If they hadn't given me a way through, I'd have to make one for myself.I climbed up the rest of the slope, a spray of gravel kicking out behind me, clambering until I reached the thorn bushes.And then I started hacking.
I was sure I was being disrespectful to voltaari cultural practices in about sixteen different ways, but who the fuck cared – a sword could be a machete if you tried hard enough.
The branches of the bushes gave way easily, the wood soft and pulpy.I hacked and then reached in and grabbed at the tangled branches, hauling them out even as they cut the shit out of my palms.By the time I'd cleared a section to squeeze through, my blood was spattered across the gray ground, violent red against the monochromatic landscape.
I didn't look to see what was happening with the other fight.Instead, I threw myself between the bushes, sharp lines of pain blossoming over my skin, a thorn catching the side of my neck, another scraping at a gap in my armour at my waist, while I shielded my eyes with my free arm.
And then, in a burst of movement, I tumbled through onto hard, flat ground, my chest heaving.
I stopped for just a moment, wiping blood and sweat from my eyes, scrubbing my bleeding palms on my pants.I held my breath and listened as best I could, but I couldn't hear anything beyond thesound of my pulse throbbing in my ears and the murmur of the crowd.But no footfalls, no rustling branches.
Good enough for me.I sheathed my sword again, and took off as fast as I could.
This section of the arena was different: hard-packed dirt underneath a skeletal canopy of trees, their thin silver trunks spaced out and leaving ample room for fighting.Roots tangled across the ground, making it an incredibly treacherous path to take.
I guess I'd gotten to see trees in real life after all, but these all looked dead – totally denuded of leaves, gnarled and spindly.
I kept an eye on the ground beneath me, slowing my run to a jog and trying to stay quiet.I'd mostly stopped leaving a trail of blood behind me, so at least I couldn't be tracked that way.
Because I couldn't shake the feeling that Andiri washuntingme.Although if she was, she didn't need my blood to do it.She could probably smell me, scent me down because I was virra and find me wherever I went.There'd be no hiding if she set out after me.
Fine.She could try.But I'd been sparring with an abaya for weeks now, and Araxis was a cut above Andiri in every way.I'd be fine.
I had to be fine.I had to make it to Araxis.
My hands and arms were throbbing, the cut in my neck still oozing blood when I checked it with my fingers.I slowed even further, down to a walk, and continued aiming myself at that north wall.
It was less hot here under the trees, although they didn't have any leaves to cut the sun.Instead, the shade came in slices, lines of dark and bright burning against the backsof my eyes.The crowd was a little quieter at least, although I still heard the surge of excitement as something else happened, the feral screaming of thousands of people beingentertained.
It hadn't looked good for the voltaari – maybe Tulsu?– when I'd left.Had that been the crowd's frenzied response to seeing his death?If so… how much time didIhave before Andiri was after me?
Certainly not time to walk.The minutes were slipping by, and although I squinted through the trees, I couldn't see the wall yet.Part of me thought it was smarter to head straight to it and then follow the line toward the meeting place, but if Araxis got to our planned location and I wasn't there, he was going to head back along the path he expected me to be on.I had to be where he would find me.
I picked up the pace, breaking into a run and dodging around loops of roots and past silvery trunks as sun and shadow flashed above me.I arced toward my original trajectory, trying to get back on track.
I alternated running and walking as best I could, all the while feeling like the strength was being leeched from my body.I stopped twice to look at the cuts on my hands and arms, which weren't dripping but were definitely still tacky with fresh blood.I touched the cuts, prodding the skin on either side of the gouges the thorns had left in me.The skin felt hot and tender, even though the cuts weren't too deep, except for a puncture wound near my shoulder.
I didn't like that they were stillwet.
I flexed my hands, studying them, and the movement made blood patter out again, forming little craters on the dusty ground beneath me."That's not good," I muttered.I'd gotten a nasty cut on my calf too, which had been throbbing every time I started to run, so I knelt down to take a look at that too, although who knows what I thought I'd be able to deduce or evendoonce I'd come to some conclusion.
It was that impulse that saved my life.I guess curiosity saved the cat this time.
I knelt, and then I heard a scuff behind me, followed by a shuddering thud as a club slammed into the tree above to my shoulder, exactly where my head had been.
I'd like to say that instinct took over and I tumbled forward and grabbed my swords and surged up into a perfect ready stance, prepared to fight Andiri.
But I was never a warrior.I was a dancer, and my instincts were decidedly different."What thefuck," I yelped, throwing myself down onto the ground and covering my head.I rolled, looking up at thesnarling grin of Andiri above me, her chest heaving as she hauled her club back up for another strike.
My swords were pinned under my shoulder.My hands frantically searched the ground around me, and then I threw a fistful of dirt and rocks into her face.
I'd have preferred to throw a drink over her, but you know.Beggars can't be choosers."Fuckoff," I screamed, and she hissed and snarled, jerking backwards as the dirt and stones pelted her eyes.My leg kicked out, hard, and caught her ankle, and Andiri came crashing to the ground.
This was my chance.I leapt up and took off, but she was after me a second later.Her body slammed into mine as she tackled me to the ground, herclawscatching my skin and tearing at me – vicious.I rolled, furious, and slammed myanatomically impressiveelbow into her face.Something crunched, and an arc of silver blood spurted across my chin.Her club rolled off to the side as her hand jerked from the sudden burst of pain, and then she scrambled on top of me, pinning me down.
One of Andiri's clawed hands snapped hard around my throat, squeezing, and I gasped a startled breath in, jerking under her to try and writhe out of her grasp.
She was bleeding from her nose and mouth, her sharp teeth bared in fury or pleasure, and she wheezed out a thin breath, thighs squeezing me hard.I struck at her furiously with my hands, but she had me pinned so that it was hard to use any range of movement at all.I tried to jab one fist into her gut, but her hand clenched so hard around my throat that patches of black began to eat at the sides of my vision.
