A Na'uhui kid crouched on his knees at one side of the stone circle. His eyes were closed, and he held his hands out on both sides with his palms up.
Perfectly still.
Across from him was a Herali with a Cougar brand on his right shoulder and four lines of scar from a bear paw across his chest. He cracked his knuckles and jerked his head back and forth.
Ta'o stepped between them, and the crowd fell silent. The kid bowed to his opponent, and Ta'o gave the word. "pime!"
Haron swung a fist.
The kid grabbed his arm, twisted him around, flipped him over, and rolled him off the edge.
A thousand people jumped to their feet and filled the twilight with a ruckus of cheers and jeers.
"How the hell?" After the beating he gave me…
Dashuni sat beside me laughing. She'd removed her prosthetic leg and scratched the stump with her good hand. "Outside the Study is a garden with flowers and herbs. One day, while approaching the Study, the Master sees that the garden is destroyed. The bricks are broken, the flowers and herbs are uprooted and thrown about. Later that day, a man comes and says 'it was I who destroyed your garden!' The disciples are all angry. They want to punish the man. What does the Master say?"
I took a moment to think about that, rubbing the spot where Haron almost dislocated my jaw earlier. "Huh?"
Her face erupted in laughter.
Ta'o took the center of the arena; his light-blue silk yithi had a silver criss-cross pattern that sparkled in the lanternlight. He turned slowly around with both hands out until the throng quieted down, then gave a subtle wink towards the woman beside me.
Dashuni fought to contain a blush.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Humans and vɪta'o! Our last fight this evening will decide the final berth in tomorrow night's top eight!" He held out his hand to one side. "Standing at one-hundred-eighty-eight seʃoða and weighing one-hundred-six kivo, fresh from the Lake of Doom with an 8-2 record including five tiyo, Captain of the Orca Clan, Dax of Kyoen!"
Dax's team and a few other Kyoni jumped to their feet and cheered, but the bulk of the crowd was silent.
"And over here…"
The crowd rose to their feet, and the noise rose with them.
"...standing at one-hundred-eighty-seven seʃoða and weighing one-hundred-seven kivo, you know him, you love him, the Fighting Falcon from the foothills of Ozaria…"
Cheers grew so loud I could barely hear the rest.
"... thirty-five-to-three with seventeen tiyo…"
Squawks and chirps from more than a handful of vita'o mingled with the crescendo.
"Hagar of Giorian!"
All throughout the amphitheater, fists pumped the air in unison. "Haaa-gar! Haaa-gar! Haaa-gar!"
I'd seen him before; he'd arrived some months before I did. His body was heavy, covered in powerful muscle, and his face looked like he'd been in a few fights. He stretched his heavy arms out and rolled his thick neck around across from Dax, whose muscular back wore that red-and-black tattoo of Orca from shoulder to shoulder.
The girl came back with the writing tab and looked at my friend in expectation.
Dashuni handed her three brass five-krens. "Hagar."
The girl took the money and turned to me.
Some gift. Ranía said she could read micro-cues and predict the outcome. A man who favors his left side too much, or puts an unusual proportion of weight on his right foot. She could read the emotional state in his face. Apparently, the last time she tried to bet on a fight, they cancelled it and sent her away. I, on the other hand, was down to my last twenty-two kren, so I handed her the sixteen I'd earned for getting my face smashed in. "Dax."
The girl left, and Dashuni leaned into me with a warm smile. "You know that's cheating."
"What is?" I honestly still didn't know how to use the gift.
"You're supposed to walk over there and place your bet."
Her cane fell over and clacked onto the stone floor beneath us. I picked it up for her. "One of the many perks of knowing you!"
She laughed. "So tell me why you think this Dax guy is so good, huh?"
"It's not about that. I look around, and everyone else is betting on Hagar. If he wins, I only get a small fraction. If Dax wins, I salvage the whole evening."
She stared up at me with a smirk. "That's stupid!"
"I didn't get this far in life by making intelligent decisions."
Once again, her whole body shook with laughter.
Hagar didn't hesitate. As soon as Ta'o called for the fight to begin, the Falcon rushed in with flailing fists. Dax dropped down and landed a punch in the man's gut, then rotated his torso and slammed a left hook into his kidney.
"Come on!" Dashuni complained. The noise in the crowd grew into a mixture of cheers and jeers.
Hagar threw fists left and right that caught nothing but air while Dax pulled back. With every step Hagar took, Dax stepped back until his back foot caught the edge of the stone circle. Hagar followed, relentlessly throwing punches while Dax encircled the perimeter, keeping his guard up.
In a flash, Dax launched in with a fist to the Falcon's nose. While Hagar tried to adjust, Dax was inside his reach and slammed his jaw with a left, then a right, then another left. Hagar grappled to maintain his balance, only for Dax to land two more solid punches to the man's chest, sending him backwards to stagger out of the circle and fall onto his back.
Dashuni threw up her good arm. "What the hell was that?"
I jumped to my feet, raised my hands in the air, and shouted with the new recruits. "Yes! Yes!"
My cut was a nice seventy-two kren, enough to buy some silk to go between my legs. Dashuni pursed her lips and squinted her yellow eyes at me. "You got lucky."
People got up to collect bags of things, blankets and pads they'd spread out over the stone benches, and baskets of food. Several local women gathered around the men in the top eight, including Turic and Rool, both of whom wore giddy faces while Dax slipped free to collect his team.
"Before you leave!" Ta'o shouted from the center of the ring. It took a minute to get everyone's attention.
"Tomorrow night," he said, "we have a special treat for you! There will be a special performance by—"
"why aren't you up there?" an older man blurted out from the audience.
Ta'o pulled his face back and stared at him.
"Your fighting days are over?"
Ta'o shrugged. "I still fight."
The older man looked around the audience. "He's scared of these kokaxa! That's why he's afraid to join the bracket!"
Jeers followed, and several natives shook their heads at him.
All of the new recruits glanced around in confusion. Ta'o switched to Herali, "I'm organizing. If I fought in a bracket, that would be a conflict of—"
"teɣo!"
"vʌgaθɪse!"
"Listen!" Ta'o tried to grab everyone's attention, but they were clearly gaining on him. "I'm the emcee! I can't fight in…"
An older native woman shouted. "You chicken-clan!"
"teɣose!"
"Afraid of fight COWARD!"
Several people shouted. Others in the crowd looked around, astonished, while the recruits didn't know where to look.
The noise grew louder, the jeers more intense, some of them shouted obscene things I could only partially translate until finally, Ta'o had enough. "I'LL FIGHT ANYONE HERE!"
Everyone fell silent.
Ta'o's face was cold, and his muscles were taut. His chest heaved, and he looked at the old man with daggers in his eyes. "woθo xapʌse bi'udu ʃa yuʒadeya! Choose anyone here, and I'll fight them!"
A low murmur rippled throughout the amphitheater as everyone sat back down.
Ta'o glanced up at the bookies. "Anyone!"
Lines formed. Money poured into bags. The girl came back to where Dashuni and I sat and collected a few coins from her. I scoured for every fraction I had and put it on Ta'o as well.
As for the old man, he stepped into the stone circle and faced Ta'o with his arms crossed. After a few minutes, the movement settled, and the old man looked around the amphitheater with a big grin. He looked over each of the men in the top eight, who glanced at one another in anticipation. The man squinted at an older Na'uhui man with enough scars for a year's worth of stories who sat with a woman and several children, one of whom straddled the back of his neck and grasped his hair in her tiny fingers. Everyone watched as the man scanned through the crowd, until he pointed high up in the back with a mischievous grin. "Fluffy!"
A squawk echoed through the hall, and a lizard face peeked above the crowd like a periscope.
"No, no," Ta'o held up a finger. Shocked faces looked all around.
A brown lizard with white spots on her back hopped up and jumped to a staircase leading down towards the center of the ring, chirping and squawking.
"No," Ta'o's face shifted into stark terror.
The four-hundred-pound throat-ripping, liver-eating lizard raised her head and squawked, displaying a mouth full of jagged, serrated teeth as she lumbered to the side of the stone circle.
"No," Ta'o shook his head. "I meant any human…"
"Not what you said!" the old man waved a finger and cackled.
A young Na'uhui girl, couldn't have been more than ten, ran out to the center of the ring and hugged Ta'o, crying and pleading with the man. "Please mister!"
Fluffy coiled her neck and hissed, curling her talons and swishing her tail behind her.
The old man stepped away, and a young woman came to collect the girl. Ta'o stepped back and eyed the beast with horror in his yellow eyes, still pleading with the old man. "Come on, please?"
All the recruits around us faced the creature with eyes wide and jaws dropped. Murmurs grew into angry, frustrated shouts as people waved their arms in frustration. The bookies were obstinate, they wouldn't let anyone change their bets.
Haron loomed over one old woman shouting something I couldn't hear from where I sat, until she held up one hand and leaned over to another woman beside her. After a brief exchange, she shrugged, and conceded.
And while half the audience dug into their purses for more coins, the girl came back to me and Dashuni. "Half your bet to change your bet."
Dashuni shook her head with a straight face.
A part of me thought about calling it out, announcing to everyone who was about to get fleeced that it was not going to be an honest fight. How would God look at such things? What would the Master say? "Can I get credit to double down?"
A sharp pain in my side came from Dashuni's elbow, and she whispered in Uhuida. "Don't be greedy."
I looked up at the girl. "Sorry, never mind."
The fight went exactly as expected. There were a whole lot of very angry people in the crowd, but what were they going to do?
A one-hundred-twenty-eight kren coin was a circle of gold with seven spokes like a wheel and a diamond-tree stone embedded in the center. Nothing too crazy, a C3, but still. I held two of those.
In my hand.
Two.
I could have rented an apartment in one of the big mud buildings instead of spending my nights in the sweltering barracks. I could have bought a couple silk yithi like the ones Ta'o wore. I gathered the twelve men on my team together. All of them except Renou had scraped and borrowed to switch their bets over to Fluffy.
When I showed them my winnings, eyes popped all around. Rolon's eyes were the widest. "You didn't switch?"
"Couldn't afford to." I shrugged. "Lucky me."
Haron squinted at me and sneered. "You seen that shit before!"
"Maybe. Welcome to Carthia. Anyway, dinner is on me. Unless you'd rather eat in the mess?"
According to Dashuni, the finest place in town was called King's Palace. It felt weird not going to Kaye's parents' cafe seeing as he was on my team now, but I'd eaten there twice already.
According to Dashuni, it was five blocks down Python street and on the left. We passed a stall that had several paper lanterns with colorful drawings lit by candles within. Tucked in a narrow alley between two buildings, someone had scrawled a message in Uhuida, but the script was so stylized with bubble letters I couldn't make it out. On the opposite corner, a constable lady wearing blue silk armbands with the gold crest swept one of those ultra-bright-white torch things over the crowd, searching faces from atop her vita'o.
I led my men past a basket vendor when Kaye tapped my shoulder and pointed his thumb down another street beneath large trees with dense canopies every few yards. "It's that way."
We came to a low fence enclosing several crowded tables. The side of the building had tall, open archways with more tables inside, and the noise of a hundred conversations spilled out onto the street. Three women brought out platters and set them at one table, while another bounced from table to table pouring an amber drink into goblets. Beside the entrance to the dining area, a young Na'uhui woman stood behind a wooden podium with an open book. She smiled as we approached and addressed us in Herali with a sharp accent. "I need yo name pleez?"
I was about to speak until Haron muscled forward and rested his elbow on the podium, locking his eyes onto hers. "You first!"
She fluttered her lashes at him. "I need see that yo name exists at the reservashan list."
Turic rested his elbow on my shoulder with a grin, eyeing her up and down several times over. "Show her the reservation!"
Two-hundred-fifty-six kren hit the wood with a pair of deep thuds.
She closed her eyes and let out a light giggle. Then she scooped up the coins, still laughing. "Permit me see availabal. ketaʒi ŋuve?"
Haron pursed his lips and glanced at me.
"She's asking how many of us there are."
Men checked one another dumbfounded until Kaye elbowed between them. "ðiθʊpɪpi."
She scrunched her nose and scowled at him. "I know you know!" Then she switched back to Herali. "Wayt pleez."
She wore a gold-silk belt with an exceedingly short cream silk yithi that bounced with every step, leaving shapely, dark-green legs to shimmer in the lanternlight.
Tenae's pitch-black eyes gaped at her, and he swallowed silently as she went inside. Haron tracked her as well; he wiped his chin and shook his head vigorously. Daemon added, "good day to be a man, gods!"
A few minutes later, she reappeared. Half my men stood up straight and held their breath, and she bounced up to us with a grin. "pʊ xeŋiwe."
Our host led us inside, past a room full of chatting patrons towards a narrow, stone staircase on the right. My men raced one another to follow close behind her until Haron came up to her side. "I still didn't get your name, love?"
"yʊpise."
"Yupise?" his voice carried a grin. "You from here, Yupise?"
"This is not my nem!" she laughed. She turned and pointed at Kaye, "and don't you translate for him, either!"
Youfirst climbed a few steps and paused beside a candle-lit iron sconce embedded in the stone. Daemon reached his hand out to block Haron from going up after her and tried to muscle his way through. Haron pushed his arm down and tried to lunge forward, but Daemon wrapped his arm around and pulled. Haron pressed his hands onto the walls beside him, but Daemon dragged him back and rushed forward. No sooner than he'd got ahead, Haron grabbed his arm and yanked him back.
Yupise scrunched her brow, watching with a grin as the two men wrestled over who would get to go up directly behind the woman with the tiny silk flap barely covering her arse. I mean… she was no Miyani, but… I mean…
What would the Master say in this situation?
Haron twisted and pushed, but Daemon wrapped both arms around his body and pinned him to the spot. Tenae jumped up, squeezed through, and snuck up the staircase first.
"What the!" Daemon and Haron released each other.
Youfirst giggled lightly and resumed her ascent.
We came to another dining room with more guests looking out through open archways onto the street below, and Tenae had a pronounced bulge in the center of his loincloth. Our host led us around to another staircase, where Haron grabbed Tenae's shoulder. "My turn." And he followed her next.
"So, what does yupise mean, love?"
She peeked over her shoulder with a smirk and kept climbing. "It meens that if you not no mai langwij, I don expec you no proper sex culchar."
"Oh, I know about sex culture!" he chuckled.
"Carthia is not Heralia." She didn't turn that time.
Haron fell silent for a moment. Behind him, "nagude Daemon. nagu…se uh… nuve?"
She glanced over her shoulder with a warm smile. "Thass very gud!" Then she stopped and gave Daemon a come hither. Haron's face soured when he passed him on the steps, but he let him through. When Daemon climbed to where she was, she leaned in close and whispered in his ear.
He grinned wide and rushed up after her.
Our host led us to a rooftop where a stone lattice trained with vines rose from the four corners and stretched around the perimeter, leaving a sky filled with stars above. Spheres of paper lanterns lit the corners, and a large, round table with a brass candelabra held the center, around which were thirteen… pɪpi bag chairs.
"Jentamen," she called our attention to a petite older woman with a pressed, white linen folded over one arm. "Her name is pæmi and she care well to you."
Two other, younger women went about setting the table with plates, tines, knives, linens, and goblets.
"Her name is yuʒeŋi…"
A voluptuous mixed young woman with a round face passed her eyes among us with a slight grin. The other was slim, quiet, and wore a gentle smile.
"...and her name is ʒesika. Welcome to King's Palace, ɣʊwowe ʃɪ'uti!"
While the rest of my team chose their seats, Tenae caught Youfirst before she could leave and addressed her in Uhuida. "I have sorry because the friends. Never they see you have most pretty woman like you is because they act funny. My name is Tenae."
She brushed her fingers along the number branded onto his arms, allowed her amber eyes to survey his body, smiled up at him, and left.
The center of the table rotated. Turic leaned his massive self over it, rested his hands on the spinning platform, and threw it as hard as he could. The brass candelabra shook to a low, smooth rumble as it spun with the rest of the table.
"Wait!" Rolon grinned. "You on that side, I'll throw it on this side. One… two…"
"Boys!" Paemi snapped and directed them both to sit down.
"How's it doing that?" Aydel and Renou crouched low to peek underneath. I had to look for myself—there was an iron railing secured to the rotating platform above, another bolted to the rest of the table below, and several stone balls between them.
"pʊ siyase 'æki," the curvaceous woman cooed, rested her hand on the small of my back, and ushered me to sit at one of the bag chairs with Ajak on my right and Daemon on my left. Her fingers trailed along my shoulders and she leaned over, allowing her breasts to hang inches from my face.
"yuʒeŋi!" The lithe one cleared her throat and directed her friend's attention to the ear pendant around my neck.
"xatʌʌʌʌʌʌʌʌʌʌ!" Yuzheni stood up straight and shuffled quickly to the opposite side of the table.
Further down, Josha and Montus roiled in amusement. Across from me, Haron furrowed his brow and nodded with a wry grin, and Turic's giant body bounced up and down with laughter.
Once we were all seated, the three women placed steaming baskets before us filled with breads of all colors. Before I could see what was there, a frenzy of hands reached in from everywhere at once. I managed to snag a chocolate roll and some green thing with bits of onions and herbs baked in, and by the time the ladies came back, all the baskets were empty.
Zhesika and Yuzheni went around with small pots—one had dark oil with sprigs of herbs, another had smooth, white, creamy stuff that smelled like sharp liquor, and another some salty, fishy-smelling brown paste that burnt my tongue. The older woman tapped Turic's meaty shoulder and pointed between his plate and the empty basket in front of him. "Put most of those back!"
"But…" he pleaded up at her.
"Every one of you! If you took more than two, put the rest back. You may take another after you finish your first two."
She snapped her fingers and didn't let up. "Let's go! All of you!"
Paemi forbade the other two to come forward, so they stood at the side and watched with glass carafes in hand. Several bread rolls were returned to the baskets. Turic returned all but three sour breads and looked sheepishly up at her.
She glared back down at him with a squint in her eyes and her lips fixed. This woman was twice his age, a third his weight, and a foot shorter; and she didn't flinch.
Finally, Turic returned a sour bread to the basket, and Paemi looked around the table with satisfaction before ushering the other two forward. "The carafe yuʒeŋi carries is a local specialty, a clarified mango-coconut liqueur. The carafe ʒesika carries is a twenty-year oak-aged pinot blend from Osenia. You are all permitted one glass of each and no more," she glanced directly at Haron, "so don't give me any shit."
His eyes popped, and half the men laughed at him.
The amber fluid looked familiar, like the stuff Rosalynd was always drinking. I had in mind to try it first, but there was only one winesmith in Osenia who aged her kegs for twenty years, and the thought of reminding my tongue of Nandi's handiwork was just…
I had no choice, really.
Beside me, Ajak took a sip and studied the taste. He took another sip, closed his eyes, and hummed. Sweet tooth, huh? That's what I thought!
Yuzheni poured a drink for Kaye, then asked him outright. "sɪmi 'æmiʃuðisa?"
Kaye grinned wide and lowered his eyes, blushing hard. She brushed her fingers along his shoulder, then poured the next drink.
When Zhesika poured a glass for Haron, he grabbed her wrist. She turned her shocked face to him. He looked up at her, "hello," and released her.
What would the Master say about that?
Against the opposite side of the rooftop, Paemi stood beside two paper accordion partitions. She watched with her hands behind her back. When Zhesika shuffled back with an empty carafe to where she stood, Paemi pulled her aside and they spoke quietly, each casting a glance at the man.
"Hey!" Josha cried out after a crow who flew off from his plate with a scrap of sour bread in its beak.
Rolon stood with his goblet in hand. "I'm gonna raise this one for Turic, the only one of us still in the top eight."
While the rest of us raised our glasses, Haron blurted out, "too bad when the real shit went down he cried like a little bitch!"
I didn't see her coming, but Paemi slapped his cheek hard enough to echo off the next building over and silence the whole table. "We don't use that language!"
"Careful miss," he rubbed his face and grinned. "Where I come from, that's foreplay."
She loomed over him and answered. "I prefer men!"
Haron grinned while the rest of the table laughed. When that settled down, Daemon smirked and raised his glass back to Turic. "You want to know what Miyani told me? About our captain?"
Curious faces snapped in our direction and glanced between us.
"She said that the first time he got shot at, he turned into a statue."
I gaped at the man. "She told you that?"
"Yeah, man. She said you were like this," and he stiffened his whole body, his neck, and flitted his eyes back and forth while the men chuckled.
At once, six women emerged from the staircase with platters covered in paper tents, surrounded us, set them in the center of our table, and uncovered them all at once.
Paemi gave the center of our table a gentle push, and delights rotated before us. "This one is ʃɪkiti, it's an alligator and bean stew in a tomato base with local herbs, and the chef can be heavy-handed with the nice pepper in this one, so be careful."
The next one was skewered stuff on a stick glistening in sticky red sauce.
"What the," Turic leaned over and gaped. "Are those cockroaches?"
She grinned. "We use only the finest maize-fattened tʊwiki, marinated and served with fireberry gravy. Over here, we have our very own Carthian halvystra—"
"Nope!" Montus crossed his arms and shook his head. "Ain't no such thing!"
Rolon chuckled at him. "You should try it before you reject it, man."
"Montus is right," Josha added, "call it something else. It's halvystra or it ain't halvystra. I don't know what that thing is."
That thing was a light-yellow congealed cylinder topped with slices of raw fish and avocado. On principle, I agreed that it wouldn't be proper to call it halvystra, but it was worth a slice.
"Aye Haron," Turic grinned. "Dare you to eat a cockroach!"
"I ain't eatin' no bloody cockroaches!"
I scooped up two of the gravied insects for my own plate and sliced one open the same way Miyani had taught me the day we met. They were, in fact, delicious, but nothing could compare to the shocked faces watching while I sucked the sauce from the shell.
Kaye turned the table to grab two for his own plate. The next to try one was Rolon. His friends Daemon and Aydel watched with their faces scrunched, but once he tasted it, he took another. Soon, half the men were eating tʊwiki, until there was only one left. Vayance tried to turn the platter towards him, but Josha pressed down on his side to stop it.
"I didn't get one," Vayance protested.
"I didn't either," Josha answered. The two of them tried to turn the platter towards themselves, and every time one of them earned an inch, the other stopped it and tried to push it back. A small ramekin of nice-pepper paste tipped over for the two of them fighting over which way to turn the table.
How would the Master handle this situation?
"Hold on, hold on," Rolon sat up with his hands out.
While everyone waited for what he was about to say, Tenae snatched the last tʊwiki for his own plate.