Allegiance

TEN

The capitol tower was alive with activity tonight. The Cazadores and the sky people had finished preparations for their dual mission to the wastes. But it wasn’t just warriors and Hell Divers that had gathered. Cazador citizens from other oil rigs had boated over to the rooftop to catch the first fights in the Sky Arena since the sky people won the battle for the islands.

Rhino had the honor of fighting in the main event. But he wasn’t thinking about that. His mind and heart were with Sofia, standing beside him in front of the airship. She helped tighten the leather guards on his wrists—the only protection he wore tonight.

“You sure you don’t want your battle armor?” she asked.

“No need,” he said. “Javier may have fought in the army, but I don’t need armor to best him in battle.”

“Don’t get cocky,” Sofia said. “You still haven’t recovered from the fight against el Pulpo.”

She pulled the strap tighter.

“Javier is not el Pulpo, and that’s too tight.”

Sofia loosened the strap.

“Good,” he said.

She went back to work on the other strap. “I know he’s not, but you can’t let your guard down for a second in there.”

“I never let my guard down with any enemy.”

As she moved to the next strap, he gazed at the dark eyes, long black braids, and dexterous, knowing fingers.

God, you are beautiful.

She finished with the straps and stepped away, hands on her hips. “Good?”

“Perfect.”

Sofia picked her helmet up off the dirt and took a moment to look him over.

“I better not catch wind of any other ladies lookin’ at you while I’m gone, or there will be hell to pay when I get back.”

“Almost ready, Sofia?” Magnolia called out, passing them by with a basket of fruit.

“Be right there,” Sofia said, not taking her eyes off Rhino.

He laid his hand on her dimpled cheek. “I love you, my queen. Please, be careful.”

“I’ll be fine. You’re the one I need to worry about, back here with that madman.” Sofia glanced at X, who was eating an apple and talking to Michael inside the dark launch bay. Miles sat by his master’s side, looking down at Rhino.

“X is one of the best I ever met,” he said.

“Yeah, well, he’s still crazy. Maybe not el Pulpo crazy, but bat-shit nonetheless.”

Rhino chuckled. “I suppose we all are, in one way or another, aren’t we?”

She looked past him to the Sky Arena, where hundreds of Cazadores were starting to take their seats.

“I’m glad I won’t have to watch you gut Javier,” Sofia said. “But he does deserve it.”

Rhino could think of someone else who deserved to die: Lieutenant Ada Winslow. But his duty was to the king, and Xavier had told him to keep it a secret—one that he had kept even from his woman.

A horn sounded from the arena—the first notice of the impending fights.

“Te quiero,” Sofia said.

“I love you, too.”

He kissed her goodbye, and she hefted her duffel and started up the ramp.

Inside Discovery’s launch bay, Rhino could see X hand Michael a handgun. Then he gave the young man a hug. X embraced Magnolia next. When they parted, she hunched down to Miles, who licked her face.

She stood and waved at Rhino. “I’ll take good care of her, don’t worry.”

“You better.”

Rhino picked up his spear and stepped to the platform. Ton and Victor crossed their spears in an X, blocking his way.

“It’s okay,” said Lieutenant Sloan.

Both former prisoners of the Cazadores hesitated, but not for lack of understanding. Victor knew what she had said.

“Let him through,” Sloan added.

They pulled their spears back upright.

Sloan’s lazy eye wandered Rhino’s way, and she grumbled something.

“Good luck, and dive safely!” X said as he walked down the platform. “I’ll see you all soon.”

Miles barked once, tail thumping.

In the open launch bay, the divers looked stoically out—no waving or departing words. Even Sofia kept her arms at her sides, but her eyes were on Rhino.

His heart thumped as the launch-bay doors closed. He had always longed to be with Sofia, and now that he finally could, they were once again pulled apart by the realities of war.

“You ready for this?” X asked.

“Always ready for a fight,” Rhino replied. “But I’m afraid this won’t be much of one.”

“That’s what I’m counting on.”

X set off with Miles running ahead.

“Move it, lug,” Sloan said, elbowing Rhino in the biceps. She cracked a sly grin that made him wonder whether she was flirting with him. The gruff woman would have made a good Cazador like Wendig.

“Ton, Victor, with me,” Sloan said, gesturing for them to follow. They ran to catch up, eager to protect their king.

Hundreds of Cazadores stood in the stands around the recessed stadium while more streamed in through the heavily guarded access door. They wore their best clothing and jewelry to watch once again the spilling of blood on sacred ground.

Unlike the other Cazadores, Rhino hated the Sky Arena. Even when he was a younger man, the cheers and bloodlust had felt unnatural. Fighting the monsters in the wastes was one thing, but he had never enjoyed taking another human life.

As a child living underground, he had learned to value life as a precious gift. But living on the islands had taught him that life here was anything but precious. Here, they glorified death. He would perform his duty tonight, but he would not enjoy it.

He closed in with the other soldiers to form a phalanx around the king. Here, with so many Cazadores who had lost loved ones, X had security threats aplenty.

Families stopped to look, some baring their sharpened teeth in a show of respect. A man bent down next to his four-year-old daughter and pointed at X, whispering something to her that made her smile.

Rhino scanned for threats and moved into the elevated booth from which el Pulpo had watched the battles during his reign. Sergeant Wynn was already there.

“Area is secure, King Xavier,” said the brawny soldier, pulling back a drape to the booth. Today, there were no slaves serving wine, broiled chicken, or skewered shrimp. Just two boys and a woman Rhino didn’t recognize, but judging by their fair skin and their clothing, they were sky people.

X spoke to them quietly and gestured toward Rhino. “General, this is Mallory and her sons, Rhett and Keith.”

Rhino didn’t need to ask who they were. Both boys and their mother had swollen eyes from crying.

“Tonight, they will watch you kill the man who killed their father,” X said.

Rhino walked into the booth and stopped in front of the kids. The oldest couldn’t be much past puberty, the youngest nine or ten. Skinny boys with long, wild hair.

“I will avenge your father,” Rhino said.

A second horn silenced the crowd in the recessed stadium. Everyone stood and looked down at Jackal, the announcer, with his spiked hair and thick, curled mustache. He wore his trademark faded blue pants and bloodred shirt. In one hand, he carried a megaphone; in the other, a handgun.

Rhino couldn’t stand the guy, but the crowd roared as he strutted to the center of the stadium. He brought the megaphone to his mouth. “¡Buenas tardes, señoras y señores!” he yelled. “¿Están listos para ver un poco de sangre?”

The stadium erupted in clacking teeth and excited screams.

Jackal pumped the megaphone into the air and brought a hand to his ear. “I can’t hear you!”

The audience yelled louder as Jackal raised both arms higher and higher.

But not everyone in the arena shared the exuberance. Mallory stared blankly downward, and her boys watched the spectacle with the same hatred in their eyes that Rhino saw in the gazes of some Cazadores who looked up at the booth and their new king. It was a look he had seen on the deck of the training ship Elysium when X first went there to meet the youngster warriors.

“Since you all have been starved of blood, Colonel Moreto has decided to quench your thirst,” Jackal said. “Tonight, Warthog comes out of retirement to deal with two thieves we caught stealing fish.”

Rhino looked across the arena at another booth reserved for nobility. Inside stood Councilman Tomás Mata with several other wealthy merchants. They huddled in the shade of an awning, drinking wine and smoking cigarettes.

In the next booth was Carmela, with her parrot on her shoulder. She waved to the crowd and then gestured down to a gate.

“Here comes Warthog!” Jackal yelled.

Rhino hadn’t seen the warrior fight for almost two years. The sixty-year-old former soldier, who had fought under the leadership of el Pulpo, had gone into retirement after a long and impressive career in the army and as a gladiator.

The last Rhino heard, he was living on a fishing boat.

Warthog ducked under the gate and strode out wearing a helmet topped with the spiked crest of a bone beast—the same monster that had killed Whale and Fuego in the wastes before Wendig finally brought it down. Only a handful of the nightmarish things had ever been killed.

Warthog wore the trophy and carried the spear that had killed it in the wastes twenty years ago. It was also the reason for his nickname—the bone beast had clawed off half his nose in the battle, leaving him with a porcine snout.

Hollers and clicking teeth greeted the warrior. Jackal scampered away and climbed a ladder to the stands while two gaunt, half-naked Cazadores were shoved out onto the dirt. Though the men had some military training, they were still fishermen, and a far cry from skilled warriors.

The thinner and older of the two turned and tried to run back into the gate before it closed. A Cazador standing guard kicked him to the dirt. Laughter rang out from the stands.

The man brushed his long gray hair from his face and looked around, disoriented. He got up and stumbled over to pick up a sword that a warrior had tossed down. The other prisoner picked up a second rusty blade.

Jackal fired his handgun into the sky to kick off the fight.

Rhino had a feeling this was going to be fast.

The only way the two men stood a chance would be if they worked together, and that didn’t happen. They split up, and Warthog decided to pick one of them off right away.

He threw his spear at the older fisherman, impaling him through the chest and pinning him like a bug to the wooden wall of the arena. It happened so fast, the crowd didn’t immediately react. He squirmed for several seconds before going limp.

Then came the shouts.

Warthog threw his arms up in the air, feeding off the excitement.

The second thief, seeing his only opportunity to dispatch Warthog while his spear was stuck in the wall, ran at him. He swung his dull blade, but the veteran gladiator ducked it easily.

The edge hit the bony skull crest with a loud crack.

The man staggered past Warthog, his balance off. He swung the blade backward, but Warthog was already on his feet and backing away. The swipe missed his arm by a good two feet, and the prisoner wobbled again.

Warthog used the opportunity to move forward and punch the man in the back, knocking him to the ground. But the scrappy fisherman managed to hold on to the sword and swiped again, nearly slicing Warthog’s boot.

The gladiator again backed away, letting the man get to his feet with the sword. He crouched in a defensive position and motioned for Warthog to advance. Perhaps he was more than a fisherman after all.

Most Cazadores knew how to handle a sword, but few had the skills of a veteran like Warthog. He moved forward and then, instead of attacking, kicked dirt into the thief’s face.

Though momentarily blinded, the man fought viciously, slicing the air. He got lucky on one stroke, slashing Warthog in the side as he moved in for the kill.

Warthog reached down, and his hand came back bloody.

The thief wiped the dirt from his eyes, looking as if he couldn’t believe he had actually drawn blood. A scream of excitement came from his mouth, and he raised the sword high above his head. Too high.

Warthog lunged forward and punched him in the throat, breaking his windpipe as the rusty blade arced downward. The sword crunched into the top of the mounted skull on Warthog’s head, where it stuck between two bony knots.

The thief slumped to the ground, holding his throat and choking. The arena went quiet, the sound echoing as Warthog stood watching the man struggle for a last few seconds of life.

Rhino looked over at Mallory, who clutched her younger son, Keith, against her breast, shielding his eyes from the violence. Rhett stood watching every move.

Jackal jumped back into the arena as Warthog pulled his spear from the first kill. The corpse slid down to the dirt, and a cleanup crew dragged the two bodies out.

“¡Qué divertido!” Jackal said into the megaphone. He repeated in English: “That was fun! But fear not, we have much more excitement to come. For tonight, we bring you a story of potential redemption.”

He walked in a circle and continued in Spanish. “Two days ago, Javier killed a sky engineer named DJ. Now he gets a chance to win his freedom!”

Another gate opened, and into the arena walked the husky shape of Javier. He had his thinning hair slicked back and wore a leather vest over his considerable belly.

X glanced over at Rhino.

Rhino nodded and went down a ladder to the dirt, where Jackal introduced him to the crowd. Not that he needed introducing, but he was surprised when the spectators did not give him the same applause they had given Warthog. Some even remained in their seats.

“They don’t like you,” Warthog said, laughing. He stood behind a gate, his hand still on his side where the fisherman had cut his flesh.

Rhino ignored him and twirled his spear. He stuck one end in the dirt and watched Javier walk out to meet him, holding an axe in one hand, a sword in the other.

Unlike the two fishermen, Javier knew how to fight. He had deployed on several missions to the wastes before being transferred to work as a mechanic. But he was still no match for Rhino.

He reached for his spear, gripping the shaft and preparing to pull it from the ground, when a voice shouted from the stands.

Rhino turned to see Colonel Carmela Moreto standing in her booth. Colonel Vargas was there with her, arms folded over his chest, bug eyes leering at Rhino.

Jackal gestured toward the two colonels.

“I invoke my privilege under the law of the Black Order of Octopus Lords!” she shouted in Spanish.

The crowd gasped, and Rhino clenched his jaw.

“I select Warthog to join Javier in the fight against Rhino!”

Vargas’s lips parted in a wicked grin that exposed his black teeth.

It was happening, Rhino realized. They were striking first.

X rose to his feet in his booth. He probably had no idea what was about to go down, but Rhino knew exactly what it meant. Being a former soldier in the Cazador army, Javier had more rights than the normal Cazador citizen, and if someone on the infamous Black Order of Octopus Lords wanted to save him from fighting, they could.

In this case, Carmela was granting him a partner in the fight, but Rhino had a feeling it was Colonel Vargas behind the orders. He was killing his rival the easy way.

But there was nothing easy about killing Rhino.

The gate clanked open, and Warthog walked out, laughing.

“You’re fucked, Small Dog!” he said.

Vargas picked up a weapon from the booth and tossed it down onto the dirt. Warthog picked up el Pulpo’s prized double-bitted axe.

“Let’s get this over with,” Rhino said.

Jackal fired the gun into the air, silencing the crowd.

When the echo faded, Warthog and Javier were already moving on Rhino. He grabbed his spear and backed away, wishing he had worn his armor. This fight had suddenly gone from simple to challenging.

Warthog advanced beside Javier, the two working together, just as Rhino had feared. If he had a shield, he would have been able to deflect the spear that Warthog launched through the air. Rhino jerked sideways and felt the missile whistle past his neck.

He jabbed with his own spear as far as he could reach, his hand on the very butt of the shaft. The blade darted toward Javier’s chest, but the husky mechanic deflected the blow with his sword.

Rhino spun, swiping the spear in a wide arc to keep Warthog back. It worked, and Rhino then turned to Javier, who approached defensively.

A raucous vroom sounded as Discovery lifted off from the rooftop, though no one but Rhino gave it a glance. They all were riveted on the fighting.

He thrust the spear at Javier, and again Javier parried the blow with his sword, this time nearly knocking the spear from Rhino’s grasp.

Warthog attacked from the left, slashing with el Pulpo’s axe.

The blade slashed Rhino on the shoulder, opening a gash that made him cry out in agony. He jumped backward to avoid a second blow. Then he turned and ran to get some distance.

“Don’t run, coward!” Warthog shouted.

Rhino gritted his teeth, halted, and turned, twirling the shaft of his spear at the prowling opponents, trying to anticipate their next move.

“Time to meet the Octopus Lords!” Warthog yelled.

“Time to lose the rest of your face!” Rhino shouted back.

Warthog charged, snorting out of his snout. But instead of striking, Rhino gave Warthog a taste of his own medicine by kicking the dirt up into his nostrils.

A muffled cry of pain and confusion followed. Rhino jabbed the spear at the blinded warrior’s leg, sinking the blade deep into his exposed calf. Blood welled out from the wound when he plucked it out.

Warthog let out an animal roar of agony.

Javier moved in, swinging his sword, and Rhino deflected the blow with the steel shank of his spear. He pushed the smaller man backward, then threw a right hook that smashed into Javier’s cheek, breaking teeth and knocking him to the dirt.

With both men down, Rhino strode forward to finish them off.

The rumbling of the airship distracted him for a second as it climbed into the sky. He took a moment to glance up, wondering whether Sofia could see him in his moment of victory.

Warthog limped away, axe in hand, and Rhino took out his other leg with a slash to the Achilles tendon. He crashed onto his back, and the skull helmet rolled off his head.

Rhino kicked Javier in the gut, lifting him a good few inches off the ground. He rolled over after hitting the dirt. Spitting blood and gasping for air, he glanced up at Rhino, eyes pleading for mercy.

“Forget it, murdering shithead,” Rhino said.

He recalled his training and walked over to Warthog.

Take out the biggest threat first.

The gladiator was trying to crawl away.

“Tell the Octopus Lords hello for me,” Rhino said.

Warthog turned over, and Rhino made good on his earlier promise, swinging the spear low and parallel with the ground. The front of Warthog’s face, including the lips and what remained of his nose, slopped onto the dirt.

The crowd went wild, but Rhino saw at once that it wasn’t because of his kill. A boy was running across the arena. X jumped down from the booth to the dirt, but he was too far away.

It was Rhett, the elder son of the murdered sky engineer. He came running at Javier with a knife in his hand, screaming about his father.

“No!” Rhino shouted as Javier got to his knees and brought up his sword.

The boy leaped.

An anguished scream followed as X came running across the arena. Rhino got to Javier first and flicked the spear point under his jawline, slicing him from chin to ear.

X slid on his knees to where the boy lay crumpled with a foot of bloody steel jutting between his shoulders. He took two more breaths, gave a rattling gasp, and fell limp in the king’s arms.

X closed the staring eyes and looked up at Rhino.

“What have I done?” he moaned. “What have I done…?”