Desperation and Inspiration

[Komi Banton]

Komi could see his back, but not his face. She knew who he was regardless, so she fought her way through a crowd of beasts who groped and grabbed at her. She opened her mouth to cry his name, but nothing came out. She screamed, but nothing still.

Like a rising tide, the number of beasts around her grew. Bigger. More paws to hold her back.

More paws dragging him further away.

A weasel, blood pouring from its ruined throat, blocked her view. She pushed past, yet it clung to her paw. Screaming soundlessly, Komi watched as a sea of red blood swelled up around her.

And swallowed him up.

Komi sat up, choking off a scream. She flung her scrap of a blanket away. It had twisted around her while she slept. Staring into the darkness, she sought her bearings as she shook off clinging tendrils of the dream.

Around her, other beasts slumbered, some heavily, some fitfully as Komi must have been. Iron bars surrounded the space and beyond them, more rock and more iron, and more beasts.

The Crater. That?s where she was. A hell, like the one she?d run from at Redwall.

Komi hadn?t thought her nightmares could have gotten worse than they had been in those days after Redwall, but here, in this pit of wretched beasts and never-ending blood, they were. Before the Crater, when nightmares had woken her, she?d picked up her pack and started walking, no matter the hour. She?d raised her voice in song, any song, and the pain of the nightmare would vanish with the notes.

Singing had saved her life.

Now she couldn?t use the road and her voice to banish the ghosts who dogged her. Here, beasts yelled at her and threw things if she sang in the middle of the night.

Her damp fur clung like the paws from her dream. She shuddered and stood. She tip-pawed her way across the cell, stepping over other slumbering females, until she reached the water barrel. She took a long drink using the dipper hooked on the edge, then dumped one over her head and scrubbed her face and neck with trembling paws. Her paws caught on the metal slave collar around her throat, a constant reminder of just how trapped she was.

She sunk down to kneel on the floor and started humming a lullaby. She pressed her forehead to the hard wood of the barrel, feeling the reverberations of her voice in the wood. Hot tracks of tears flowed over her already damp fur.

?Komi??

Her humming stopped mid note, as did the sob that?d been creeping up her throat.

?Komi,? Aldridge said again, his voice a whisper in the dark. ?Is that you? Are you all right??

She closed her eyes and fresh tears cascaded down. She?d done her best to avoid Aldridge in the long days since their capture. The memory of him turning away from her, abandoning her again, hurt too much. She didn?t want to be hurt like that again.

Never again.

?Oh, now you ask after my well-being?? Her voice rasped in her throat. ?After all these seasons, now Aldridge Moor wonders how I am??

?I?ve wondered for a long time. I missed you.?

Komi snarled, turning towards his voice, but unable to see him. ?You don't have that right! You left.?

He was quiet for so long that she thought maybe he?d gone away, but then he spoke again. "I'm sorry. I thought it was the right thing-"

"The right thing to do!? The words came out in a shrill, whispered scream. "Well, it wasn't! If you hadn't gone... If you hadn't..."

A sob broke from Komi?s throat. She clasped her paws over her muzzle, stifling any more that might slip out.

?Komi! What happened?? Aldridge asked loudly, his voice edged on panic.

Red walls above. Red blood below. Screams. Cries. Arrows. Not enough going up. Far too many coming down.

?Komi! Please! What?s wrong?? Aldridge begged. ?Please tell me what happened!?

?Shut it!? some otter in Komi?s cell shouted. ?Beasts are tryin? t? sleep!?

Aldridge fell silent and all that was heard was the soft noises of sleeping beasts and Komi?s ragged breathing as she sought for control.

?Komi?? he whispered.

She pried her paws off of her muzzle. She used the water barrel to pull herself to her feet. She refused to look in his direction again. Refused to search for his face in the gloom.

There were so many things she could say. Things she wanted to say. But to say them hurt even more than staying silent.

So she said nothing at all.

She ignored the other stoat whispering her name desperately into the dark, and walked back to her sleeping space, humming quietly under her breath.

****************

In the daylight hours, in the training yard for the slaves, Komi could work away her nighttime horrors. Seasons wandering as a minstrel had kept her in shape. Now the intensive training that the slaves were put through honed her body back to the condition it had been when she?d commanded her side of Galleran?s horde.

She loved that part of it. She?d forgotten how much she enjoyed feeling strong. Feeling confident.

But she never forgot the reason for this rigorous training. Never forgot that she was being trained to kill the beasts around her, or to kill the monsters kept in the level below them. Any one of those could kill her, would kill her, without batting an eye.

If her nightmares didn?t drive her mad enough to do the deed herself.

She paused in her training exercises, breath heaving in her chest. She put the weighted, fake spear on a rack and went to get a drink from the water barrel. As she did so, her dark eyes roved over the walls and structures of this area of the Crater.

Could she climb that scaffolding over there? What times of day would it be unwatched and empty? Where did that doorway over there lead to? Deeper in or further out?

She took another drink, continued looking, then met eyes with another beast. Hapley, the fox they called the Crane. One of her trainers. He stared at her from across the practice yard, his good ear cocked up and eyes narrowed.

She dropped her gaze and went back to fetch her spear. More drills. More exercise. But every chance she could, she looked for a potential way out.

?Right, yew sorry lot,? a trainer yelled. ?To th? baths and dinner wit ye!?

Komi moved with the crowd to put away the weapon she?d been training with and join the throng into the depths of the Crater. Ahead of her, she saw Aldridge glance back her direction and she slowed, purposefully ducking her head lower than those of the beasts around her. She did not want to talk to him. Not now. Not ever again.

She hung back, letting the crowd put distance between them, until she was at the back of the group of slaves.

A heavy, hard paw landed on the scruff of her neck. ?We need to talk.?

The words were barely out of Kentrith Hapley?s mouth before Komi backed up and tucked her head. Snarling, she twisted on the trainer. One paw grabbed his wrist where it slipped from the nape of her neck. The other reached for a dagger she didn?t have. She hesitated. Hapley?s left paw nailed her hard in the stomach, winding her. He slammed her hard up against the wall. She got one weak kick in before something sharp touched her throat.

?Don?t be a fool,? the fox snarled in her face, as he pressed his scalpel against her neck. ?You?ve been stupid enough for one day already.?

Komi grunted, ?What are you talking about??

Hapley?s eyes narrowed. ?Anybeast who?s been here as long as I have knows the signs of a beast about to run.?

?I?m not running anywhere.?

Hapley snorted a laugh, ?Aye, and tell me another. Maybe I?ll believe that one.?

Komi stared up at the fox, and a tremor ran through her. But what could she say? Couldn?t tell him the truth.

Hapley sighed and his grip loosened. The scalpel lowered and folded. ?This place gets to beasts. Gets in under their skin and into their heads. I?ve seen it before. I?ve been there before.? He gave a little shudder of his own. Then his eyes found hers again. ?You can?t escape from here, stoat. You have to fight your way out, tooth and claw, until you earn it.?

?I can?t?? she said and her voice broke. She shuddered under his paw and closed her eyes. She wasn?t afraid of the fighting in the arena. She wasn?t afraid of the blood and the death that happened in that ring.

She feared the night alone and what came from her own head that she had no control over.

?Yes, sir,? she managed to say. ?May I go??

The fox stood so quietly that Komi thought he hadn?t heard. She prepared to repeat the question, but his paw squeezed her shoulder.

?Beasts don?t escape the Crater, stoat,? he said, as he stepped away. ?That access tunnel to the scorpion pits is a death trap for any who use it.? He gave Komi a light shove towards the door. ?Get inside and wash.?

Komi rushed away, bumping into Aldridge in the process. She didn?t stop, though, and hurried into the dark confines of the Crater?s tunnels.

She found a quiet corner and curled up for a few minutes while her heart slowed its too-rapid beating. If the trainers already suspected her of trying to run, then she had an even slimmer chance than she thought.

?But I can?t stay here,? she whispered. She looked down at her paws, trembling at the thought of another night trapped in this place. ?I?d be better off going in that scorpion pit he mentioned.?

Scorpions. She?d heard the others talking about them, but had yet to see them herself. She hadn?t explored those lower levels yet, though during the day, the slaves were permitted to roam down there.

Scorpions. She hadn?t seen them parade the monsters through the caves where the slaves slept.

?Access tunnels,? she murmured. ?They have tunnels to get them to the arena? and tunnels to get them in from the outside??

Komi pushed herself to her feet and went in search of the baths, thinking as she followed the trailing edge of the slaves working their way deeper into the Crater.

The baths, at least for the slaves, were not anything of the sort. The slaves separated into male and female, stripped off their tunics, then took turns standing under a sluice. Above, a pair of slaves worked a pump to keep a steady stream of water flowing from somewhere. Both garment and slave got rinsed under the cool water. The room off of that was simply series of benches around a slatted wood floor and some of the slaves lingered here, allowing fur to dry and wringing out tunics as best they could. Komi wrung hers out, dried her fur as much as possible with it, wrung it out again, then slipped it back on before going in search of supper.

All the while, she kept mulling over Hapley?s words.

After she had eaten, Komi strolled down to the level below. Guards stood here and there, too many for her risk doing more than look around. They glanced at her, and kept her in the corner of their eyes, but they didn?t stop their conversations, or their games of dice.

So she strolled past the cages, caves, and pits. The pits and caves had metal grates over their openings, with gaps between the bars of various sizes. Some of the them stood empty, just clean straw strewn about on the ground and no monsters to be seen. Then there was the massive, hard-shelled monster sitting in the corner of one pit, huge claws positioned in front of it. As she approached a cave, an enormous spider loomed from the darkness, long legs skittering on the stone. Komi shivered and walked on, glancing briefly down at the an oversized lizard in the next pit, then at the snake in another.

Horrid fascination pulled her onward, until she suddenly realized that she had no idea what a scorpion even was. Could have been any of those monsters she?d already seen.

She squared her shoulders and walked over to the closest guard, a ferret who?d been sharpening his dagger on a stone. ?Excuse me??

?What??

?Some of the others were talking about the monsters they looked forward to facing and they mentioned something called a scorpion? It sounded intriguing to me, so I wanted to see what they actually looked like.?

The ferret laughed. ?Ain?t never seen scorpions before??

?No, sir.?

He pointed with the dagger at a pit just a little bit past them. ?They?re in there, but mind you keep your distance. They?re quick with those stingers.?

Komi nodded as she backed away. Stingers? she thought apprehensively as she walked to the pit and edged up to the rim.

The bottom of the pit was black and shiny and she squinted, trying to see exactly where the scorpion was.

?Chuck a rock in there,? the ferret called. ?Stir them up a bit if you want to see them in action.?

Komi went in search of a decent rock and came back with one just a little bigger than her paw. She stood on the edge of the pit and dropped it between the bars.

It clacked off something below, and the whole floor of the pit came alive with motion. Numerous black shelled things skittered about, claws snapping and tails arched high in the air. Komi squeaked and jumped back and the ferret guard laughed as he strolled over.

?They?re something else, aren?t they? Nire brings them from the far south every couple seasons. These are mostly the little ones right now. Last big one was killed in the arena last season, so we?re hoping for a few new big ones with the next caravan.?

Komi cleared her throat and leaned back over the pit carefully. ?Those are little ones?? Each black body was maybe half the length of her own, but that didn?t include the tails and the claws.

The ferret laughed and slapped her on the back, half lurching her into the pit. ?They say they?re just as poisonous as the big ones though. Them stingers, they?ll paralyze you in short order. Sometimes even kill you, if you're not strong enough.? He bared his teeth at her in a savage grin. ?Still looking forward to facin? one??

Komi exhaled slowly, crouching down by the pit. ?It?d be a challenge,? she said, as she watched the scorpions settle down from the disruption she caused. ?Mind if I watch them for a bit??

The ferret guard shrugged. ?Just don?t fall in, unless you want to be a little stoat snack. We keep them hungry, on Nire's orders. Makes them a whole lot more vicious in the arena.?

As he walked back to his post, Komi turned her attention to the scorpions, and more importantly, to the pit that housed them. To one side she could see a metal grate set in the wall of the pit at ground level with the scorpions. She gathered that the pulley and chain attached to the grate would pull it up and allow the scorpions out, presumably to the arena.

Just opposite her, against the far wall, was a smaller hole. Also covered by a grate, this one sat just below the bars that criss-crossed the top of the pit. It looked big enough for one of the scorpions to be able to wiggle through. The grate itself was hinged at the top, but not latched.

Access tunnel. Komi closed her eyes and tried to orient herself with the outside. Assuming that tunnel ran more or less in a straight line, where would it pop out? Did it also lead to the arena, or did it lead to the outside?

But to get to that tunnel, she?d first have to cross the grate on top of the pit, then squeeze through the bars to get to the smaller tunnel, and she?d have to get that smaller grate out of the way so she could get in.

Without falling into the pit itself.

?That access tunnel to the scorpion pits is a death trap for any who use it.?

Had a slave tried to escape from there before and failed? Or been successful?