I looked at Palm. He was smirking from behind his expensive tri-glad; his lacs’ armour shone in the torchlight. The air was warm and very still.
I stepped a little closer to Thrym’s back. During the final preparations for the contest I hadn’t been alone with the lac and hadn’t had a chance to activate its new capabilities again.
‘Are you ready to begin?’ Tyron asked, holding his finger poised above the lever of his brass timer.
We both looked up and nodded. I took my chance and said, ‘Awake, Thrym!’ as quietly as possible so that Palm wouldn’t hear. The acoustics were excellent, and there was also a danger that Tyron might overhear me.
But had I spoken loudly enough? Had the lac heard me?
It was too late to worry – Tyron had pressed the lever and the tick-tock of the timer began. Palm’s tri-glad was already advancing, blades readied for action.
I’d decided to begin with a conventional retreating move: two steps to the left, two to the right, then a reverse diagonal to the right.
I thumped out the command with my boots, and we moved backwards together very smoothly. I signalled another command, a further retreat, still moving to the right, and then a sudden reversal that brought my backright up against the arena wall.
A memory flashed into my head of how I’d been crushed against it during the last contest. But this time there was no danger of that. I bounced along the wall, once again using Kern’s favourite move, and emergedrapidly into the open space. That forced Palm and his tri-glad to turn and face me, but Thrym and I were too fast for them.
I’d drummed out my instruction with Ulum before bouncing along the wall. Thrym executed it immediately, attacking Palm’s central lac.
It happened too fast to take it in. Thrym slotted a blade into his target lac as the others moved in quickly on either side. All I saw was a flash of blades, then there was a cacophony of clanging metal. In the immediateaftermath one thing was clear: Thrym was still standing – unlike all three of Palm’s lacs. They lay in a tangled heap on the arena floor.
The astonishment on my face no doubt reflected Palm’s. Thrym had been even faster than I’d expected, but I was also pleased with my own performance. By using the wall and suddenly breaking free before Palm hadturned his tri-glad, I’d positioned Thrym perfectly for his attack on the central lac. That was one of the main contributions a human combatant could make – putting his lac in the right place to win. But I could claim nocredit for downing the other two lacs. They had attacked, and my lac had responded with terrifying speed.
Now I watched Palm as his astonishment quickly turned to terror. Thrym was advancing towards him to make the ritual cut. There were beads of sweat on Palm’s forehead, and his arm was shaking as he held it out.He gasped as the incision was made, then groaned and gave a deep sob as the pain hit him.
I stared up at Tyron; his face was impassive.
‘Next bout!’ he commanded.
The next bout went the same way; the following one too.
When Palm received the third cut, he wept openly, tears dripping from his nose and chin. My feelings were mixed. I was embarrassed to see him cry, but at the same time I felt sorry for him. I knew from my ownexperience that he was in terrible pain – though when I’d been defeated, he’d smirked, so I was pleased he’d been brought down off his high horse.
Tyron shouted down the command ‘Awake’ to each of Palm’s three lacs, and they clambered to their feet. They’d lost some of their sheen and were covered in dents.
I must confess, that pleased me too. Palm’s rich father had bought him the best lacs that money could buy, and paid Tyron, the best artificer in the city, to pattern them. Now Palm’s toys were no longer so shiny andnew.
I was also grateful to Deinon, but it was Ada who had provided the code.
My lac had been patterned by someone even better than Tyron.
*
Once Palm had left, Tyron and Deinon came down into the arena. Tyron smiled, looking me directly in the eye.
‘Well, that was something to behold!’ he said, going over to look at my lac and whistling through his teeth. ‘How long did it take Ada to bring about such a remarkable transformation?’
‘She spelled out the wurdes out for me and I wrote them down. Then I spoke them to the lac,’ Deinon admitted.
‘Did she now! So I’ll ask again – how long did it take?’
‘Less than half an hour of writing,’ Deinon answered, ‘but it took me over an hour. Although Ada coached me, I don’t think I was pronouncing all the wurdes correctly. Of course, I don’t understand much of whatthey do. I wasn’t much better than a parrot. But I know that the lac had first to be purged of accumulated poisons, then some of its patterns were modified.’
‘Well, Deinon, don’t put yourself down too much. You got there in the end and are to be commended. You probably learned more than you think. No doubt you still have those pieces of paper with Ada’s wurdes?’
Deinon nodded.
‘Well, you can bring them to me later. She did it out of friendship for my daughter, just as I’d expected,’ Tyron continued. ‘Once Kwin saw the cuts on your arms, I knew what would happen.’
‘You planned this all along! You put me through all that just so she’d get Ada to help me!’ I snapped angrily.
‘Of course I did, boy. A few cuts did you no harm – they toughened you up for what you’ll face in the arena. I did it for the best.’
I was still angry, but I said nothing more. I realized that we’d taken an important step towards defeating Hob. We had a lac patterned to a higher level than Tyron could achieve. He could learn from it.
‘I heard you muttering at its shoulder. So tell me the wurdes to activate and de-activate the higher combat abilities of this lac.’
‘It’s just the usual “Awake” and “Sleep”, but each time followed by its name, Thrym,’ I told him.
‘So she’s given it a name!’ Tyron exclaimed in astonishment.
Lacs were considered to be no better than animals, so I could understand his surprise. Giving lac a name somehow made it more human, even though it wasn’t fully sentient.
‘Now, let’s see what this Thrym is made of!’ Tyron continued. ‘You can both stay. Watch and listen, if you’ve a mind to, but I fear you’ll learn little, Leif. You’ll struggle too, Deinon. This will take me far beyondwhat I know. Later, after I’ve interrogated the lac, I’ll examine the written wurdes.’
Thus Tyron began to interrogate Thrym using the wurde-tool called Newt. Deinon watched and listened. After a while I left them to it. So engrossed were they that neither noticed me leave.
Tyron was persistent, a clever man who didn’t give up easily. No doubt in time he would tease out a significant amount of new knowledge.
But events moved even more quickly than any of us could have guessed.
AN EVENING WITH TALLUS
A single deceit is like the first step of a child;
To maintain balance, others must follow.
The Genthai Book of Wisdom
The following morning Kwin called at Tyron’s house on her way to work in the admin building. After talking to her father, she came across and joined us at the table.
‘You’re invited to a party tomorrow night,’ she told us with a grin. ‘Tallus wants to meet you.’
‘Both of us?’ asked Deinon.
‘Yes, both of you. Want to come?’
I raised my eyebrows at Deinon, and he smiled and nodded. ‘A party you say? Definitely! Who else will be there?’
‘Well, not my father – he certainly isn’t invited. But he’s happy enough for us to go, as long as we keep our ears open and report back to him what’s said while we’re there. Tallus and Ada will be there, but we are theonly guests. Ada just wants you to meet Tallus.’
‘You say it’s a party . . .’ Deinon said. ‘Is it some sort of celebration?’
‘I think things are going well for him, and he and Ada are really happy together. That?
??s all. He’s always been a bit of a loner,’ Kwin continued. ‘He doesn’t mix much with anybody – certainly not the othercombatants. I think the party is Ada’s idea, to be truthful. She thinks he should engage with other people more. He’s starting to feel more comfortable in my presence, so now it’s time to introduce him to my two bestfriends.’
‘We’re your best friends?’ Deinon asked, raising his eyebrows.
‘Of course you are!’ Kwin grinned. ‘You’re the brains and Leif is the brawn! If only I could merge you together into one being, you’d be the perfect man!’
I smiled – I knew she was only joking; she liked to tease. But did she really think that I was just muscle without a brain? Did she think I was stupid? Well, I mused, it was foolish to feel hurt. But although my brainwas certain that Kwin didn’t mean anything by it, my heart was unsure.
‘Why doesn’t she invite Tyron?’ I asked, attempting to put those dark thoughts away by changing the subject.
‘There’s no chance of that!’ said Kwin. ‘Tallus is very suspicious of my father – he’s a rival. Don’t go on about patterning, or he’ll think you’re trying to pump Ada for information.’
It was a warm evening, and as the sun set, the three of us walked across the city to Tallus’s quarters at the Wheel. Deinon and I were in our best shirts and trousers, and Kwin wore a pale purple dress that fitted her bodylike a glove. It was hard not to stare. Once she caught me at it, but smiled rather than looking angry.
We were welcomed inside by Ada and Tallus. Kwin made the introductions. Tallus shook our hands and Ada gave us a brief hug.
The room had changed since last I’d seen it and no longer looked like a workshop. There was no sign of the lac – I guessed it was in the wagon – and the table was covered with a blue cloth. The chairs had beenpushed back against the wall to create a space in the middle of the room, no doubt so that we had room to stand and chat while we ate. On the table there was a bottle of red wine, fruit juice and what looked likelemonade, along with sausage rolls, spicy dips and iced cakes, and we didn’t need much encouragement to start eating.
Close up, Tallus looked taller than he did in the arena. Although stocky, he no longer appeared overweight. The regime of exercise that Ada put him through was finally paying off.
He had pale blue eyes and sandy hair, and I could see why Ada found him attractive. At first she did most of the talking. He was clearly shy and didn’t make eye-contact or initiate any conversation beyond basicpleasantries.
Deinon and I kept to fruit juice, but after a second glass of red wine Tallus started to relax.
‘For many years Tal’s ambition has been to fight in Arena 13,’ Ada said, pausing to take a sip of her wine. ‘He started at the lower arenas, entering lacs he’d patterned himself. To fund that, he was a hunter. Isn’t thatright, Tal?’
‘What did you hunt?’ I asked.
‘I was really more of a trapper than a hunter,’ he said, meeting my gaze. ‘I had a stockade down south. I trapped deer and wolves and a few bears. I sold the pelts in Mypocine, and most of the meat – any that I didn’tkeep for my own use – to the Genthai. You’re part Genthai, aren’t you, Leif? Ever visited their domain in the forest?’
I nodded and smiled. ‘I went there for the first time last winter.’
‘Well, they were good to me and paid me well. I had a small hut out in the forest, and they extended it for me and built a stockade around it. Strangely they wanted paying in currency. As most of the tribe never goanywhere near the city, I wondered why. But I got the feeling that it was best not to ask too many questions.’
I wondered if they’d used some of Tal’s money to buy the gramagandar. Only the Trader could have supplied such weapons.
‘Was it creepy all alone in the forest?’ Kwin asked.
‘It certainly was at times. Sometimes I found it difficult to sleep. I heard wolves howling out there amongst the trees. But I felt better once I had the protection of the stockade. I saw some strange things too . . .’ Tallusdidn’t finish his sentence and suddenly seemed deep in thought.
It was Deinon who prompted him. ‘What sort of things?’
‘Well, you’re going to think this is crazy, but one day I came across some decomposing bodies in the forest. They were pretty far gone – little more than skeletons. Most seemed to be the remains of wolves, but onewas really odd. From the neck downwards it was without doubt human, but the head was all wrong. It was the skull of a wolf – I’m sure of it.’
‘Do you think it was one creature?’ Deinon asked. ‘I mean, could it have been somebody’s idea of a joke? You know – to replace the original human skull with a wolf one?’
‘That’s what I tried to tell myself,’ Tallus said. ‘But the remains were whole and the skull was still attached to the neck.’
‘That sounds weird,’ Kwin said. ‘If I’d found something like that, I’d have packed up and run straight back to the city.’
‘I did think about it,’ said Tallus with a smile. ‘But I needed all the money I could get. It’s taken me years to get together enough to fight in the arena.’
‘Well, enough talk of dead bodies and weird stuff,’ Ada interrupted. ‘This is supposed to be a party, isn’t it? Come on, Tal, play us a tune!’
Tallus immediately went to the back of the room and returned carrying a small scuffed leather case. He sat down, put it on his knee and opened it to reveal its contents. I saw that it was a violin.
Not many violins were made any more. Playing them was almost a lost art. ‘That looks really old,’ I commented. ‘I bet that set you back a few pelts.’
‘It was my father’s,’ he said, his expression suddenly sad. ‘He inherited it from his own father. He taught me to play it and left it to me when he died.’
Tallus put down the case, raised the violin to his shoulder and slowly drew the bow across the strings. Then he began to play.
It was a sad tune, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Ada grimace before putting her hand on his shoulder.
‘This is a party, Tal. We need happy music. We need music to dance to!’
He smiled and began to play something much faster, a lively tune to set your feet tapping.
Suddenly Kwin grabbed Deinon and put her arms around him. ‘You’ve got the brains, but have you got the rhythm?’ she asked. ‘Show me what you can do!’
‘I can’t dance!’ he exclaimed, his face suddenly turning bright red.
‘Then now’s your chance to learn!’ she said.
I was smiling at Deinon’s embarrassment when Ada grabbed me. ‘Don’t tell me that you can’t dance, Leif. Anyone who moves well with a lac can dance. That’s what the Trig is – a kind of fluent, complex dance. Thisis much simpler!’
With that, she seized my left hand and put her arm around my waist and began to guide me backwards and forwards in time to the music. ‘You can put your other arm around me, Leif. I won’t break,’ she scolded.
I did as I was told, and soon got the hang of it; within moments we were spinning round as well. As the male partner, I should have been guiding Ada – that was the way people usually danced. But by touch andgesture she was dictating our movements; I was like her lac. But I enjoyed it. After all, she knew what she was doing and I didn’t.
With a laugh, she brought me to a halt and whispered in my ear, her breath warm. ‘Now we’ll swap partners,’ she said. ‘I know you’re dying to dance with Kwin!’
The music paused while we changed partners.
‘Tal! Play us that piece by Paganini,’ Ada called out.
‘Who’s Paganini?’ I asked.
‘He was a violinist and composer – one of the ancients,’ she replied. ‘He was so brilliant and original that some believed he’d struck a deal with the devil. Tal’s going to play my favourite piece.’
Now I had my right arm around Kwin and my heart started beating even faster. She felt warm and I could smell the scent of lavender. Tallus began to play again, the tempo faster than ever. T
he music was wild; it hada frantic, hypnotic quality, and I soon began to lose myself in the sound and the rhythm. All I was aware of was the music, the patterns our feet rapped upon the floor, the warmth and closeness of Kwin’s body and thefact that we were moving almost as one.
At last the music ended and Ada began to fill four glasses with what I’d thought was lemonade. It turned out to be a sparkling white wine. While Ada poured, Kwin leaned against me, our arms still around each other’swaists. Was I imagining it, or was she actually pulling me close?
But then we broke apart to take our glasses.
‘A toast is needed, Tal!’ Ada commanded.
Tallus smiled. He looked really happy, especially when Ada gave him a peck on the cheek and put her arm round him. He raised his glass and made the toast. ‘To the joy of life!’ he called out enthusiastically. ‘To thejoy of living! To the happiness of us all, and a long and successful future!’
We sipped the wine and it tasted delicious.
It was a great party.
All good things come to an end, and after we’d taken our leave of Tallus and Kwin, Ada walked Deinon and me out into the cinder space behind the Wheel. The air had cooled, and without a coat I began to shiver.
‘Thanks for coming tonight,’ Ada said, giving us both a hug. ‘It was a great evening – just what Tal needed.’
‘I enjoyed it. Thanks,’ I replied.
‘Me too,’ added Deinon.
‘Oh, and I wanted to thank you for working out those sequences of wurdes for Deinon,’ I told her with a smile. ‘It was great to beat Palm.’
Ada slowly shook her head, and out of the corner of my eye I watched Deinon’s face redden for the second time that night.
‘I think it’s Deinon here you should thank,’ Ada said with a frown. ‘Tal made me promise not to work for anyone else, but because you were in trouble and it was Kwin who asked me, I made an exception. ButDeinon wrote the code. All I did was answer a few questions when he got stuck. We had the usual dialogue between a student and a teacher – like lessons. Deinon is without doubt the best pupil I’ve ever had, and that’ssaying something; I taught some brilliant people back in my former life, but I’ve never had a student like this boy.’ She put her arm round Deinon’s shoulders.