I still wanted to act scared, but I couldn’t let him wound me, of course. So, I feigned a kick at his knee. He brought the spinning blades down with a grace I hadn’t expected. I pulled my leg away just in time, though I wasn’t sure what, if any, real damage the blades would do.
When he raised the spinning blade above his head, I saw what was coming. He wanted to throw the weapon, so I feigned that I was going to roll to my left, then to my right, and back to my left again. He’d been expecting the feint, so when I rolled to the right, he threw it. The blade barely missed my body, but it did tear a hole in my new shirt.
“This was a gift,” I said as I lay on my back and examined the hole in my garments.
I looked up as two guards approached me, their weapons pointing at my chest. I waited a full second before one of them and brought his halberd down hard toward my neck. It seemed they still wanted to kill me rather than capture me.
I obviously hadn’t made my true strength clear.
The halberd stopped a fraction from my throat when I caught it in two hands. I flung the weapon back, and it sprang from the guard’s hands before hurtling into the spectators. I heard a thunk but no one cried out, so I figured I hadn’t just killed someone. I twisted my legs and kicked the feet out from under the guard who’d tried to kill me. I heard a snap and figured I’d just broken his ankles.
I jumped to my feet, snatched the halberd from the other guard’s hands, and tossed that one away too. The weapon spiraled through the air before burying itself into the metal wall outside the arena. I grabbed his large body with both hands and threw him over my shoulder. The spectators pushed each other out of the way before he landed where they were a moment ago.
I looked around and noticed everyone was silent now. “So, will you take me to the arena now?”
My answer came when a patch of dirt no bigger than my fist exploded in front of me.
The cool and quiet guard by the gate stepped forward and blew steam from the end of his blaster. “You want in the arena?” he asked.
At first, I was stunned by the question. After all, hadn’t that been what started this whole mess? Then, I noticed a tiny glint in the guard’s eye. He was looking at me. After a split-second, I realized he was actually looking behind me. There was something behind me. Something he’d been waiting for.
The shadows on the ground gave me one clue. A slight shift in the air, along with a quieting of the crowd gave me another. A sparkle, a dark spot, and a horizontal line gave me my third clue. The hoverships had arrived.
I was about to be captured… finally.
I found myself almost instantly cocooned by thin wires ending in hooks that dug into my skin a little. The net tightened, clamping my arms to my sides and my legs together fast enough that I lost balance, so I let myself tip.
The net was tough, but I knew I could easily break out if I didn’t get my way.
The guard who’d watched the entire battle squatted down in front of me. I lifted my head as far as I could to look up at him. He wore a deep frown.
“Human,” he said, “you have surprised me today. But surprise is not enough. You will fight in the arena, and you will die. Unfortunately, whether you decide to fight or stand and die quickly matters little now. The citizens will come to see, and either way, they will be entertained. I wish you a swift death. You have done well, and you have gained my respect.”
I was touched, sort of. He was still a guard, after all, and his job was to make sure the people assigned to fight to the death did so without escaping. My respect only went so far, but I appreciated the words nonetheless.
The net started to move as the hovercraft that launched it began to rise, dragging me across the ground. I feigned discomfort, though the little rocks and pebbles did nothing to my skin. I was tougher than I looked, but I grunted like I was a soft, squishy human.
A moment later, I was a dozen yards in the air. The pilot didn’t have to take me far. We hovered over a short building no more than five yards square with a heavy-looking gate on the top. A guard climbed a short ladder, unlocked and opened the gate while threatening who or whatever else was in there with his halberd.
Then, the net relaxed, and I was falling into the building. I caught myself with my arms, tucked into a roll, and stood, ready to fight whatever else might be in the room. When I saw my companion, all thoughts of breaking something vanished.
“It’s about time,” Reaver said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Reaver walked out of the shadows at the back of the pen. The time since I’d last seen her must have been difficult on her to say the least.
The pen we were in was made of interlocking stones, polished to a dull glow. The place was clean and appeared to have been recently swept, based on the tiny amount of dust that had been missed. It formed pale brown lines against its gray, sad backdrop.
The construction was solid, and though I was certain I could disassemble the building in short order, I wasn’t sure if I could do
