Shadows of the Gods: Crimson Worlds Refugees II (49 page)

The
Claw
moved upward with a violent jerk and pitched to the side. Ace was almost thrown across the bridge, but he managed to get a hand on Lancaster’s chair and hold on as the pilot pulled the Claw around in a tight circle and accelerated toward the arena.

Lancaster pushed the throttle forward, sending more of the output from the ship’s reactor to her engines. It was delicate work feeding power to the cold drives, but he had a light touch. He could almost feel the engines, tell by intuition just how much raw power they could take before blowing themselves—and everyone on the ship—to plasma.

He hoped.

The arena wasn’t far from the desert valley where they’d stashed the Claw, and it was only a few minutes before he could see it up ahead. “I’ve got this,” Lancaster said. “You better get on the needle beam, Ace. We may have some fighting to do before we get the skipper out.” It was almost showtime.

Ace nodded and grunted his assent. He tapped the small communicator clipped to his collar as he worked his way across the bridge to the weapons console. “Shira, Tarq, Tarnan: you guys better suit up and get ready for a fight. We don’t know what shape the Cap’s in.”

“We’re already on it, Ace.” The voice on the com was like ice. Shira Tarkus had been with Blackhawk as long as Graythorn, and no one on the
Claw
had any doubt she’d do whatever it took to get the captain back. They’d all seen her in action. Tarkus was cold and remorseless in combat, as skilled a killer as anyone on
Wolf’s Claw
except Blackhawk himself.. Like Lancaster, she owed her life to Arkarin Blackhawk.. He saved her from execution on some backwater planet for a crime he thought sounded a lot like self-defense. He had busted her out of her death cell, and the two of them shot and sliced their way back to the
Claw
, leaving a trail of burned and gutted corpses behind them. She’d been with him ever since.

“Alright everybody—” Ace’s voice blared through the ship’s speakers. “—we’re one minute from the arena.” He paused for an instant, then added, “Remember, we’re only gonna get one chance to get the captain out. No fuck ups, you hear me?”

*    *    *

Blackhawk leaned forward, gasping in Kalishar’s thin, oxygen-poor air. It was a charade, a performance directed at his enemy, and at the screaming crowd. Blackhawk’s lung capacity was better than half again that of a normal human, and he wasn’t feeling any real fatigue. The Stegaroid was lying on its side, howling its death agonies as the last of its syrupy blood oozed slowly from the meter-long gash Blackhawk had sliced through its abdomen. The beast was done—he knew that. But its rider was still very-much alive. He’d dismounted before the Stegaroid collapsed, and now he raised his arms, playing to the crowd, working them into a near-hysteria of bloodlust. He held a long spear in one hand, and with the other he pulled off his helmet and threw it to the ground. He stood there, 120 kilos of pure muscle, waving the spear above his head. The cheering grew even louder, and the crowd jumped to its feet, screaming a name again and again. “Ajax, Ajax, Ajax…” Blackhawk knew the face. He’d seen it before.

Ajax Tragan. The Ka’al’s top henchman. He is said to be the best fighter on Kalishar.

Great
, Blackhawk thought. He still wasn’t worried about the combat itself, but killing the Ka’al’s number two wasn’t going to make things any easier after the battle. Kalishar’s ruler was already angry and lusting for his head. Killing his right hand man was going to send him over the edge. Blackhawk wouldn’t be surprised if the Ka’al ordered his men to gun him down right in the pit, despite the onlooking crowd and the fact that Kalishari law was clear that a victory absolved him of any wrongdoing and entitled him to immediate release. He sighed. Of course the only option to killing Tragan was letting the bastard scrag him. No good choices, he thought grimly. As usual.

The massive warrior let out a primal scream and charged, holding his spear out in front of him as he did. Blackhawk felt his instincts take over and direct his actions. He spun to the side, almost too swiftly for the eye to follow, moving out of the path of Tragan’s oncoming spear. He continued around in a full circle, his sword slicing into his enemy’s shoulder as he did. The crowd screamed wildly at the spray of blood. They were pirates and cutthroats, mostly, and they respected nothing as much as strength. They’d come here to watch Blackhawk die, but now they were cheering for him.
That’s just great
, he thought.
One more thing to piss off the Ka’al
.

Tragan turned, quivering with pain and rage as he faced Blackhawk again. Blackhawk knew the Ka’al’s champion had expected to dispatch him easily, as he had every adversary he’d fought before. But Tragan had never faced a foe as capable, as cold-blooded and deadly, as Arkarin Blackhawk.

Blackhawk could smell his opponent’s fear, his astonishment at facing a foe he couldn’t defeat.. Tragan was a bully by nature, used to facing terrified and overmatched opponents. But now, Blackhawk knew the Ka’al’s hired thug was realizing he faced his own death. He paused, staring at Blackhawk, his arm covered with the bright red blood still pumping from his wound.

Blackhawk watched his enemy approach, taking more care than he had on the first pass, holding the long spear in front of him, ready to strike at the first opening. Blackhawk’s eyes were on his foe. He saw Tragan’s chest expand, taking in the deep breath he knew would come before his adversary charged.

Blackhawk stood ready, his gaze fixed on the giant, probing for weaknesses. He waited, his body tingling with anticipation, ready to lunge at just the right moment. He saw Tragan’s muscles tense, and he reacted instinctively, parrying the incoming spear thrust and swinging around quickly, stepping forward and shoving his blade hard into his foe’s chest.

The crowd went silent as Tragan stood transfixed, his already-lifeless body standing in place for an instant before sliding off Blackhawk’s sword and falling to the ground.

Blackhawk stood still, his enemy’s blood dripping from the tip of his blade.
That was stupid
, he thought,
much too quick
. He knew he should have played for time, but that wasn’t how he fought. It wasn’t how
any
veteran warrior fought. In a battle to the death, when you have an opening, you take your man down. Period. Ajax Tragan had been a dangerous opponent, one Blackhawk knew could have killed him given the chance.

More to the point: what the hell was time going to change anyway? Whenever he finally dropped the bastard, he was still going to have to find a way out of this mess. Dancing Tragan around the pit for ten minutes wasn’t going to make a difference.

Blackhawk’s eyes snapped upward, fixating on the Ka’al. Kalishar’s pirate king was staring out at the sands of the battle pit from his royal box, as stunned and silent as the thousands in the crowd. Tarn Belgaren had been one of the more ruthless and successful pirates to plague the Far Stars a generation past, before a freak series of events allowed him to seize control of Kalishar’s throne. He’d been a feared warrior in his pirate days, but he had become sodded and drunk on power. His once muscular frame had gone to fat, and his initially skillful rule had become ever more brutal and arbitrary.

“Seize him!” The Ka’al’s sudden roar stunned even his own guards, who paused for an instant before drawing their weapons and rushing out onto the sand.

Blackhawk tensed, preparing for the fight he knew would be his last. He was good, better than any of the Ka’al’s men, and he could take more punishment than any normal human. But there were at least a dozen guards, and they had guns as well as swords. They would obey the Ka’al’s orders to try to capture him, but after he dropped a few he had no doubt the guns would start blazing. He might get a handful of them before they riddled him with bullets and took him down. Maybe. Only one thing was certain: he wasn’t getting out of the arena alive.

Then he heard something in the distance: a low-pitched whine, and it was coming closer. He felt a rush of excitement, and he let his sword hand relax, bringing the blade down from its ready position. He needed to play for time again.

The Wolf’s Claw is approaching.

Yes
. He flashed the thought back to the AI.
I’d know that sound anywhere, my helpful little friend
. He frowned for an instant. He’d told Ace to get the hell off Kalishar and take the
Claw
back to Celtiboria. Apparently his number two didn’t take orders any better than he did. A feral smile replaced the grimace as the sound grew louder. Orders or no orders, it was time to get off this shithole.

The crowd’s eyes moved upward as the
Wolf’s Claw
came right over the ancient, crumbling stone of the arena. The Ka’al’s men, who had been moving toward Blackhawk, stopped and stared up at the incoming vessel… then one of them was torn apart, his half-roasted body falling in two sections to the sand.

Then another.

And another.

The crowd began screaming and rushing for the exits. The slower and weaker fell—or were pushed—to the ground and were trampled by the rest of the panicking mob. In the Ka’al’s booth, his guards were lifting his great bulk from his chair, pulling him toward the exit.

Blackhawk saw it out of the corner of his eye. And then he saw something else: Tragan’s spear, lying in the sand a meter from the big man’s body. His eyes flashed to the guards – they were all staring at the fast-approaching Claw – and back to the forgotten weapon. He lunged forward in a textbook combat roll, grabbing the abandoned spear, and he fixed his eyes on his target. He loosed the weapon in a fluid motion, just as he rose to his feet. The heavy spear wasn’t built for throwing, but Blackhawk put all his strength behind the herculean toss. The weapon ripped through the air, heading right for the fleeing Ka’al.

The guards were pushing their screaming ruler toward the box’s door. One of the men in the pit had seen Blackhawk grab the weapon and shouted a warning. The bodyguards responded, trying to push the Ka’al down, but they were too late. The spear hit Kalishar’s ruler in the thigh, slicing through the layers of fat and embedding itself deep in the muscle below. The Ka’al shrieked in pain, but the guards ignored it and pulled his enormous body through the door and out of the arena.

Blackhawk didn’t care if the Ka’al lived or died—he had more pressing things to worry about.
Wolf’s Claw
was hovering just above the battle pit, its needle gun firing at any of the Ka’al’s people brave – or stupid – enough to show themselves. The lower hatch was open, and a series of lines dropped to the ground. Several black, shadowy figures slid down the nylon ropes, dropping into combat positions and pulling heavy assault rifles off their backs. Blackhawk recognized the Twins immediately. The brothers were just about the biggest men he’d ever seen, two giants standing half a meter above his own considerable height. They opened fire, shooting at the guards, but hitting more than one of the crowd as well. The Twins were killing machines: deadly, relentless, and totally loyal to Blackhawk. But no one ever called them discriminating. They were sledgehammers, not scalpels.

“Let’s go, Cap.” The voice was low-pitched but identifiably female. Shira Tarkus was hanging about halfway down one of the lines, firing her trademark pistol over Blackhawk’s shoulder. She was the deadliest shot he’d ever met—except for himself, of course. “This place is crawling with unfriendlies.” Tarkus shared seniority with Ace as Blackhawk’s oldest companion. She was a cold fish, but her loyalty to the captain was absolute.

Blackhawk jogged forward, reaching out and grabbing one of the lines. He began climbing and turned his head to look down at the Twins. “Let’s go, you big oafs! Time to get the fuck out of here.” He maintained his gaze until both of the Twins had grabbed hold of a rope and begun climbing. Then he hauled himself up and into the lower airlock of the
Claw
. He reached down, helping Shira, and then the Twins, into the ship. “
Claw
, close the hatch,” he shouted at the ship’s AI as he pushed himself up and onto his feet. “Now!” He stumbled over to the wall and slapped his hand on the intraship comlink. “Lucas, my man. Get us the hell out of here.

“Fast.”

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