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Sana’a gave a small smile. She’d spotted her upcoming opponent from afar one morning.
He was a towering figure, a hulking monster of a man with muscles bulging beneath his skin and a menacing glint in his eyes.
‘I will.’
Kaniz squinted closer, her expression intense. ‘Please don’t miss this one. The punters and bookmakers are frothing at the mouth. But be aware that K’grona is a stooge of Kalila. She’s put much on the line for him and may even jack him up on dark íkan to win the fight. He’s also got one of the most brutal reps in Katáne and beyond. Rumour is he once downed thirty Iccythrians in one night. He has no qualms drawing blood, too, but he knows the rules and won’t go for the kill.’
‘Unless she asks it of him or makes him.’
‘Fokk, she possibly will go that far,’ Kaniz murmured. ‘She’s anxious for a score, and desperate souls will do anything to survive.’
It was the same thing Kaniz repeated to Kesia after team training the next day, which their sponsor had joined, given her deep investment in the coming bout.
While the rest of the k?thi members headed off to a meal, Kesia pulled Kaniz and Sana’a into a huddle.
‘Be careful,’ Kesia urged. ‘Guard your six and find a way to close your ears off to dampen K’grona’s screeches. He’s a screaming píha who uses an ear-jarring high decibel shriek —louder than a forest of jackhammers, to discombobulate the enemy before he pounces.’
Sana’a shrugged. ‘Doesn’t he know that a screeching beast kills no game?’
Kesia exchanged glances with Kaniz, then shook her head. ‘Nothing phases you, Shotelai.’
‘Until it does,’ Sana’a countered, thinking of the one man disconcerting her day and night and whom she’d agreed to train for an indefinite period.
‘We need this win,’ the Katánian royal insisted. ‘my eyrie depends on our k?thi wins to keep gloating to Kalila.’
Sana’a acknowledged Kesia’s wily grin with one of her own. ‘I’ll keep that in mind when I return,’ she said.
Two nights later, four figures soared through the velvety night sky, their silhouettes illuminated by the moon’s soft glow.
They moved with grace and precision over Kos, secrecy and mystique in their wake.
Three of the figures had their giant wings unfurled as they sliced through the air.
Kaxim led them at the spearhead of their formation.
Sana’a flew between Killen and Kione, keeping up with their long, stroked flight with her powered metsai suit and crushers.
She glanced down at Kos far below.
It lay bathed in darkness, its buildings standing tall and proud against the backdrop of the starry sky.
The lights that dotted the streets created an eerie glow, casting long shadows that danced with the wind.
Her helmeted vision honed into the burg’s nooks and crannies, searching for any eyes that might have seen them leave.
Few souls stirred in the winding alleyways, the bustling marketplaces, and the grand palaces.
She hoped they were blending into the shadowed clouds, unseen and unheard by any roaming gaze, as their mission was veiled in secrecy.
Soon, they were winging over the Desolation that began at the city’s edge.
They soared higher into the atmosphere until Kos was just a cluster of twinkling lights below.
The landscape transformed from the buzz of civilisation to the quiet solitude of nature. Below them, vast stretches of sand and rock stretched out as far as the eye could see.
In rhythm with the wind, the four figures ascended, where the air grew thinner and colder. Here, the stars shone brighter than usual in contrast to the dim expanse of the heavens, guiding their path like celestial beacons.
The moon bathed them in its ethereal glow, casting an otherworldly radiance upon their forms.
