Blow For Blow

[Komi Banton]

?Coward!? Kentrith Hapley shouted over the gladiators sparring in the practice yard.

Komi hesitated and started to glance away. Minerva?s blunted speartip slipped past her defenses and thudded against her armored ribs hard enough to make her grunt.

The otter grinned in response to Komi?s glare.

?We?re not done,? Komi warned. ?I?ll come back for another round after I see what the Crane wants.?

The fox stood impatiently near the spear racks. Komi stretched as she walked to him, working away the ache from where Minerva had struck her.

?Put up the spear for a while,? Kentrith told her. ?I heard you were quite the knife fighter before you came here and I don?t think we?ve practiced that. I?d like to see how good you are.?

The dagger hidden in her vanbrace pushed tight against her forearm as she put the spear away. Who had told Kentrith that she fought with a knife?

They walked to a quiet corner of the training yard and Hapley picked up a pair of blunted rounded daggers and tossed one to Komi. She caught it and flipped it between a forward grip and a reverse, getting the feel for the weight. Hapley?s eyes stayed on her the whole time.

?Feeling That Newness?? he asked softly.

Komi?s head jerked up. Minerva had told her about meeting with some of the FTN leaders, and what they?d said about the code words.

?Ah,? she hesitated as she thought. ?Fine, Though Needless.?

?Good enough,? he replied. ?Let?s see what you know, then.?

They squared off, Komi with her blade held in a forward grip, Kentrith?s blade also forward, but with a foreclaw along the spine of the blade.

Komi moved first, darting in, off paw ready for defense. Kentrith met her blow for blow and they parted and rejoined. Then the edge of the blade dragged along Komi?s hip, just under her armor. She swore and stepped back.

?Again,? Kentrith commanded and Komi took a stance again. Kentrith feigned, then Komi took a half step forward, then they both moved as one and engaged again.

Kentrith trapped her blade paw in his off paw and they grappled, the fox using his bigger frame to hold her. ?We have a job for you,? he murmured.

Komi twisted her shoulder in, driving it into his belly, then pulled free, her dagger running a harmless line over his ribs as she moved away. ?What sort??

Kentrith grunted and staggered back, rubbing his free paw into the spot where Komi?s shoulder had gone. ?Nire?s decided that there?s going to be a Grand Tournament.? Kentrith took up his stance again.

Komi flipped her dagger to a reverse grip. ?Meaning??

?Nire?s going to burn through his gladiators like chaff.? Kentrith waited on her attack and they exchanged a flurry of blows, Komi slowly driving Kentrith back towards the wall. ?By the end, half of you will be dead.?

Komi pinned him there, his dagger flat against his shoulder and his free paw barely holding her off. ?So, what do you need me to do?? She slammed her free paw down on the knife butt, thudding it into Kentrith?s chest.

?Your job is to release the boars during the Grand Tourney.? He took a moment to rub where the dull point had bruised him.

?How?s that going to help?? Komi asked.

Kentrith swung his arms forward and back, loosening his shoulders. ?What you do will serve as a diversion and give us a better chance at escape.? In a louder voice, he said. ?You know what you?re doing, that much is clear. Again.?

So Komi attacked again. Kentrith?s words came out hissed between blocks and strikes.

?We?re breaking slaves out. Dibbuns first. Then the rest. In the past, Nire has used the boars to run down escaping slaves. If they?re gone, we have a better chance of getting away.?

?How do I release them?? Komi muttered back.

?Up to you. Lure them out. Make them stampede. Whatever. Just create a diversion.? Kentrith slammed Komi against the wall, her off paw twisted behind her back. ?Can you do it??

Komi grit her teeth at the pain lancing through her shoulder. ?I?ll figure it out.? Then she felt movement along the arm Kentrith held. Her real dagger, hidden in her vanbrace, slipped out. She grasped for it, and her paw met Kentrith?s.

The fox had discovered it! He drew out half the blade along her twitching arm and Komi could do nothing to stop it.

?You are a fool,? Kentrith hissed in her ear. ?Nire?s got random searches happening since Silas attacked Blasio, and you?ve got a blade on you??

Komi braced her footpaws, ready to attack and kill the trainer, but then, she hesitated. As one of the FTN, Kentrith sought to destroy Nire and his Crater. And even if she did slay him, where could she go? She?d be in trouble for killing one of the Crater staff, not just for posessing a knife. She stayed her first instinct. ?I didn?t know Nire was having us searched,? she growled.

Her dagger slid back into place and the fox released her. ?Then listen to me, stoat, and make yourself as innocent as possible. If you get caught bearing a blade, Nire?s going to ask questions of you and you may doom us all.?

?I can hold my silence when I wish it.?

The fox snorted. ?You don?t know Nire.?

?And if I need it for protection??

?I?m thinking you could kill a beast with a spoon if you took it into your head,? Kentrith whispered. ?Enough talk. Keep sparring, but you put that blade somewhere safer at lunch.?

Komi took her stance again. The pressure of the dagger on her forearm, which before had been a secure reminder that she could protect herself in this place, now seemed to throb with danger. If Nire was doing random searches in his paranoia, then her turn would come sooner or later. Komi decided the safest place for her dagger was with her drum in Aldridge?s workshop.

When the noon break came, the slaves all moved towards the mess. Aldridge, his face still bearing lumps from the beating Thrayjen gave him, waited for her near the door. ?I?ll be along in a moment,? she told him, giving his paw a quick squeeze with her own. ?I need to put something with my drum.?

He nodded. ?I?ll wait for you.?

?No need,? she said. ?I?ll be along shortly.?

She trotted across the corner of the training ground to where Aldridge?s bowyery stood and shouldered open the door. She closed it behind her.

She nodded cordially to the scowling young mouse who sat on a stool fletching arrows. ?Foxglove,? she said, calling Aldridge?s apprentice by her first name.

The mouse didn?t return the greeting. She just glared hatefully at Komi.

Komi ignored it, trotting across the room to the cupboard where Aldridge had said her drum would be safe. She pulled the dagger from her vanbrace as the mouse?s stool scraped on the ground. She laid it behind the drum and under a cloth. ?Safe enough,? she murmured and closed the cupboard.

Foxglove Aera stood with her back to Komi, coiling a bowstring in her paws. Her partly fletched arrows sat on the counter. Komi strode to the door, walking past the mouse.

As her paw reached for the door?s handle, something thin passed in front of Komi?s eyes. Then the waxed edge of a bowstring tightened against her throat. Her breath caught fast. Of all the places in the Crater where she?d expected an attack, she had felt safe in Alder?s workshop.

Training from seasons ago kicked in. Komi pivoted. The string dug sharp along her neck. Darkness creeped in on the edge of her vision. She grabbed Young Aera?s wrist to slow the tightening of her makeshift garrote. Twice she punched the mouse in the stomach. Foxglove fell back against her stool, doubled over from the blows.

Komi yanked the bowstring away and sucked down gulps of air. Her sight cleared. She reached for her dagger, remembering a moment later that it was in the cupboard. 

During her moment?s hesitation, Foxglove flung the stool at Komi?s head. Komi ducked. It crashed against the wall.

Komi charged before Young Aera could find a better weapon. She bore the mouse to the ground, her paws reaching for the other?s throat. Foxglove punched Komi in the nose. Komi saw stars, but kept her grip on the mouse?s tunic.

They scrabbled together on the bowyery floor. Komi pulled a paw back to punch Young Aera hard in the throat.

?Komi!? Aldridge grabbed her paw and his arm hooked around her neck and shoulders. ?What are you doing?? he yelled as he dragged her off his apprentice.

?She tried to kill me!? Komi grappled with Aldridge, holding back from doing him real harm, but not daring to take her eyes of the mouse.

?Have you lost your mind? Why would she do such a thing??

?Because this is all her fault!? Young Aera screamed.

Aldridge went very still, though he didn?t release Komi.

The mouse used the edge of a worktable to pull herself to her feet, wincing all the while. ?This is her fault!? She waved a paw as if to indicate everything around them. ?If it hadn?t been for her, we?d be safe in Madder Barrow. Droven, Cricken, and Tanra would be alive! She?s done nothing but use you from the beginning!?

Komi tried to take a step towards the mouse, but Aldridge tightened his grip. ?What are you talking about??

?Jossia?s told me all about you,? Aera snarled. ?All your lies and all your secrets. She only wanted you in Madder Barrow. She would have left the rest of us alone.?

?That?s not true,? Aldridge said.

?If you hadn?t shot that arrow, they would have let us be. Jossia only wanted Komi. That?s all she?s ever wanted. Now Komi?s got you all wound around her claws like she did before. Dancing to her tune. Because of her, you keep doing stupid things and you?re going to end up dead!?

?That?s enough,? Aldridge barked. ?Aera, go get some lunch. We will talk about this later.?

?There?s not going to be a later with this!? Komi snarled. ?I?m not going to stand around waiting for some woodlander to stab me in the back!?

Aldridge forced Komi back from the door. ?Get out now, Aera.? As the mouse exited, he said to Komi, ?She?s not going to harm you!?

?Oh, no? I?m sure the string around my neck was just a hug, then? Don?t be blind, Alder! Jossia got her claws in your precious apprentice.? Komi jerked away. This time Aldridge let her go. ?I need to figure out how to get the Crater?s boars to stampede, not worry about some half-grown mouse trying to murder me!?

Aldridge frowned. ?What on earth are you talking about??

Komi looked to the door, which Young Aera had closed behind her when she left. Later, she told herself, I?ll deal with that woodlander. She dropped her voice to a whisper. ?Hapley passed on a message. The FTN needs me to release the boars during the Grand Tournament that?s coming up.?

?Do you realize how dangerous that is?? Aldridge said.

Komi snorted. ?I?m not scared of a bunch of dumb beasts.?

?It?s not just you! I?m talking about anybeast else that might be in the path if you do get those things running. Komi, beasts could be killed!?

She stared at him and said flatly, "This is a war. Beasts die in war. The important part is who you're fighting to save."

Aldridge bent to pick up the stool Aera had thrown. "You sound just like Lady Eve! You can't just trade other beast's lives for the ones you care about!"

"She speaks sense some of the time!"

"Aye, I've heard her 'speaking sense'. The same 'sense' that saw our Luthier slaughtered in the pit for no damned reason." He slammed the stool down in its place by the worktable.

"How many others died for 'no damned reason' because Nire thought it'd make a good show? How long before we're back on that sand, fighting for our lives? And for what? What purpose would our deaths serve then?? Komi stepped closer, mottled fur bristling along the back of her neck. ?I'd rather die fighting for something and for somebeast, than just for the amusement of a crowd."

Aldrige faced her, his dark eyes snapping. "Our lives. Ours. Komi, would you have me believe that you'll release these boars and that the townsbeasts trampled and gored by them will somehow be acceptable losses? They get no say! You'll throw adults, oldsters, children in the path of dangerous beasts just for what - to irritate the beast in charge? At least in the arena we are largely limited to fighting those who've a decent chance of defending themselves!"

Komi thought of Minerva and Fable and the other young ones in the upper level of the Crater. "What about that room full of children Nire keeps? Children Nire threatens to throw in the arena if their parents don't comply? Would you like to have their blood on your head? And what happens if you kill one of the parents at Nire's bidding? What about the orphans left behind? What do you think Nire will do with them, when they're usefulness is through!"

Aldridge?s head bowed over the workbench. "He at least has no reason to kill them. But I understand what you're saying. Yes, for as long as we fail to act, there will be death. But provoking Nire, needling him? That will result in more death, and it will make it harder to take him down at the end of it all. We must act carefully and only when we are certain of swift victory."

?And this will be the first step.? Komi stepped closer, putting a paw on Aldridge?s shoulder. ?Hapley said that Nire uses the boars to hunt down escaped slaves. By releasing them, it?ll provide both a diversion and give the FTN time. They?re going to be breaking the slaves out during the tournament. The young ones first, then the rest. Don?t you see? If I do this, we?re getting the innocent out this way!?

Aldridge shook his head. ?You?ll run the innocent out on the backs of other innocent??

?I will,? Komi said, dropping her paw to her side. ?I?ll gladly take that gamble. I won?t stand aside.? Komi turned to leave, but she paused, paw on the door handle. ?You know, I can?t help but think ? what if Tavin were being held by Nire? How hard would I fight to get him out? To make him safe? The horde was no place for a kit, but I saw it too late. This place is no better and I?m not going to stand aside when there?s something to be done.?

Komi walked out, closed the door, and for a long moment, she just stood there. She fought down the tears that threatened. Fought down the shock and disappointment of Aldridge?s behavior and his words. She rubbed her throat where the bowstring had left a long narrow welt under her fur.

He?s upset about his apprentice, she told herself. He?s not been himself with everything going on. He needs time. Once he?s had time to think, he?ll realize how necessary this is.