Drums of Change

[Komi Banton]

Komi?s hastily eaten supper weighed heavy in her stomach as she stood with her back to one of the small gates that led out of the Drag. The corridor to her left and right stood empty. Most of the Drag gladiators were still at dinner. Minerva had been distracted by her reading lessons with Silas and hadn?t followed her. Not that the otter needed to worry. Komi only intended to talk to Aldridge before he went to his workshop for the evening.

As she waited, she softly sang Aldridge?s favorite song, To Homestead Door.

Even though this wasn?t the first time she?d waited here for him, the two stoats hadn?t exchanged more than a few words since she?d sung to him in the Fell Wing. Usually she drifted off into the shadows, too afraid of what would come out if they did talk. Too afraid that the she?d hurt him worse than Nire or any of the gladiators could.

But the tired, haunted look in his eyes worried her more and after his near miss in his last fight, she didn?t want to lose him knowing they?d never talked again.

?Which lover are you waiting for this time, Komi?? Jossia?s voice said behind her.

Komi?s song cut off mid-note. She pushed away from the bars she was leaning against and turned to glare at Jossia on the other side. For days now, Galleran?s sister had hovered around Komi like a dark shadow, watching her from doorways and balconies. The whispered rumors and lies Jossia spread followed her even when the other stoat didn?t.

Jossia continued, ?Do you have a special song for each one, or do they all get the same one and each assured that it?s just for him??

?Well, I see your song hasn?t changed. No one believed you then, why do you think they believe you now?? Komi had never wasted time denying all of Jossia?s lies. She had ignored the rumors in the horde and she could ignore them here. Her experience with such things had usually been that the beast who denied the loudest was the one who was actually guilty.

Jossia crossed her arms over her chest and leaned a hip against the wall. ?Enough believed me to make it worth it. Enough so that when you betrayed my brother, they immediately sided with me.?

Komi lunged forward, her paws grabbing the bars that kept Jossia safe from her. ?I didn?t betray Galleran and you know it.?

The other stoat?s muzzle curled in an ugly sneer. ?You attacked him in the middle of the assault! You turned on him.?

?Because he sent my son onto a battlefield!?

?Your bastard son!?

The door on the gate clanged as Komi slammed up against it, her paw reaching once, futility, for Jossia.

Jossia laughed, standing just out of reach. ?It?s true though, for all you pretend to deny it. For all that you ignored the talk about who his father was.?

?You know as well as I do that it wasn?t Galleran,? Komi snarled.

?Oh, yes, I knew my brother wouldn?t have touched you with a ten foot pole after the one time you told him off,? she jerked her chin at something behind Komi, ?but did he??

Komi whirled around and her blood ran cold.

Aldridge stood in the corridor behind her, eyes wide as if the words had physically struck him.

Jossia?s laugh echoed around them as she walked away. ?Explain yourself now, Coward!?

?Alder?? Komi said weakly and wished she had some way out. Wished there were some way to escape the utterly shocked and pained look in Aldridge?s eyes.

?I thought? I thought that Galleran was the father of your son.? Aldridge whispered, his voice strangled. ?I thought you said??

?No, I never did. You just assumed??

?I thought you and Galleran? I thought you?d chosen him over me. I thought we were over, and you?d just? never told me.?

?Galleran was my friend!? Komi said, her voice breaking. ?He was my best friend since I was a kit, but I never loved him. He tried, once. He tried to push me, and I told him no with a dagger to his throat. I told him not to touch me again. And he never did. He never did, Aldridge.?

Aldridge said nothing, then. He just stared at Komi, and Komi saw the question in his eyes. The question he wanted so badly to ask.

Komi couldn?t run from it anymore. ?He was yours,? she choked out. ?Tavin was your son.?

His eyes closed for a moment. ?I?m sorry. I have to ask. Did you know? When I asked you to leave with me? Did you know you were going to bear our kit??

?No. I didn?t know then. I?d been so busy. And I wasn?t feeling well, and I didn?t realize what it could have meant, until I did. Then I was just scared, Alder. I didn?t want to raise my son- our son- in a horde. I didn?t want that life for him. But the horde life was the only one I?d ever known and I didn?t know how to leave it. Then when I finally changed my mind. I finally decided to go with you and I went looking for you, and you were gone. You?d left, and I was left with no choice.

?And I regretted it and I hated myself for it! Every day, Alder! Every day, for fifteen season, I wished I?d just said, ?Yes, I?ll go with you!? I wish I?d abandoned Galleran, the horde, everyone, for you, because of what it would have done for our son.

?Instead, I stayed. I stayed in the only life I had ever known and I raised our son in a horde, and saw him growing up more and more like you every day, and every day I wished I didn?t have to worry about him. About what would happen to him if I died. Worrying that he?d be another faceless horde orphan, like so many of the others.

?I never dreamed I?d have to see him die! I?ve spent five seasons, hating you for leaving me with no choice. Hating Galleran, for sending him out on a bloody battlefield. Hating the woodlanders, who fired the arrow that took him away!

?And I hate myself the most, because if I?d said yes, instead of no, I would still have my son. I would be happy. I wouldn?t be stuck in this cursed place, waking up night after night from watching him die, over and over and over again!?

Aldridge hadn?t moved the whole time Komi had talked and now tears made dark tracks in his fur. She turned her back on him, her own face damp with crying. She had no where to go. An impassable gate stood before her, one for which she had no key. She tried to swallow down the sobs that forced themselves from her chest, but she couldn?t.

Then warm arms slipped around her shoulders and Aldridge pulled her back from the steel bars, hugging her back against his chest. His breath was warm against her ear.

?I don?t hate you, Komi. You know I could never,? he said. ?And I don?t blame you. It wasn?t your fault.?

The wall she?d built up around herself crumbled at last. Komi turned and buried her face into Alder?s shirt and for the second time since they?d come to this place, she sobbed against him.

He let her cry. He held her and let her cry out all the tears that she?d fought back. All the regrets she?d had in that long fifteen seasons without him and all the loneliness and guilt of the last five. His own tears dampened the top of her head as regrets of his own leaked out, but no words were said for the longest time.

Finally spent, Komi?s head lay still against his chest, her breathing deep and unbroken. Against her ear, Aldridge?s heart beat, steadier than any rhythm that?d had come from her drum.

?Any more awful secrets?? he asked.

?No,? she whispered. ?No more and never again.?

His muzzle pressed against the top of her head.

????????????????????????

Hapley?s voice echoed through the Drag as the slaves finished up lunch the next day. ?Matches this afternoon! Coward and Lowlander, you?re up first! Report to the armory immediately. Reaper, you?re fighting the wasp swarm after that.?

Minerva put a paw on Komi?s shoulder. "Best o' luck, Komi. I'm rootin' fer ye."

Komi nodded, her heart already beginning to hammer hard in her chest. This would be her first fight without the otter by her side.

You?re being a kit, she admonished herself as she walked towards the armory. You fought on your own all the time. You don?t need an otter slowing you down. You don?t need to watch her back anymore. And a traitorous little voice in her head whispered, You won?t have her watching your back either.

I?m sure whoever this Lowlander is, he?s not someone I need to worry about. But something in the name tickled the back of her mind. Didn?t a Lowlander have a fight just the other day, when Aldridge had fought with a bunch of others? She glanced back over her shoulder and stumbled when she saw the beast limping behind her was Aldridge.

?You?re the Lowlander??

He smiled sadly. ?We knew this was coming. If anybeast is persistent enough to push Nire into a fight he doesn?t want to put on, it?s Jossia.?

Komi swore and faced front again. Jossia?s words rattled around in her head. ?A fight to the death. With Aldridge Moor.?

They reached the armory and Drake the armorer and Alder?s mouse friend Ulrich met them. The armorer started to fiddle Komi?s armor.

?I can do it myself,? she snarled at him, stepping away. Her gift from Lady Eve felt like a second skin and she already had the buckles where she wanted them. She stepped over to the weapons instead, aware that Aldridge and Ulrich were talking softly behind her.

Drake followed. ?Lord Nire said you could have one weapon of your choice.?

Komi?s eyes immediately drifted to the spears first, then she turned to look for something smaller. Or less deadly.

?You?re best with the spear, Komi,? Aldridge said quietly.

?I don?t want to kill you,? she replied.

He looked up from where Ulrich was fitting him with armor similar to her own. But not as well made. The cut of the breastplate wasn?t quite as sleek and the articulated armguard didn?t seem as perfectly segmented. "And yet you must fight your hardest. If you can win, then win. In this place, you owe it to yourself."

?I can?t kill you,? she said. Her voice betrayed her by breaking.

?You can, and if you want to live long enough to get out of here, then you might have to. Everybeast lives for something. Keep it in your mind, out there.?

Komi picked up one of the spears, weighed it in her paw as she did his words, then put the spear back. She picked a lighter spear. One that she knew she could throw far, if she needed to do so.

She watched Aldridge?s preparations out of the corner of her eye. Watched as he was handed a Marl knife and a buckler. She picked up a small round shield of her own, even though she preferred the kite shield she?d used in her fights with Minerva.

Like it?s going to be any easier to let Alder kill me instead, she thought as she adjusted the straps on the shield. In the end, Jossia?s the only one who?s going to win.

Komi closed her eyes, and pictured the arena, the battlefield, in her mind. An old exercise, one she?d not used much since the defeat at Redwall. Galleran had trusted her as a commander, because she knew how to look at a battlefield and plan for everything. What if? she asked herself, and began cycling through ideas.

Aldridge came up behind her. ?Komi, before we go out there??

She interrupted, her mind racing. ?Do you know why Galleran put me in charge of his troops??

Aldridge went quiet for a moment before he replied. ?Because you knew how to read a battlefield. You read the land, and placed your armsbeasts to win. You knew what to expect long before the fight began.?

Komi nodded. ?And a secret to winning any battle is to find out what your enemy expects, then do what he does not. Alder, what do they,? she waved a paw in the direction of the arena, ?expect??

?Ah. Blood, I suppose.?

?Blood and death,? Komi agreed. ?We go out there, and they expect us to try to kill each other. They expect us to die.?

Aldridge raised a brow. ?And so, you?ve thought of something that they do not expect??

Komi smiled.

??????????????????????

Nire?s voice rang out over the arena, amplified by the natural acoustics and a cone he used. There was a bit of a hiss in his normally smooth tone. ?Now, at the request of a generous donor, I bring you a clash of sword-crossed lovers!

?In the north corner, standing alone for the first time on these sands! The Monster can?t help her any more! She?s stood in front of armies up and down Mossflower - and run away from them all! I present to you Komi Banton - The Coward!?

A cheer arose around Komi as she stepped from the wicker basket onto the cool sand of the arena.

?In the south corner, a slave and a murderer!? The crowd switched to boos and hisses and catcalls. ?His name is Aldridge Moor, but he forfeited that when he took the Highlander away from us - and didn?t even have the decency to charge to watch the fight!? Laughter and jeering rippled through the audience now. ?I present to you - The Lowlander!?

Aldridge stepped out of the basket on the opposite side.

Komi looked up at the towers that surrounded the arena, where archers were housed as a precaution against unruly gladiators. She looked up towards the Podium, where Nire stood in the open and undefended. She weighed the light spear in her paw, judging the distance.

What if?

Nire?s voice continued. ?Fifteen seasons ago, the Coward and the Lowlander were lovers. Lovers, yes, yet they drifted apart. The Lowlander left, certain that rumors of his lover?s infidelity were true. Yet they were naught but lies. The Coward was ever faithful, and the Lowlander left without ever knowing that he?d have a child soon.?

Komi?s knees shook as Nire continued and her eartips were hot. At least Aldridge had found out about Tavin the night before. If it had come out now? She shook her head.

?Alas, our poor Lowlander never will know his son, for the kit was killed in a battle at Redwall, the very battle that our Coward ran from.?

There were a few ?Awws? from the crowd, but more than a few spitting and somebeast shouted, ?Served you right!?

Komi stood her ground, staring up at the podium, at Jossia, who leaned forward on the railing, her grin as wide as any feline?s.

?So now, let these two former lovers battle out their differences, and their misunderstandings. Let the one who was wronged have their great revenge. Let the lovers fight!?

Komi strode out across the sand at a steady walk. Across from her, Aldridge met her stride, though he limped. His eyes locked on hers. Komi?s attention flickered between Aldridge and Jossia in her seat. She tightened her grip on her spear. Her heartbeat sped up.

She returned her eyes to Aldridge. She saw him reach for his Marl knife. It slid from the scabbard.

Then it hit the sand beside him. A heartbeat later, Komi stuck her spear in the sand and continued walking, leaving it behind. A few more steps, then Aldridge?s shield hit the sand. Komi?s followed.

They stopped, face to face, and almost nose to nose. The arena went silent. Expectant.

Then Komi and Aldridge kissed.

For several long moments, not a word was said among the crowd, then a few beasts started to laugh. Some started to cheer and applauded. There were a few hisses and boos, but they were almost immediately drown out by the others.

The kiss went deep and long while the crowd around them whooped and hollered. Then they simply transitioned to a hug, Aldridge?s arms around Komi, holding her tight and secure against him. Komi rested her chin on his shoulder and her arms around his middle, but she couldn?t relax. Her eyes darted between the Podium and the two archer towers she could see. She couldn?t see towers behind her and her back prickled with the feeling of being exposed and helpless.

She watched Jossia?s face contort. She flinched once as Jossia started to scream from the podium. ?No! No! This isn?t how it?s supposed to be! The strumpet dies! Archers! Fill her full of arrows! Kill them both! Turn them into pincushions!?

She felt Aldridge?s breath catch and she tightened her hug on him. In one of the towers, an archer raised his crossbow. Komi waited to feel the thud of the arrows in her back, and though she entertained the idea of trying to turn Aldridge away from the bolt she could see in the last moment, such an action would likely just end in him dying to the arrows meant for her.

?I love you, Aldridge,? she whispered in his ear, ?but let me go.? She pulled away from him and pushed him gently back. She spread her paws wide, daring the archers to take their shots. All the while she glared up at the podium at Jossia, who still screamed and ranted and demanded Komi?s blood on the sands.

Nire stepped forward and it seemed as if every eye, audience and archer alike, looked to him. One clawed paw came forward, gripped Jossia by the shoulder, and dragged her back from the rail. ?I am Lord of the Crater,? he snarled, his amber eyes blazing and his voice clear to all. ?No beast orders my archers around, but me!?

?You promised me her blood, you stupid wildcat!? Jossia screamed. ?I want to see Komi Banton die!?

?I promised you I?d arrange the fight. And sometimes, the performance is enough for the gladiators to earn their lives.? He waved down the archers. ?The Coward and Lowlander will both live to fight other battles,? he announced to the crowd and his next words were nearly drown out by the cheer of the crowd. ?Guards, remove Jossia. She is no longer welcome here!?

Komi was barely aware of Aldridge returning to hug her. Relief almost made her knees buckle. She didn?t look away from the Podium until Jossia was out of sight, drug kicking and screaming by some of Nire?s blue garbed guards. She knew Jossia wouldn?t rest. She couldn?t get to Komi through Nire anymore, but there would be other ways. Other ways, and Komi would be ready for them.

One of the lower gates to the arena clanked open and Aldridge took Komi?s paw in his and they walked from the arena together.

??????????????????????

An otter in blue met Komi as she came out of the bath house shortly afterwards. ?Your sponsor sent you a reward for your fight today.? He pointed out a medium sized square crate set on the floor.

Komi thanked him and he walked away. She picked up the crate, surprised with how light it was. She?d promised Aldridge she?d meet him at the bowyery after getting cleaned up, but a few more minutes wouldn?t matter. She carried the crate to a quiet corner of the Drag and removed the top.

Her face broke into a grin.

Her drum lay inside!

It couldn?t really be hers, could it? She picked it up and turned it over, checking the instrument with careful paws. The weight was wrong, but her claws found the tiny designs she?d burned into the wood with a hot dagger point around her campfires during her traveling days. She found the crack that Aldridge?s Barrow beast friend had mended shortly before Komi?s capture.

It was hers, and yet?

She gave the drumhead an experimental tap, but it only made a dull, flat noise. She shouldn?t have been too surprised with that. Who knew where it had been since her capture, but a broken drum wouldn?t benefit her in any way. She began to undo the ties that held the drumhead on, intending on checking for damage on the inside. The weight of the drum felt lopsided, instead of being uniform all around.

She lifted the head from the drum, but a piece of twine through one of the holes held one edge down.

Her dagger that had been taken in Madder Barrow had been carefully tied to one side of the drum through the holes in the drumhead. Additional twine around the dagger held a wooden disk like the one in the clasp on her armor, and a rolled scrap of parchment.

Komi glanced around the Drag, making sure she wasn?t watched, then carefully worked the dagger, wooden medallion, and note free. She slipped her dagger into her vambrace, where it rested cool against her fur, but didn?t show. She examined the medallion, noting that it was a similar design to her own. Yet one side bore snarling fangs above a knife like the one Aldridge used and the other was an encircled bow and arrow. She flipped it to and fro, not quite understanding, then she unrolled the note.

?Coward,
A brilliant showing today. I was most impressed. I was told that you have a love of music and thought this might help keep your true self strong. Stand your ground, but be wary of the chances you take. You are watched. The token is for your lover. Relay to him what I told you before. Focus That Nerve. I?ll be in touch soon.
Lady EVEneda.?

Komi studied the note. Again, the vixen had signed her name in a peculiar way, and as Komi pondered it, she began looking at the other letters capitalized in the note. At first, none of them made any sense. Then she looked at the second to last sentence. F. T. N.

FTN. Weren?t those the letters everyone said had been written somewhere in Nire?s Hall of Greats? Komi tried to remember Eve?s earlier note, which she had destroyed shortly after they?d gotten the armor. Now she wished she?d saved it. She hadn?t noticed any odd capitalization then, but what if she?d missed it?

?Something bigger is going on here,? she whispered.

She pocketed the medallion meant for Aldridge and tucked the note away. She?d tell Minerva about it later and get the otter?s opinion on her suspicions. Komi picked up the drum by it?s strap and slung it over her shoulder as she had done countless times on the road. She could fix the drumhead in Alder?s workshop, and maybe she?d ask him to keep it hidden there, so careless slaves in the Drag didn?t damage it.

Whistling to herself, she strolled off to find Aldridge.