Chapter 18 -Amnesty

The night before my second fight, I lay awake once more. The bath that was to be my saving grace, my rest, relaxation, and recovery, turned out to be more of a headache. The traveling medic had given me even more to think about. This time I did not bother getting up and tiring myself out, but I did try to distract myself. Tomorrow was to be my rematch with Pirveli, and my heart pattered at the thought of facing him with real weapons. I was not terrified, but I balked at the thought of clashing with someone who knew how to make use of a sword. Even the paltry difference in experience between me and my opponent yesterday turned out to be significant. How would I overcome what might have been years of inexperience?

It occupied my thoughts deep into the night, and when I was satisfied with my plan of action, I let sleep overtake me. Morning dawned and I was brought apples, bread, milk, and water. I missed meat. Maybe after this tournament I could get some… But first, I needed to win.

We faced each other again. Semi-finals, but this was the true match, the one everyone wanted to see. Who would win? The dashing swordsman who fought with skill and flourish, or the brute who breaks swords with his own and fights like a barbarian. People overflowed the seats that ringed the coliseum. Not a single one was sitting down. It was packed to the brim, and I looked up. Beyond the brim. People were watching from on top of, and within the five story houses that towered above the coliseum walls. No doubt they were paying a premium to get those seats. All those people, and they were there to watch the fight between Pirveli and Khaisar. All the rats in Chereba. And some from outside, I noticed.

It would have been hard to miss, a full sixth of the coliseum was practically empty. The seats were clean for once and a flawless viewing platform oversaw the arena. Was one not enough? I looked back at the familiar terrace that towered above the rest coliseum seats. Vibrant banners hung from the railing and I saw women wearing dresses that shone white against the filth that was this city. Whoever was watching from there had no place in this den of crooks.

Somewhere in that crowd, my family stood. I desperately scoured the thousands of faces, but none were familiar. Perhaps she had been lying. No, she must have lied. Why would my parents or brother come to see me? But despite my conviction, my eyes still searched.

Across from me, Pirveli also took a moment to look around at the crowd. Was he also searching for something? Were his parents hidden among the forest of people? It would be a shame if they were. No one wants to watch their son be embarrassed.

I patiently waited for him to finish looking around, maybe he could manage what I was unable to. No, he too was disappointed. It’s for the best then.

I adjusted my grip on the sword, and like before let the tension fall from my shoulders. But this time I did not limit it to my shoulders. My chest, and my legs down to my toes relaxed. Only my heart went wild. It pounded in my ribs like a rising drumbeat. Bu-Bum, Bu-bum, faster and faster. I could taste the smoldering embers burning deep inside me as the smoke rose. I exhaled, blowing out from my mouth, expecting to see the grey smoke billow out in plumes. I breathed in and out, forcing my body to stay relaxed when all it wanted was to lock horns with the man standing across from me.

My tongue probed my gums where I was missing a tooth -one of me few reminders that I can be overpowered. But the fire still flared and licked at my heart. You have been cautious enough, now go, it told me. Go fight, I felt it whisper. Show him who you are.

My eyes widened and pupils dilated as my lips twitched back. I sauntered across the distance between us, until we were less than three paces apart. Just close enough for the tips of the swords to reach each other. He raised his sword to a neutral stance, and I mimicked him, but his face remained impassive. I was gambling here, I knew I was. But for my plan to work, I needed to commit. I required faith.

In the ten seconds that we mirrored one another, I was certain someone outside could marry and grow old with grandchildren. Each breath came slowly and left even slower as the crowd faded into the background. The fire inside stood still, and clouds froze in the sky.

All at once, the eternity of those second collapsed, and the present came rushing back. I leapt forwards with a roar and blitzing horizontal strike. The leap carried me too close to him for him to sidestep, and he was forced to block the cut. My blade rebounded off his, and without pause I swung it towards his legs. Given my inexperience, I could not let him dictate the pace of the fight. The second I fall on the back foot and try to counterattack, it would be over.

He stepped back and angled his sword, redirecting my swing. As my sword slid off of his, I brought it around and with another harsh shout, whirled my blade down on him. My overhead strike left me open, but again, he needed to block it. Raising both his arms and pushing upwards to catch the weight of my blow, metal struck metal. But there was no power behind the overhead strike, and his eyes widened as his arms continued to rise past the expected resistance. My relinquished sword flew up, and in that split second, his eyes frantically searched for me, screaming, Where? The horizon was empty, his eyes only found the crowd. Then he felt it. Down, around his midsection.

I wrapped my arms around him, just above his waist. From here, even if he was not off balance, it would have been over. But he was already stumbling backwards. I took a step in, and lifted him like a child. He rose three feet into the air as I stood up. Just as I reached full extension I dropped, twisting and slamming his body into the earth.

A woomph echoed throughout the coliseum as the air was knocked out of his lungs. He had tried smacking my head with the pommel of his sword as he fell, but there was no momentum behind it. He gasped, desperately trying to suck in a breath. Grabbing his right hand, I hammered it against the earth until he dropped his weapon. Mistake. I managed to take it from him and throw it far from us, but that had given him the time he needed to breathe.

He lurched forwards and pulled my head towards him. When I strained against his downwards pull, he used my neck to pull himself upwards and chomped on my left ear. I felt the skin split and cartilage crunch under his teeth. Then, the resistance was gone. I heard him spit, as my hands found his throat.

Squeezing, I pried him away from me and shifted my weight to sit on his chest. Blood dripped onto his face as I tightened my grasp and leaned over him. Gone was the cool and collected look he laughed at me with. Now he panicked as he choked for breath and went blue in the face. He violently struggled underneath me, clawing at my hands and bucking his hips to throw me off, but it was in vain. After a few minutes of silent struggling, he fell limp underneath me.

The whole fight had not lasted more than five minutes, and the majority of that had been spent strangling him. The crowd was stunned silent from the first blow to when I rose from his limp body. Blood stained my shirt and the left side of my face. My chest heaved and my hands shook. Slowly I lifted my head and looked around at the audience. My empty gaze met thousands of stares, and I turned to walk away. Only the sound of my footsteps followed me through the door as I exit the arena.

-

As the shade inside the structure began to cool my burning skin. The physician was the first to rush to me, and before I had the chance to speak, he shoved a leather bit in my mouth.

“Do you have any idea how filthy the mouths of man can be?”

He held a knife and brought it up towards my face. I edged back in alarm, but he held onto my shoulder with a vice-like grip.

“Bite down, hard, this will hurt.”

Eyes wide, I slipped out of his grasp and knocked the knife away.

“You fool! that wound can get infected!”

Spitting the bit out of my mouth, I shouted back, “then wash it!”

My ear had just been mutilated, I was missing a chunk from the top half of it and he wanted to cut off more? No, I could do without that, thank you very much. He tried again, but I was adamant, so he gave up and washed it with a soap that seared the open wound. Applying a cool ointment, he wrapped my head with the bandage and looked me over once again.

Then, without stopping for anything else, he rushed to where Pirveli was being taken in. That bastard, I can’t believe he bit my ear off. I had thought he had more class than that.

As I blankly stared at his unconscious body, I realized I could hear the crowds stomping their feet and cheering from above. I blinked once, twice and it dawned on me. I won. I was going to be guaranteed transfer to Katentin, even if I did not fight the day after tomorrow.

I slept well that night, but woke up to agony and choked out a scream.

Within minutes, the physician was in my cell, looming over me as a guard carried a bright lantern into the cramped room.

“It burns, it burns so bad.” I managed to whisper.

He soothed, “You’re going to be fine, let’s take a look at your ear.”

Whimpering I let him unwind the bandage, and as the cool air hit it, it began to feel better. But only by a hair. He dabbed a damp cloth against the festering wound and washed it once more. His fingers were rough against the swollen and sensitive bite. I could see the sick expression on the guard’s face as he watched in disgust, unable to look away.

“Do it.”

“I just need to see how far it spread. You are lucky it’s contained to your ear.”

He rummaged around in his bag and pulled out a frighteningly large pair of shears. The kind a person would use for cutting branches, but infinitely sharper. Rushing footsteps pattered down the hall as a cleaning servant hauled two clean buckets of water into the room. I held out my hand and the physician gave me the piece of leather once more. I clamped my teeth down onto it, and he began to count down.

“Three -SNIP”

I screamed around the obstruction in my mouth, what the hell had happened to two and one? Tears trickled down my face as I struggled to hold still. He hurriedly cleansed the cut and with fresh bandages in hand, applied pressure on what used to be my ear.

After he was sure that the bleeding had stopped, he wiped at the side of my face. He wrapped it up again in silence. While he worked, it occurred to me that I never got his name, and so I asked.

“Terlan.”

I wanted to nod, but he held my head in place.

“Just take it easy. Okay?”

I began to move my head again, and this time he let me. Half-bloody bandages littered the floor of my cell, and the smell was cloying. I turned to my cot and found what I was looking for. The remains of my ear. Now that the immediate pain had left, I questioned whether it was necessary. As if reading my thoughts, Terlan spoke up, “It was infected, and the rot had begun to set in. If we had cut it yesterday, we might have been able to save most of it…”

I took his word for it and sat in silence as he gingerly picked up my severed ear along with everything else that had blood on it. Shirt and cot included. The guard escorted me to the baths while Terlan and the servant took everything away to be burned. No one else was around, and through the thin window slits in some of the hallways, I saw it was night. I guess that explained the eerie stillness.

When we got to the bath, I saw two other groggy servants filling up a tub for me. I thanked them as I stripped and carefully lowered myself into the water.

The guard shifted from one foot to the other as I soaked, and soon Terlan joined us. He sat down next to the wooden container. After a few minutes, I broke the silence.

“Did I kill him?”

“No, only unconscious.”

“I should have killed him.”

“You got more points for not killing him.”

“The points don’t matter.”

“Maybe not to you. Regardless, may I offer you, my congratulation. It looks like you’re going to make it out of this place.”

“It’s a shit system.” I spat. “They gather criminals, and put them in this pit, turning them into vicious beasts. Then they reward them for the very behavior that landed them in here to begin with? What a joke.”

“I’m sure your family would disagree.”

I sat up and water sloshed out of the tub. “Did you see them?”

“The day before your first match, when they released the stories of all the fighters, I sought them out. They are here, and they were granted special seating -under watch of course.”

“Are they well? Is everyone here, or just mother? Does she, or do they, want to see me? Where are they staying?”

“So many questions!” He smiled, “They are doing fine. All of them are here, and someone else is tending to the tavern in the meantime. They asked about you, but I had not seen you then, and of course they want to see you. Why else would they make that trip?”

I sunk back into the tub with a sigh.

“You know you’re going to have to get out of there soon right? The sun’s going to come up eventually.”

“So what, today is my day off anyway.”

“About that… Why don’t you call it quits there? You’ve already secured your way out.”

He was right. I could just forfeit and move on. It would be the smart thing to do.

-

I breathed in the open air as the sun beat down. I opened my arms and welcomed it like a distant friend, letting it warm me. The bandages around my face itched in the heat. It took effort not to scratch it.

As I faced the sky with open arms and closed eyes, I welcomed the crowds as they chanted my name.

“GE-LAS!, GE-LAS!”

They shouted and stomped their feet with every syllable. It was coming to an end. This would be my last fight in this arena, and I let the praise wash over me.

Now I knew my family was somewhere in that crowd. They were watching me. I would not disappoint them.

I turned to my opponent. A burly fellow who strangled his sword. His shoulders bulged and his neck was non-existent. I had raced against him before in a balancing game with eggs on spoons. He was faster than he looked. It was no fluke that he ended up in the finals. Perhaps I should have listened to Terlan.

Judging by the varied shouts in the crowd, he also had support. Three names popped up continuously. Katami, Khaisar, Gelas. Strange that they acknowledged both the name they gave me and my own name. I began to slink around the arena, past the obstacles and slowly circling towards the center. He began to hound me immediately, becoming a barrier between me and the shield. What now?

I sidestepped and moved away, avoiding him like one would avoid a bear. He snuck towards me just as fast. The two of us played a game of cat and mouse with hurried steps from one ruinous wall or pile of logs to the other. We never ran but got damn close to it. Neither of us wanted to tire ourselves out, but sooner or later we would have to.

The good thing about the arena, was that it was circular. A little extended in the middle, but it still had no corners. Even if I was being careless -I’m never careless- I would not have been cornered. As I ducked and darted, I continued to rotate around the center. I let him get closer to me and finally, we stood in the center.

He watched me pick up the shield but gave no reaction, he stalked towards me, not taking a second to look elsewhere. It felt awkward on my arm and I cursed under my breath. This is why you don’t listen to praise, it gets to your head. Maybe if I adjust the shield? Still does not feel right. And how was I supposed to use the sword now?

Move! My instincts screamed at me and I jumped backwards. His hulking body covered the sun as he soared through the air. Why is he so fast?? Left, block it! His sword slammed against my shield but the strike was like that of a snake. He had already pulled his arm back and delivered another blow as I regained my balance from the first strike. I cowered behind the shield, desperately looking for a way out of the situation as yet another hit rattled my arm.

I needed to lower the shield. Where is he? Steel slivered under the wooden disc and reached for my ankle. Sun reflected from the tip of the blade and I jerked the shield downwards, stopping the strike.

I panted, chest heaving and breath coming in short bursts. Somehow, I needed to change the pace of the fight, but how? He maneuvered his sword around my shield again and scored my ribs. At this rate I was not going to have any more shirts to wear. I peeked over the top of my defense, only to see a double overhand strike flashing down towards me. I raised my arm and it thud into the shield.

I waited for him to attack again but no blows came. His sword embed itself deep into the lip of my shield. My arm was yanked upwards as he tried to pull the blade out. It swung both my arm and shield away from me, opening my chest to him. Shit! I thrust my sword towards his armpit just as his foot blasted against my chest piece. It knocked me onto my back, but not before I drew blood.

Still he hounded me and tried stomping on me. Tasting dirt, I rolled away and heard his heel smash the ground where I had been. I scrambled upwards, feeling the cut on my ribs open even further. My left arm felt leaden and pain whispered in my ears. He lunged forwards once more, but instead of going straight for me, he grabbed the handle of his sword and pulled once more.

Want it so badly? Take it!

I let go of the shield and slipped my arm out of the strap. There it was! I slashed at his leg and felt skin split and I scored a shallow cut over his knee. Following up, I went for another thrust towards his midsection. My sword bolted forwards, hitting… upwards? A fist connected with my chin and rattled my teeth. I dodged backwards, but my right hand didn’t budge. Glancing upwards I saw his fingers wrapped around my sword. The bastard had caught my thrust and angled it up! Do I just let go? No, pull harder.

I ripped it down, just in time for him to let go and step inwards, mauling my stomach. It winded me through the armor and I keeled over, gasping and tasting blood. His elbow rammed against the back of my helmet and dirt filled my mouth as I collapsed on the floor.

Please let it be over.

Nails scratched at my right hand as he began to pry open my fingers.

He was going for my sword.

I’m going to die.

He’s going to kill me.

As the realization blossomed, so did fear. Panic coursed through me and my grip on the sword became immovable. But I let him claw away. It gave me precious time catch my breath. Face down in the earth my mind raced, trying to find a way out of my predicament, but my body only wanted to run.

The clawing stopped and I heard a single footstep followed by a sharp exhale. That was all the warning I had.

I pushed with my arms and swung my head away from him just as his foot battered where my head had been less than a second ago. Spitting blood and dirt I stumbled away. For the first time luck was on my side.

The shield and sword were behind me. He had to get past me if he wanted to arm himself, and I was the only one with a weapon. I held it with both hands, pointing to towards him.

Wearily he crept closer. My eyes flashed between his eyes, fist, then legs and hips. One step after another he slowly moved towards me as I edged backwards. Where was the twitch? I knew he was up to something. After all that aggression, he was not about to slow down.

I stopped backing away and let him close the distance between us. A heartbeat later my searching was rewarded. He flung a handful of dirt and sand, but I ducked under it and pounced towards him. His eyes widened and he tried digging his heel into the ground to stop himself, but he had already lunged for me. My sword speared between his leg and sliced the inner part of his thigh. I was aiming for his crotch, but that would do. I spun around, cutting again as my sword escaped. Completing my spin, I felt the sword reverberate as it devastated the back of his helmet. Gods I hated using a shield. Could hardly move with the damn thing on. He turned towards me only for my sword to slam into his helmet once more, this time from the side.

He kept coming at me, and as he got in close, I switched to hammering his head with the butt of the sword. But he carried straight through them and tackled me to the ground.

“You pig! Just. Fucking. DIE!” I shouted, spraying blood into his eyes. His hands found my neck and his weight began to crush my throat. I felt piss trickle down my legs and with the last of my energy, used the sharp side of the blade and slit his neck.

Hot blood gushed onto my face, near drowning me.

Stupid fucking point system.

His hands had not relinquished my throat and his dead weight suffocated me.

Where are the cheers? I won. Cheer. Praise me…

My head sank back and the sword slipped out my hand. Slowly the tensions eased from my muscles.

Breathe. I needed to breathe. Just one bre-

Consciousness faded and darkness descended.