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Path, page[Pedigree]012 Raptaur Resurrection
[Pedigree]013 The Spawn Of The Hanging Tree
[Pedigree]014 The Shadow Of The Master
[Pedigree]015 Royal Odds
[Pedigree]016 A Royal Defeat
[Pedigree]012
Raptaur Resurrection
\Nathaniel\
It
had been nearly two months since he’d lost to Lord Ceazal, but after much
planning, he was at last taking delivery of a precious human cargo.
“Quickly,
our time is limited.”
Thor
and Tyre pried the top off the long pine box and set the cover aside.
Inside they saw the wounded body of Raptaur scarred and scored from
fighting in the pit.
\Nathaniel\
“First
a shot of healing potion,” Nathaniel said as he found a vein and injected
the potion directly into the man’s bloodstream.
The effect was slow, for the man seemed to be nearly in a state of
death-like suspended animation. At
last Master Ellis began to smile in satisfaction, “I believe he will live.
That was a little tighter than I would have preferred, but better that
than risk doubts as to the man’s apparent demise.”
\Raptaur\
Uh?
Raptaur’s eyes fluttered open. He
was in a coffin, had he died? Yes,
he remembered the games. He had
won the big game but the others no man could win.
He had been the first Ceazal gladiator to best a foe from house Ellis,
and what had he got for it? Owing
to his ruined leg, he had got a month to heal before he was sold to a handler of
pit fighters. His name had drawn
well, but the bouts had worn him down. His
wounds had never had a chance to heal, and he was constantly sustaining new
ones from his opponents. At last
they had fed him to the Carnage, a pit fighter who was famous for gutting his
opponents and throwing their entrails around the pit.
“I,
I am alive?”
He
heard a chuckle, and for a moment he knew he must be in hell, but no, he could
feel the pain of his wounds, but below the waist, he felt nothing.
He remembered his last bout now, and the bladed cestus his opponent had
driven into his spine.
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, “Indeed you are. We
took great pains to make it seem as though you had died in the pit that Ceazal
sold you into, but you did not die there.
You only seemed to die. Your
opponent was bribed not to dismember you.
After seeing you fight, I knew Ceazal had trained you both extensively
and intensively. You are
apparently a relatively rapid learner. If
I am to have a chance against House Ceazal in the future, I will need your
expertise.”
“I
have a simple proposition. Teach
my gladiators everything Ceazal taught you and teach me everything you know
about Ceazal’s methods and training camp, and I will see that your body is
restored, and that you receive rewards in keeping with the performance of the
gladiators you train.”
\Raptaur\
“But
I am not to reveal anything about my house, I can… not.”
\Nathaniel\
“Chizrou!,”
The slave master barked.
\Chizrou\
A
black man dressed in the traditional garb of a witch doctor looked into
Raptaur’s eyes.
\Nathaniel\
With
Raptaur’s attention glued to his decoy Chizrou, Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed
as his gaze penetrated Raptaur’s soul.
\Raptaur\
Raptaur’s
eyes popped open as he felt a tornado of thoughts and memories flying through
his mind too quickly to identify. It
took only a moment and then it was over.
Raptaur did not see the hidden hand signal given the shaman by the
slave master.
\Chizrou\
“Bah!
De magican dat Ceazal hired to lock his secrets in dis man’s mind was
of moderate skill, but dis was no challenge for de great Chizrou.
De vault stands open.”
\Nathanial\
“Excellent,
now where were we? Your
knowledge, all of it, in exchange for renewed health, and rewarding work
training some of the finest young gladiators in the land.
Do we have an agreement?”
\Raptaur\
Raptaur
was not an educated man, but he knew that the guild mage Lord Ceazal used on
all of his gladiators was reputed to be one of the best.
The irony that a slave could break the white mage’s spell was not
lost on Raptaur. It was certain
that Caezal would kill Raptaur if he knew Raptaur taught Ellis’ men what he
knew, but Lord Ceazal had already rewarded Raptaur’s own hard-won victory in
the games with death in the pits. The pain of that betrayal was fresh with a burning
ferocity.
A
grin burst across the gladiator’s face, “Massa Ellis, Lord Ceazal can be
defeated, and I will teach your gladiators everything they need to know to do
that and more.”
\Nathaniel\
“Excellent!
I will see that you are cared for and as soon as your work bears the
first fruits of victory I will use a portion of the funds to procure the
reagents necessary for regenerating that portion of your spine that was
hit.”
----+======+++======+----
[Pedigree]013
The Spawn Of The Hanging Tree
\Narration\
Seasons
had past since last house Ellis had clashed with house Ceazal.
Nathaniel sat at his desk reviewing reports from his various businesses
while Ashieka played the lute for him. “Good,
I am nearly finished investing Ceazal’s funds, and those businesses I took
over are running smoothly, no thanks to Ceazal.”
\Ashieka\
“A
girl might wonder what Ceazal did to make trouble.”
\Nathaniel\
“In
a few cases he left spies or management saboteurs behind.
Thankfully my magical specialty is most useful in discovering such
plants and those I decided to retain are now serving as double agents.
Ceazal will know what I wish him to know about me, whether it is the
truth or not,” Nathaniel chuckled. His
power and influence are quite considerable, and he wished to strip me of any
advantages the businesses he gave me might have provided, not that he let me
have anything of particular importance.
Alas he was able to retain his bank.
Nevertheless,
he is a shrewd man. In cases
where he had controlling interest in a larger enterprise, he was careful to
sell enough of his shares to friends to keep control out of my reach before
turning his remaining shares over to me.
This was no surprise. If I
wish it, I shall just have to learn how these enterprises are run, and buy out
whomever I need to in order to regain control.
I cannot really complain, after all, even with Odin’s loss,
Ceazal’s zealous quest to chase this bastard out of the games has tripled my
fortune.”
\Ashieka\
“A
girl might wonder how massa became her massa?
Might massa’s father have had no wife?”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, “No, my father, Mathew Ellis, had a wife and several children.
Primarily I owe my inheritance to an unusual event that occurred when I
was around fourteen. The Ellis family had a long tradition of brutality where
disciplining slaves was concerned. The
theory was that a frightened slave was an obedient slave.
Slaves who attempted to escape were recaptured, beaten to within an
inch of their lives, and then hung to death from a large gnarled tree to serve
as an example to others. The
hanging tree was an icon that had stood for generations.
In hindsight, my father’s methods were primitive and barbaric.
That is not really important, however.”
“The
important thing was that his methods made much less business sense than one
might have thought from the surface of things.
In spite of the brutal threat, we still had runners, and when a
captured runner was killed, his value was lost.
Later I came to realize that some individuals simply make poor slaves,
just as there are white trash who do nothing but fight with their superiors
when they are employed in business. There
are even whites who deal so poorly with authority that they become criminals
in spite of having a decent upbringing and ample opportunity for something
other than a life of crime.”
“When
I inherited my father’s estate, I made some changes. I do my best to keep traits that make a slave headstrong out
of my breeding program. When
there is a mistake, as there inevitably is from time to time, the defective
slave is sent to the mines rather than being hung to frighten slaves who are
already obedient to begin with. My
father seemed to look at slaves as an enemy group rather than individuals with
personal traits. I find even
green slaves respond to my methods at least as well as they did my father’s,
and I loose much less revenue. The
mines use a man up rapidly, but they also extract a great deal of profit from
him before he succumbs. The
hanging tree was a waste, and worse, it was a focus of magic and
superstition.”
\Asheika\
“Magic,
massa?”
\Nathaniel\
“Indeed,
there was a slave family headed by an herbal healer named Kenyari.
It is my belief that magic ran in her family, but that she herself did
not have usable magical talent. Often
those who are in such families practice herbal healing having learned it from
a magically talented parent or grandparent.
A generation or two later, magical talents often crop up in one or more
children. In any case, Kenyari
was the unfortunate that Jallan fed the sovereign speed potion he had made
while drinking heavily. Unknown
to Jallan, the woman was pregnant at the time, and it was her son Michael who
inherited the speeding ability that I talked to you about before.
The event happened after Percival, the man I refer to as Matthew the
second, publicly tortured and killed a runner and his grandchild.
\Ashieka\
“A
girl might wonder why massa called Percival Ellis, Matthew and why he was
torturing folks.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, “His first name was actually Percival, but Jallan and I always
used to call him by his middle name, Matthew, because he hated it,”
Nathaniel grinned. “He was a
tactless brute who incorporated all the most ignoble features to be found in
the Ellis family. He was a
drunkard nearly as bad as Jallan, and he loved to crassly brutalize slaves,
especially young women. If there
was a slave girl on the farm, you could bet that Percy had used her before
anyone else, and had beaten her to a pulp in the process. He fraternized with
the white servants, guards and overseers and frequently held drinking parties
with them where virginal young slave girls were the featured entertainment.”
“The
event that served as a turning point in my life happened on the evening after
the day that Percival had watered the hanging tree with the fresh blood of the
runner and his grandchild. That
night he had decided to use Kenyari’s daughters at one of his parties.
A few hours earlier Jallan had been engaged in trying to cause Michael
so much pain that he would shift into a speeded episode.
Eventually, after a great deal of meticulous but senseless torture,
Jallan realized that it was not pain but concern for the pain of his loved
ones that drove the boy into an episode.
He had the boy’s mother tortured to death in front of him and
produced the episode that he was looking for, but the speeded boy easily
escaped with just a bit of help from his sister who was also present.
The boy got away clean. No
horse my father had could have run a tenth his speed.”
“So
you see the night that was to follow the grisly executions centered on the
torture of this family in which some degree of magical talent resided.
In addition the slaves and even the whites were quite uneasy from the
tour de force of torture Percival had subjected them to at the hanging tree.
As best Jallan and I were able to piece it together, Percival’s best
friend, a rather beefy drunkard named Hirk, crushed one of Kenyari’s girls
while she was being used that evening at Percival’s party.
The other, a comely but headstrong young slave girl named Bethsaida
evidently saw what had been done to her sister, got a hold of Percival’s
knife, and became the agent through which Percival and his passed-out friends
later died of terminal stupidity.”
“The
girl was spotted trying to leave the farm and that is when things took a
decided turn towards the macabre, although they were already driving that way
as you have heard. Evidently
a representative of the Church of Light had notified my father that magical
energies and restless spirits were building on the farm, but my father was not
one to pay such things any mind, especially from the mouth of a money-grubbing
priest.”
“I
cannot be fully sure about the events that followed, but I will tell you my
theories. There are stories that
over a century in the past, a slave was taken who had surpassing talent in the
forbidden arts of necromancy. He
terrorized the slaveholders of our neighbor kingdoms to such a degree that
their leaders gave up the institution of slavery entirely.
Members of the Church of Light, a group that originally formed to
combat him and all necromancers, supposedly killed him long ago, but the souls
of necromancers do not rest as easily or as permanently in the grave as do the
souls of normal men. It is my
belief that the magic released by Kenyari and her family awakened the soul of
this Necromancer or one akin to him into the roots of the hanging tree.
Perhaps Kenyari and her children were distant relatives of his; I
cannot be certain.”
“In
any case, this necromancer seemed to appear just after Kenyari’s daughter
Bethsaida began to run off. The
dogs that were sent to run her down returned to us as undead monsters, and at
the same time a thick fog rolled in over the farm.
The dogs killed and terrorized many of the guards and staff.
Eventually the necromancer and his undead charges corned the entire
Ellis family, Grady, Jallan and myself in the ballroom of the estate house.
At that point the necromancer’s actions became rather
unreasonable.”
\Ashieka\
“Unreasonable
massa?”
\Nathaniel\
“Indeed,
after killing so many and destroying all doors and obstacles in his path just
to get to Matthew Ellis and his family, the necromancer failed to slaughter us
all. He killed two of the Ellis
girls in a manner similar to the way the runner and his granddaughter were
killed by Percival. His power was
magnificent, and I fully expected him to kill us all, one by one while the
others watched. My belief is that
his visit was cut short by the burning of the hanging tree.
Whether its use as a focus, or the intervention of a wily priest of
light set it ablaze, I will never know. In
any case it is my theory that the necromancer’s power was fading.
He sent a scorpion at Grady, and the overseer smashed it.
Suddenly the undead dogs exploded and the necromancer disappeared as
his power dissipated.”
“I
learned two things that night. The
first was that my father thought of me as an expendable bastard compared to
his legitimate children. The second was that a man of even more modest social
position than mine could easily dominate a man of wealth and power like my
father if he developed his magical talent.
That event made me as a magician, even as it destroyed the other
surviving members of my father’s family.”
\Ashieka\
“A
girl might wonder how it could destroy the ones that survived.”
\Nathaniel\
“Trauma,
my pet, causes untold damage to the human psyche. My father was struck with hideous dreams.
He hardly slept after that night and I believe he would have liked to
avoid sleep if he could have. He
became extremely temperamental and difficult to deal with.
His wife Charlotte developed migraine headaches.
The pain was so intense that only opiates would deaden it.
She became addicted and eventually killed herself with an overdose she
attained by breaking into a laboratory cabinet while Jallan and I were away at
an alchemist’s conference.
Lucinda
Ellis, my father’s eldest daughter, became subject to attacks of anxiety
that were often accompanied by terrified flight.
One afternoon after harvest, while the slaves were throwing bales of
cotton off the cliff down to the decks of a ship, Lucinda took flight and went
right off the cliff. In spite of
the water, she was crushed against the seabed.
The cliffs are much too high for diving. It was such a pity she never reached the full flower of
womanhood,” Nathaniel shook his head sadly.
“The youngest Ellis boy, David, withdrew into his own little world
and eventually took his own life as a teenager.
Jallan and Grady faired better. Jallan
simply increased his alcohol intake for a time, and Grady took his
frustrations out on errant slaves.”
\Ashieka\
“A
girl might wonder what happened to massa?”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, “A priest of light once told me that, in the long run, no good
could come of the exercise of evil power.
Perhaps he was right, my pet. I
am an evil man, and there is no doubt in my mind that it was the
necromancer’s power that made me blossom like a black rose.
Previously I had been reading Jallan’s books on magic.
He knew that I had looked at a few, but he did not realize just how
ambitious I was until much later. After
the event with the necromancer while Jallan was drinking like the proverbial
fish, I was reading and studying like a man possessed.
I even contrived to study under a powerful black shaman during trips
abroad to fill ships with green slaves for the farm.
We had need of many new field hands and that was the cheapest way to
procure them. The shaman was a
key member of a tribe that raided its neighbors and grew rich selling them as
slaves to us whites. At the time
I thought I would be a necromancer like the man I had seen, but eventually I
realized that my talents with the dead were limited, but that I was much more
gifted with the living.”
\Ashieka\
“A
girl might wonder why massa needed so many new slaves?”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled. “Hawthorne
Ellis, the first born son of my father already had his own farm at the time of
the event. He came away from it
relatively unscathed, for he was not present to see the necromancer.
He married shortly after the event, but his wife proved barren,”
Nathaniel smiled. “When my half
brother Hawthorne worriedly brought up the fact that many of our neighbors
were frightened and considering moving to a safer area, I told him,
‘Hawthorne, I believe our neighbors have been frightened by a bit of magic.
Frightened men do stupid things that shrewd men can take advantage of.
This rash of fear should enable you and father to buy land for coppers
on the gold. I could see the
magic of that sorcerer. He was a
necromancer, and if you will see that I receive the proper training, I believe
I will be able to prevent any future unsavory magical episodes on Ellis
land.’”
“From
that moment on, Hawthorne and I became a team.
We put house Ellis on the map, and he began to respect me much more
than father ever had. Father also
became so disagreeable that only I could deal with him, and that only because
I was determined that I would not fall from his good graces no matter what.
I realized that my father’s health was ruined and that his grasp on
the day-to-day operations of the farm would slip, but that he still retained
his sovereign rights as head of the Ellis clan.
Hawthorne and I made father extremely wealthy.”
“Primarily
I pretended to study alchemy for the benefit of the Church of Light, but
Hawthorne and I both knew I was studying magic. We procured instruction and books, and at times got Jallan
and his contacts in on our plans, but only Hawthorne had any real idea of just
how much I had studied. We felt
it was safer that way, what with the church looking for demons behind every
shadow. Ironically, my interest
in the study of human reproduction grew from the needs of Hawthorne and his
barren wife. They were desperate
to have children and with the passing years exhausted every avenue other than
magic. I became so learned on the
subject that I was able to get Hawthorne’s wife to conceive a son.
He was ecstatic. Suddenly I could do no wrong in his eyes.”
“Unfortunately
there were many that did not share Hawthorne’s esteem for me.
Some found my presence to be an affront and one rather obnoxious
gentleman became so insulting that a gentleman’s argument was started
between him and Hawthorne. Hawthorne
Ellis died in a duel defending the honor of his house.
His wife’s pregnancy was a delicate thing sponsored by alchemy and
magic. She miscarried as the
result of loosing her husband. Father’s health was very bad, and it was essential he have
someone to run the farm for him. I
was the obvious choice. He
acknowledged me and when he died a few years later I formally took my seat at
the reins of power where I have remained ever since.”
“Now
a nobleman named Ceazal threatens to unseat me and send me back to the heap of
white trash from whence he thinks I came.
I must overcome him. Raptaur
will help, and the quality of my latest crop of fighting slaves will do much
of the rest, but you have provided me with another ace I will use to hedge the
margin for error that is yet too slim. In
any case I must buy enough time to let my new men acquire enough skill to
trounce even the best-trained natural men. I must stall the nobleman.
I will let him challenge me, but I shall not risk challenging him and
the enormous wagers such challenges entail until I have created a weapon to
strike at his heart.
\Ashieka\
“Ashieka
gave massa an ace?”
\Nathaniel\
“Indeed
you did my pet. A man from the
east, a wandering Mieshauw Shin priest heard about you. He journeyed to Atlanna recently and saw you perform at
the games.”
\Ashieka\
“Mieshauw
Shin are celibate, massa.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, “You learned your lessons on foreign cultures well, my pet.
The Mieshauw are pillars of discipline, and possess legendary training
in Eastern fighting techniques. This
particular priest is flawed. He
is a man whose discipline was so adamant that he successfully hid an
exceptional libido from the priesthood. He
worked very hard to secure the vocation of a wandering priest from his order.
Once he attained it he traveled as far away from his homeland as he
could possibly get. He has
sampled the women of many countries, my pet, but he is a man who appreciates
excess and the slave girls of our nation evidently possess the most bountiful
figures he has ever seen.”
“He
is a strange man, yet likable enough and we were able to strike up a deal.
For one third of each day he wishes to bed up to seven of the finest
slave girls, and as each becomes pregnant she is to be replaced by a new girl.
In return he is willing to intensively train two gladiators, also for
one third of the day. The
final third will be his period of rest and contemplation.”
\Ashieka\
“A
girl might wonder why she could be the ace if this priest will never see
her.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
smiled, “I drive a hard bargain, my dear.
If you fancy him, you shall be able to buy training for a third
gladiator, and no pregnancy will be necessary.
As long as you see him at least a dozen times a month, then he will
train the additional man. I
believe if you do fancy the priest, I would keep the third man in reserve as a
trainer.”
\Ashieka\
“Ashieka
will watch this priest to see if he interests her massa.”
\Nathaniel\
“Splendid,
my pet, I am pleased with you. Either
way I believe we will secure the type of training that it takes to best
Raptorath, Caezal’s finest. Lord
Ceazal believes the man invincible, and that coupled with a downplaying of the
abilities of my new men will blind him to the fact that no natural man can
hope to compete with the newest gladiators of House Ellis.”
----+======+++======+----
---
[Pedigree]014
The Shadow of the Master
\Narration\
The
shadows of evening were deepening as Asheika made her way from the island’s
arena where she had performed in a dress rehearsal for a dance number to be
staged in the Atlanna games. She
headed towards the stone ridge that housed her master’s laboratories and
quarters. This are of the island
was like a town, a town peopled largely by slaves created in Master Ellis’
laboratory. It was as
orderly and well maintained as any large business establishment. The size and quality of the slave quarters varied with the
station of those that were housed in them, but all were built of stone from
the excavations of the master’s laboratories.
The dark brown of their tiled roofs glinted in the light of the setting
sun. The casual observer might
never have realized the isle was an icon of slavery except for the collars
most of its inhabitants wore. Whether
the collar was iron, steel, copper, bronze, brass, silver, electrum or gold
such as the one around Ashieka’s neck, it was something no adult was seen
without. Those who had difficulty
wearing the collar of a slave were removed to less hospitable environments.
Those who remained found a place in the hierarchy of house Ellis.
\Guards\
The
guards knew their place. It was
near the top of the ladder. It
was their job to ensure that order was maintained, invaders were vanquished,
and the disobedient were detained and sent to less august parts of Master
Ellis’ business empire. The
collars of the guards were bronze, brass, or truly silver in the case of high
officers. They wielded a great
deal of authority, but above them hung the same sword that hung over every
slave on the island. If they did
not do their duty, and it came to the master’s attention, they would be
powerless to hide infractions and excesses.
The master would know. He
always knew. There was no swagger in their step, only the efficiency of
men who knew their stations. “Good
Evening, Mistress Ashieka,” the guards smiled and bowed slightly as they
greeted the master’s personal girl. Her
collar was a golden circlet, hardly a collar at all.
It was the only such collar on the isle other than the one Master Ellis
himself wore. On Isle Ellis, it may
as well have been the crown of a princess, and certainly the beauty and poise
of its wearer did nothing but enhance the power of the icon.
\Ashieka\
“Good
evening officers,” Ashieka nodded and smiled as she passed the patrol of two
guards. The twinkle of lust in
the otherwise disciplined eyes of the guards was not lost to her.
In fact, she was quite used to it.
Men desired her, and she was well aware of it.
On occasion, when the whim struck her, she would indulge one of them,
which would only serve to make the others more hopeful.
She was steeped in the traits that made a woman lusty, and she had
never been coached against the wantonness that was part of her nature.
Yet her greatest desire was for men of power, a condition few of her
fellow slaves fulfilled. She most
enjoyed the officers, the senior gladiators, Ming Tsow, the Mieshauw Shin
priest and martial arts trainer, and her master whose power and confidence
eclipsed them all. She was
comfortable as his creature. She
enjoyed aiding him in his plots, serving his lusts, and bending the wills of
lesser men to his designs.
\Emory
Jallab\
“How
is it that a woman of your beauty could find herself alone for even a
moment?”
\Asheika\
Asheika
startled even though she knew the voice.
It was Emory, the mnemonic wonder and social recluse that her master
had created to assist Alchemist Jallan in his laboratory. He had never looked her in the eye, let alone said more than
a few mumbling words to her. Now
he was making a pass? Asheika
boggled.
“Emory?”
\Emory
Jallab\
“Indeed.
Look, the sunset promises to be a thing of great beauty this evening.
Let’s walk over to the cliffs and watch it’s reflection on the
water, shall we?”
\Asheika\
Asheika
blinked. She had heard
Emory could read a page from a book, close the book and then recite the page
aloud several days later. His
mind was impressive, but out of the laboratory where he lived and worked, he
was hopelessly out of place, a social retard of high degree, yet there he was,
engaging her with an easy, confident manner.
“Uh
I really have to get back to the suite, Master Ellis likes to see me at
dinner.”
\Emory
Jallab\
“Yes,
I am sure he would miss your charm and grace, but presently he is deeply
involved in a magical experiment. It
would be a pity if you missed the sunset while sitting alone waiting for a man
who will be delayed for quite sometime. Please,
come along with me, you have plenty of time.
Emory offered Asheika his arm.
\Asheika\
Open-mouthed,
Asheika took Emory’s arm. He
strolled with her like he owned the island.
Confidence flowed from him like water from a wellspring.
Asheika was stunned, yet there was a gnawing feeling of familiarity in
the way he acted. Soon they
reached the small cliff-side park where white trainers and slaves of station
often sat to eat lunch. It was
now sparsely peopled with men and women who had come to enjoy the day’s last
light.
\Officer
Herd\
In
the distance, Officer Herd spotted the brass-collared lab assistant looking
over the park rail at the sunset. He
tethered the two monstrous wolfhounds that accompanied him on his rounds so as
to be sure not to soil the paths of the park.
It was, after all, a park reserved only for slaves of silver or better
station. He patted the
hard, wax-treated coat that served as armor for one of his dogs, “This
won’t take long Bounder; You jus’ rest easy.
The preternaturally intelligent canine woofed as if he had understood
Herd’s comment. Herd strode
across the park to the brass-collared slave and spun him around by the
shoulder, “What are you doing in this park, slave?
Your collar is made of brass. You
know the rules. This park is for
silver or better.”
\Emory
Jallab\
“The
rules, yes of course I know them, officer, I was bred for memory.
I am abiding by the rules. I
am accompanied by silver or better, and am therefore in compliance.”
\Asheika\
Asheika
turned.
\Officer
Herd\
Officer
Herd looked at Asheika incredulously, “Is he with you, mistress?”
\Asheika\
Asheika
smiled, “Isn’t that obvious, Officer?”
\Officer
Herd\
Officer
Herd reddened, “Please excuse me, mistress.”
\Asheika\
“It’s
okay Officer, you just run along now and let us enjoy the sunset.”
\Officer
Herd\
“Yes
mistress.”
\Emory
Jallab\
After
the officer was out of earshot, Emory chuckled, “I cannot muster even a
shred of respect for a man who is so emasculated that he does not instantly
and involuntarily recognize you from behind.
I admire his sense of duty, but any real man would have been so
captivated that the color of my collar would not even have registered.
Emory’s hand glided over one of the cheeks of Ashieka’s extravagant
derriere. Tell me, what is it
like to be so captivating that men would rather look at you than at the most
beautiful sunset?
\Asheika\
Asheika’s
mouth opened. She could not
believe Emory Jallab was doing these things to her, and with such confidence.
Either she had completely misjudged him or … she just could not quite
imagine it. “I, It took some getting used to.
I grew up with a group of beautiful young girls, but once I got into
the big world, it didn’t take long to realize that men fell all over
themselves trying to get near me. Sometimes it is trouble, but it can be fun too,” Asheika
smiled.
\Emory
Jallab\
“It
must be novel never to have to worry that a partner will lack excitement,”
Emory caressed Asheika’s rump more deeply.
\Asheika\
Asheika
was amazed; She might have slapped Emory away, but he seemed to know precisely
the points and pressures that made her breath become heavy with excitement.
The shear novelty of Emory trying to seduce anyone had stunned her, and
now he had used that befuddled moment to invoke her lust.
His gaze was more intense than she had remembered it, and his
confidence seemed unshakable. If
anyone had asked her an hour earlier she would certainly have said he was the
last man who was likely to succeed at a rapid seduction.
“I do seem to have that effect on men,” Ashieka said smiling
lustily as Emory brought her closer for a kiss.
There was something familiar about his style, but how could he even
have a style? No one Asheika knew
had ever been to bed with Emory. As
far as she knew, he was a virgin.
\Emory
Jallab\
“Shall
we go to my room in the laboratory,” Emory whispered. “You make me so hard it almost hurts.”
\Asheika\
Asheika
could not quite believe she had let Emory take her to his room, but somehow he
had turned her on. Now, as she
rode his erection, he blinked and looked up at her with such awe, it was
almost as if he had just awakened from a dream to find his dream girl still
with him, riding him with abandon.
---
\Asheika\
It
was the next morning when Asheika came into the master’s suite, Nathaniel
Ellis sat at the breakfast table reading yesterday’s Atlanna Sun newspaper.
The paper came in each morning via a courier, but it took a day to make
the trip.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Good
morning Asheika,” Ellis smiled.
\Asheika\
Asheika
knelt beside her master’s chair. “A
girl is sorry she was not here for you last night, massa.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
That’s
quite all right, my pet, I was involved with a magical experiment until quite
late. Didn’t Emory tell you?
\Asheika\
Asheika
looked relieved, “Yes massa, he did.”
\Nathaniel\
“Splendid,
I would hate to think he would fail to carry out one of my requests.”
\Asheika\
“A
girl was told before she even got home, massa.”
\Nathaniel\
“Excellent!
My dear, you look as if you are confused.
Is there something you think you should tell me?”
\Asheika\
“Yes,
massa. It’s Emory, a girl
thought he was acting very strangely last night.”
\Nathaniel\
“Was
his behavior erratic?”
\Asheika\
“No
and yes, massa. He always seems
so shy that if you dropped a quill near him, he would likely run away.
Massa, last night he was acting strangely.
He was confident and he…He just wasn’t himself but he started
acting like himself again after he convinced me to come to his room.
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, “Well if he was not himself, my pet, who was he?”
\Asheika\
“He
was himself massa, but the way he acted, it was not him.”
\Nathaniel\
“Who
did he act like, my pet?”
\Asheika\
Asheika’s
exquisite jaw slowly dropped, “You, massa, he acted like you.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled evilly, “Your powers of observation never cease to please me, my
dear. What do you suppose was my
magical experiment last night?”
\Asheika\
Asheika
inhaled with amazement, “Posession massa?”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled heartily, “You have not disappointed me, my pet.
Tell me, how did he do after he realized he was in bed with his fantasy
woman? I released his mind once I
was fairly certain you were sufficiently wet to keep riding him until he
expired.”
\Asheika\
Asheika
wrapped her arms around her master and sat facing him on his lap.
“He was clumsy, massa, but he was so excited.
He kept going and going. He
must have spent a dozen times or more. Every
time a girl tried to leave he wanted her again and again.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
laughed, “The boy may be socially retarded, my pet, but he is far from
stupid. I am sure he knew
he could not count on your ever returning to his bed once you left, so it made
sense to take full advantage of the situation while he could. Did he learn anything while you were there?”
\Asheika\
Asheika
giggled, “Yes, massa, a girl taught him a few things. He has a little more confidence now, I think.”
\Nathaniel\
“Indeed,
I do believe he is in better shape. You
have made him a man, and while I was in his head, I did a little cleaning.
He has such a problem because he cannot forget things on his own.
There were certain memories that were constantly coming up and damaging
his efficiency. I caused the
worst of them to fade and soften. It
was a magnificent experiment and it proved quite easy for me.
Of course Emory is an obedient slave, and he was cooperative.
Under the circumstances, I cannot imagine he will regret the
experience. Now that I have some
experience, I believe I will try an unwilling slave, and then perhaps a woman.
I have always wondered what it would be like to be a woman.”
\Asheika\
“Take
me massa. Asheika is your
girl.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
grinned evilly; he could tell his power had turned his girl on, in spite her
having just returned from a busy night. “Splendid,
my dear, I will soon possess you in a new way, and I believe we will be able
to have quite a bit of fun with it. I would enjoy convincing one of those bigoted upscale
shopkeepers that he wanted to serve a slave girl as if she were the queen
herself,” Nathaniel chuckled.
\Asheika\
Asheika
smiled, “A girl will enjoy that. Massa,
said he was worried about his rivalry with house Ceazal yesterday.
It has been many months since you last clashed.
Will massa challenge him?
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
took up the paper, “He has already challenged me in a backhanded sort of
way, my pet, and it is a contest I am sure we can win.”
\Asheika\
“A
girl might wonder how massa was challenged by Lord Ceazal.”
\Nathaniel\
“Ceazal
believes his slaves to be the best in the land, possessed of the greatest
muscular development and the finest in classical training.
Each year at summer’s end he enters slaves in the gladiator Olympics.
In recent years he has been running his greatest slave, Raptorath, in
the decathlon to show how superior in all ways the man is.”
Last week in an interview I admitted that Ceazal’s gladiators were
fine combatants, but that the Ellis gladiators were swifter, stronger, and far
more versatile than those of any other house, House Ceazal not withstanding.
Nathaniel pointed to the newspaper.
Herein Ceazal tells the press that my statement is laughable nonsense.
He challenges me to field any gladiator I like in the Olympic
decathlon, and says he will agree to as large a wager as I dare to make.”
\Asheika\
“A
girl might wonder how massa can win if the Ellis gladiators have not trained
for such an event.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, “Indeed, Lord Ceazal must think the same, but the arena uses a
simple scoring system. Placing
fourth gives a gladiator one point, third gives two and so on with the winner
of an event taking four points. If
a gladiator wins enough events, no one can stand against him. The newest Ellis gladiators that have been training so
feverishly these last couple of years do not have Olympic training, but they
do have obstacle course training for the games.
Three of the ten events of the decathlon are straight running events, a
sprint, a medium distance and a mile run.
Raptorath is an incredible find, the paragon of natural humanity, but
do you suppose he can outrun Thundershock or Tornado?
\Asheika\
“No
massa, no one can run as fast as Tornado accept Shock.”
\Nathaniel\
“Indeed,
and the only reason why Shock can keep up with Tornado is that the two of them
are twins.”
\Asheika\
“A
girl might wonder how they could be twins when they do not look at all
alike.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
grinned, “When I was creating the last batch of gladiators, I went that
extra mile on the last one of them. The
recipe turned out to be so artful that I split off a duplicate, and then
changed his outward appearance. Internally,
they are identical. You can’t
have too much of a good thing, Nathaniel said squeezing Asheika’s high,
lavish rump.”
\Ashieka\
Asheika
smiled, “A girl might wonder how Shock or Tornado can win the decathlon if
they come in first in only three events.”
\Nathaniel\
“One
of the remaining events is a run over hurdles, something my gladiators train
for in preparation for the obstacle course, and then there is also the long
jump and a high jump. The beauty
of all six of these events is that they all involve running and jumping.
If my gladiator looses most of those other events by a considerable
margin, Ceazal is likely to cling to his impression of the Ellis gladiators as
cowards.”
\Ashieka\
“And
that will give him courage to challenge massa again, even in the face of a
loss.”
\Nathaniel\
“You
are astute as always, my dear. That
is the plan; it is simple, yet powerful.
I will have the twins trained in the pole vault, shot put and discus,
but they already know how to throw javelins quite well. I hope they do not need to win at the other events, but
I do not wish to take chances on the decathlon.
I intend to bet two hundred million so that a win will again make me
wealthier than Lord Ceazal. Thankfully,
the last event of the decathlon is the mile run, and that one has the highest
measure of safety. Therefore
I will be able to keep track of Raptorath’s score and my gladiator will
therefore get a pretty good feel for how many wins he needs as time goes by.
As long as our man has no wild bad luck, I believe this contest
will go more smoothly than any normal game, and in any case it is not likely
to cause injury, and that is a plus.”
---
\Narration\
On
a Saturday morning three months later, Nathaniel sat with Asheika in the Ellis
box watching day two of the decathlon.
\Asheika\
Ashieka
clutched her heart, “Oh massa that was too close.”
\Nathaniel\
“Eeek,
yes indeed it was. Thunder almost
knocked over that hurdle early on and nearly fell on his face.
It was a brilliant save but he lost his stride there for a moment.
Raptorath nearly had the race.”
\Ashieka\
“It
was a come from behind victory, massa, I am going deaf the crowd is cheering so
loudly.”
\Nathaniel\
Nathaniel
chuckled, indeed, now as long as nothing untoward happens in the next three
events, we can sit back and grin.
---
\Nathaniel\
That
afternoon master Ellis leaned over and whispered to his girl, “He lost
soundly my dear, but he was not injured in the pole vault. If he can best Raptorath with a javelin, I believe we have
our winner.
\Ashieka\
Time
passed before the arena’s most beautiful slave girl whispered in her
master’s ear, “I have seen Thunder throw a full-sized spear that far,
massa.”
\Nathaniel\
“Indeed,
Nathaniel whispered back behind a cupped hand, “But he knew he only needed
to beat Raptorath’s throw and carry the mile run and he will win by a nose.
Such a pity, I was hoping we could loose the javelin throw, but
Raptorath has been doing so well it was unavoidable.
Still, Thundershock won all the yellow events and but one manly event,
and it is a missile weapon, and you know Lord Ceazal believes missiles are for
cowards. With no injuries thus
far, I feel sure we can win by a nose.”
\Narration\
The
end of the day came and Nathaniel Ellis strolled into the owners’ reception
like he owned the world.
\Tom
Crowder\
“Master
Ellis, Master Ellis, Crowder - Atlanna Sun, how does it feel to have stolen
Raptorath’s three year decathlon winning streak?”
\Nathaniel\
“Magnificent,
Tom. I knew we could steal his
Thunder. As I said, the Ellis
gladiators are the most versatile and naturally athletic.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Bah,
you call winning all seven running and jumping events versatile, Ellis?
The only man’s event your boy came in ahead of Raptorath was the
javelin throw, and that’s hardly a man’s weapon to begin with.
The Ellis gladiator is only versatile if your gladiator wishes to run
from danger rather than face it!”
\Nathaniel\
“Lord
Ceazal is correct, Thundershock did not do well in some of the non-running
events such as the shot put where Raptorath put on quite a show.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Some
of the other events, Ellis? Your boy did not even place in any of the other
events. He either won or it was
no contest. This win proves
nothing save two things. Your boy
is a fast runner, and you know how to take advantage of a scoring system.
Raptorath is far more versatile than any of the Ellis gladiators.
He placed in nine of the ten events.”
\Nathaniel\
“Lord
Ceazal has a point there, but my boy is young. He needs some more work on the pole vault, shot put and
discus, but that is not so unusual; the record shows that Raptorath did not
place in nine of ten events the first year he won either. Indeed, he placed in seven events, just as Thunder did
today,”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Your
cowards will never equal my Raptorath, Ellis,” Lord Ceazal hissed.
\Nathaniel\
“That
sounds like a challenge, Lord Ceazal.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“You’re
damned right it does, Ellis. Anytime,
any season, Raptorath will accept a challenge from the best man that you have
got, as long as the game requires a gladiator to face his enemy with courage.
If it does, Raptorath will take your boy apart.
I’d steak my fortune on it.”
\Nathaniel\
“Thunder
is still too young to face such a mature gladiator as Raptorath, but rest
assured, Lord Ceazal, one day you will be hearing from me in regard to a
challenge for Raptorath.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Then
you will have yourself a bout, Ellis. Assuming
Harold Connors can come up with an event that requires courage and manliness.
No matter what you do, Raptorath will not be resting on his laurels, he
will be winning other challenges in the arena like a real gladiator!”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
am a fan of Raptorath; I will be watching him,” Nathaniel smiled.
----+======+++======+----
[Pedigree]015
Royal Odds
\Narration\
For
two years the gladiators of house Ellis battled those of other houses, but
Ellis was reluctant to challenge Ceazal, even though he would readily accept
challenges. With Ellis thus
controlling the amount wagered, the fortunes of house Ellis relative to house
Ceazal remained largely unchanged. The
cost of remaining somewhat wealthier than Ceazal by accepting but not issuing
challenges was that the nobleman was able to paint Ellis’ reputation as a
coward with increasingly garish colors. House
Ellis was recognized throughout the kingdom as the second best house of
slavery in the land. Its overall
win to loss ratio was second to none, but this was tainted by the fact that
Raptorath remained unchallenged as the premier gladiator of the nation.
Thundershock never lost a decathlon after his first win. His third win
brought an extra two hundred million to the fortunes of House Ellis and with
it a withering barrage in the press that began to erode the support of even
the most ardent supporters of House Ellis.
A
week after Thundershock’s third decathlon win, Harold Connors, the man who
designed the events for the Atlanna arena called Nathaniel Ellis into his
office.
\Harold
Connors\
“Good
day, Master Ellis, did you get a chance to read the front page of the sports
section of the Atlanna Sun yesterday morning?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
sighed, “Indeed I did.”
\Harold
Connors\
“Ceazal
puts it quite succinctly, if your boy can beat Raptorath in the decathlon
three times in a row, why is it that Thundershock and House Ellis will not
challenge Raptorath, the premier gladiator of House Ceazal, to a bout in the
games? Now I grant you that
Thundershock has been in only a few traditional bouts.
You seem to have him specializing for the decathlon.
The fans do not like that, and they do not like the fact that you
refuse to challenge Ceazal, but that is none of my business, normally.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Normally?”
\Harold
Connors\
“Ceazal,
a number of the other houses, and a number of fans far too large to ignore
have been making a great deal of noise about this issue. I have let it go a long time because I understand Ceazal
tries to ruin you every time he is able to set the amount of the wager.
Also, I realize that this rivalry has brought a great deal of revenue to the
arena, but as of about six months ago it has begun to have the opposite
effect. Your recalcitrance has
become so legendary that it is hurting prime time ticket sales.
Furthermore, if my estimates are correct, After your most recent
decathlon win, you are now worth 1,000,000,000 gold and Ceazal is worth only
about 400,000,000 if you discount the feudal holdings that he cannot sell.
The chances of him ruining you are slim to none, and I can no longer
ignore the fans. They are
becoming turned off by your behavior, and their purse strings are constricting
as a result. I cannot tell you
that you must challenge Ceazal, but I can tell you that your reputation as a
result of your rivalry with him is poisoning my arena.
If you become a financial liability to the arena, then I have every
right to scale back your appearances.”
“I
do not want to force you to challenge Ceazal on a particular event that I have
designed, nor do I want him to take unfair advantage of your worsening
situation in the press. I have
just completed the designs on several possible events pitting Raptorath
against an Ellis gladiator that I think might be mutually agreeable to you and
Lord Ceazal. It is my hope that
you will challenge Ceazal on one of these events.
I also believe Ceazal is likely to beg a challenge from you repeatedly
in the next few weeks because he can smell your blood.
Refusals to challenge serve to hammer his point home, and to turn your
supporters away from you. There
was a time when you successfully wielded the press against him, Master Ellis,
but now he has turned your own sword on you, and if you do not fight back, you
will die.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
frowned, “Yes you are quite correct. I
apologize for putting this off, Harold. I
know I should have challenged Ceazal some time ago, but I lack a gladiator
with the seniority of Raptorath, and I had a bad feeling about it.
It appears that I have put it off until the last possible moment, and
now I must challenge Raptorath or I shall no longer be taken seriously. My young warriors are second to none, but a win to loss ratio
is nothing if you have a pernicious reputation for cowardice.
Thunder will challenge Raptorath.
Simply give me the briefs on these proposed events and I will let you
know which are most palatable to me.”
\Harold
Connors\
“Rest
assured, I will make sure the bout is fair.
As you know, the factions of the mage’s guild and our auditors do
their utmost to crush even the hint of cheating.
With the exception of a word from the King, there is no way the games
could be skewed in Ceazal’s favor, and the King has not sat in this arena
for nearly twenty years. At that
time he was only the crowned prince.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Thank
you Harold, I will not disappoint you.”
---
\Narration\
Within
a conference room at the Ellis arena Nathaniel stood explaining the event
for the challenge he had made to Raptorath. Various trainers,
Thundershock and his understudy, Tornado were in attendance.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
attempted to get the sort of bout we have historically done best on although I
do not believe you really need it, but I must act the part, after all.
Unfortunately, Ceazal was adamant on his insistence that courageously
facing an opponent must be the keynote of the bout.
Thankfully even Ceazal realized that a simple toe to toe fight would
not last long enough for a bout of this magnitude.
For this reason he and I have agreed to this design entitled, The
Ascent of the Warrior…
---
\Lord
Ceazal\
The
Saturday afternoon sun glinted from the sands of the floor of the Atlanna
arena. The mighty stadium was
packed with fans, every box, and every seat from ringside to the most remote
balcony was filled save the curtained royal box.
After a rousing dance performed by a snakeskin-clad Asheika, Lord
Ceazal joined Master Ellis on stage.
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Why
Ellis, what a fitting dance your girl Asheika has staged for this bout, and so
magnificently performed. I think
Asheika deserves a second round of applause.
\The
Crowd\
The
crowd applauded heartily.
\Lord
Ceazal\
“She
is a marvel of sensuality, and has depicted house Ellis just the way I see it,
as a den of snakes!”
\The
Crowd\
The
crowd laughed.
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Snakes
require extermination, and that is exactly what Raptorath will accomplish
today!”
\The
Crowd\
Over
half of the crowd cheered heartily, but they could not quite drown out the
sound of the jeering fans of House Ellis.
\Lord
Ceazal\
“I
am so sure you are a snake that today I have brought a legal document so that
there can be no doubts about the magnitude and finality of my wager, and no
way for you to wriggle out of it when Raptorath destroys you.”
Lord Ceazal handed the document to Nathaniel Ellis.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
had seen it before but at that time, no amount was listed.
Ceazal knew he would not sign without having had his lawyers scrutinize
the document first. It applied to
both parties indiscriminately, and left no loophole whereby a loser could back
out of the deal. Nathaniel raised
his eyebrows.
Lord
Ceazal, excuse my impertinence, but I was unaware you were still worth
1,000,000,000. How do you propose
to cover the bet should you loose?
\Lord
Ceazal\
“You
are forgetting I am a nobleman, Ellis.”
\Nathaniel\
“I
am no expert on such matters, Lord Ceazal, but I do know that feudal lands
cannot be sold to pay a debt since they belong ultimately to the king.
I distinctly remember you yourself telling me that it was customary to
settle these wagers in cash. Unless
you have a document signed by his royal majesty the king, granting you the
right to sell your feudal holdings, you cannot cover this bet, and I would be
a fool to sign.”
Suddenly
the sound of trumpets filled the air, and the curtains surrounding the royal
box opened with a flourish. Those
in the audience not of noble birth, hastily knelt before the king, but no
man’s knees touched the floor before the knees of Nathaniel Ellis.
He was the picture of deference.
\The
King\
It
is my will, as set forth by this document, that Marquis Ceazal shall be
authorized to transfer his lands to other noblemen in exchange for money to
pay this debt. By my presence,
and by this document, I guarantee should Marquis Ceazal’s gladiator
Raptorath loose this bout, his debt will be paid to your satisfaction,
Nathaniel Ellis, in gold raised through the transfer of his feudal holdings to
others, if necessary. You may
rise and speak your mind, Mister Ellis.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Thank
you your Royal Majesty. Your word
and writ of guarantee would suffice to guarantee any bet, even if it were my
soul as well as my fortune that were being wagered here. By your leave I will sign this document wagering one thousand
million gold against Lord Ceazal in this bout.
Ellis signed and held up the document.”
\The
Crowd\
The
Crowd Cheered!
\The
King\
“Your
deference is duly noted, Mister Ellis. Now,
let us be seated and let the games begin!”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
As
the crowd roared, Nathaniel Ellis retreated down the stairs into the area
below the stage. Thundershock and
his key trainer, Thor, were standing ready for any last minute instructions.
Ellis whispered briefly in Thor’s ear before leaving for his box with
Asheika.
\Thor\
As
Thor and some white arena guards escorted Thunder to the starting area, Thor
spoke under his breath to his star pupil, “Brother, there has been a change
of plans. The king has come to
the games. If he spoke even one
hint to Harold Connors about wishing Ceazal to win, Connors would have to skew
the odds of the bout in Raptorath’s favor.
You must assume the odds have been stacked against you.
Be ware of brittle weapons and armor, traps and the like.
Take no chances, yet do your utmost to win any advantage while
preserving yourself for the head to head fight against Raptorath at the end of
the bout.”
-----
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
Ellis sat down heavily in his seat and sighed.
\Asheika\
Asheika
cupped her hand and whispered in her master’s ear, “A girl might wonder
why massa relaxes a little now when the presence of the king might mean house
Ellis is ruined.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
whispered back, “My pet, the odds might well have been sorely skewed against
us by a single subtle comment from the king to Harold Connors.
I believe, however, that the torturous route we took to this box has
seen to it that we were not stopped by an emissary of the king and ordered to
loose the bout outright. Look, the game is already starting. Tall odds or not, Thundershock has a chance.”
The
Arena floor was set up with fenced areas in the shape of a giant, segmented
horseshoe. The two gladiators
were already entering, each at one end of the horseshoe, and eventually they
would meet in the middle.
\Thundershock\
Naked
and barefoot, Thundershock emerged from a doorway into the lights of the
arena. Ahead of him stretched an
area fenced with plank walls. The
sand was raked into drifts and ended at the edge of a pool. In the center of the sands was a deep purple loincloth.
No doubt Raptorath faced a similar challenge nearby.
\Master
of Ceremonies\
“This
game, The Ascent of the Warrior, traces the evolution of the fighting man,
from savage to gladiator. In this
first phase, the gladiators will brave the sands to retrieve a scrap of
clothing, then each must jump the pool ahead of him.
The first across carrying a loincloth shall win a shield.
As the bout progresses the gladiators are allowed to use any clothing,
weapons and armor they glean on later parts of the event.
\The
Crowd\
The
crowd applauded briefly as the contestants began to move.
\Thundershock\
The
only thing Thunder did not see was an opponent. He looked around warily, standing on the balls of his feet.
Suddenly he felt movement beneath his foot and jumped with such
lightning speed that the viper beneath him sunk its fangs into empty air.
There was no time to think; the sands could be teaming with snakes.
Thunder made sure he was never in remotely the same place for more than
a split second. A staccato series
of running jumps punctuated by snakes striking thin air brought him to the
loincloth. Before he cold scoop
it up, a viper struck, but the gladiator caught the snake’s neck in his hand
before it could sink its fangs into his leg.
He snatched the loincloth with his other hand and held it in his teeth
as he ran and jumped towards the edge of the pool.
The pool was shallow but was so full of toothy fish that it looked more
like quicksilver than water. A normal man would have had no choice but to
backtrack through the now stirring snakes in order to get a good running start
but the jumps that had carried Thunder provided him with sufficient speed that
one Herculean jump took him to the other side of the water.
Thunder tossed the snake he had caught into the water behind him and
raised his arms to the crowd.
\The
Crowd\
The
Crowd cheered or jeered as an attendant tossed a large wood-framed leather
shield to Thundershock for being the first to cross his pool.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Ellis
lowered his opera glasses and leaned over to whisper in Asheika’s ear, “It
could not be proven from here, but I believe Thunder’s sands boast three
times more resident snakes than the sands of Raptorath. I fear the odds have been skewed.”
\Thundershock\
Thundershock
took up his shield and jumped five feet down for the next phase of the
contest. At the center of the pit
he had just entered was a large nest. Fist-sized
jumping spiders could be seen swarming around it.
Thunder tried to keep as much distance between him and the nest as
possible. Just after
the gladiator rounded the corner of the rectangular enclosure the ground
dropped out from under his feet. Below
the gladiator was a pit full of glass shards.
Thunder gave a mighty twist, kicked the side of the pit, flipped in mid
air and landed on the outer edge shield up and ready.
The
spiders seemed already aroused and began springing at him.
Thunder jumped back over the pit and ran on the side wall as if it were
a floor all the while bouncing a barrage of spiders away from him with his
shield
\The
Crowd\
The
Crowd stood and cheered as Thundershock demonstrated his incredible agility.
\Thundershock\
Thump-a
thump-a thump-a-thump went the shield as spiders from the nest launched
themselves at him. His shield,
hands and feet were a constant blur of motion as spider after spider attempted
to sink fangs into him. A few
succeeded for the barest split second before they were slapped off.
On the other side of the pit was a spiked wall.
A pair of armored sandals hung there.
Thunder sprang off the sidewall, slung the shield over his back by
holding a leather fringe from the shield in his teeth as he held the bottom
with his off hand. He caught the spike the sandals hung from, hooked them with
his thumb, then did a handstand and flip from the spikes to the rim of the
pit. Where he slapped off two
spiders and then held his hands high. The
pain of the bites was excruciating, and he felt just slightly drugged.
Thunder sucked or squeezed what venom he could from the bites and spat
it on the ground.
\Raptorath\
Across
the arena floor Raptorath ran a flawless pattern through his spider-pit
avoiding all pit-traps as if they had been obvious. The spider nest at the center of his pit was hardly disturbed
and the gladiator easily knocked aside the three or four spiders that attacked
him and sustained only a single bite in the back as he jumped out of the pit.
When he emerged to a cheering crowd he was given a set of steel forearm
bracers. Only a second later he
could see his opponent spring out of his pit on the opposite side of the
Arena. Raptorath was not sure who
was cheering for whom, but it sounded as if the Ellis boy had made a good run
of it.
\Thundershock\
Thundershock
looked forward. He climbed a
flight of stairs to a landing. There
before him was a spear, and beyond that was an even deeper pit than the one
the spiders had been in. As he
examined and then donned the sandals, he saw a lion pacing back and forth
below him. At the far end of the
enclosure laid a vaulting pole.
\Master
of Ceremonies\
“The
next trial pits each gladiator against a lion.
The spears must be wielded in-hand.
Throwing the spear will be cause for a second lion to be released into
the pit!”
\Thundershock\
Thunder
took up the seven-foot long spear and waved it briskly at the crowd.
The top three feet broke off with a snap and fell into the pit.
Thunder pointed at the remains of his weapon and acted angry.
“This weapon is shit!” He
roared.
\The
Crowd\
The
crowd jeered and booed. Some
pointed at arena officials and yelled obscenities.
\Master
of Ceremonies\
“The
ruling on the spear is that the break was the gladiator’s fault.
He must finish the event with the broken spear.”
\Crowd\
The
jeering redoubled as well over half the crowd seemed to disagree with the
ruling.
\Thundershock\
Thunder
tested the remainder of the spear shaft but it was sound.
The jagged break could serve as a point.
A steel pole stood up from the floor of the pit.
When the lion was turned away from him he slid down, but when his ankle
felt grease he immediately dropped what spear he had remaining and stopped his
descent with both hands. He
twisted around the pole and then launched himself at the wall of the pit. His precisely aimed feet hit the wall thrice breaking his
fall on the way down. Discovering
the grease that would have ruined his grip had slowed him down and lost him
his spear haft. It was a no win
situation and the lioness was leaping through the air right at him.
Raaa!
Thunder bellowed, as his fist shot out like a bolt of lightning,
hammering the lion’s nose. Before the feline could close it’s surprised paws
Thunder danced to the side, and blocked a raking claw aimed at his face.
Fearing pits, he jumped for the shard of spear.
The lion was in hot pursuit. It
appeared as if it would be impossible for the gladiator to get the weapon
between the lion and him before it was too late.
Thundershock flicked the spear up into the air with his foot. Suddenly
he had a weapon, one that the lion had not counted on.
Thunder aimed and thrust right into the lion’s eye and then ducked
under the flying feline blocking its attempts to rake him. By the time it hit the wall the lion was dead.
Thundershock jumped atop the big cat and pulled out the spear.
He hurried across the enclosure probing with the spear and finding two
pits full of short spikes. He
knew the probing was costing him time, but he mistrusted the arena officials
too much to take chances. After
scouting the approach he tested the vaulting pole.
Crack! It was faulty.
\The
Crowd\
The
crowd jeered and began to chant, KILL CONNORS! KILL CONNORS! KILL CONNORS!
\Lord
Roderick Ceazal\
Ceazal
wrinkled his nose involuntarily. The
Ellis boy was good, and in better form than he had ever seen before.
It was becoming obvious to Ceazal that the trump card he had played
bringing the king was working as planned, but the crowd was getting restless
as though they realized something was amiss.
Raptorath had easily skewered his sluggish lion, but the Ellis boy was
doing far too well against what appeared have been a difficulty-enhanced
course.
\Master
of Ceremonies\
“The
price of a new vaulting pole will be an additional lion!”
\The
Crowd\
The
jeering and booing of the crowd was nearly deafening.
\Thundershock\
The
Shock took up both pieces of his broken spear.
He dared not use the vaulting pole even though one broken half was
longer than either piece of spear because he realized that any technicality
might be used as an excuse for further abuse.
He stood behind one of the pits he had found and grinned.
The cat leapt and Thunder deflected it into the pit, sustaining a minor
rake across the shoulder. The animal landed on the short spikes and roared in pain.
That’s when Thunder thrust the metal-tipped spear between two of the
cat’s ribs like a striking snake and then jumped back.
The animal jumped out of the pit on bloody paws and then began to
twitch as it died in a pool of its own blood.
A
new vaulting pole was thrown in. Thunder
made a show of testing it. This
one was sound. The vault was a
breeze and at the top Thunder picked up a set of leather fasciae, leather
armor for the legs. He examined
them but did not like the way they smelled.
He made a show of wrinkling his nose and tossing them to the ground
before wiping his hands on the planks. Internally
he smiled as the restless crowd became even more restless.
\Master
of Ceremonies\
In
the next phase, the gladiators face savage tribesmen! The Master of Ceremonies yelled in a barely successful
attempt to overcome the noise of the crowd.
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
found a gladius not far from the platform that was a continuation of the edge
of the lion pit. He snatched it
up. He saw his opponent do the
same. Three men had just
been released from a door on the far side of the next enclosure well below the
platform. Raptorath slid down the
rope, kicked off the wall and landed with both feet planted and ready for
battle.
\Thundershock\
Thundershock
made a show of brandishing his gladius before the crowd and then pulling his
rope up and scraping the gladius over it to check it for hidden splinters or
needles. He found none but the
maneuver gave him an adequate view of the way Raptorath had landed.
Thundershock slid down his rope, kicked off the wall and landed.
He held onto the rope with one hand as if he did not trust the
integrity of the ground. Three
men ran at him brandishing blunt weapons with short spikes sticking out from
them. Few in the audience could have told the difference, but to
Thunder’s trained eye it was obvious that these supposed savages had fought
many times before. As the first
one neared him he jumped backward, grinning.
The ground opened below the pursuing man.
Thundershock
swung back and then rebounded from the back wall of the enclosure.
Crunch! He slammed the heel of his sandal into the bridge of the second
man’s nose before the man could connect with a swiftly swung club.
He heard a warning from the crowd and let go of the rope.
It fell into the pit; an arena functionary had cut it to prevent
Thundershock from using it any longer. The
crowd abused the man soundly. Thunder
faced the third man with a gladius in one hand and the second man’s club in
the other. His first swing was a
very convincing feint designed to test the durability of his sword.
Sure enough it shattered against his opponent’s leather breastplate.
The man lunged with a previously concealed knife but Thunder blocked it
with his stub of sword while his club shot straight up and shattered the
man’s jaw with such force that he was thrown backwards.
A spike from the man’s club grazed Thunder’s upper arm.
For good measure the gladiator sucked on it and spat out the blood.
He took the other club and ran for the end of the enclosure where a
gate was being opened. Across
the arena he saw Raptorath clad in the leather breastplate he had gleaned from
being the first to vanquish his human opponents.
Beyond
the gate there were low walls somewhat higher than high hurdles with holes a
foot in diameter bored through them.
Thundershock smiled. He
knew this setup; Thor had encountered it.
There were bugs that harried a man’s heals.
They could run through the holes whereas a man could not. The
hurdle-walls were closer to one another on one side than they were on the
other because he was now in the curving portion of the horseshoe layout for
the day’s events. Thundershock
knew the walls were spaced so as to be too far from one another to make it
possible for a normal man to jump from one to another without touching the
ground, but he also knew if he got a running start he could get enough
momentum so that he could jump from the top of one to another for perhaps
three, possibly four jumps. He
drew back and ran. One, two,
three, four, and nearly five, but he knew his foot would not touch the fifth
obstacle. Thundershock did a mid-air flip, landed on the fifth wall
with his hands and back flipped over it into the air. He did not know what they might have done to the insects to
make them more dangerous than they should have been, but his brother Thor had
told him the creatures he had faced had claws that had been filed.
Somehow Thundershock imagined the man assigned to file his beasts’
claws had been unusually lax. Thunder
ran full out, high jumping one wall after another wall until he reached a rope
that could be climbed to the top of a huge wooden platform that stood on
several tree-trunks as though it were a giant stool.
“How many poisoned needles might be concealed within that length of
hawser,” the gladiator mused as he passed the rope and climbed one of the
platform’s legs rather than find out.
He grinned as a hoard of bugs jumped for him.
They were close, but not close enough.
When
Thunder reached the top, Raptorath was just coming over the edge on the other
side of the railed platform. Thunder
leapt, hit the ground rolling and snatched the long sword that stood in a
holder on Raptorath’s side of the platform just as the man’s hand was
about to close around it. He
suffered a deep gash from Raptorath’s gladius across his ribs for his
trouble. “Fucking cheaters,”
Thundershock swore under his breath as he hurled the blade off the platform. “Poison!” He bellowed.
\The
Crowd\
The
crowd jeered and yelled obscenities at the arena officials.
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
raised his eyebrow.
\Thundershock\
“Damn
thing had a poisoned tip. If I
had used it, I’d be a cheater, if you had used it, the fact would be swept
under the rug,” Thundershock growled.
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
dashed to the other side of the platform and took up the sword that had been
meant for Thundershock. He now
faced Thunder with a long and short sword.
Thunder on the other hand, had retained only one club during his climb
up to the platform.
\Thundershock\
Thundershock
circled Raptorath on the balls of his feet, keeping the club at the ready.
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
grinned and moved forward.
\Thundershock\
“You
don’t give a damn if this thing is fair, do you, brother?”
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
flexed his huge muscles. “If I
win, I live. If I loose, even if
you spare me, I die when my master wipes his finger across his throat.
If you were me, would you care, brother?” Raptorath sneered
sarcastically.
\Thundershock\
“Yeah,
Thor told me about Raptshot. Ellis
would have spared him. He always
spares his men,” Thundershock grinned.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
covered his face with his hand for a moment.
It had been such a great start; in spite of everything Thundershock had
made it to the final platform largely intact.
Unfortunately he now faced a senior gladiator armed with two swords,
and Thundershock had only a light club.
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
lunged and launched a flurry of blows at Thundershock.
His opponent was very fast but Raptorath got in close and cleaved at
his opponent’s club. The club
offered no resistance as Thunder snatched his hand away leaving it in mid air.
The lack of resistance made Raptorath’s powerful left-hand swing go
wild. With his right hand however he was swinging the long sword to
split his opponent’s head right down the middle.
\Thundershock\
Thundershock
clapped his hands together and bent backwards while snapping his foot up into
the air.
\Raptorath\
Raptorath’s
mouth opened involuntarily. Thunder’s
block with the club had been a feint, but how could it have been when that
left nothing to block Raptorath’s main weapon.
Clap! His insane opponent
caught his sword between his hands and twisted it backwards. Ow! Raptorath
grunted as his opponent’s lightning snap-kick knifed into his left elbow
causing his arm to go completely nerveless.
His right arm was pushed back and pulled down by the two-hand grip of
his opponent as his sword was redirected towards Raptorath’s own leg. In the split second it took Raptorath to recover,
Thundershock snatched the gladius out of Raptorath’s nerveless left hand and
backflipped. Raptorath carved a
gash in Thundershock’s thigh but the Ellis gladiator got away both armed and
out of the range of Raptorath’s longsword.
“Bastard!” Raptorath barked.
\Thundershock\
“Guilty
as charged,” Thunder grinned. “Me
and my massa both.” Thunder
traded fearfully swift sword strokes with his opponent that would have
shattered the wrists of lesser men. He
was surprised to see that the long sword meant for him was actually holding up
in Raptorath’s hand. Perhaps
the cheaters had decided it would not do to have the deciding battle be won by
a broken sword. Either that or
the blade just needed a little more abuse.
Chang! Ch-chang! Clang! Ta-ching! Szang!
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
felt the speed and power with which his blows were turned aside, but he did
not believe it. He had fought
hundreds of men and always the withering strength of his blows had given them
pause if it had failed to knock the blades right out of their hands. Thunder handled the gladius almost casually.
It seemed to be something alive in his hand, like a bolt of lightning
that squirmed and whirled with a life of its own.
\Thundershock\
“Damn,
but you really are good,” Thunder said as his gladius deflected
Raptorath’s blows without any seeming thought on the part of its wielder.
Lets pick up the pace, shall we?” Thunder grinned.
\Raptorath\
The
blows were so fast Raptorath could hardly think about attack.
He could hardly see his opponent’s gladius.
I nick opened across his upper arm, another across his chin.
\Thundershock\
“Come
on man! You have a longer sword
and armor, but that’s no excuse for being careless.”
\Raptorath\
Angered,
Raptorath made a quick change of stance and swung low.
Uhh! Raptorath barked
as Thunder not only jumped his blade but also kicked him just above the right
eye.
\Thundershock\
"That one's for Odin, Rathboy!"
\Raptorath\
He
could feel the blood flowing from the crease.
Damn coward! He bellowed
as he swung. CHANG! The impact made his wrist go numb and would have broken the
wrist of a lesser man.
\Thundershock\
Thundershock
blocked a kick from Raptorath with one foot, deflected a punch with his elbow
and still managed to kick Raptorath in the kidney while deflecting Rath’s
long sword blow into the rail around the platform.
Thwok!
\The
Crowd\
Ooooh!
The crowd gasped as Raptorath’s blade went right through the railing.
\Raptorath\
“Damn
coward where’d you learn to kick like that?”
\Thundershock\
“I
got that trick from another yellow-belly, sucker-boy,” Thunder grinned as he
nailed Raptorath in the other kidney before the gladiator could recover from
the over-hard swing he had just launched through the railing.
“This fight’s going to be over real fast if you keep unbalancing
yourself, man. You got to do this
right.” Thunder kept jumping,
weaving and changing directions. He
could have done fine with less fancy footwork, but he felt it possible that
some cheater might have a blowgun aimed at his neck and he did not like the
idea of giving him a clear shot.
\Raptorath\
Raptorath’s
kidneys hurt like hell. That
Ellis kid sure knew how to sucker-kick. The
blows were eating into Raptorath’s speed, and he could ill afford that with
blood from his forehead already making him half blind. Shit! He swore as he fell for a feint and felt a gash open up
clean across his forehead. It was
now or never. His vision was only
going to get worse. RAH!
CLANG-KTANG. Raptorath feinted, twirled and opened another deep gash
on a diagonal across Thunder’s chin and chest as his wily opponent
back-flipped out of the way. Raptorath
lunged, “Die you Ellis Coward!” He bellowed as he pressed his advantage.
WANG-CHANG-TANG-TSANG-FWANG-SZZTWOPTH!
CRACK! Ting!
-
Raptorath’s over-powerful blow was corralled into the floor of the platform
where it stuck into the wood. The
kick that struck the flat and broke his blade in two was so fast he almost did
not see it, but the result was obvious. His
sword was now shorter than his opponent’s.
\Thundershock\
“You
want to yield old man, because it’s all the same to me.
We both know you’re good, and we both know I’m better.”
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
bellowed and Ran in low. The
stance made the blood fall on the ground rather than running down his forehead
into his eyes. At the last minute
he stood and swung. CHANG!
His blade locked with Thundershock’s and he knew he had him!
“Now I have you bastard!” He roared as he muscled Thundershock’s
own blade towards his throat.
\Thundershock\
“Oh,
one thing I forgot to tell you, old dinosaur.
I’m stronger than you ever were.”
\Raptorath\
Raptorath
watched in horror as his blade began to move back towards his own throat.
His muscles were bigger than his opponent’s but Thundershock’s
every fiber must have been stronger. No!
Raptorath prided himself on being the strongest gladiator in the arena.
Blood and sweat dripped from his brow as he reversed the direction of
the locked blades and again pushed the blades towards his opponent.
\Thundershock\
“Sorry
man, they know you’re loosing now, and that means they’ll try one last
cheat. I can’t let that
happen.”
\Raptorath\
A
split second too late Raptorath realized that his opponent had been busy with
his own plan while Raptorath had been pouring everything he had into pushing
the blades back at Thundershock. Suddenly
his world erupted into a billion constellations of color, but it was
impossible to kick a man in the back of the head from in front of him,
wasn’t it?
\Thundershock\
He
liked Rath, but there were just way too many cheaters out there, and he had to
press every advantage like Thor had told him.
Thundershock broke with his senseless opponent, whirled and held his
arms aloft.
\Raptorath\
As
his body hit the ground, Raptorath’s head rolled off the platform.
\The
Crowd\
The
Crowd stood up in shock, and then the Ellis fans went wild!
\Ceazal\
Ceazal
stood open-mouthed, “NOOOOOOO!”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
An
elated Nathaniel embraced Asheika, "Now
that’s good breeding!”
----+======+++======+----
[Pedigree]016
A Royal Defeat
\Tom
Crowder\
“Congratulations
Master Ellis! I’d like to ask
you a few questions if I might,” The reporter for the Atlanna Sun Barked as
Nathaniel Ellis walked into the room wearing a grin so wide it almost didn’t
fit through the door. His girl
Asheika and his guards followed.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Why
certainly Tom. Fire away.”
\Tom
Crowder\
There
have been some rumors that today’s event was slanted in Raptorath’s favor.
How do you respond to that?
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel’s
eyes twinkled, “Well it never hurts to install more stringent security to
prevent cheating, but I just cannot believe Mr. Connors would stoop to that in
front of the very eye of the king. Now
it is true I counted three times more snakes in the first part of the event on
my boy’s side, but you can never really tell how many might have been hiding
in Raptorath’s sands. Also, the spiders did seem a whole lot more
placid on Raptorath’s side. However,
I am sure Raptorath’s long experience as a gladiator allowed him to avoid
stirring up the snakes and spiders, and to spot every pitfall so that he could
avoid them all as if he had known the layout in advance.
That is a big part of being a senior champion. “As for the shoddy quality of the pole-vaulting pole and
the spear, why that could have been just a run of bad luck,” Nathaniel
smiled.
\Tom
Crowder\
Crowder
rolled his eyes and then cleared his throat.
“During the last event, Thundershock threw the long sword on his
opponent’s side so far it stuck into the edge of the arena.
Why did he cheat himself out of a blade?
Is there any truth to the rumor that the blade was poisoned?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Well
now, it might have appeared to have been, but I am sure it was probably just
an accumulation of cleaning oil near the point of the blade that made
Thundershock nervous. You must
put yourself in his situation. Both
his spear and his first vaulting pole were faulty.
After two coincidences of that magnitude, would it not seem that
someone had stacked the odds against you?
Would you not see treachery behind the most innocent and ordinary
things?
\Tom
Crowder\
“I
see your point, Master Ellis.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Certainly
the sword should be found and tested, and inquiries made, but at this time I
fail to see the wisdom in assuming the worst, especially since Thundershock
won. Lord Ceazal will no doubt
grouse about my boy’s high kick, but Raptorath attempted a few kicks
himself. Any gladiator who lacks
offensive and defensive unarmed combat skills is an amateur.”
Ellis
suddenly stood with a wry grin. “Good
evening, Lady Ceazal, it is always such a pleasure to see you.”
\Lady
Elaina Caezal\
Lady
Ceazal’s skin could not have been whiter.
She looked as if she was in shock, but there was more than that.
To the truly discerning, she looked as if she was staggering beneath an
enormous weight of guilt. “Good evening Master Ellis,” the young noblewoman said
with a hollow voice. My father
shall not be attending the press conference this evening.
The loss was quite a shock to him.
He felt that the high kick Thundershock used was out of place in the
games and should not have been allowed.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
Ellis grinned at Tom Crowder, “I am sure I would feel the same had I lost.
If the blow that had lost the bout for me were a finger-poke to the
eye, I would absolutely have felt that finger-pokes should not be allowed in
the arena. Not that I can really
put myself in Lord Ceazal’s shoes, I am but a humble slave-breeder and even
my pedigree as a gentleman is only half-baked.
However, House Ellis does not attempt to be the most august or noble
house in our nation, simply stated we concentrate on doing what it takes to
breed the finest slaves in the land to serve the most august and noble houses.
I think we have demonstrated that tonight.”
\Lady
Ceazal\
“The
Ellis boy, Thundershock, he was amazing.
His speed and strength, the way he jumped through the snake pit, even
catching that snake that tried to bite him before it struck, and the
acrobatics he used to avoid the pit that opened beneath him. All of it was astonishing.”
\Tom
Crowder\
“Thundershock
is a superb athlete, winner of three gladiator decathlons, but I had always
assumed he was a decathlon specialist. Did
you attempt to sell him as a decathlon specialist to downplay his amazing
combat abilities and give his opponents in future gladiatorial games such as
this one a false sense of security, master Ellis?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Thundershock
has always been a superior athlete. He
is one of the finest athletes I have ever had the pleasure to own.
He started with the decathlon, but he was always in training as a
gladiator. People may have
assumed he specialized, and I will admit that I gave them enough rope to hang
themselves with, but Thundershock was never a specialist.
As you see, he has been training as a gladiator, not simply as a
classical athlete.
\Tom
Crowder\
“Lady
Ceazal, the crowd was very disgruntled by the way the arena officials treated
Thundershock’s broken spear. There
has also been buzzing among the press and public that Raptorath did not have
to face as many perils as Thundershock encountered. Raptorath avoided all pits, and the spiders and snakes in his
area seemed much less agitated than those in Thundershock’s area.
I have heard that a sizable number of fans expected Raptorath to win
because the difficulty of the courses the two gladiators faced did not seem to
be equal. Do you think they were
equal?
\Lady
Ceazal\
Lady
Ceazal tried not to look uncomfortable, “I do not think it matters what I
think, Mister Crowder. We were
given sketchy details of the event, as was House Ellis. We coached Raptorath based on pitfalls that had appeared in
other events. If there was any
inequality beyond Raptorath’s long experience in the ring, then it was not
our doing. The arena officials do
not let contestants, no matter how noble, interfere with their preparations
for the games.”
\Tom
Crowder\
“I
see. Thank you Lady Ceazal.
Master Ellis, amid the allegations of unequal odds there are also
allegations that no non-magical human being could have performed the feats
that Thundershock performed today. Thus
some say you have found a way to supercharge your gladiators that defies
detection by the mage’s guild. How
do you respond to that?
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
If
scientific breeding methods could be construed as super-charging, then and
only then would I be guilty of such a ridiculous allegation.
The mage’s guild is right now testing and re-testing Thundershock for
magic. I have insisted that they
do the same to Raptorath’s remains so that, as much as possible, we will
have equal treatment. They have
gone so far as to magically preserve Raptorath’s remains so that poisons and
the like will not decompose. These
are worthy precautions. A lot is
riding on the results of this bout. Lord Ceazal set the bet far above anything
that I might have wagered. If he were
not bent on ruining me, I might seriously believe he bet his entire fortune
because he thought he could not loose. I
invite stringent testing of Thundershock as long as it is evenhanded.
He has been bred with superior traits, and trained by the finest
trainers in a wide range of techniques, including acrobatics.
The guild will find no trace of illegal magic on him because none was
used.”
\Tom
Crowder\
“There
is some talk that your training as an alchemist allows you to give your
gladiators nutrients and the like that enhance their development, and that
this is unfair. How do you
respond to that?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“The
rules state that no magic or residue of magic shall be found on a slave during
the time of the games. I believe
those rules are wise. The mage
guild realizes that any other rule would be impossible to enforce since, by
definition, magic used at other times and given long enough to completely wear
off would be undetectable during the time a bout took place. It is well known that many houses of slavery
employ alchemists and the like. I
believe Lord Ceazal himself employs one.
Any magic that went into the development of Thundershock or Raptorath
was plain for all to see. A
gladiator’s physique and win to loss ratio are most of what one has to go on
in determining the wisdom of wagering on a given warrior.
Since no magic is allowed on the gladiators during the games, all
training, magic, nutrients or anything else can do is enhance a gladiator’s
body or training. Houses are
constantly trying to find better ways to enhance these things.
That is what producing the finest slaves is all about.
These issues were never raised in previous bouts, and it is all too
obvious why they are being raised now. Lord
Ceazal bet his entire fortune on a game of chance... and lost.”
\Tom
Crowder\
If
is was not magic, then what more reasonable explanation can you offer for
Thundershock’s success?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Since
neither gladiator was badly hurt in the events leading up to their toe to toe
bout, the last battle was the crux. The
reason I did not challenge Raptorath and his master earlier was because
Raptorath was such a fine swordsman. I
had to find better trainers and get Thundershock some intensive practice.
When I felt I could not put off making a challenge any longer, and that
Thunder had a real chance against the legendary Raptorath, I accepted the
challenge. Where I come from that
is called planning, not magic.”
Nathaniel
looked up, “I believe I hear Thundershock approaching.”
\Thor\
Thor
nodded to master Ellis as he and some white arena guards escorted Thundershock
in, signifying he had already coached his pupil on downplaying the way the
odds had been stacked against him.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“As
usual, feel free to interview my gladiator.
I’m sure he can answer any questions about what was going through his
mind during the bout. I believe I
will go get some refreshments and rejoin you in a few minutes.”
Nathaniel left the crowd of reporters clustered around Thundershock and
made his way to the refreshment table. Elaina
Ceazal followed a few moments later.
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“It
appears my family is ruined. You
certainly must be pleased with yourself, Master Ellis.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“My
Lady I have never had anything against your father, but it was quite apparent
he had something against me. I
made every effort to keep my bets to a reasonable, if exciting level.
If Lord Ceazal is ruined, he has ruined himself, but I am not so naďve
that I believe Lord Ceazal will be forced to make good on the legal document
he signed. I realize that the
king makes the rules and the king can change them as he sees fit.
His presence here at Lord Ceazal’s beckoning indicates that noblemen
play by a different set of rules than commoners, and that even if he looses,
he wins.”
Suddenly
Elaina Ceazal’s face was uncomfortably close to his own.
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“You
do not understand, Ellis. This
was my father’s trump card. He
played it and lost. He convinced
the king that Raptorath was vastly better than Thundershock, and that all he
needed was a little help with the steak, and he would sweep you from the
games. When the king saw
Thundershock perform, he knew Raptorath was not the best man, and after the
bout when my father begged him to intervene, all he said was, “Your father
and I agreed this gaming of yours was a fool’s disease.
Well now it appears to have been fatal.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Ellis
raised an eyebrow.
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“Father’s
previous losses were strangling us, don’t you see? The king already did intervene for house Ceazal.
This bout was the intervention my father chose.
My father got the king into this, and then it went so badly.
The king lost face in front of the people by supporting the looser in a
bout that appeared to have been tampered with.
My father is ruined unless you will forgive at least a portion of the
debt.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“There
is only one problem with that, Elaina.
The document your father had drawn up prevents my forgiving him even a copper.
Your father has proven time and again that I cannot trust him.
I put on a show for the press for the sake of your good name, but I am
well aware that the presence of the king had a profound effect on the odds of
this bout. Your father has tried
to ruin me several times, and now he has used his connections in order to skew
the odds. I may be dumb, but I am
not stupid. What is done is done.
Lord Ceazal’s karma has come back home to roost.
He is ruined and I am relieved not to have to deal with his attacks on
my fortune.”
\Elaina Ceazal\
Elaina looked stunned.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
am a reasonable man, however, if you believe you have something I would value
and would like me to make an offer, I would be glad to reduce the debt
accordingly as long as I have some assurance that what is given me will not be
sabotaged. Otherwise there is no
reason for you to waste your voice. I
have extended every courtesy to your father in spite of our mutually
beneficial rivalry in the press. He
chose to ignore or belittle me. I
respect him just the same, but I will not be his fool.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
Elaina
looked crestfallen, “But what do I have that would be of interest to
you?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Perhaps
nothing, it appears that you are about to be the daughter of a landless,
penniless nobleman. I
commiserate. You have always been well mannered and kind to me.
Why you even assisted my girl Ashieka with a constructive critique of
her dancing. Certainly this
debacle was no fault of yours, and yet you will suffer for the indiscretions
of your father. Being a bastard I
am no stranger to suffering for the indiscretions of my father.
This state of affairs is the norm for me, but it should not be for a
noblewoman. Let me assure you I
will do everything I can to preserve your good name.
That is something that no amount of money can create, or restore once
it has been lost. Take heart that
even without property, you will have your good name.
Men of high standing will do you courtesy and take pity on your
condition.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“Pity!?
I don’t want their pity! My
father is ruined, what good will their pity do me?
They will descend like vultures to buy my father’s lands for as low a
price as their own competition will allow, and then they will ask the king for
grander titles, and who has ever heard of a landless Marquis?”
My father will loose rank. He
will be lucky to be Baron Ceazal when this is all over.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Do
not blame yourself, Elaina, you had nothing to do with what your father has
done and there is nothing you can do to set it right.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
Elaina
shook with emotion, “Oh gods I wish you were right!” Elaina stood, her
body shaking as she hurried out of the room.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Such
a pity,” Nathaniel smiled as he saw Elaina’s back disappear through the
door.
The
story continues in [Pedigree]017
A Soul And Its Seller
copyright 2000-2002, by Rapina
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