The Gift From Poseidon: When Gods Walked Among Us (Volume 2) (37 page)

Most of Fu Xi’s armor had already fallen off or was about to from so many smashes.  Trickles of blood snaked their way from one end of the dueling pit sands to the other … and there went his helmet.  His dazed eyes looked at Adamarcus, Taharqa, and Persepolis as if it might be the last time they did so.  Yishuo now next to Fu Xi’s mother, she leaned into Nüwa’s shoulder and sobbed.

As if time stood still, Adamarcus watched those beaten eyes set themselves on Yishuo – they then came alive with fury.  With a final gasp using whatever willful energy he had left, Fu Xi again rushed Melanippe.  Just as before, she easily ducked away.  His rump now nearly in her face, she swung her staff for it.  This swing missed, but the next one struck true and cracked his shield.  The two halves fell apart and landed with a dull thud onto the dirt.

Fu Xi stumbled backward and withdrew his second sword.  Both now in hand, Melanippe dispatched these two swords with a single swing and he fell to his knees.  Her prey now ready for slaughter, Melanippe raised the staff over her head and came down hard with it.  No weapons, no shield; Fu Xi crossed both forearms and thrust them skyward.  The staff then slammed into his forearm guards and broke cleanly in half.

Melanippe held one shattered half in her left hand and just stared at it – for longer than she should have.  Fu Xi snatched it out of her hand.  Next, he hit her upside the head with it.  This strike knocking her helmet clean off, as she stumbled backward, he threw the broken piece of the staff at her face.  This throw missed, but it did not matter.  In an instant, he leapt for Melanippe, wrapped his hands around her throat, and shoved her to the ground.  Now on all four knees, he hovered over her.

Fu Xi’s eyes were as if obsidian; Adamarcus had never seen anything like it.  There was no color, no mercy, only hate.  The crowd gasped and Melanippe choked on her own blood as Fu Xi held her down.  A horn proclaiming victory blew loud and clear, yet he continued to squeeze as she struggled frantically to free herself.

“You have won – LET HER GO!” Penthesilea screamed as she stepped into the pit with her hand deep inside a silk pouch.

The sinister shade of the pouch easy to see despite the blue robes she wore
–
the sight of this alarmed Adamarcus.  He instinctively swung his hand in front of Ixchelene and she bumped into it.  Their eyes met and his sister now thought better of whatever foolishness she had been ready to act upon.

Fu Xi looked up.  The crowd was both as silent and still as stone.  Mouth agape and turning his head ever so slowly, the stunned Huaxia took in every face.  Finally, he released Melanippe.

“We … we have our champion,” Queen Marseea said in a soft tone that suggested she was just as shocked at the result as the rest of them.

Centaurs watching cheered like mad and jumped up and down, but Fu Xi did not.  He just slowly rose and stood in place.  He extended his hand in the hope Melanippe would take it, but she angrily waved him off.  She got up on her own, ripped of her breastplate, and threw it to the ground; the breastplate landed at Fu Xi’s front hooves.  Conquering eyes with a glint of remorse clashed into enraged defeated ones.

Melanippe bowed a sarcastic curtsy with flailing arms held out wide.  She took a couple of steps back, but then stopped, and pointed angrily at him.  “If we ever meet again with
real
weapons,” she spit a chunk of blood to the ground, “you won’t be walking away then!”  Her voice hoarse, Adamarcus could see clearly every bright red finger mark around her pale throat.  She finally twirled around, and with her mother and sister, stomped away.

Fu Xi still standing where Melanippe’s scathing words had left him, Queen Marseea now approached.  Those smoky grey eyes gave a subtle hint that a spot of mischief might be on its way, but her curious swagger made this a certainty.

“Congratulations, Fu Xi.  You are this Summer Game’s dueling champion.”

“T-Thank you, Queen ––”

“And to think you only had to beat up
one
girl to win it – well done!”  Not even Nüwa’s frosty glare could wipe that snarky smirk from Marseea’s face as she paraded past them.  “Enjoy the rest of the games,” the queen called back cheerfully and then she too was gone.

This not so subtle insult chased Fu Xi’s blank expression away and replaced it with a hard frown.  Despite his stunned state – not to mention the blood and filth that covered him – Nüwa, Yishuo, and the three friends hugged him.

“I have shamed you, Mother,” Fu Xi said sadly.  “I have shamed us all.”  Although his head tipped downward, Fu Xi’s eyes wandered as if searching for someone.  His father – the only one Adamarcus could think of whom he would seek out – was nowhere in sight.

“How ridiculous!” Nüwa shot back as she tended to Fu Xi’s many scrapes and scratches.  “You are this year’s dueling champion and I could not be more proud of you!  True, things did get a bit messy toward the end, but she entered the pit willingly.”

These were kind words by a kind mother.  A mother who was also a hardened warrior and had taught Melanippe many of the skills she had so skillfully smashed her son around with.  There would be a good deal of smoothing over needed between the son and star pupil in the days ahead.

“But, I’m not a ––” a stern look from Nüwa silenced him. 
‘Girl’
, Adamarcus was sure about to come next, Fu Xi very wisely did not complete this thought.  Had he done so, his mother might have finished what Melanippe started.

Adamarcus’ parents and Viracocha congratulated Fu Xi next.  Many other Centaurs now gathered around their champion, but as far as Adamarcus could see, Buzhou was not one of them.

With an arm in his, Nüwa led Fu Xi away from the dueling pit.  Yishuo took the other arm, peeked back at Adamarcus, raised her chin high, and turned away.  She had done this to him a handful of times since the episode with the scorpion last year, but he had no idea as to why.  Perhaps one of the tradeoffs to being a polymath, Adamarcus understood females about as well as a rock understood the heavens.  One of these days, he needed to find the right moment to ask Taharqa why Yishuo did such things.

“Does this mean Fu Xi is going to have to stay away from studies?” Persepolis asked.  “The twins always helping, there will be plenty of opportunities for Melanippe to make good on her promise.”

“Probably not,” Adamarcus replied as he shared a worried look with Taharqa.  “But now might be a good time to start worrying about that spell.”

*****

Fu Xi still appeared as if in a daze as Adamarcus and Taharqa dragged him into the stands.  A bit of time needed to clean and stitch him up enough to be presentable, a rewound topknot, clean caparison, and long sleeve tunic helped a great deal.  They had missed all of the longer foot races, but were just in time for the short race.  Luckily, those who organized the games had saved the best race for last.

The stadium had both a western and eastern gate.  So that spectators inside the arena could watch races many times longer than the stadium was wide, Gryphons in charge of these gates had raised them both.  The eastern side the trio now gazed in the direction of had much shorter walls – they were a pike length tall at most – than those on the western side.  Because the short race only lasted a single league and the eastern side of the stadium was largely open, spectators could see nearly the entire race that would end just before the runners smashed into the western gates.

“OH WOW!” Fu Xi howled as Yishuo exploded past the other four runners in a qualifying race.  “Look – at – her –
go
!”

“When Yishuo runs,” Carolinica once told Adamarcus, “she does not merely trample across the plains nor even glide just above them.  This one beckons the wind to gather close, to mold itself around her, and she rides it as if a chariot none can see, but all are in awe of.”

Few words more appropriate than these, Yishuo and a male finished neck and neck at least two pike lengths ahead of the other three – all males.

The top two Centaurs would race the top two kinds from the next heats.  The Gryphons went next and then up came the Arachna.  As the five stampeded past them, Adamarcus just shook his head and shared a sympathetic grin with Fu Xi and Taharqa.

“Poor Persepolis,” Adamarcus said.  “He looks faster than that when I run next to him, but he cannot even finish better than last against his own.”

“He still has ax throwing,” Taharqa reminded them.  “Persepolis is a good deal better at that than running I think.”

A quarter of a turn or so after the last heat, the time to determine a champion had arrived.  The six finalists lined up far outside the eastern gates of the stadium, crouched into their starting positions, and were now ready.  A horn blared and the six bolted for the stadium.

As Centaurs could start faster than any other kind, Yishuo was naturally first.  She kept this position until the racers passed through the eastern gate.  A Gryphon suddenly exploded into the lead, overtook Yishuo and two Arachna, and made for the western gate.  As if those behind him stopped to gawk in awe, this Gryphon’s lead grew larger with each stride.

“That’s Ahuram!” Adamarcus yelled out.  It was easy to tell him and his mischievous brother, Ahriman, apart because of Ahuram’s nearly black mane.  “I didn’t know he was
that
fast!”

A collective roar exploded out of every mouth as the other Gryphon bumped into Yishuo – purposely from what Adamarcus could see.

“HEY, WHAT WAS THAT?” Fu Xi yelled angrily as she stumbled a bit and fell to sixth.

Perhaps angry as well, with a sudden burst, Yishuo bolted passed an Arachna, the other Centaur, and this rude Gryphon to finish third.

And what a shock – it was none other than Ahriman who had knocked Yishuo off course!

The race over, Fu Xi ran down the stadium steps and trotted onto the field; Adamarcus and Taharqa followed.  As they did so, a curious scene to his right stopped Adamarcus and he now made his way back toward an empty section of the southern stands as Taharqa caught up to Fu Xi without him.

Adamarcus did not normally sneak, but felt the sudden need to do so now.  The arena’s clepsydra stopped chiming just as he lurched close enough to hear those he snuck up behind.

“I can’t believe you bet against your own son!” Nüwa seethed as she slapped her husband, Buzhou, on the shoulder.  “You fool!”  She then pushed him in the chest and threw her hands in the air.  “
How could you?
” she begged in a voice so drenched in hurt it pained Adamarcus.

Buzhou was no slouch – warrior Centauresses did not marry wimps – but in a scuffle, Nüwa would certainly land a few punches before he could pin her down.  And that was only if there was no sword nearby.  If there was and Nüwa got a hold of it, it would then be a foot race.

Adamarcus watched as his parents, Seneferre, and Abarah rushed over to them.  Once more, Ixchelene snuck up against her brother’s side without him seeing her and leaned into him.  Her lady-in-waiting, Yishuo, nowhere in sight, this time she smartly kept quiet.

“How much did you lose, Buzhou?” Alexander demanded.

The browbeaten Huaxia hemmed and hawed, but finally answered.  Upon hearing the amount, Nüwa’s face turned an unhealthy shade of green and she gagged repeatedly as if about to vomit.

“
20,000 gold pieces
,” Ixchelene gasped.  “Even I know that’s a lot.”

“You said it, Ixchelene,” Adamarcus gasped in return.  “And that’s only what he admits to – he might very well owe more.”

“And how much of this is from the treasury?” Seneferre asked.  “A treasurer with a gambling problem is not a good thing, my friend.”

“I have taken nothing from the treasury,” Buzhou replied meekly.  Four heads nodded as if they believed him, but one did not.

“You are lying, Buzhou!  I can see it in your eyes!”  Tears streamed down Nüwa’s face and she shoved him in the chest once more.  “To gamble against your own son hurts me deeply, but this lie breaks my heart!”

Carolinica and Abarah wrapped their arms around the sobbing mother and took her aside.  Alexander now stepped into the space Nüwa’s hurt left behind.  He inspected Buzhou for a few moments and then let out a deep sigh.

“I don’t care how much you took and I will not even make you answer,” Alexander said softly.  “Others can look into it and find out easily enough.  I will pay back what you took from the treasury with my own funds and pay half your debt.  The other half is yours.”  Buzhou mumbled something Adamarcus could not hear, but he heard the next ones of his father loud and clear.  “The day we return home to Lacanesia, you will resign your position as the Huaxia treasurer.”

Buzhou dropped to his knees and slammed his head into his hands.

Just as quickly, Adamarcus’ chin dropped into his chest.  He could not believe what he had just seen and heard.  A day Nüwa should always remember for her son’s greatest triumph no dream could match was suddenly a nightmare her husband’s greatest defeat would forever stain the memories of.  Adamarcus felt pity for her, but felt a great deal more for his friend.

Fu Xi never lied, never talked poorly of others, and would probably risk his life to save a helpless lamb from a starving Gryphon.  Melanippe’s neck notwithstanding – he was always respectful to anyone and everyone.  In short, he was the kind of son nearly every father would kill to have, yet this father had the nerve to not only bet against Fu Xi, but to do so with so much gold.