The ogre towered over me, bigger than ever. Was he another of the Witches’ tricks to slow me down? I didn’t have time for this.
“I can’t stay here. I need to act fast!”
“Gurdan help,” he insisted. It was comical: an ogre offering me his help against a horde of gorillas.
“I don’t want your help. You’ll get yourself killed!” Why had the Witches thrown him into the Arena? I knew how much Stella cared about him, but I couldn’t afford to think about his safety right now.
Maybe that was the Witches’ plan: to distract me from my objective.
Just then, Gurdan punched through the debris and pulled in someone else. Or rather, something else. My eyes widened when I saw the gorilla’s nostrils flare. It was clearly disoriented. Without giving it the chance to get up, the ogre pounded on its chest with both fists, smashing it to pieces. I was stunned to see the huge animal disintegrate.
“Gurdan help,” he repeated after a moment of silence.
“You’ve convinced me,” I said, still shocked by the ogre’s brutality. I’d better not talk back to him.
I searched the floor for the key, but it wasn’t there. This one hadn’t been the gorilla I was looking for. My target was still out there somewhere. The horn sounded again. How many of them had already finished the level? Time was running out.
“This way.” The ogre lit up a passageway with his torch and motioned for me to follow him. We wound through a tunnel that was clearly below street level because I could hear the giant apes’ heavy footfalls overhead. From time to time I also heard low hisses. I felt strangely confused, in danger of losing my focus. It was them, the Witches, searching my mind.
“We’ve got to go back outside. How do you plan to help me if we stay down here? The key is up there!”
“Shh,” he said. He seemed to be listening for something. On the ground above us we could hear the sound of a single gorilla. Gurdan punched through the ceiling and a patch of earth crumbled over our heads.
I laughed. “An ogre’s hand popping out of the ground? That’s so Night of the Living Dead.” We were in Hell, after all.
“Talk too much, you,” he reproved me.
“It’s a family curse.”
The roof above us caved in when Gurdan dragged the beast down. Its ice-blue eyes glinted when it growled at me, threatening to tear me to shreds with its sharp teeth. This one wasn’t the key either, damn it all. Gurdan annihilated it all the same with one of his lethal blows.
Another giant ape peered through the hole above us and grabbed my companion by his bald head. “Gurdan!” I shouted. The beast yanked him up and flung him far away. I climbed out and the blood turned to ice in my veins. I was surrounded.
The gorilla that had picked Gurdan up snorted. Its dark eyes were watchful. It wasn’t a beast at the mercy of its instincts, it was intelligent and was studying me.
I unslung the long scythe from my shoulder and was ready when the first one charged. I dodged its attack with a backflip and ran it through with my deadly blade. Next, three apes attacked at once. I charged at them, taking them by surprise, and chopped off their heads with one blow. A chorus of enraged shrieks united to form a single howl. The rest of the gorillas seemed to have realized it wasn’t wise to wait their turn, so they all attacked at once.
“Shit,” I muttered, clenching my jaw. There were too many of them.
Gurdan reappeared. He dove into the fray, picking some of them up. I pulled out the gun and aimed at their foreheads. I didn’t miss a shot. The gorillas fell like pawns on a chessboard. When I ran out of bullets, I tossed the gun aside and rushed into the crowd, slashing throats and stabbing temples with my dagger.
Finally I met its black eyes: the gorilla with the key. I leapt down from the back of one of its followers who fell to the ground after tasting my blade.
The mighty ape faced me, waiting. The strongest, most intelligent, most prized one of them all. The last one standing, whom all the others had protected at the cost of their lives.
It stood there, its eyes fixed on me as I charged it with a war cry, my dagger unsheathed. Suddenly its eyes flickered blue. I stopped in my tracks, disoriented. Something dragged the ape out of my path, hurling him away. It was Gurdan, and his eyes were suddenly as black as oil.
“No . . .” I murmured in shock.
He was the key. And to get it I would have to kill him.
23
The Hardest Choice
Gurdan ran to me, proud he’d gotten rid of the last gorilla. I backed away, tightening my grip on the dagger. He seemed confused by my reaction. Did he mean to kill me as well? I couldn’t be sure. The Witches were rigging the game. They were our common enemy, but right now they were toying with us, making us slaughter each other.
“Gurdan save princess.” He laughed and stepped toward me. Despite his massive size and deep ogre voice, he seemed like an overgrown child.
“Gurdan.” I held out my hand to stop him. “Your eyes.”
He touched his eyes as though that might help him understand. Gurdan had no idea what the Witches had in store for him, no idea why they’d tossed him into the Arena. Not to help me, like he thought, but to prove to everyone how selfish I’d always been. I should never have let him come with me in search of the Castle. When they’d captured me, Gurdan had disappeared. I’d fooled myself into thinking the Witches didn’t care about him, but I was wrong. They had decided to use him against me.
So this was the sacrifice I would have to make to pass the trial.
I hid the knife behind my back. I didn’t want him to see it and realize what I was about to do. How I wished Stella was there beside me. The Witches knew I would keep playing their dirty game if it meant saving her. I was willing to do anything for her. They also knew that deep down I’d always been selfish. Even so, Gurdan didn’t deserve to die because of me.
The black one is deadly. The words from the clue echoed in my mind. Gurdan was deadly and had proved it. There was no doubt he was the key, and suddenly he seemed to realize it.
I could have shot him with the nail gun and claimed my victory, but I wasn’t going to give the Witches the satisfaction of seeing me kill one of my last remaining friends in cold blood. I would face him fair and square, and the stronger of us would win.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
The ogre came toward me, his footsteps heavy. I prepared to block his lethal blow but instead he pushed me out of the way a split second before a spear hit him in the throat, sending him flying backwards.
“No!” I shouted. I fired two rounds at the Soul who had killed him, then rushed to the ogre and knelt at his side. “Gurdan, no! What did you do?”
“Keep promise. Gurdan help princess,” he said in a broken voice.
“You stupid ogre, you didn’t have to die for me.” I pressed my hands against his wound, from which black blood was spurting. There was no way to save him—the spear had also lacerated the skin under his ear—but he had saved me. Again.
“Now,” he gurgled. He was trying to say something. “Now you keep promise. Save Kahlena.” I nodded and a tear slid down my cheek as he disintegrated into ash.
The key clattered to the ground but I didn’t pick it up right away. After a moment its black glow faded. It too was nothing more than a piece of shapeless metal. Clutching it in my hand, I looked up to where the Witches were watching the game. They would pay for this too.
In the end, I hadn’t been the one to make the sacrifice the trial demanded. Gurdan had sacrificed himself for me. In giving me the second key he had given me his life, and there I’d been, prepared to kill him. The Witches were right. I was a selfish asshole. Would Stella ever forgive me? I felt like a worm. If there was something I could still do, it was make sure he hadn’t died in vain.
The key was burning in my hand, reminding me that time was of the essence. I got up, trying to count how many times the horn had sounded. How many Champions had already found all three keys? If I remembered cor
rectly, four of them had already leveled up. Only two spots left. There would be time to grieve Gurdan’s loss. Right now I had to find the last key.
The sound of shots made me turn around.
It was my gun, the one I’d dropped on the field, thinking it was out of bullets. Dumb move, in an Arena full of Souls out to kill me. Three of them approached, looking threatening. The one brandishing my gun aimed it right at my face.
“Okay, okay!” I found myself with my back against a wall and raised my hands. “We can make a deal, no need to get angry. What do you want?”
“It’s your weapons we’re wanting.”
“What?”
“Your weapons. Swerds, guns, knives. Ammunition too.” One of them, who was toothless and had only one tuft of hair left on his head, leaned over and whispered something into the ear of the first one, who continued with his demands. “And the scythe on your back. Everything. Give it to us!”
“All right,” I said accommodatingly. “I’ll give them to you.”
The three nodded nervously. I felt kind of sorry for them. They looked like three hapless guys desperately trying to survive. Slowly lowering my hands, I pretended to go along with them but instead swiped the gun out of the first one’s hand and broke his nose with my elbow.
“Sorry, asshole. This is mine.” I put the gun away and drove two daggers into his temples. The second one attacked me and got a blade under the chin. His eyes went wide and he fell to the ground. The last one, the one who’d wanted my scythe, stood there, frozen. I took the weapon off my back and ran my thumb down the blade. “So you like my scythe, do you?” His eyes moved from me to the blade and then back to me, terrified. “Boo!” I exclaimed. He let out a shriek and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.
I smiled, but my moment of triumph didn’t last long. Like ants, hundreds of Souls poured onto the battlefield. No, they weren’t Souls. They were shadows, and some of the other Champions were battling them. It could only mean one thing: somewhere among them was the key to the way out.
I set off running, ready to jump into the fray, when a shadow passed me, flickering red for a second.
The last key.
I changed course and chased the shadow. It took off down an alley, but when I turned the corner it was deserted. Something overhead caught my attention. I scanned the buildings and spotted the shadow leaning out of a window a few floors above, its red eyes peering down at me.
The horn sounded again and I cut my hand on a broken window. “Fuck,” I cursed between gritted teeth, not because of the wound—with Witch’s blood in me it would quickly heal—but because the shadow had disappeared. I entered the building. The floor lurched upward. It looked like a bomb had exploded inside.
Suddenly, through a window, I saw the shadow darting through the building across from me. It was insane. I’d seen it several floors up. How had it gotten into the other building? I picked up a wooden beam that had fallen from the ceiling and connected the two buildings through a hole in the wall. The wood was splitting and I wasn’t sure it would hold my weight, but I hoped it would at least last long enough for me to cross.
I had to act fast. I took a running start and leapt onto the beam, but the shadow pushed it away on the other end and I tumbled into the void. I grabbed hold of an electrical cable just in time. Fortunately the power was down in the area. I dangled there and then swung myself up through a window.
Once again my target had disappeared, but it couldn’t be far away. I advanced further into the building. I glimpsed it as it disappeared around a wall to the right, but when I rounded the corner all I found was empty space. It was as though the building had been chopped in half. Peering down, I saw a swarm of shadows climbing the buildings, crawling toward me.
Instead of turning back, I clung to the side of the building and lowered myself. When I was close to the ground I jumped the rest of the way and hid in a side street. I couldn’t take on so many of them all at once. More importantly, I didn’t want to. Not if my key wasn’t among them.
I didn’t have much time. I clutched my dog tag. A Mizhya had tried to take it off me before the beginning of the tournament, but I had pointed my knife at her throat.
The last horn had to sound for me. Otherwise I would lose my Stella forever.
I leaned back against the wall. The grunts of the other shadows were close. Were they Damned Souls? Infernal beasts? Ethereal shadows my blade wouldn’t be able to bring down? That wouldn’t be surprising, coming from the Witches. The last key would be the hardest, but I was ready.
I sensed a flicker of movement overhead and looked up. My target was above me. Crouched on a low wall, it leapt down, but I was faster. Grabbing it by the ankle, I yanked it back, gripped it by the shoulders and slammed it against the wall. When our eyes met, my world crumbled at my feet.
It wasn’t a shadow. It was Stella.
24
A Promise with a Bitter Taste
“Stella!” I embraced her, holding her tight, and my lips instantly found hers. I felt like a desperate wanderer who had finally found his way home. I cupped her face in my hands but her gaze grew ice-cold and a second later her blade was at my throat. “Stella, what are you doing?”
“My name is Kahlena. I’ve told you a thousand times.”
“Why are you here? Why did they throw you into the Arena?” My goal was to make sure Stella’s life was safe, but how could I do that if she was there too? What game were the Witches playing?
“I chose to enter the game,” she said, leaving me baffled.
“Why would you do that? How can I save you if I need to protect you?”
“I’ve never needed your protection.”
I disarmed her and pinned her wrists to the wall, forcing her to look me in the eye. “Stella, this isn’t a competition between the two of us. I’m competing for you. To earn your freedom.”
“You’re wrong. I’m competing now too. One on one. I’ve decided to earn my freedom on my own.”
I stepped back, bewildered. “What are you talking about? Did they brainwash you? Now I get why they forced you to become a Mizhya—so they could pit you against me.”
“They didn’t force me to do anything.” As quick as lightning she snatched the knives from my belt, pointing one at the front of my neck and the other at my nape. I’d seen her make that move before. It was deadly. “You, on the other hand, took advantage of me.”
“What?!”
“First you left me to slowly go insane in Hell. Then, just when I’d found a happy medium between reason and madness, you came back to torture me. It’s your fault that they tore me away from my hiding place, that they kidnapped and killed my allies.” Stella shoved me back and struck a defensive pose. “They forced me to subjugate myself. You’re the cause of all this.”
“You’re angry,” I said, dodging her first attack, “but this will all be over soon, and you and I will be able to leave the Castle. No one will come looking for us. We’ll be free. Free to pick up where we left off. Free to love each other.”
“Love each other.” Stella laughed, mocking my words. “I saw your idea of love when you stuck your tongue into Kreeshna’s mouth right before my eyes.” She attacked me again but I spun her around and pinned her face to the wall.
“Stop talking bullshit. I was under her spell!”
Stella kicked my legs out from under me and I wound up on the floor. She dug her foot into my chest. “It wasn’t the first time it had happened. You know, when you become one of the Witches’ she-warriors, you get to know lots of things. Including how you spent your time when you were at the Castle. Commitment really isn’t your strong point, is it? Khetra and I ended up making friends.”
“Stella, this is no time for jealousy. Our survival’s at stake!” I shouted. I tried to get up, but she shoved me down again.
“You killed Gurdan!” she screamed, shattering all my defenses.
“I didn’t want it to happen. I’m sorry!”
“You know
what Kreeshna told me, after your kiss? She told me I should be grateful because when all this is over she’s going to let me watch you make love to her every night.”
“That’s never going to happen. It’s insane. You’re talking nonsense.” I broke free and somersaulted to my feet, back on my guard.
“I’d rather kill you myself than take the risk.” She was so nimble I didn’t see it coming when she whisked the scythe from my shoulder, fast as a shadow.
“Stella, it’s all the Witches’ fault, can’t you see that? They’re manipulating us, even right now.”
“No. They’re right. I can’t put my freedom in your hands. You’ve never even won an Opalion.” My eyes widened, my pride wounded. Stella didn’t believe in me. “It doesn’t matter, though. They’ve offered me another way out,” she confessed. “If I kill you, they’ll let me go.”
I staggered back, my mind reeling. While I was out battling for her, she was plotting to get rid of me to earn her freedom? Nothing made sense any more. The Witches were definitely scheming to get me eliminated, but I wasn’t about to play along. “I’m not going to fight you,” I said.
“Everything’s going to end just as it began.”
“With an arrow in my chest? News flash: you just shot one right into my heart.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve made up my mind.” She took a running start and with an acrobatic leap flew through the air. I dodged her blade just in time. She was serious. I continued to dodge her blows and counterattacked. I didn’t want to hurt her, but she had become too skilled.
“Stella, stop!”
“Fight, you coward!” she screamed. I was shocked. I had never seen her so furious before.
All at once, something happened, something worse than death: her eyes flickered, red as dawn.
“No . . .” I gasped, retreating. I tripped and fell to the ground. What twisted trick were the Witches playing on us? Stella was the last key. I would have to kill her to get past this level, but what sense would that make?
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