NexLord: Dark Prophecies (26 page)

They headed down the passage and entered
another room.  This one had gladiators in various states
of undress, some had attendants bandaging wounds and others stood
in groups.  Aerin saw one talking about his last battle
and showing the others the move he had made.

The two boys came to a halt in the center,
and though a few of the gladiators glanced their way, no one seemed
to care.

Behind
them,
they heard a man’s voice yelling from down the hallway, “Hold it
right there, you miscreants!”

“Time to go!” Dono exclaimed and headed
across the room toward another hallway entrance.

But as they tried to go past some of the men
a large gladiator grabbed the two boys by the back of their collars
and picked them up off the floor.  “Perhaps you should
wait and see what the man has to say,” he noted.

“Put me DOWN,” Dono exclaimed, “I hope you
know you are obstructing a personal acquaintance of Temmen!”

“Temmen, hmmm, has anyone noted Temmen
fraternizing with street rats recently?  I thought not,”
he said at the silent answer to his question.

“I’m not lying, ask Katek!” Dono said
desperately, dredging up the name Aerin had mentioned the day
before.

One of the two guards that Dono had sent on
the wild goose chase arrived.

“I’ll take these boys now… and
thanks.  
Sorry
they got
by to disturbed you,” the
red-faced
guard said.

“Hold on, I know how a street rat could know
Temmen’s
name, but Katek is
another matter.  Perhaps we better check this out,” the
gladiator noted.

The guard shrugged.  “I really
doubt that these boys are more than adventuresome idiots, bent on
meeting their hero, but all right, I can wait.”

The gladiator finally dropped Dono and Aerin
to their feet and then stalked down a
hallway.   After a brief moment of silent
embarrassment between the guard and boys, the gladiator returned
with Katek in tow.

“No,” the young gladiator was saying, “I
didn’t invite any locals down.”

“Well then, perhaps the guard is right then,”
the other gladiator stated.

Then Katek got a good look at
Aerin.  “Well, if it isn’t the staff wielding city
boy.”

Aerin nearly bristled from
Katek’s
arrogant speech, especially since he
figured that Katek was about his age.  But his reasons
for coming down were too important, so he swallowed his pride.

“Yes, and I’m sorry we had to use your name,
but I have to see Temmen’s challenger!”

“So you do know these boys?” the guard
inquired.

“Yes, I’ll take responsibility,” Katek
stated.

The guard looked troubled, but he didn’t want
to argue with a gladiator, not even one in training.

“As you wish,” he noted, and then headed back
up the tunnel.

“Come,” said Katek, “I must return, Temmen is
about to enter the sands.”

Aerin hesitated, but Dono poked him, “It’s
nearly time for the bout, you’ll never get to the other side of the
Arena before it begins.”

Aerin nodded and followed Katek.

When they reached the doorway in the hall
Katek requested that they wait, he had to attend
Temmen.  He assured them that he would call them in and
let them watch the bout once Temmen had entered the Arena.

In the
hallway,
Dono was beside himself with
excitement.  “Isn’t this grand, we’re going to watch the
battle from Temmen’s own entranceway to the Arena!  This
is incredible!”

Aerin didn’t respond.  He couldn’t
put his finger on it, but he had a terrible feeling that something
was wrong.  The
challenger
Temmen was about to face was a murderer, and
Aerin knew he was here for something more than fighting in the
arena.

Soon Katek opened the door and ushered the
two boys into the room.  Weapons and various pieces of
leather and metal armor stood neatly in racks around the
walls.  A table and two chairs filled out the rest of the
chamber.  Up three steps was a wide opening where
sunlight streamed into the room.  The mighty roar of the
crowd shook the very stone of the floor, penetrating in from the
opening onto the sand.

Katek motioned, and they joined him at the
top of the three stairs.  From that
position,
they found themselves looking out at
sand
level to where the two
combatants were taking their marked positions for the beginning of
the bout. 

Katek began explaining the proceedings to his
two guests.  “The judges granted the
challenger
first choice, he chose the
sword.  Temmen could have matched him sword against
sword, or picked the chain or the quarterstaff, you see what he
chose.”

Quarterstaff in hand, Temmen faced the giant
of a man before him.  The
challenger
was dressed much as Aerin had first seen him
on
that fateful day
in the
forest.  The handle of a Great Sword projected above his
muscular shoulder.  He wore straps of leather over an
otherwise bare chest.  Leather fighting trunks came to
his mid thigh and sandals that had leather thongs winding up to the
base of his knees were on his feet.

Two rows of golden chains were tattooed
around his wrists and his head had short bristling hair, almost
flat on top.  He smiled a white-toothed grin at his
adversary. His skin was not as tanned as Aerin
remembered
as if he had spent more time indoors
since that summer when he’d led the Togs that murdered Aerin’s
parents. But the same snarl adorned his face, though this time it
seemed almost insulting. His
deep-set
dark eyes were glued to
Temmon’s
face as the combatants faced each other.

Temmen was dressed as a gladiator, wearing a
leather vest,
a round
metal helm
that covered the top of his head and projected down along the jaw
line, but left his ears and face free.  He wore a
segmented leather skirt and sandals.  Leather wrist
guards protected his forearms nearly to the elbows.

“What is a NexLord doing battling in the
Arena?” Katek said, more to himself than to his
guests.  Aerin chose to answer.

“He’s not a Nexlord. I fear this man brings
evil with him, and I would warn Temmen to
beware
if I could.”

Katek glanced at Aerin, “Fear not for Temmen,
he is the greatest gladiator in the land.”

"So I've been told," Aerin answered, glancing
at the
bright-eyed
Dono next to
him.

Temmen planted the quarterstaff in the sand
and stepped forward while extending his hand for a warrior’s clasp
of respect, prior to the beginning of the bout.

The grinning challenger slapped his hand with
his own, disdaining to clasp hands.

Temmen’s jaw tightened and the crowd
booed.

“This
Phassic
is a coward; he does not even respect his
opponent!” Katek growled.

“Is that the man’s name, or a title?” Dono
asked.

“That is his misbegotten name. Now hush, the
bout is about to begin and I must concentrate.  Temmen
will expect an accounting of every move from me
afterward
.  When this is done you two
must quickly depart before Temmen returns, understood?”

“Yes,” Dono agreed for both of them.

Out on the
sand,
Temmen stepped back and grasped the waiting
quarterstaff, without ever taking his eyes from his opponent.

Phassic reached slowly above his shoulder
with his right hand and grasped the hilt of the Great
Sword.  He pulled it out slowly, and then extended it
point first toward Temmen.

“He tries to impress Temmen, but that won’t
do him any good,” Katek whispered.

Temmen frowned and glanced around the Arena,
like a caged animal looking for an
escape
, before he pulled his eyes back to his
opponent.

Aerin glanced at Katek and saw a look of
puzzlement on the young gladiator.

Phassic suddenly swept the sword back and up,
while he stepped forward. The Great Sword swept down in a
cross-body cut that attempted to cleave Temmen from shoulder to
hip.

Temmen
leaped
back and swung his staff to knock the extended
sword to the side.

Phassic actually laughed, while he advanced
and swung the sword through another arc designed to decapitate his
adversary.

“What is this?” Katek muttered, his frown
deepening.

Temmen’s body suddenly shook, and his
quarterstaff met the sword in a solid block that caused the heavy
blade to half sever the staff three feet from one
end.  The blow tore the staff from Temmen’s hands and he
dropped to his knees in the sand.

The crowd roared so loudly that Aerin nearly
took a step back from the physical wave of sound.

Phassic’s
blade ripped free of the staff and he pulled it back for a backhand
slash.

Just as the blade barely started to move,
Temmen’s hand started to rise with his fingers spread.

The blade came down inexorably and cut down
through Temmen’s shoulder, through the leather armor and all the
way to his waist.
Phassic's
strong
muscles stood out in stark relief, as he put all of his strength
into the strike of the heavy blade. Blood sprayed out of the
terrible wound, and a gasp of utter horror burst from the
crowd.

Katek started forward, but then stopped, as
if an invisible hand had grabbed him, and an unintelligible sound
came from deep in his body.

A split second later the crowd roared as
thousands of questioning and yelling voices sounded across the
Arena.

Aerin felt the wave of horror, blood
lust,
and confusion, all at once,
from the thousands of spectators who witnessed that killing
blow.

Phassic stepped back and sheathed his bloody
Great Sword over his shoulder. Then he raised his arms for
applause
while turning in a slow
circle.  Blood from Temmen’s body was splashed across his
bare chest and his mouth was wide open as he yelled at the top of
his lungs.  Aerin couldn’t hear what he was yelling over
the noise of the crowd.

Temmen collapsed to his side in the sand,
like a tree toppling after its base has been
cut
while Phassic paraded around the
sands
to accept his due. Screams,
boos,
and even a few scattered
cheers
bombarded his ears, but he accepted it
all as if bathing in adoration.

Katek wiped his arm across his eyes swiftly
to remove the tears, and then stepped out onto the
sand.  He walked to the body of his teacher, a man who
had been a father to him most of his life.  The young man
reached him and confirmed his worst fear; his master was
dead.  Katek reached down and pulled the arm of his
teacher up over his shoulder, and then staggering slightly under
the weight, he lifted him in a shoulder carry.  Even
though Katek wasn’t his full height yet, he would let no other man
take his teacher from the battle sands that had been his
life.  Temmen’s blood ran down Katek’s bare chest, back
and legs.  The crowd hushed as the apprentice carried the
massive,
battle-scarred
hero of
the people from the Arena floor.

Katek staggered a little as he neared the
opening, but when Aerin started forward, Katek gasped, “No!”

Aerin held his place and Katek finished his
walk on his own.  As he neared the door the crowd began
to clap in unison, a slow rhythmic sound that echoed around the
Arena.  It was a tribute to the man they had watched as
their champion for years of tournaments.

Katek placed his fallen master on the table
and then collapsed to his knees, his lungs panting from the
effort.

Aerin saw the lost empty look in the recently
proud Katek, and it touched a nerve in his own soul.  He
walked over and picked out a quarterstaff from a rack, and then
turned for the opening out into the sands.

Katek, covered in his master’s blood, stepped
in his way.

“What gives you the right to redeem Temmen’s
honor?” he asked, his face in pain, but resolute.

Aerin’s face was no less
determined.  “I have every right to my own honor; that
man murdered my parents, and I’m going to kill him.”

That gave Katek
pause
and his face softened.  “I apologize, you
have a claim to him as well, forgive me.  However, know
this, Temmen taught me many things, and one of them is this, you
choose your battles and you don’t fight to lose.”

“I can kill him,” Aerin stated.

Katek raised an eyebrow, “Can
you?  Yesterday when we fought I noted that you were very
good with that weapon, but I was better.  Do you know
that never in my life have I beaten Temmen in a single
bout?  Yet the man you would challenge killed the
greatest gladiator in the land.”

Aerin was angry, “Would you let him get
away?  When he killed my parents I could do nothing, but
now it is different, and I won’t let him escape again.”

“So instead you will go out and die on the
sand?  How does that avenge your parents?  Listen to me,
this is not the time, but a time will come. When you are ready, or
I am; then one of us will kill that bastard.  Make no
mistake, I intend to be ready before you are, but I’ll give you a
chance.”

With that
statement,
Katek reached to his belt and pulled out a
dagger.  He pulled his waist long braid of brown hair out
with one hand and reached back to cut if off near the
base.  With one quick yank of the sharp
dagger,
it was severed.

Katek walked to Temmen’s body and placed the
braided hair on his bloody chest.  “I swear by my
master’s death, when my hair has reached this length again, I will
find this man and he will hear my challenge.  Until that
day,
I will train until I am ready
to reclaim my master’s honor on the sands of the Arena, or wherever
I must go.”