCaffrey for the first time.
She lives in Ohio with her two onery but very bright little girls and five cats.
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