At the back of the pit, standing at the highest point in the crowd, Seb saw Sparks. It took all he had to refrain from waving at her. He might have felt infinitely more relaxed to have his crew around him, but when he scanned the beings in the crowd, none of them seemed to feel the same way.
Because he’d witnessed everything in slow motion, Seb hadn’t made the crowd wait long. But if he didn’t speak soon, they would get restless. A warm buzz ran through him to have his friends there and it gave him the push he needed.
“Beings of Caloon,” Seb said. He walked around the ring and looked at as many faces in the crowd as he could. “Let me introduce you all to the Shadow Order.”
The crowd were already looking at the three newest arrivals to the arena. Most wore blank expressions. At least, from a human’s perspective they seemed blank.
“Up at the back,” Seb said while pointing up at who he now considered to be his best friend, “is Sparks. The electronic genius, the gadget whisperer, the greatest escape artist I’ve ever met.”
The crowd turned to look up at her and Seb smiled to watch her glow red at his introduction.
After she’d dipped a nod, she glared at Seb as if to tell him to get on with it.
“The ugly brute in the box is Gurt.” As if to live up to his introduction, Gurt scowled at the spectators and Seb laughed. “I’ve never seen anyone handle a blaster better than him.”
When Seb looked at SA, he smiled wider than he’d done in a long time. “And this beautiful female”—he looked directly into her eyes when he said it, a slight waver in his voice and the hairs on his body standing on end—“is the Silent Assassin. She’s one of the deadliest beings in the entire universe, but she has a big heart. She’s one of the most amazing beings I’ve ever met.”
Lost in his adoration, Seb suddenly remembered his current position in the middle of the pit with hundreds of eyes on him. His face flushed hot as he looked back at the crowd and saw some of them giggling in response to his outpouring.
“Why are they all here, you ask?” Seb looked up at Bruke. “Well, my new friend Bruke, up there, has been telling the beings of the slums that the Countess’ days are numbered. That a revolution’s on its way. She’s crushed the beings of Caloon for too long and it’s about time someone stopped her. I’ve not been on this planet long, but in the short time I’ve spent here, I’ve seen what she’s capable of and I’m not going to stand by while it happens. You live in poverty because of her. You live in fear because of her. You watch the children you love kill their families because of her. You may not even realise this, but you watch invading ships set fire to your homes because of her. The ships that she says come from other planets to attack you are flown by her soldiers.”
Gasps swept around the place.
“Haven’t you ever wondered why the Crimson fleet never shoot anyone out of the sky? Even the worst pilots should be able to shoot someone down once in a while. The Countess wants you to feel scared and to see her as your protector. If you need her, you won’t revolt, right? It helps her stay in power. We’re here to take that power back. To stop the suffering.”
Some of the previously shocked faces changed at Seb’s words. The slack looks of fear turned into tightened scowls of determination. Although the majority of the beings there looked like they still needed convincing. “We’re not aiming to kill the Crimson foot soldiers because we know they were you once. But we expect many to get in our way. Should that happen, then we’ll roll right over them. For many of them, the beings they once were have gone. They’ve had their previous ways brainwashed out of them by the Countess’ harsh recruitment process.”
Several loud voices called from outside. Seb looked up at Sparks, who currently leaned over the side of the seats to look down at the entrance to the arena. When she looked back at him, her face told him all he needed to know—the soldiers had arrived.
“Okay,” Seb said. “It looks like it’s on now.” He spun on the spot to take everyone in. “Who’s with us?”
Most of the arena made some kind of noise. It suggested most of them were behind the fight, but they didn’t seem to be fully committed yet.
“Come on!” Seb shouted, his voice filling the enclosed space. “This is your lives and your children’s lives. I need more than what you just gave me! Who’s with us?”
The shout came louder this time and some of the spectators got to their feet.
Seb pointed toward the sound of the soldiers. “That’s better, but we need more. There’s soldiers out there who want to get in. Let them know what they’re coming in to. Make them think twice before they even enter the place. Who’s with us?”
This time the reply shook the walls.
When Seb looked at Bruke, Sparks, Gurt, and finally the beautiful SA, he saw a strong set to each of their features. They were ready for this.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The ladder Seb used to climb down into the fighting pit lay discarded on the ground. He jogged over to it and leaned it up against the pit wall. The spectators were ready for war, so they needed to act now.
As Seb climbed up over the pit’s wall, he felt the collective attention of the crowd on him. He’d always planned on leading the revolution, but now it had become real, a cold rush of panic smothered him. What if he’d got it wrong? What if they failed? Would the dwellers be better dying fighting for what they believed in, or would his meddling be the worst thing to happen to the citizens of Caloon? He shook his head to himself. It wouldn’t serve any purpose thinking about it now.
Once Seb had climbed free of the pit, he looked up at the expectant faces and forced confidence into his voice. “The first thing we need to do is get out of here.” The banging from the soldiers outside enforced his point. “Once we’ve done that, we’re heading straight for the red bitch in her palace.”
The crowd cheered again and Seb moved out of the way to let SA climb up into the seating area. She regarded him with her usual compassionate calm and it helped settle his quickened pulse. As much as he wanted to hug her, he held back. He didn’t need to get rejected in front of an arena full of beings.
Another tattoo of bangs came from the soldiers outside the arena. They obviously hadn’t got in yet, but it didn’t sound like it would be long. They needed to move fast.
Seb ran up the stairs to the top of the spectators’ area and wrapped Sparks in a tight hug. When he let her go, he smiled at her. “It’s good to see you, friend.” He looked over the side of the seating area down at the locked door to the arena. It had been barred with a large lump of wood.
“You look like crap,” Sparks said.
Seb laughed. “Thanks! I love you too.”
When Sparks didn’t answer, he looked down at his tan flight suit. Covered in blood, mud, and excrement, he shrugged. “It’s a fair point, I suppose. I’d hoped that by wearing clothes from the beings up in the elevated city, I could get the slum dwellers behind me. I thought it might be good to come at them as an outsider, someone who hadn’t been oppressed by the Countess for my entire life.”
Sparks surveyed the crowd with her purple gaze and many of them looked back. She spoke so only Seb could hear her. “Well, I think you’ve inspired them, but I’m not sure much of that is to do with what you’re wearing.”
Before Seb could respond, Sparks said, “Moses is pissed, you know.”
“Screw Moses, he’ll get over it.”
“I hope so,” Sparks said. “I don’t fancy another stint in The Black Hole.”
Another series of bangs and Seb looked over the side again down at the entrance to the place. Regardless of the bar of wood’s thickness, it wouldn’t hold forever.
When Seb looked back around, Bruke and Gurt had joined them. “Guys,” he said, “this is Bruke. He’s on our side and has really helped me out since I came back into the slums. You can trust him.”
“Like we could trust Phulp?” Gurt said and stared down at Bruke, his jaw set, his tusks pushing up his face.
; Bruke whimpered and physically shrank beneath Gurt’s strong glare.
“Phulp’s dead,” Seb said.
“You killed him?” Gurt asked.
“No, the Countess did. She set fire to him. We found his charred body in his hut.”
“Serves him right.”
Bruke’s jaw fell loose and Seb shook his head. “Don’t worry about Gurt. He’ll grow on you eventually. Like mould.”
Gurt scowled at Seb before a smile broke his stern expression. “Right.” Gurt raised his voice, clearly for the benefit of the onlooking crowd. “Are we going to stand around chatting all day?”
Several more bangs from the soldiers outside seemed to highlight Gurt’s question. Just before Seb could move off again, Bruke handed him his backpack. Seb shouldered it and said, “Follow me.” He then climbed down the stairs along the back of the seating section to the arena’s entrance.
They got to the bottom of the stairs and the walkway running around the outside of the seats. Only one way in and out of the place, it remained barred and it sounded like a small army were forming on the other side. The walkway stretched about two metres wide and ran the entire perimeter of the pit.
The thick door holding the soldiers back had a small hole in it. Seb peered through and pulled back almost instantly. He turned to the others as they all joined him from the stairs. “It looks like hundreds of them out there.”
The members of the Shadow Order seemed calm, unfazed about this minor threat. Bruke looked close to having a panic attack.
“Gurt, SA, I need you to guard this door. Is that okay?”
Both nodded and pulled their respective weapons free.
Seb watched Bruke’s eyes widen as he stared down at the knives and blasters. The large lizard then stepped away from the pair.
“Thank you,” Seb said. “I’m going to need you two to buy us some time. Sparks and Bruke, follow me.”
Seb ran around the walkway away from the entrance and left the sound of fists, poles, and blaster fire attacking the outside of the arena. Despite its fragile appearance, it had held up well against the assault so far.
When Seb got to what he assumed to be the opposite side of the arena from the entrance, he drew a deep breath and forced his world into slow motion. Upon scanning the walls, a spot stood out to him, so he rushed over to it. “Sparks,” he said, “I need you to use your watch to cut through here.”
No questions, Sparks kneeled down and held her watch up to the wall. She pressed it and a blue bolt shot from it to the spot Seb highlighted. The wood splintered and smoked.
“Bruke,” Seb said, “go back and tell the beings in their seats to come down here, okay?”
At first Bruke didn’t respond, his dark eyes wild, his pale forehead furrowed.
Seb put a hand on his muscly shoulder and looked straight into his eyes. “I believe in you. You can do this.”
***
By the time Bruke had returned, leading the line of beings from the seats, smoke filled the walkway and Sparks had burned a hole in the wall as large as the pit’s entrance. A normally relaxed being, Sparks stood rigid.
“What’s up?” Seb asked.
But Sparks didn’t reply. Instead, she stared at the smoking wood and Seb quickly got it. Of course, fire.
“Bruke,” Seb said to his friend, “I need you to go outside and lead all the beings far away from here, okay?”
Bruke nodded, walked out of the pit, and guided the first of the pit’s spectators through to safety.
All the while, Seb listened to the shots of blaster fire and the pounding of the soldiers’ assault on the front door of the pit. It wouldn’t be long before they busted through. They just had to hope the door would hold for long enough.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
It seemed to take forever for the line of beings to file out of the hole Sparks had made. The banging continued on the door from where the Crimson soldiers did their best to beat it down, but it had held for the entire time. Somehow.
After Seb watched the last spectator file through the hole, he looked at Sparks. She seemed much calmer than she had, the threat of fire now completely gone. Where there had been smoking wood around the improvised exit, there now remained only a charred outline.
“That looks like the end of them,” Seb said. “Wait here for a moment. I need to talk to SA and Gurt.”
As Seb ran around the walkway back to the front door of the arena, he heard the crash of splintering wood. The door must have finally caved in.
The sound of battle flooded into the space and Seb sped up. Blaster fire pulsed and knives squelched. Maybe the soldiers were fighting back and maybe not. SA and Gurt were more than capable of making that level of sound on their own.
When Seb rounded the corner to see his friends in full swing, he watched it for a second, mesmerised by their synchronicity. A beautiful and bloody ballet, they dropped soldier after soldier when they came through the now shattered entranceway.
“Good work,” Seb shouted at them. “Keep it up.”
“For how long?” Gurt called over his shoulder.
“I need another five minutes at the most.”
“Be as quick as you can!” the Mandulu shouted back, and then he dropped three soldiers in quick succession.
***
When Seb got back to Sparks, he breathed more heavily for his quick jog around the other side of the pit. He dipped a nod at her. “We have five minutes.”
“For what?” Sparks said.
But Seb didn’t respond. Instead, he stepped through the hole she’d cut in the wall and looked at the gathered crowd on the other side. Bruke had done a good job getting all the spectators clear of the wooden structure.
A quick nod at his green-skinned friend and Seb dropped his backpack on the ground. After he’d ripped the zip free, he pulled out the plastic container with the flammable pebbles in it, took a handful, and passed them to Sparks.
Sparks stared down at the pile in her large palm and said, “What are these?”
Seb ignored her question. “We need to lay these like breadcrumbs around the outside of the arena. No more than a few inches between each one, okay? You go one way and I’ll go the other. Only go as far as you can without being seen by the soldiers. We can’t have them knowing we’ve made another way out.”
The look on Sparks’ bespectacled face suggested she wanted more information, but the urgency of their situation seemed to stop her asking. When Seb ran one way with the open pot, she ran the other.
One pebble every few inches, Seb dropped them as quickly as he could, his hands shaking as he listened to the battle moving further inside the fighting pit. Had he asked too much of Gurt and SA?
But he couldn’t think about it. The quicker he set up the pebbles, the better it would be for all of them.
The farther Seb ventured around the pit, the louder the blaster fire called out. Much farther and he’d bump into the soldiers. For a second, he listened to the battle, doing his best to assess his friends’ situation.
Soldiers called out as they fell and blaster fire continued unrelenting. SA and Gurt were doing just fine.
***
Seb’s stomach tensed when he got back to the hole in the arena and looked into Sparks’ purple eyes. He couldn’t put it off any longer. “These pebbles are highly flammable.” He watched her jaw drop. “Explosively flammable, in fact.”
“What?” she said.
“I’m going back in there to get the other two. Once we’re clear of this place, I need you to light it up with your watch.”
“You want me to start a fire?”
“We need to, Sparks. I appreciate what I’m asking you, but you’ll be on the outside of the flames, not trapped by them.”
A scowl and tight lips met Seb’s request.
“This will save everyone’s life.”
Sparks didn’t say anything.
“It’ll be fine. Trust me.”
Still nothing.
Seb patted his
small friend on her shoulder and ducked back into the pit. She would come good when he needed her to.
The smell inside the arena dealt Seb a physical blow and he snapped his head back at the shock of it. Cauterised flesh and the rich reek of spilled blood. It hung as heavy as humidity, and he had to breathe through his mouth to keep going.
The sounds of Gurt’s blasters ran faster than ever, each shot so close to the one before it they sounded almost like a continuous tone. It sounded like him and SA were being stretched to their limits.
When Seb rounded the corner, he found his friends had lost some ground to the soldiers. More of the crimson robes had slipped into the place and they looked to be slowly gaining the advantage.
One of the larger soldiers blocked the entire door frame and in the few seconds he’d witnessed, Seb saw it take at least thirty shots from Gurt without slowing down.
“Follow me,” Seb shouted at his friends.
They didn’t need asking twice.
SA came first, Gurt holding back the onslaught because he had the range with his blasters to do so. Once she’d gotten clear, he followed after them.
Seb fought for breath as he ran, exhausted from what they’d had to do so far, but he kept up his pace, spurred on by the sounds of the soldiers on their heels.
Before they reached their exit, Seb skidded to a halt to see some of the soldiers had come around the other way. A wall of them blocked the walkway. As one, they raised their blasters at them.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
As soon as the first Crimson soldier’s blaster glowed red, Seb’s world slipped into slow motion. He ran forward, avoiding every shot and drawing the fire with him.
The Crimson War: A Space Opera: Book Three of The Shadow Order Page 12