Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 1 - The Verdent Passage (35 page)

Felorn slipped between the mul and his partner. To prevent himself from being separated
from Neeva, Rikus started to move backward. The dark eyes beneath Chilo's bony brow
flashed. Rikus knew he was doing what his opponent expected. He caught himself in midstep
and returned his foot to the ground. Chilo charged, swinging both weapons with fully
extended arms.

Rikus raised the tip of his spear. “Expecting to intimidate me
was your last mistake,” he said, stepping forward.

Chilo's weapons sliced through the air behind Rikus. The mul thrust his spear at his
enemy's heart. The point slipped easily into the tarek's densely muscled chest. Chilo's
mouth dropped open, his eyes glassed over, and his charge stoppedÑbut he did not fall or
even drop his weapons. He merely stepped away from the mul and pulled his body off the
spear.

“I hate tareks worse than Asticles wine!” Rikus growled.

He did not doubt he had struck Chilo a fatal blow. Unfortunately, tareks often continued
to fight after death.

Rikus took advantage of Chilo's momentary shock and threw a glance over his shoulder.
Felorn still stood between him and Neeva. The mul stepped backward, slipping the
butt-point of his weapon between the female's ribs. Howling in pain, she futilely tried to
pull herself off the spear.

As Rikus looked back to Chilo, Felorn dropped her weapons. She thrashed about so wildly
that the mul could barely hold onto the Heartwood Spear.

Chilo staggered forward and swung his heartpick at the mul. Rikus reached inside the
pick's arc and blocked the attack at the tarek's wrist. The serrated blade flashed over
his shoulder. The mul found himself staring into Chilo's lifeless gaze. Without looking
away, he kicked at Felorn backward, like a horse, and knocked her free of his spear. Chilo
dropped his heartpick. Grabbing Rikus by the shoulder, the dead tarek raised his handfork.

One of the things that made Neeva and Rikus a great fighting team was their ability to
recognize when they needed help. Now was one of those times. “Neeva!” Rikus shouted calmly.

The handfork started down. Neeva's trikal flashed past Rikus's head. He heard a sharp
whack, then the hand holding the fork tumbled to the ground. The stump of Chilo's bloody
wrist struck the mul's face, opening a long gash on his cheek.

Rikus reacted quickly, smashing his spiked elbow cop into Chilo's mouth. The lifeless
tarek dropped to the ground and made no move to rise. Rikus turned to assist his partner.

At that particular moment, Neeva had no need of his help. The gladiator brought her trikal
down on Felorn's neck, separating her head from her shoulders. The tarek's body did not
try to fight on.

Rikus glanced up at the King's Balcony. Kalak stood behind the railing, his sunken black
eyes fixed on the dead tareks. The mul was tempted to throw the spear at that moment, but
he didn't have a clear shot at the ancient king's body.

Neeva caught his arm. “Not yet,” she said. “We've got to make sure Agis and Sadira know
what you're doing.” “You're right, as usual,” Rikus answered, looking back toward the
obsidian pyramid.

The field had now been narrowed to three sets of gladiators: Rikus and Neeva; the
half-giant, Gaanon, and his elven partner; and a pair of humans. The humans had removed
their sandals to climb the glassy pyramid and were about to reach the top. Gaanon and his
elven partner were just behind the leaders, climbing along the ridge where two sides of
the pyramid met.

“Let's win this contest,” Rikus said, retrieving Chilo's fork from the disembodied hand
that held it. “On top of the pyramid, I'll have a better shot at Kalak, and Sadira and
Agis won't be able to miss what I'm doing.”

The mul sliced his sandal thongs. Neeva removed hers with a flick of her trikal's blade.
Before Rikus and his partner began to ascend, the two humans reached the apex of the
pyramid. As the woman crested the top, the gaj extended its head in a lightning fast blur.
It caught her in its pincers, wrapping its tentacles around her brow and arms
.
She dropped
her weapons and screamed.

When her partner tried to help, the gaj slammed its mandibles into him.! The man tumbled
down the pyramid. As he passed Gaanon, the half-giant hefted his huge axe and sliced off
an arm.

Neeva started up the ridge opposite Gaanon and the elf, observing, “It's us and the
half-giant.”

“And the gaj,” Rikus added, following her. The obsidian was so hot he could hardly bear to
plant his feet long enough to take the next step.

Rikus and Neeva were about three-quarters of the way up when the gaj released the dead
woman. The beast spun around to face Gaanon and the elf.

“Good,” Rikus commented. “Let the half-giant take care of it.”

Rikus!
came a familiar thought-voice.
I have waited to hear your thoughts. I feared you had died below.

They haven't beaten me yet,
Rikus responded, echoing the last words the gaj had said to him.
How did you survive? I thought a spear through the head would kill anything.

Master Tithian sent a man to care for me. Without his thoughts, I might have been too
weak to recover.

You attacked your healer?
Rikus asked.

I am like Yarig. I must follow my focus,
the gaj replied simply.
Just as you have come here to follow yours.

Rikus looked up in time to see the elf disappear from the ridge she and Gaanon were
climbing. She reappeared behind the gaj. Unfortunately, her whip and spikes were useless
against its thick shell. She simply stood looking at the creature. The amused crowd began
to heckle her with catcalls.

As Gaanon approached the top, it became apparent to Rikus that the elf's strategy was a
sound one. She lashed at the orange shell with her whip, capturing the gaj's attention. It
turned slowly to face her, wrapping a tentacle around her arm. The half-elf cried out in
pain, then the gaj snapped its pincers closed around her waist.

Gaanon stepped onto the platform behind the creature. “Now, Raffaela!” he boomed.

The elf teleported away, leaving nothing but empty space between the pincers. The gaj
screeched, for the tentacle that had been wrapped around the woman's arm also vanished.
Raffaela reappeared at the base of the pyramid, writhing in agony as she pulled the
tentacle from her arm.

Gaanon stooped over and grabbed the back of the gaj's shell. The half-giant began to lift.
The creature's canelike legs shot out and scratched at the glassy surface of the platform.

“This is for the wound you gave me last year, Rikus!” Gaanon boomed.

The mul saw the gaj's head and pincers being forced off the platform directly above him
and Neeva. Gaanon's witless face hovered over the top of the beast's rust-colored shell.
He was glaring at the mul with a gap-toothed sneer.

A faint hiss sounded from beneath the gaj as it released its defensive gas. Gaanon looked
as though he would retch but kept pushing the beast forward. Suddenly the gaj slid down
the glassy pyramid, appearing as little more than an orange streak as it crashed into
Neeva. Rikus jumped out of the way. As he landed on the steep slope, his feet shot from
beneath him. The mul tumbled head over heels down to the sandy field.

Gaanon's brutal laugh boomed over the fighting field. Rikus leaped to his feet, spear in
hand and spitting sand. The half-giant's moronic expression changed to fear when he saw
the weapon pointed at him, but Rikus restrained himself from throwing it. Raffaela had no
doubt recovered by now. If he threw the spear, she would certainly teleport to him and
attack before he could secure another weapon.

Instead, Rikus looked to where the gaj had landed. The beast lay on the ground without
moving. Its legs were retracted beneath its carapace, and its head was pointed away from
him. The mul heard a muffled scream and saw that Neeva's trikal protruded from beneath the
gaj's shell. Without pause, he leaped atop the beast.

“Release her!” he demanded.

Neeva lay directly beneath the gaj, flailing wildly at its head. The creature's tentacles
were wrapped around her helmet, frantically trying to remove it.

Release her!
Rikus repeated, this time using thought speech.

No, came the reply. Let me have her or I'll tell the king your true reason for fighting
today.

“Then tell him!” Rikus snarled, plunging his spear deep into the monster's head.

The gaj shuddered and shrieked in pain, but the injury did not prevent it from tearing
Neeva's helm from her head.
You should know you can't kill me,
it said.
Go or I tell the king!

“Rikus! Get it off?” Neeva yelled. The gaj tried to snake a tentacle around her head, but
she blocked with her forearm. As the stalk entwined her wrist, she howled in pain.

“Its body!” Neeva screeched. “Hit its body.”

The gaj lashed its free tentacle around her head, and she fell silent. Somehow Neeva found
the strength to grasp at the stalk. From his own experience, the mul knew even Neeva could
not last long once the thing invaded her mind.

Rikus pulled the Heartwood Spear from the beast's head, then jabbed at its hump. The point
passed through the shell as easily as it had penetrated the tareks' bodies. An
ear-piercing shriek sounded from the gaj's head. It began to lash about fiercely. Rikus
pushed the spear in deeper, twisting the shaft like a butter churn.

The gaj stopped struggling. The stench of its defensive gas filled the air. Rikus pulled
his spear free and leaped off the beast.

“What are you waiting for?” Neeva gasped, her voice weak and raspy. “I can't breathe.”

Holding his breath so he would not be weakened by the gaj's gas, Rikus flipped the
lifeless creature onto its back. Using the spear, he removed the tentacles from Neeva's
head and arm. Welts and blisters had already formed where the thing had touched her.

The crowd broke into a horrendous“ roar. Rikus stepped away from gaj, drawing a deep
breath. He saw that Gaanon's elven partner had returned to the pyramid's summit. Both the
half-giant and the elf stood at the edge of the platform, staring at him with an air of
haughty disdain. Rikus looked back to Neeva. ”Can you fight?"

“I'm still alive, aren't I?” she said, though she had still not risen to her feet.

People in the stands cried Rikus's name, urging him to abandon his partner and attack the
pyramid. The mul picked up his spear and looked toward the King's Balcony. Kalak remained
at the rail. He leaned over the edge, staring down at the mul and his partner, his lips
curling into a sadistic grin.

Neeva grabbed her trikal and tried to stand. Her knees buckled before she was halfway up.
“I'm too weak, Rikus,” she said. “You'll have to try without me.”

“No,” the mul said. “We're in this together.”

He lifted the spear as if ready to throw it, pointing the tip toward Gaanon. The
half-giant took a step backward. A thunderous roar exploded from the stands, with
thousands of voices urging the mul to kill his rival.

Rikus let the uproar continue to build, then glanced down at his fighting partner, who lay
gasping on the sand. “For you and Sadira,” he whispered.

Neeva shook her head. “For freedom and Athas.”

With that, Rikus whirled around to face the King's Balcony. Kalak's
eyes
widened.

At that moment, a deafening explosion shook the stadium. A great silver and gold flash
shot out of the lower tiers as Sadira made her attack. The bright flare filled the air
with a peculiar stench that reminded Rikus of melting copper. The bolt hit an invisible
barrier at the balcony's edge, exploding there into a brilliant cascade of red and blue
sparks. The mul glimpsed a magical wall of shimmering force, but it faded away amidst a
cacophony of loud sizzles and sharp pops.

Rikus stepped forward. Kalak looked away from the mul, his eyes drawn suddenly to Agis of
Asticles in the High Templars' Gallery. Rikus hurled the spear with all his might. As the
enchanted weapon sailed toward its target, an image born of Kalak's twisted mind,
augmented by his mastery of the Way, appeared over the entire stadium: a dragon, fierce
and terrible, rose to the height of the great ziggurat.

The image of the dragon reared back, ready to strike.

It was in that instant that the Heartwood Spear struck Kalak, sorcerer-king of Tyr,
squarely in the chest and passed clear through his body. The king's screams filled the
stadium, then the entire city. The unearthly cries did not fade as the half-giants grabbed
their leader and dragged him into his golden palace.

The Dragon

The stadium remained tense, but calm. Most commoners stayed in their seats, too frightened
or too stunned to move, filling the air with the steady drone of their astonished voices.
Knots of angry nobles yelled at stony-faced templars, trying in vain to make them open the
sealed gates. Glowering half-giants stalked the terrace and aisles, their massive clubs
resting over their shoulders and their red-rimmed eyes scanning the crowd.

It was not the reaction Agis had anticipated. He had envisioned a thunderous uproar, the
stands breaking into a riot, the frenzied crowd pouring onto the fighting field. There was
none of that. The spectators were too shocked to do as the noble expected, and Larkyn's
half-giants were too efficient to let them.

The crowd's reaction was not the only thing that had failed to go as Agis had pictured.
The timing of the companions' attack had been perfect, but that was where their success
had ended. As powerful and well-placed as Rikus's throw had been, it had not killed the
king. From the High Templars' Gallery, the noble had seen Kalak gesturing angrily as his
half-giants helped him off the King's Balcony and into the Golden Tower.

Agis turned his attention to the fighting field, where a swarm of templars and half-giants
surrounded Rikus and Neeva. The two gladiators were allowing themselves to be escorted
toward Tithian's gallery. Agis suspected their complacence was due to their faith in his
influence over the high templar, for he knew that Rikus and Neeva would have died fighting
rather than suffer the indignity of execution.