“It’s time for the noonday meal.”
“Fight, then eat.”
Garth, who had been lying under the shade of the arena wall, stirred and looked up. He sat up, squinting at the bright midday sun. There was a strange silence in the arena as the tote board announced the pairing of Garth against Varena. In the stands he could hear the spectators discussing the fact that there was a rumor that the two were lovers.
He looked over at Norreen, who was sitting against the wall, calmly sharpening her sword on a whetstone.
“Look, like I said before,” Garth sighed, “it really meant nothing.”
“Where I come from we mate until castes change and our chosen one is higher or lower than us. To wander outside of that rule is to invite vendetta by the other and the other’s family.”
“We never mated permanently, as you so calmly put it, so there’s no laws broken.”
“You desired to do so with me, didn’t you?”
“Desire and completion are two different things.”
“One leads to other.”
“And did you desire me?”
She savagely drew her blade across the stone and looked up at him.
“It’s too late now, One-eye.”
“You should have left him tied up back there,” Hammen interjected, “and had your way with him.”
“And you’d be dead now,” Garth replied.
“Maybe not. I was the master fighter of Oor-tael.”
“Twenty years ago. I think, Hammen, you’re a bit rusty now.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
A trumpet sounded and the crowd, which had been sitting in silence sullenly watching the Walker, stirred.
Hammen turned and looked toward the tote board.
“They’re placing the announcement.”
“Final match.” The Walker’s voice drifted across the arena. “Garth of Oor-tael, Varena of Fentesk. Come forward to the throne.”
Garth stood up and adjusted his satchel, which bulged with the prizes he had won. He looked down at Norreen.
“I think it best that you stay behind. Ritual allows only the fighter and his servant. If you draw his attention, it might be unpleasant for you.”
Norreen nodded slowly.
“Somehow I’d like to think you have a plan for all of this and there might be a chance we’d one day see each other again.”
Garth laughed softly.
“Finally, an admission of affection.”
She stood up, letting her sword drop, and, reaching out, grabbed him fiercely, kissing him with a mad passion. The crowd, which had been leaning over the wall watching and eavesdropping, broke into a lusty cheer.
Norreen stepped back.
“Damn you. Now look what you made me do. I’ve broken caste rules.” She struggled to keep her voice from breaking.
“Stay close to Hammen once this is over and make sure the old geezer gets out of here alive. I’m asking you to be his shield bearer.”
“Damn! That’s for royalty,” Hammen sniffed.
Garth smiled and turned away, stepping out into the arena. As he walked across the sand-packed fighting floor, Hammen by his side, the mob came to its feet and broke into applause. He waved casually, stepping around the fissure from the previous fight, where a score of mammoths were hauling great carts of earth to be dumped to close the rift.
From the other side of the arena he saw Varena approaching and, turning away from the throne, he walked up to meet her.
She looked at him and smiled.
“You know I will fight to win. I have to.”
“Do you have any idea anymore what it is that you’re really fighting for?” Garth asked, moving to walk alongside her.
“Because this is what I trained for, this moment.”
“And afterward?”
“To be the servant of the Walker in other worlds, to have the mysteries revealed, to leap by his side between worlds like a god.”
Garth shook his head sadly.
“And for that you would kill me?”
She looked over at him and smiled.
“Isn’t that your intent as well? You saw what happened to Gilganorin. There is no backing away now, Garth. Only one of us may go. I’m just sorry it is you that I have to do this to.”
“Fighter, make no friend of fighter,” Garth said calmly.
Varena smiled sadly and nodded.
Approaching the high throne they fell silent, their servants stopping at the outer edge of the golden circle.
The Walker, chewing on a leg of roasted pork, looked down at them and smiled.
“So who is it going to be?” he asked.
Neither answered.
“You know, Garth, this is all rather amusing. I think you have something for this woman and she you. And yet both of you would sacrifice that in order to serve me and learn the final mysteries.”
“Would you care to share the mystery now and spare us the trouble of a fight?” Garth said.
The Walker smiled, laughing softly.
“To the death,” he finally whispered, “and for the winner, the answer to all.”
He waved a hand of dismissal and as Garth turned he saw a cold look of satisfaction in Zarel’s eyes.
“Either way you lose,” Zarel whispered.
“Maybe it’s the other way around,” Garth snapped in reply.
Garth looked back at Varena and smiled.
“I’m sorry.” Turning, he started back across the field to the neutral box.
The mob was on its feet, standing in silence as the climax of Festival drew nigh.
Reaching the neutral box, Garth looked over at Hammen.
“There won’t be much time afterward. I think he’ll leave at once. I could sense something there; he’s under some sort of pressure.”
Hammen nodded.
“Something isn’t right with him,” Hammen said. “Usually he acts more like a gross buffoon, eating, wenching, gambling. There’s something not right with him now.”
“If possible, I think you know what I want you to do.” Reaching into his satchel, he pulled out a small bundle and tossed it to Hammen.
Hammen stepped into the box and, reaching out, he placed hands on Garth’s shoulders.
“Galin. All these years I thought you dead.” His voice choked. “I remember the day your father came out of the birthing room carrying you proudly. I remember the day he called us in so that we could see you take your first step. And the day we laughed when you first used mana and burned your little fingers, cried, and then tried again.”
“Stop going sentimental on me now,” Garth said.
“If I had known you were still alive in that fire, I would have come back for you.”
”You wouldn’t have found me,” Garth said softly. “Even as my father died he used the last of his power to send my mother and me far away. You would not have found me until I wanted you to and that was not until she died and I was free to do what she had forbidden.”
He paused.
“To get revenge.”
His features were set as if cast in ice. He withdrew Hammen’s hands from his shoulders.
“Take care, Hadin gar Kan.”
“The Eternal be with you, Galin.”
The trumpet sounded and Garth turned away, calming his inner self so that he felt as if he were drifting in another world.
“Fight!”
The words came like a whisper on the wind, the cries of the mob like a haunting whisper drifting across a frozen sea.
He stepped out of the neutral box, reaching into his powers, the power of the mana drifting up to him-the power of distant lands now locked in the silken bundles, the power of the mountains, the islands across the Flowing Seas, the plains, forests, swamps, and deserts.
He waited, not letting too much of the power come at once, waiting for her first move. He could sense that she, too, was building her strength, drawing on her mana in turn and then, with a wave of his hand, he cast the spell of destruction, of Armageddon, which destroyed all the mana that had been drawn by both. He could sense her startled response, the brief instant of surprise. He quickly re-formed his own powers, letting them rush upward, the strength surging through him, and he launched an attack. He struck with a disrupting scepter, which forced Varena to lose yet another point of power. He then drew on a rare artifact which granted him the ability to control even more power than a fighter could normally hold. Then he projected his power outward so that for a moment he was able to read her thoughts and know what she knew and what she planned to do.