Galdoni (15 page)

“
Ten bucks says you can’t
do that again,” Zach shouted from the door as Nikko gathered up the
darts.

“
That was a lucky shot,”
Jayce said with a taunting grin. “I call for a rematch.”

Nikko handed the darts back to me and said
under his breath, “Kick his butt, again.”

I chuckled and turned to the board. I threw
my three darts in quick succession; each landed in the red center
circle with a satisfying thud. The crowd cheered. A feeling I had
never experienced before swelled in my chest like a balloon and I
couldn’t help but smile.

Rory poked his head in the door. “Hey you
guys, the Arena’s back on and the first fight’s just begun. I
didn’t even know they were starting it up again.”

In that instant, the balloon vanished to
leave a deeper void than before. I had hoped that somehow the Arena
wouldn’t start again, that someone would find a loophole that would
bring the whole murderous gambling show down. If the show
disappeared, there wouldn’t be a reason for me to return to the
Academy. Rory’s words destroyed that hope, and I cursed myself for
letting Dr. Ray's intangibles get to me.

The crowd around us trickled into the living
room. I moved to follow them, but Brie grabbed my arm. I turned to
see my friends watching me. “We don’t have to see it,” Brie
said.

“
It’s not a pretty sight,”
Nikko agreed.

I shook my head. “I need to see it; I need
to know what it’s really like.”

The three of them exchanged looks, but no
one moved to stop me. I made my way down the hall and into the
overcrowded living room where everyone gathered around a small
television.

I found a spot close to the window and
leaned against the wall. Nikko, Jayce, and Brie took places nearby.
I glanced around and was surprised to see uncertain expressions on
most faces. Apparently the Arena games weren’t as welcome as I
thought.

“
Welcome to the return of
the Galdoni Arena!” the announcer proclaimed in an overly loud
voice. “We apologize for the slight setback earlier this year, but
now we are back and better than ever!” The camera panned to a view
of the Arena from the outside. I had to admit that it looked pretty
amazing. The Arena was domed in reflective black with marble
pillars around the outside. Flames rushed from the top of each
pillar and flowed up silver paths to join at the peak in a bonfire
that changed from red to green to blue and was mirrored on each
facet of the black dome.

“
Now, brought to you with
ten additional camera angles and enhanced sound quality, I give you
the Galdoni warriors!” Fake applause dubbed into the show sounded
as the picture split to show two cages on the Arena
floor.

My breath caught. I recognized the first
Galdoni as the boy from the lunchroom so long ago, the one I had
been whipped for not killing. He stood taller now, and clenched the
mace in his hands like he knew how to use it. He glanced up at the
Arena dome and flexed his brown-feathered wings. This was the first
time either of them would fly without chains beside their time
outside the Arena. I hoped they hadn’t spent the last six months
behind the Academy wall.

I had only seen the second Galdoni once or
twice at the Academy. He passed a scimitar from one hand to the
other and bounced on the balls of his bare feet. Both Galdoni wore
battle armor that made them look more animal than man. The Galdoni
from the lunchroom wore dark silver armor that outlined his bones
as though they were on the outside of his body. The armor was
plated and the seams slid smoothly together as he walked to create
a fluid, skeleton effect. He wore a skull mask with serrated horns;
dark red outlined his eye sockets.

The other Galdoni wore dark bronze armor
worked to mirror the sinewy body of a panther. Clawed gauntlets
covered his hands and feet, rippling muscles were detailed along
his back and chest, and his mask bore the snarling face of an
attacking wildcat. Both of their armor covered their wings up to
the joints, ending in wicked, serrated spikes that made for lethal
weapons during flight or on the ground.

“
AR527 squares against
TI620 in this fight to the death.” The announcer’s voice dropped
into a dubbed recording. “Remember audience, the Galdoni were bred
for one thing and one thing only, to fight and to kill. As in all
Arena battles, this fight is to the death. Parents are asked to
take special consideration when allowing young children to watch as
the following content will be graphic in nature.”

“
You don’t get much more
graphic,” someone in the crowd said. Another student shoved him and
a brief scuffle broke out.

Brie put a hand on my arm. “You sure you
want to watch this?” she asked quietly.

I nodded. My gut clenched as the cages
opened and the two Galdoni stepped out. The students around us fell
silent.

“
AR527 takes to the air. He
circles the Arena, watching for an opening. TI620 follows his
movements from the ground. AR527 dives; he veers off at the last
moment, inches from the other Galdoni’s blade, and throws his mace
in a surprising attempt to catch TI620 off guard. It works; the
mace slams into TI620’s shoulder. That’s gotta hurt!”

AR527 landed a few feet away, watching for
an opening to get his weapon back. TI620 switched his scimitar to
the other hand. It was the only sign he gave of the injured
shoulder. Blood dripped from his armor, but he ran forward as
though he wasn’t wounded.

“
TI620 lunges, fakes to the
right, and catches AR527 with a quick backspin as he tries to pick
up the mace. AR527 rolls away from the blow, but it’s obvious his
wing has taken a hit! It’s a telling blow. This might be a short
fight tonight folks.”

AR527 tried to fly to escape the other
Galdoni, but his brown wing hung limp. Blood flowed freely to the
sand-covered ground as he dodged to the left to avoid another quick
slice. My wings ached with remembered pain and I fought back a
grimace.

The commentator’s voice rose in pitch.
“TI620 slices through AR527’s other wing, leaving him flightless.
AR527 stumbles back, but the other Galdoni follows. TI620 swings
again, but he’s too close; AR527 dives at him and they both fall
backward. The sword is loose! Both Galdoni scramble for the blade!”
His voice rose higher. “TI620 reaches it first, but AR527 knocks it
from his hand with a quick kick. They both scramble through the
sand. AR527’s got the sword. He raises it. But wait! TI620 has the
mace!”

A few students in the crowd behind me
cheered.

The announcer continued, “Where did that
come from? Before AR527 can regain his footing, TI620 throws the
mace; it hits the other Galdoni in the stomach just below his
armor! He’s down. TI620 rips the blade away and shoves it into
AR527’s throat!”

The Galdoni struggled against the
blood-covered sword, but TI620 held him down with one hand. The
gray-winged Galdoni picked up the mace and, still holding AR527
down with the blade, swung the mace at his head.

I heard a couple of groans and one cheer at
the death blow, but when I looked around the room, the majority of
the students stared somberly at the television. Two students near
the door exchanged cash; I assumed the one on the receiving end was
the guy who had cheered. A girl next to him shook her head and
walked away.

“
I can’t believe dog
fighting's illegal but this is considered legit.” Zach turned off
the television with a shake of his head.

“
Just wait ‘til they create
genetically enhanced dogs,” Jayce replied, his expression
tight.

“
What do you mean?” Rory
asked.

Jayce glanced at me out of the corner of his
eye. “That’s how they justify it. Galdoni belong to the government,
a product of our taxes and a major defense experiment gone wrong.
Because they’re ‘government property’,” he supplied the quotes with
his fingers, “the government feels free to use them however they’d
like. And the gambling tax creates a return on the investment, the
government’s way of erasing the mistake. The people’ve fallen for
it. Except for the picketers outside the Academy gates, nobody’s
created much of a stir.”

“
Not that it would do
anything,” Zach replied. He looked directly at me, his expression
frank. “What they do to the Galdoni is wrong and there’s got to be
a way to stop it.” I met his gaze, surprised.

“
The Galdoni are the ones
doing it. Nobody says they have to fight.” A black-haired boy I
recognized from History argued. Zach gave me a small half-smile
before he turned away.

“
They’re bred to fight,”
one of the guys in the back who had been part of the money exchange
said. “It’s what they are, remember? They’re killing
machines.”

A girl threw a cup at him. “That’s just how
you justify it, Troy. You’re holding blood money.”

“
Oh, yeah?” He said
something in retort but I didn’t hear it.

Most of the crowd had begun to dissipate,
several through the front door and the rest back to their various
activities. I followed a group to the back door and leaned against
the porch railing as they picked up the volleyball and began to
toss it around. A hand touched my arm. I turned to find Brie
leaning against the railing next to me.

“
I don’t know what to say,”
she said in a soft, sad voice.

I shook my head. “You don’t have to say
anything. This isn’t your fault, and there’s nothing you can do
about it.”

“
You, either,” she replied.
She turned to face me, her brown eyes deep with concern. “I don’t
want you to go back there, Kale.”

I gave her a small smile. “That means more
than you’ll ever know. But I have to go back. I have to stop it. We
both know that.”

“
But how? You’ve seen the
gates and the guards. There’s too much security to do
anything.”

I shrugged. It was the same question that
had been circling my mind for weeks.

Her fingers traced softly along the back of
my hand. She turned it over and touched the calluses that were
fading on my palms. Her touch sent a tingle up my arm and I found
it hard to concentrate.

“
Those Galdoni had letters
and numbers instead of names,” she said casually as if she was
thinking out loud.

“
Names make us more human,”
I said without emotion.

She thought about it for a minute, then
asked, “How’d you get your name?”

“
I made it up.”

She looked up at me, surprised. “You made it
up?”

I nodded. “You put me on the spot. It was
the first thing I could think of.”

She gave a little frown. “What’s your real
name?”

I straightened and turned so that I leaned
back against the railing and faced her, my arms folded in an effort
to appear composed. I took a calming breath. “KL426.”

Saying the name aloud forged the two worlds
together. Until that moment, the Arena had seemed like a dream, and
I could almost pretend it was some other life, a story from a book,
something that had happened to someone else. But my heart
remembered the name, and a familiar heaviness filled my limbs.

“
KL426 . . . KL, Kale.”
Brie leaned against my arm and rested her head on my shoulder. “It
doesn’t matter. You are who you are, and you’re a great
person.”

I let that sink in for a few minutes,
enjoying the way it felt even though I knew it wasn’t true. “Do you
want to know something ironic?”

Brie looked up at my tone.

“
You saw the scars on my
chest from being whipped?” She nodded, her eyes tight as though she
wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what I was going to say. My brow
furrowed. “I got a couple of them when I refused to kill AR527 when
we were younger.”

She stared at me for a moment, and her eyes
grew bright with tears. My heart dropped and I felt terrible. “I’m
sorry. I shouldn’t have told you that. It’s not something you
should have to hear.”

She shook her head. “It’s not that. You
deserve to tell someone. I’m not crying for me; it’s that you had
to go through all that. What a horrible place.” She leaned against
my chest and hid her face in my shirt. “I don’t want you to go
back. I love you.”

I froze, my arms halfway up to hold her
against me. My heart thundered so loud I thought the volleyball
players would hear it, but they continued on oblivious of our
little corner of the world, the only corner that actually felt
real. “You what?” I asked softly.

Brie sniffed and looked up at me. Tears
traced down her cheeks and some of her hair had escaped from her
braid. “I love you,” she repeated again. She gave me her special
smile and I couldn’t breathe.

“
You. . . .” I brushed the
escaped hair back behind her ear just for the excuse to touch her.
I couldn’t believe what she had said; my mind argued against it.
“You. . . you love me?”

She nodded, her smile widening. “Is that so
hard to believe?” she asked with a slightly teasing tone despite
her tears.

“
It is.” Her smile
faltered, and I rushed on. “I mean, you’re not supposed to. I-I’m,
well, what I am, and you’re you. I mean-”

She put a finger on my lips. “Shhh. You
don’t make any sense when you talk like that.” She stood on her
tiptoes and kissed me lightly on the lips. “I love you, and I know
that might take some time to get used to. But I don’t want you to
be hard on yourself. I think I know you better than anyone.”

I shook my head. She knew a part of me, but
she didn’t know the monster I held inside, the one that threatened
to break free and tear everything apart. If only she knew how close
I had really come to killing Zach and the others. I doubted she
would love me then.