I suppose no four-legged animal can match the ferocity of the two-legged kind, that’s why .the crowd was so eager. The two vendraa were very well matched, each seeming to know that only one of them would be walking away from the fight. They cut each other to bloody bits before one was able to gut the other, and the only way I was able to watch without changing expression was with my shield firmly in place. The sight was still enough to turn someone’s stomach, but at least I didn’t have to feel another mind die. As far as everyone else was concerned, the day was going beautifully.
As soon as the dead vendra was gone from the sand, a guard appeared from one of the archways, walked to the center of the arena, and plunged two swords into the sand, hilts up. I’d been wondering and wondering where Tammad’s l’lendaa could be, at the same time imagining every horrible thing that could have happened to Len, Garth and Daldrin to keep them from reaching the l’lendaa, but that unusual gesture by the guard captured my attention. Swords had not been left like that at any other time during the morning, and the rumble from the crowd showed they were as perplexed as I. Opening my shield showed Aesnil ready to bounce in her seat in excitement despite the tranquil expression on her face, but that was no clue at all as to what was going on. Something was about to happen—but what?
The guard in the center of the arena made sure the two swords would stand upright in the sand as he’d placed them, then he turned away and walked back to the archway he’d come out of, grinning at the shouted demands from some members of the audience but not answering any of them. As soon as he was gone a near hush fell over the arena, the result of almost every mind in the place straining to catch the first glimpse of what was about to happen. And then, from opposite sides of the arena two large forms appeared, clad in the red haddinn of vendraa but totally unarmed. One was Cinnan, the l’lenda Aesnil had declared vendra, and the other, somehow unsurprisingly, was Tammad. The two men looked around cautiously, looked at each other in passing as they looked around again, and then both started slowly toward the swords they could see in the middle of the sand.
“They do not truly understand,” Aesnil giggled, wriggling around on her cushion. “When two vendraa are set weaponless upon one another, there is never more than a single weapon put in the sand for them to battle over. They believe they are to face one another, yet the time is not right for such a glorious battle. They must first survive my little game.”
She laughed softly at the two men on the sand, being entirely correct in everything she’d said. Their alert minds were confused, and they were looking at each other as potential adversaries. The two swords in the sand worried them, but they weren’t going to let that worry make them do something stupid.
They were both about halfway to the swords when two archways opened to admit gray and black forms, animals that stood almost waist high on the men. The beasts blinked an instant at the glare of sun on white sand, pulled their muzzles back to snarl savagely, then leaped after the two men on the sand. The men, having seen the appearance of the beasts, immediately began running toward the swords left for them, now thinking they understood what was happening. Reaching a weapon was the only way to survive, but they’d been made to hesitate through suspicion of one another. Their minds crackled with self-disgusted cursing as their feet were slowed by the hot, shifting sands, and Aesnil bounced up and down as she clapped her hands, her laughter ringing out.
“Run, Cinnan, run as you never have!” she shouted, her words drowned out by the crowd roar. “Run from them as I wished to run from you, and find as much good in the running as I did!”
I must have been the only one to hear her, and my blood ran cold as I looked quickly back to the arena. The two men were almost to the swords, the beasts no more than three jumps behind them, when arrows whizzed to the sand just in front of the men, making them dodge away from those sweetly beckoning weapons. More arrows sang and thudded into the sand, making the men dive and roll to keep from being hit, and the crowd went crazy as it screamed out its shock.
“And now what will you do, Cinnan?” Aesnil sang out, like one of the arrows seeking a target. “Will you brave the shafts to reach the sword, or will you fight the remdaa with your bare hands? Come, you two mighty I’lendaa! Why do you not command the beasts as you attempted to command me?”
The lean, gray-and-black remdaa had been thrown off their attack by the arrows flying past the contortions of the two men, but not for long. They each had their victim marked and they returned to stalking them with slavering fangs, moving more slowly now but nevertheless moving. Tammad and Cinnan rose from the sand they had rolled through, their minds ignoring the way the sand had burned them in order to concentrate more fully on the animals. The two men spoke briefly, coming to some sort of immediate agreement, and then Tammad jumped forward to attract the two remdaa while Cinnan darted toward the swords. The whine and ping! of an arrow bouncing off a hilt came to force Cinnan to throw himself to one side with a curse, just as the remdaa jumped for Tammad. Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t know where to look first let alone what to do about it, but seeing those beasts go for Tammad forced me to act without thinking. Savagely, I hurled a bolt of terror at the beasts just as Tammad hurled two fistfuls of sand at their eyes before diving out of their way, and the beasts reacted to both attacks with howls and shaking heads and a skidding through the sand. Cinnan had come immediately back to Tammad once he saw the swords were still beyond his reach, and the two l’lendaa stood talking in low, rapid tones while the animals cleared their eyes and regathered their courage.
The large crowd in the arena had grown unbelievably quiet during the brief lull, but not because they didn’t want to break the spell of the moment. Aesnil was sure they were enjoying the sight as much as she was, but she couldn’t feel the overpowering swell of anger and disappointment the way I could. The people watching enjoyed a good fight between equals—whether man against beast or man against man—but they didn’t enjoy the sight of slaughter and that’s what the bout was turning out to be. The two men would be helplessly slaughtered without those swords, but they weren’t being allowed to touch them.
In the arena the action was starting again, but this time only one of the remdaa was coming forward. The other was cowering back despite its hunger, unwilling to move in for the attack after what had happened. I felt the shuddering fear in its mind and knew my projection had hit it hard; it was too bad the other beast hadn’t been affected the same. The second remda was racing toward Tammad and Cinnan again, not caring which man it took down as long as it could eat. The two l’lendaa had been standing together, but suddenly they separated, forcing the beast to choose between them. The beast hesitated no more than a fraction of an instant before going in Tammad’s direction, and before I could even think about sending a projection, Tammad had dodged its leap and thrown his mighty arms around the remda’s throat from behind, squeezing tight as he forced the remda’s head back and it’s body up on two legs. The remda screamed in fury and clawed the air, trying to dislodge the man and free itself to turn and rend, but Cinnan hadn’t just been standing around watching. As soon as the remda turned for Tammad, Cinnan turned and snatched up two of the arrows almost buried in the sand, and ran back to where Tammad struggled with the remda. Tammad was straining terribly to keep the beast from breaking loose, and Cinnan didn’t waste a second. Just barely avoiding the thrashing claws of the beast, he took the two arrows and stabbed into its body with all his strength, driving the arrows deep and causing the remda to scream as though its soul were being violated. The remda spasmed so forcefully it tore loose from the hold Tammad had it in, but it was done too late to do the beast any good. It rolled in the sand, screaming and clawing at its own body, and then the final spasm took it, ending its screams and pain forever.