"You don't have to, my son. I do." The First offered his hand to Skellum, and the dementist recoiled.
"Go ahead," the First urged. "None of this is real, and no harm can come to you."
"Pater, I-"
"Take my hand, Cybariss."
Skellum woodenly stepped forward and took hold of the First's cold, gray fingers. There was no pain. There was no stench. None of the things that were rumored to occur when someone touched the First happened.
"You see?" The First smiled. He pulled Skellum in close in a full, two-armed hug.
"Go now," the First whispered. "Obey me. Honor the Cabal, and serve Kuberr."
"I will, Pater."
"Outstanding."
The First released his hand, and Skellum fell back, into a soft, silent void of darkness and mist.
"Master Skellum."
Skellum opened his eyes. Louche, the Master of the Games, and the stalkers were looming over him.
"Are you ready to go now?"
"I am," Skellum said. He gave his hat a test spin and gracefully rose to his feet. He brushed a few imaginary bits of fluff from his cape as they led him out the front door and back toward the pits, keeping his head high, his eyes clear, and his pace measured. He was determined that no one who saw him would have the slightest idea that he was a prisoner.
"Ladies and gentlemen, making his triumphant return to the Cabal City pits… Master Skellum!"
Skellum stood alone in the pits. At least they hadn't called him "caster."
"Joining Skellum, and fresh from her recent tour of the deepest parts of the Mer empire… Caster Fulla!"
The crowd cheered and hooted as Fulla stalked angrily out onto the pit floor. Skellum knew her, of course. She was one of the best casters ever to take the floor, but they moved in different circles, and he had rarely interacted with her. By reputation, she was either manic from the joy of battle, or she was playful like a mischievous child. Today, she just seemed annoyed.
"Skellum?" she said.
"Fulla."
"What in nine hells is going on? I wasn't scheduled to go back in the pits until tomorrow."
"It seems we have been chosen to throw this match with the Order."
Fulla scowled. "The First is wise. But I thought you didn't do this sort of thing."
"I don't." Skellum spun his hat as the announcer introduced the competition.
"… and their opponents, here to expose the Cabal's weakness and corruption… and in the process, earn a slot in the upcoming Mirari games, I present Major Teroh, Sergeant Baankis, and Justicar Gobal of the Order!"
The crowd booed, and Skellum blinked behind his spinning hat. "Did he say 'Baankis?' "
"Who cares? I just want to get this over with." She drew her sword, ran her thumb along its edge, and said, "Say, what's a jus-ticar?"
"Tonight, the Order team will be joined by Yewma the druid and her mandrill wolf-monkeys. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets."
Skellum noticed that Fulla's wide eyes were such a light shade of blue that they almost seemed white. Then he realized she had asked him a question, and he glanced across the pit at the Order team. He recognized Teroh and Baankis, despite the thin beard Baankis had grown and the new insignia on his robes. The justicar stood ramrod straight on Baankis's left. He was a tall, muscular, partially armored figure whose face was hidden behind a gleaming helm and visor. Yewma was tall and wiry and carried a gnarled staff made of what appeared to be an entire sapling with the roots trimmed off. She wore the roots wound tightly around each forearm like a pair of wooden gauntlets. Yewma stood next to a large wooden box that had small, barred windows on each side. The box shook and rattled as the creatures inside jostled one another and screamed.
"I don't know what a justicar is," Skellum said, "but it looks kind of like a knight."
The prep horn sounded after the announcer's final word, and Skellum spun his hat again. He achieved a dementia trance by juxtaposing images of the world around him with the darkness provided by his hat. Then he projected his own internal landscape onto the darkness and spun the hat faster until the world within merged with the world without. When that happened, his head became an actual doorway through which he could release his monsters.
In this case, however, he had too much to keep track of in the real world. There were too many opponents for Skellum to find the footing he needed to go into dementia space, and having Fulla as a partner further distracted him. Also, he couldn't clear his head of thoughts of Chainer. I'm going to die, he realized, even though I'm rich and handsome. Even though there will be no one to protect my prize student.
The starting horn sounded. Fulla let out a yell, Yewma opened her box, and the toy soldiers drew and advanced.
The druid had unleashed eight large, baboonlike primates, each over seventy pounds and armed with a long canine snout capable of crushing stone. Colorful fur wreathed their heads and shoulders, and they screamed like lunatics turned loose in a graveyard. They were the wild predators of the deep woods, chasing down their quarry and tearing it to pieces as an organized pack. Skellum wasn't sure what Yewma had bewitched them with, but the druid was careful to leap out of their line of sight once she had opened the box.
Skellum spun his hat faster and faster. It was the only weapon he had. Fulla, meanwhile, had created a zombified rhino and a small, hissing hydra. The rhino charged directly at the Order trio, but she had to drive the hydra forward with her sword before it joined the battle.
When the rhino was twenty feet away and closing, the justicar raised his hands over his head and clapped them together. A bolt of the purest white lightning leaped from the point of contact to the rhino's body and the zombified hulk literally exploded, raining fetid flesh all over the arena. Fulla swore and charged forward herself, driving the hydra as she went.
The largest mandrill came straight at Skellum, while the others formed an attack column behind him. Two of the group broke off and circled wide around him on either side, and the main body slowed to allow them to get into position for an all-out assault. They never stopped whooping and screaming.
Skellum's view of the arena started to shudder and melt, the first signs of the trance. He opened his eyes wider, never more desperate to find that other world within and disappear inside.
Chainer waited outside the First's chamber until a hand attendant came to admit him. He had never been alone with the First before, and he was eager to make a good impression without Skellum to run interference for him, or Kamahl to cover for. Of course, the First was always surrounded by his attendants, but once you got used to them it was easy to overlook them as separate entities.
Inside the chamber, Chainer was disappointed to see someone other than the First and his attendants waiting. He was a tall man, slightly blue, with small silver horns. Chainer recognized him but waited for the formal introduction.
"Ambassador Laquatus of Mer," the First said, "meet Chainer, one of our best dementists-in-training."
Laquatus looked Chainer over and disdainfully held out his hand, knuckles up, for Chainer to take. "Charmed." he said.
Chainer slapped his metal hand on top of the merman's and his other hand below. He forced the ambassador's hand perpendicular to the floor and shook it vigorously, disarranging the ambassador's carefully wrapped robe.
"The pleasure's all mine, Ambassador." Laquatus quickly withdrew his hand as soon as Chainer released it. Chainer smiled pleasantly at the merman.
"We were just discussing the future of Otaria," the First said. "Grand stuff, but it has to start somewhere. Ambassador Laquatus and I are starting it here and now."