Chapter 10

  Dalex and Hitasa lay side-by-side on their bellies in the dirt at the top of a bald hill. They weren’t invisible, but they had changed their disguises to blend in with the sandy rock and hardy desert foliage around them. They watched as events unfolded in the valley beneath them, using {far sight} and {enhanced perception} to see details despite being several miles away from the action.

  Two beastkin armies moved towards each other from opposite sides of the valley, marching in blocks of two-hundred troops, intermixed with smaller formations of what Hitasa suspected were powerful publicized mages. Masses of cavalry moved at the edges of the battle, looking for opportunities to charge into the exposed flanks of their enemy and finding it almost impossible. Human commanders lingered at the back of each formation, watching the enemy and their own troops with equal suspicion.

  It had only taken a day to find the battlefield after learning about it from the mother in little Gonbon. There had been signs pointing to this location all over the region. All kinds of supplies were flowing toward this valley, along with pockets of reinforcements, and lots of civilian Gaia Zetans were moving away.

  Both sides of the battle used catapults to fling flaming stones covered in burning pitch. The projectiles traveled in low arcs over the heads of friendly soldiers, occasionally crashing into a mass of enemy beastkin, but usually landing harmlessly in the dry riverbed that dominated the valley.

  Two dragons of similar size to the one Dalex had killed in Best-hon overflew the battle, one on each side of the valley. They had each picked an army and were circling around the formations of beastkin, occasionally pouring down a gout of fire onto the exposed soldiers. The dragons seemed to be at odds, attacking different sides of the conflict, but they ignored each other, choosing to focus only on the infantry and cavalry on the ground.

  Just as odd, no one below the dragons bothered to fire any weapons or magic at their flying adversaries. In fact, Dalex almost never saw any of the soldiers look up. They seemed to pointedly ignore the sky and the very dangerous lizards flying across it. After a few minutes more of watching, Dalex also noticed that the catapult shots never rose to the altitude of the dragons. All of the flaming stones followed shallow trajectories, sometimes even falling short to land among friendly troops. The catapults would likely be much more effective if they were allowed to extend their firing arcs higher.

  While perhaps ten thousand soldiers from each side contended for the riverbed, both sides kept roughly five times that number back. In fact, a large part of each army hadn’t even entered the valley. Many soldiers had set up camp around the valley entrances.

  The terrain around the valley was easy enough to navigate, even for large numbers of marching soldiers. If either army got the idea to circle around the valley and attack their enemy from behind, that maneuver might win the day. But neither side seemed keen on that idea. It appeared this battle had been going on for several days, and neither army had budged from their assigned part of the field.

  “I’m no great general,” Dalex said, “but I think they’re going about this all wrong.”

  “How so?” Hitasa asked without looking away from the action.

  “You saw this place when we flew in. They could just go around.”

  Hitasa looked at the mountain walls of the valley and then down the dry riverbed to the southern passage. “You’re right.” She propped herself up on her elbows as if to get a better view. “What are they doing here?”

  “And the beastkin could at least try to get the dragons off their backs.”

  “Maybe no one in either army is strong enough to hurt them,” Hitasa suggested.

  “Could be. The dragons should certainly be able to hurt each other. What kind of gentlemanly slaughter is this?”

  And truly, what did these people have to fight about? Didn’t the dragons control everything? As far as Dalex knew, there hadn’t been any wars like this on Gaia Eta. The only conflict he had seen was between the government and the governed.

  Dalex cast, “{Invisibility}” and stood up. After taking one last look at the battlefield, he walked back across the hill to where he had left Seventh, Balgoth, and Erban. Erban sat in the dirt next to his {astral mortar} basket. His hands weren’t bound, but his gaze was perpetually cast down. The guy was a tough nut to crack. Dalex had plied him with all kinds of good food and friendly banter, but the beastkin still refused to speak a word. Of course, that meant the banter was pretty one sided, but occasionally one of the others in the party joined in to fill the dead air.

  Erban had tried to escape only once while in Dalex’s custody. In the dead of night, he had tried sneaking away from camp, but Seventh had alerted Dalex before the beastkin could get far, and Dalex had quickly snatched him back up. Erban had seemed terribly surprised to be caught. It was one of the only times he had been particularly vocal, saying “You were all asleep, I’m sure of it. How did you hear me?”

  Dalex could only shrug and say, “My ears are just that sharp.”

  Of course, Dalex had been asleep. Erban just didn’t know that [androids] don’t sleep ever, even if they sometimes look like they do.

  Now, Dalex stopped next to Erban and said, “I want you to see something. Come with me.”

  Naturally, the beastkin didn’t move. He often ignored instructions, as if he wanted Dalex to force him to do something. Though, Dalex had found a few ways to get him to comply when it was important.

  “I’ll give you half of my chocolate bar at dinner tonight.”

  Erban’s eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch and his head turned slightly towards Dalex. His ears twitched just a hair. While he ate most meals in stoic silence, not showing any outward emotion, he couldn’t hide his excitement when he reached the little brown bar of dessert at the bottom of each package. Dalex had seen the way he savored every bite and licked his fingers.

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  Dalex stood by as the beastkin got to his feet and said, “Very well. What do you want me to see?”

  After using some {astral mortar} to give Erban his own temporary shroud of {invisibility}, Dalex led him to the other side of the hill where Hitasa was still on her belly, watching the battlefield. Erban let out a small gasp when he saw what was going on in the valley. He would have seen the armies earlier when Dalex flew over the valley with him, but they had been farther away, and the two sides had not yet engaged each other.

  Erban’s eyes darted across the battlefield, taking it in. He couldn’t see details like Dalex and Hitasa could, but the broad strokes were obvious enough; two opposing forces locked in fierce combat with two dragons leisurely spewing fire in the direction of their chosen enemy.

  “Hitasa and I are having trouble understanding what we’re looking at. Could you explain?”

  Erban sat down in the dirt and watched the battle unfold. He was quiet for several minutes while his fellow beastkin died. Eventually, the two dragons seemed to get bored of the slaughter. They floated to mountains on opposite sides of the valley and perched on their rocky peaks, watching the continuing battle with apparent disinterest.

  The soldiers below went on fighting for another ten minutes before a horn blew and each army disengaged, retreating to their respective sides of the valley. The dragons lingered for another minute and then flew off in different directions, leaving the valley entirely.

  “Should we do something about this?” Hitasa asked. She sounded uncertain, probably just as befuddled as Dalex.

  Dalex watched one of the dragons fly away behind a distant mountain. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind hunting down the dragons, but I can’t say it makes sense to interfere with the battle itself.”

  Either course of action would reveal to the whole of Gaia Zeta where Dalex was. Had the beastkin been engaged in a battle to defeat the dragons, Dalex would have been compelled to jump into the conflict and help the beastkin. But the two sides looked identical to his untrained eye. The soldiers wore different uniforms, but they appeared to use the same weapons and tactics, and each army was ostensibly supported by their own dragon.

  Dalex looked down at the sitting Erban. “What do you make of this?”

  Erban did not look at him, but his ears were alert and his lips quivered. He actually seemed angry. The beastkin said something under his breath, but Dalex caught only half of it.

  “…still play these games.”

  “What’s that?” Dalex asked.

  Erban finally returned Dalex’s stare. “Why did you bring me here?”

  Shaking his head, Dalex began, “I told you I wanted—”

  Erban broke in, “Do you seriously expect me to believe you don’t know what this is? You? A human?”

  Dalex could only shrug and say, “Yes.”

  Hitasa sat up and looked at them. “He’s not like other humans.”

  That earned her a glare from Erban. “I will not hear that from his slave.”

  Hitasa surged to her feet and balled her hands into fists. “Don’t you—” she began to say, but then she cut herself off. She closed her eyes and turned her head away from him, saying, “I am not a slave,” before walking back to the other side of the hill.

  Dalex watched her go, a frown on his face. He hadn’t thought she would take such a jab so personally.

  After a moment, he sat down next to Erban. “I won’t say I’m not like the humans you know. I’m sure that has even less credibility coming from me than from her. But I think you’ll believe me when I say, we’re in a place I’ve never been before. Neither I nor my friends know anything about Gaia Zeta, and honestly, I know almost nothing about the Seven Worlds in general.”

  Erban scoffed at that, and Dalex could only smile at his intransigence. It was understandable.

  “Another honest thing I can tell you is that, whatever this battle is about, it makes me angry. It looks to me like the dragons are playing while beastkin are dying. I want that to stop.”

  He got no response to that. Erban only looked away.

  Dalex heard footsteps behind him. He turned around, expecting to see Hitasa returning. Instead, he saw Balgoth striding over the top of the hill, uncamouflaged and fully visible to the rest of the world. With her crimson dress and hair, she was a bright spot of color on the side of the bare hill. This far from the battlefield, the chances someone would spot her were slim, but her casual approach to stealth still annoyed Dalex, especially when she knew how much they were trying to stay hidden.

  “Someone is going to see you, you know.”

  “No one will see me,” Balgoth said dismissively. She observed the still retreating forces of the beastkin armies and made a note in her journal. “I heard dragons earlier. Where are they?”

  Dalex raised a single eyebrow. He hadn’t been able to hear the dragons without casting {enhanced perception}. If anyone in the party had good ears, it was her.

  “They left when the retreat started.”

  Balgoth closed her journal and gave him a studying look. “Are you going to kill them?”

  “Maybe,” Dalex said. “But not right now. I’m still trying to sort through what this all means.”

  “What?” Balgoth said. “The joust?”

  The word “joust” made Erban twitch.

  “The what?” Dalex asked.

  “The joust,” Balgoth said again. “The competition. It appears as if it has been going on for some weeks. Perhaps even a month.”

  Dalex looked out over the battlefield again, taking in the piles of dead beastkin still littered across the valley floor. “This was a competition? Like a game?”

  “Of course,” Balgoth said. “The two dragons are pitting their subjects against each other to see which has the stronger forces. When the joust is finally complete, the loser will yield a prize to the winner.”

  Dalex pointed to the center of the valley. “You mean to tell me you know what happened here?”

  The demon nodded. “Naturally. I have seen it many times.”

  A thought occurred to Dalex, one that he should have considered a long time ago. He had only brought Balgoth along because she insisted, and because he was morbidly curious about the next song she would write.

  “Have you been to Gaia Zeta before?”

  “Many times,” Balgoth answered.

  Dalex felt his mouth fall open. “We’ve been lost for more than a week. You know that. Why didn’t you tell us you’ve been here before?”

  “I assumed you were aware. I informed you of my age. Did you think I spent my entire life on Gaia Eta?”

  Dalex closed his mouth and thought for a moment. “I guess. Kind of.” He shook his head in frustration. “You could have been our guide!”

  Balgoth gave him an indignant snort. “I could do no such thing.”

  “Why not?”

  “The bard does not give the hero his quests! And I am not your bloodhound. I am simply here to observe.”

  Dalex let his hands fall to his sides. “Of course, you are.”

  Now he regretted bringing her, though it was too late to go back on that decision. He looked toward the mountain one of the dragons had disappeared behind. Had it stopped there or kept going? Should he go after it and risk exposing himself, or leave it be to continue this competition? He considered flying over to the mountain to check if the dragon was there.

  “Balgoth,” he said. “If I ever think you’re keeping something really important from me, something that might save the life of a friend or an innocent, the best you can expect is to be out on your ass, never to see me again. I’ll leave you to guess the worst that might happen.”

  He turned away from the mountains to face her. “Do you understand me?”

  She met his gaze. To his shock, she nodded, though it might have been less of an acknowledgement and more of a challenge.

  “You know who I am,” Dalex said.

  He grabbed Erban and stalked back across the hill toward Hitasa. He would talk to her before he decided what to do next.

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