8. Champion
Chapter 8
Champion
The next night, a lion-kin in a corporal's uniform waved them in through a small seldom-used entrance to Fort Liberty. The entire Magoro family drove on base in their big SUV with Liliana in the shotgun seat. They didn’t even request Liliana's base pass, or anything from the Magoros. All the cameras, camera drones, and other base security precautions were turned off for this one entrance. Officially, it was closed. There was a big sign that said so.
Every adult lion in the two-hundred miles or so surrounding Fayetteville gathered together at an abandoned hangar on a part of the base far from most everything else. The parking lot was full. There were even more beast-kin than Liliana remembered the last time she witnessed a pride-king’s succession. There had been more time since the death of Andrew Periclum for everyone to gather. Even out in the parking lot, she could hear the echoes of growling, shouting, and occasional roars coming from inside the big metal building next to a small disused airstrip.
Liliana and Daniel Magoro walked side-by-side across the parking lot, toward the building full of angry lions and other beast-kin. Arel and Kazi fell into step on either side of them, small smiles on their faces as if they had already won. The fifty-fifty fighting chance that Liliana offered was far better odds than they’d had before they met her.
Daniel paused in front of the door, waving his wife and daughter inside ahead of them. He squeezed Liliana's shoulder with a massive hand to stop her for a moment outside the door. "Thank you for this, but I have to wonder why you're risking your life for us. Are you expecting something in return?"
Liliana smiled at his belt buckle. "If I die, leave this state immediately with your wife and daughter. Maybe try Canada?"
Daniel grumbled low in his throat, a lion's growl in human form. "I'm not inclined to run."
"I know. But if you do not run, your family will die." Liliana held onto Daniel's tree trunk arm whispering urgently to him. "This is what I want in return. Survive. Save your family. Start over somewhere else. Give me your word."
The old lion looked down at her, a muscle on the side of his jaw jumping as it clenched and unclenched. "All right. It's not that much to ask, I guess."
"Promise," Liliana said. A pride-king's word was law. If this lion would be king, then he would keep his word scrupulously.
Daniel nodded. "You have my word that if you don’t win, I'll leave the state right after the challenge with Arel, Kazi, Marilyn and her son."
Liliana did not look into the future to see if the Magoro family would survive. She believed Daniel would keep his word. He would at least try to escape. If the spider-kin died tonight, she would die believing she had bought a few more good lives with her blood. She patted the old lion's arm. "Don't worry about Marilyn and her son, they left North Carolina this morning. You will have to call them back if I win."
"Huh. Guess she doesn’t have much faith in you."
Liliana shrugged. "Faith is not what drives Marilyn Bradley. Protecting her son is what drives her actions."
"Good for her," Daniel commented.
Daniel pulled the door open. Arel and Kazi waited for them just inside. A wave of noise swept over them—shouts, growls, and hundreds of voices, all charged with anger, anxiety, fear, and excitement.
Liliana cringed. She grabbed the lion-kin's arm. "Daniel."
"What else do you want?" Daniel's voice was wary, as if he expected her to extort something else from him now that it was too late to change his mind.
"I am not good with crowds. Just get me to the dome, put a sword in my hand. I will be fine after that."
Arel Magoro leaned down to look in Liliana's face. "What do you mean, you're not good with crowds?"
Lilliana avoided the lioness's eyes. "You'll see." She hunched in on herself as if she were walking into the winds of a hurricane. Her petite form hid behind the broad wall of Daniel's body. Arel and Kazi closed ranks on either side of her, a half step behind the big patriarch.
They waded together into the crowd. There was a lot of passionate arguing punctuated with growls around them. Minor skirmishes here and there as arguments turned to quick spats with giant clawed demi-lion hands. There were a few of the other large predator-kin, too, bear-kin, and some of the other big cats, plus a few varieties of wolf-kin and some creatures that Liliana didn’t try to identify. The future of the beast-kin of North Carolina would be decided here, and everyone wanted to have a say. She noticed there weren’t any rabbit-kin or any other prey species. They might want a say in their leaders, but knew better than to get in the middle of this crowd of teeth and claws.
Daniel's big body got even bigger as he shifted. Tawny fur flowed over his massive muscles before she closed her eyes again. He roared as if to terrify a huge herd of gazelles. Everyone fell silent. Even the scuffles of minor fistfights or claw fights stopped.
Liliana huddled behind him, trying to be as small and inconspicuous as possible, hoping no one would notice her.
"I am the king of lions!" Daniel roared. "Who here would follow me?"
Arel and Kazi shifted to demi-lion form. They roared in one voice from either side of Liliana, "I will!"
Other lions' voices declared themselves for Daniel in the crowd. Liliana was surprised to hear so many. They had to know that Daniel couldn't win, but they supported his claim nonetheless. It spoke volumes for the respect the old lion had earned.
There was a commotion in the crowd, a great deal of shouting and growling.
Liliana tried to shrink even further into herself. All of her eyes were tightly closed. She held onto the back of Daniel's belt as a guide so she wouldn't get lost in the crowd. She would not be able to stop her mind from shutting down if she opened her third eyes. The overwhelming emotions in the room would assault her. Seeing so many strangers so close to her would make her shut down if she opened even her first eyes. She hunched her shoulders and trusted Daniel to guide her, blind, through a crowd of angry lions.
"I am the king of lions!" another deep male voice roared from the crowd. "Who follows me?"
A chorus of roars of support so loud it vibrated the floor beneath her feet followed. Tray Bradley had many followers. The majority of lions in the vast echoing hangar, though, kept silent, voicing their support neither for Daniel, nor for Tray. Since Tray Bradley's victory had to seem almost certain, their silence said that they did not support him, but were too afraid to oppose him. The jackal-kin, hyena-kin, and other beast-kin hovered around the edges of the hanger, or sat in the rafters, observing, but not voicing support of either side. Everyone followed the pride-king, but non-lions rarely had any real say in who that would be.
After several seconds, when the noise level fell to where he could be heard, Daniel shouted, "There are members of the pride who would follow me. I challenge you for the right to lead." There was another roar, this time from many throats, even those who had remained silent before. When that roar died down, Daniel's reverberating voice rang out again. "Tray Bradley, you must face my champion in the dome."
Uh oh.
There was a swell of confusion, rather than support after that statement. Most of the older members of the pride knew the tradition of champions. Many of the younger ones did not. Some questioned, some explained, some argued. The crowd devolved toward chaos.
The same loud voice as before, which Liliana assumed must belong to Tray Bradley, roared, "Enough!" The voice was much closer now. Bradley must have worked his way to them through the crowd.
"You will not face me yourself, old man? What are you, a lion, or a chicken?" Bradley's voice now spoke directly in front of Daniel. "Bawk, bawk, bawk!" he crowed. The lions around him snickered.
Liliana cracked one human eye to look up. All she could see was shaggy black mane covering the back of Daniel’s head and shoulders in a long V that ended halfway down the massive back in front of her. In demi-lion form, Daniel was even more tremendous than he was in human form. The spider-kin could see nothing of the lion-kin she would have to fight around the giant furry back, but Bradley’s voice had come from further up than Daniel's, as if Tray Bradley looked down at the gigantic lion-kin.
Daniel chuckled, low. "I'm a little old to be baited into foolishness like a boy on a playground. I care enough to choose what is best for the whole pride, not just for my personal pride[."
Grumbles of approval came from behind Liliana. She was still flanked by Kazi and Arel, a Magoro lion on every side. But around them, the voices that had spoken for Daniel had worked their way through the crowd until they stood with the Magoros. Liliana stood in the center of a small island of supporters in a sea of enemies and those too cowed to take sides.
"Who would be dumb enough to fight me, but not want the crown for himself?" Tray asked.
"The daughter of a lion," Daniel answered. "She has no claim to the crown, but she and a single ally defeated an entire nest of widow spiders in Raleigh. She will fight as my champion."
Technically, that was not true. Liliana and Pete had not defeated the widow spiders alone. They also had help from Siobhan’s machine gun and useful battle intelligence from Doctor Nudd, but she didn't think now was a good time to try to correct the mistake.
Daniel reached a furry arm behind himself, put it around Liliana's shoulders, and brought her forward.
The spider-kin hugged herself tight. She snapped her single open eye closed again. She knew everyone in the room was trying to get a look at her, which was probably difficult through the crowd of much bigger lions. As long as she didn't see them looking at her, she could hold on.
She heard a confused muttering, then a boom of laughter from Tray Bradley. That started off a chain reaction of nervous laughter from the lions around him, his staunchest supporters, no doubt.
Daniel's massive paws rested on Liliana's shoulders. He squeezed, claws well-sheathed. She was grateful. The contact anchored her in the here and now, keeping her mind from going away.
When the nervous titters died down, Daniel said, "I have the right to choose any champion willing to fight for me. Madame Anna volunteered to put her life on the line to support my claim." The lions at their backs, Daniel's supporters, made sounds of surprise.
"You can't be serious?" Tray Bradley said, a laugh still in his loud voice. "I'll slaughter that little girl."
"Challenge has been fairly issued. You must face Anna in the arena or forfeit your claim." Daniel's dignity quieted the unruly crowd. He added with a smile in his own voice, "Unless you're afraid to fight her?"
Bradley's answer was a growl that turned away, fading into the crowd.
Everyone, on either side, erupted in raucous cheers. No matter who won or lost, lion-kin always enjoyed ritual combat. Joyous yips and howls joined the roars. Most other predatory beast-kin enjoyed watching a good fight, too.
Daniel guided a functionally blind Liliana toward the dome. From the sounds of voices going up toward the high ceiling, some sort of bleachers for spectators had been erected. Around them, hundreds of lions, jackals, hyenas, bears, wolves, and who knew what, found places from which to watch the fight.
The lions who supported Daniel stayed around the Magoros until they reached the dome itself. The spider-kin risked opening one human eye a crack to peek at the dome. Her father often spoke fondly of testing himself against another lion in such a place, a thousand years before she was born. She wondered how different the domes were now from then.
She risked a peek. It stood perhaps 15 feet high in the center and 50 feet across, a solid steel cage of tilted triangles like some playground equipment she had seen, but on a larger scale. On either side was a double-door like an airlock with a space between the doors in the form of a smaller dome, like a rounded cage filled with weapons.
Lilliana hated cages.
The bleachers went up to her right and left, filled with excited beast-kin watching eagerly. The spider-kin shivered inside, reminded of the stares of the crowd back in her circus days.
Liliana hated being stared at.
She closed her eye again to shut out the staring faces, even as Daniel opened the first cage door. He had to duck to get through the opening.
"Are you sure about this?" Daniel whispered to her. Kazi closed the outer door behind them. Daniel's supporters stayed by it, guarding.
Liliana nodded. It was all she could manage.
Daniel placed a sword hilt in her right hand. He buckled a heavy shield onto her left arm. That felt right. It felt ... natural ... good.
Her parents had always used combat practice to bring her back when her mind became overloaded by her new senses. Focus was essential in combat. All that mattered was the here and the now. In combat, staring crowds were just background. If they were not potential threats or potential allies, then they were superfluous, unimportant.
Liliana felt her shoulders, hunched for so long, drop down. She breathed in and let it out slowly, centering herself.
The spider-kin opened her human and second eyes. She did a quick scan of the area to assess her situation, look for allies, weaknesses, the lay of the land.
She stood now on one side of the Dome, in the small extra chamber like a blister on the edge of the circular fighting cage. Tray Bradley stood in a similar chamber on the other side. Another lion-kin in demi-lion form strapped a shield to his arm.
Daniel lingered beside her. The fight would not begin until the two combatants entered the central part of the dome-shaped cage, and the non-combatants left the outer cages.
In her quick scan of the surrounding crowd, a familiar face stood out, his tall, aloof form contrasted with the emotionally charged beast-kin. The Fae prince stood to her right, watching her from just outside the bars, wearing gray slacks and a white synth-silk shirt with folded sleeve ends held by golden cuff links. Two lion-kin in demi-lion form wearing Army uniforms stood to either side of him with their hands on automatic weapons, the only guns she had seen in the hangar. Lieutenant Runningwolf, in short, broad, brown demi-badger form stood behind the prince, completing his protective detail.
Some part of Liliana’s mind wondered what affect the nanites had on the stout badger-kin. At least, thanks to Doctor Nudd, he wasn’t dying.
She walked up until curved triangles of steel and a few inches were the only thing that separated her from the prince. Daniel stayed at her side.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Liliana?" Alexander Bennett asked. His voice was pitched low, tight with controlled worry or anger. She couldn't tell which.
"What the hell are you doing here, Alexander Bennet?" she asked him right back. She would not answer the prince's questions. The memory of how badly he treated the wizard who loved him was still fresh in her mind. The consequences of his casual cruelty might cost lives. Dark paths flowed forward from that moment. If she didn’t tame her unruly heart, it might be her in the wizard’s place one day.
"I thought I was here to ensure the peaceful succession of the pride-king in my lands. But apparently, I'm here to watch you commit suicide."
"Someone might think you gave a damn," Liliana snapped. "But you have no heart, so that can’t be true."
The prince's face darkened with anger or offense. "I have a heart."
"Perhaps the wizard believed that, before you cast him aside like used Kleenex."
"He was no longer useful," the prince stated without inflection.
"I have heard that the fastest way to reach a man's heart is through his stomach, but that is wrong," Liliana commented.
A tiny crease appeared between his brows. "You seem very interested in my heart."
Liliana slanted the sword in her hand through one of the foot-wide triangle spaces of the small cage bars. The sharp tip touched the prince's chest before he could move. "The fastest way to find any man's heart is through the third and fourth rib on the left side."
The two lions beside the prince hesitantly raised their weapons to point in Liliana’s direction, but looked around nervously at the beast-kin that surrounded them when they did.
Lieutenant Runningwolf's gun held steady with a bead on Liliana's forehead.
"Stand down," Colonel Bennett ordered, holding up a hand.
His three protectors lowered their weapons but continued to eye Liliana with suspicion, Lt. Runningwolf’s finger hovered near the trigger.
Daniel stood tense beside her but said nothing. He didn't know what was going on between her and the powerful Fae, but he clearly had no intention of interfering, even if she killed the prince right there in front of him. Daniel probably assumed she had a good reason.
Liliana wasn't sure he was right. Her reasons for her anger at Alexander Bennett were not entirely rational.
The prince stood very still. His face calm. "Have I given you some reason to be angry with me, Liliana?" His deep voice purred as calm as his blank face.
The spider seer knew that blankness was control of his emotional expression, not a lack of emotion. She had seen beneath the facade.
He felt.
In this moment, she didn't know if he felt angry, hurt, or afraid, but she knew the bored face was a mask he used to hide deep emotions.
One movement of her hand holding a sword tip against his chest would end this magnificent man. Horrified by the thought, she eased the pressure of the sword so it no longer drew blood. "I am angry because you are not the sort of man to be kind to people who love you, even when you don’t love them back.” She acknowledged the true source of her anger. “I wish you were." Her soft words were nearly lost in the noise of the crowd.
Alexander’s voice lowered so only she could hear him. “William was going to kill someone if I didn’t put a stop to it.” A muscle jumped on the edge of his jaw, spoiling the illusion of perfect calm. “If he killed someone in my service, following my orders …”
“Then you might as well have committed murder yourself.” In his position, she would have separated herself from the wizard with the same haste. Although, she hoped that she’d show a bit more compassion. Liliana pulled her sword tip away from the prince's chest, noting the tiny spot of blood on his white dress shirt. If she had a hand free, she would wipe it away.
The two lions and the badger surrounding the prince sagged in relief. They were soldiers, loyal to the Colonel, and, no doubt, skilled fighters, but no one would like the odds of four against hundreds. If they killed the champion of someone with a legitimate claim to be pride-king, they’d start a war with their own pride.
"There is a high probability that I will not live though the next ten minutes,” Liliana blinked human eyes suddenly hot with unshed tears. “If that happens, I will not be there when death comes for you." She risked not only her own life, but his. That hadn’t occurred to her until now.
Alexander Bennett reached through the bars. He tilted her chin up to face him, his thumb gentle on her cheek. "Do you regret that?"
"Yes,” she whispered. She looked into his deep brown eyes because he forbade her to do what she wanted, look through them to the fascinating, complexly layered soul beneath. The hundreds of beast-kin all around her, the cage that imprisoned her, the lion who would be king standing beside her, the weapon in her hand, all faded to meaninglessness.
Alexander's thumb stroked her cheek.
In all the universe, only that tiny motion mattered.
"I would very much like it if you would kiss me again," Liliana told him.
His lips quirked on both corners. "Survive the fight, and I will," His soft voice travelled only to her ears.
Liliana closed all her eyes for a moment, feeling that callused thumb touching her. It sent electric tingles through her whole body. She and this prince were not done yet. It would be a great tragedy if they both died before exploring the chemistry between them. So, she had to survive today.
She smiled wide, showing him her fangs. “You better make it a good kiss."
He chuckled in a way that made her belly flip. "It will be." He returned her broad fierce smile with one of his own for a moment, but it faded quickly. "You better live to collect it." Now, Liliana could identify the emotion placing the barest wrinkle on his forehead despite his control.
He was worried. For her.
Liliana's heart soared into the rafters of the old hanger. "I will do my best."
"Are you done?" Tray Bradley's gruff voice called from the other side of the dome. He stood inside the dome, and his second had left to join the crowd outside. He held a mace as big as her head, and a massive shield she would have difficulty even lifting.
Liliana studied her enemy with her second eyes that saw in different spectrums. She saw what most others couldn't see beneath the demi-lion's fur. There was extra heat from swelling around Bradley's left knee, a small slash of blood on his left thigh, and another heated swelling under his right eye.
Tray Bradley must have faced at least one other challenger today, perhaps more than one. He showed signs of fatigue, but there had been plenty of time for the big lion to recover from his previous bout. The minor injuries would not slow him down a great deal, but they might give her some weak points she could exploit.
Liliana nodded to Daniel.
He opened the inner door, letting her into the dome proper. The steel cage door clanged behind her.
"I am ready," she said.
The huge lion-kin roared and charged at her.