This was Amara's great arena. The oval pit was full twenty feet deep
and floored with sand ... sand that here and there was churned and
trodden, stained dark brown with men's life blood.
Above the pit, seats rose into the star-flecked night in steep-banked
tiers.
Those seats were full, now--packed from pit to rim with the savage,
dark-faced _Malya_ breed, a blood-lusting horde whose cries for
slaughter rose in great, swelling waves like the screams of primeval
beasts.
In the forefront, ringing the rim of the pit, sat the _Malya_ chieftain
and his court--the old raiders, the men of power, the warriors and
their women.
And there, too, sat another woman, a slim, lovely _Malyalara_, placed
close beside the chief himself.
Talu.
Slave girl no longer, she now wore a gown of richest _kalor_. Jeweled
clips held the rippling, blue-black hair, and a jewel-studded harness
accented her shoulders' softness, her throat's clean curve, the bare
breasts' proud, firm swell.
Ankle-deep in the sand of the pit, Shane surveyed them, one and all.
Now the _Malya_ chief leaned forward across the rim, a long fighting
knife in his hand. His deep-set eyes gleamed anticipation. "You are the
first, Earthman ... you and this knife against a _zanth_!"
Boldly, Shane met the chieftain's stare. "And if I win--?"
For the fraction of a second a sort of dull, throbbing silence seemed
to fall over the crowd. Then it broke in a gale of wild, tumultuous
laughter, echoing and re-echoing upward to the stars.
"If you win--?" the _Malya_ chieftain choked. "Have you stayed too long
in the sun of Mercury, _chitza_? No man has ever come out of the pit
over a _zanth_."
"What holds for other men is not for me. I asked: what if I win?"
* * * * *
Admiration showed in the _Malya's_ dark face. "If you fight as boldly
as you talk--small wonder that the _Chonyas_ made you _gar_!" And then:
"If you win, you'll live--but here, on Amara, forever a slave."
"I ask no more," Shane came back coldly. Again his blue eyes swept the
crowd, the sparkling night of a thousand stars. For a moment his gaze
lingered on Talu, catching the fever in her eyes, the tension carved
in every line. The noise of the shouting horde above beat down upon
him. The fetid stench of the _zanth_ came to his nostrils from the
tunnel-chute.
"Your weapon, Earthman!" cried the _Malya_ chief, and threw it down.
"Keeper, prepare to loose the _zanth_!"
In one swift motion, Shane swept up the knife. Then, quickly, he moved
to the shadows along the wall of the pit, out of the smoky torches'
flickering glare.
In the tunnel, the _zanth_ roared thunderously. Shane caught a glimpse
of the panic on Kyrsis' pale face, where she sat in the prisoners'
cage; of the fear that crawled in Quos Reggar's great lobed eyes.
Overhead, the _Malya_ chieftain cried, "Turn loose the _zanth_!"
The heavy-grilled gate at the tunnel mouth swung up. In the blackness
beyond, the _zanth's_ eyes burned like coals of fire. Again it roared,
and then again. Then, slowly, it came forward, out into the pit, there
to stand for a moment, blinking against the glare.
Shane sucked in air. This _zanth_ was big, bigger than any he had ever
seen ... well over twenty feet. The murderous, serrated tail alone
measured at least seven, and the great jaws were of a size to snap a
man in two in a single bite. Its scales were big as dinner plates, and
as thick, horny with age. Spurs and claws gleamed in the torchlight
like curved knives.
Then the great, ringed nostrils flared as the creature scented Shane.
The spiked diamond head came round, twisting and turning on the
monstrous, snake-like neck; darting and probing to the full five feet
of its length. The stink of its breath swept over the Earthman in a
nauseous wave.
Shane stood very still.
But already the _zanth_ was turning. The bulging eyes gleamed redly,
searching for him.
The knife-haft was slippery in Shane's hand. A rill of sweat crept down
his spine.
The _zanth_ paused now, the spiked head moving sinuously to and fro.
The tail flicked the blood-stained sand. Its powerful, armor-scaled
body seemed to draw together.
Shane forgot to breathe.
The _zanth_ lunged.
* * * * *
Shane dived as the great spiked head lanced forward. The jaws snapped
shut where he had been with a clacking like the sound of monstrous
castanets.
After that, there was no time for anything but action.
For even before the Earthman hit the ground, the thing was whirling.
The claws of its eight feet sprayed the sand like a windstorm. Again,
it lunged.
Desperately, Shane rolled out of the way.
But now the serrated, seven-foot tail lashed out at him, with a force
that would have smashed through a solid brick wall.
Again Shane rolled--in, towards the _zanth's_ body.
One of the feet clawed for him. A six-inch talon raked a bloody path
along his side.
Panting, the Earthman scrambled away--back to the shadows, the wall of
the pit.
The _zanth_ whirled; charged.
Taut-muscled, Shane waited till the diamond head hammered forward.
Then, in the last instant, he leaped aside.
The _zanth's_ head smashed against the wall of the pit. Savagely,
Shane stabbed for the crevice where the jaw-plates met, trying for the
creature's tiny brain.
But the tough cartilage turned away the blade. With a roar, the _zanth_
struck at him.
Shane leaped high into the air, and the awful head passed beneath him.
Twisting, he landed on the writhing, tree-thick neck; balanced there
for a precarious moment.
The _zanth_ reared back, clawing for him, and Shane sprang clear. Again
he took up his stand against the wall.
This time, the _zanth_ broke off its charge to flail at him with its
tail. Barely in time, the Earthman got out of the way. He was breathing
hard, now--his whole body shaking under the strain.
The _zanth_ lunged.
Desperately, Shane snatched up a handful of sand, hurled it straight
into the oncoming monster's glaring eyes.
The creature came up short, shaking its head.
Shane moved like a striking _quirst_. Again he snatched sand, hurled it.
* * * * *
The _zanth_ raised its head high, to the full length of the five-foot
neck. Clawing, it leaped at the Earthman. The awful talons shredded his
clothes, tore at his flesh.
Shane threw himself sideways.
The head lanced towards him.
He slashed at the eyes with his knife, felt the steel bite in.
A wild roar burst from the creature's throat. It threw itself at Shane
in a frenzy, clawing and snapping and threshing.
Once more, Shane sprang aside--then darted back before the creature
could make the double turn. Leaping to its neck, he threw himself flat
upon it, clinging to it with legs and one arm as to a writhing log,
while with the other hand, the knife hand, he stabbed again and again
at the bulging eyes.
The _zanth_ roared its agony. Twisting and jerking, it struggled to
unseat the Earthman. One clawed foot reached his leg; laid it open. But
still Shane clung to his place, slashing and stabbing.
Blindly, the monster crashed against the pit's wall. It reared, then
surged forward, clawing its way up the sheer face. The great spiked
head rocked and swayed; beat against the stonework in a spasm of pain,
less than three feet below the rim.
A fierce light flamed in Shane's eyes. Clutching the base of the
spike, he suddenly let go the _zanth's_ neck with his legs. His toes
dug into the overlap between the scales, and all at once he was running
upward--up the snake-neck, onto the diamond head itself.
And then, before the _Malyas_ realized what was happening, he leaped
from the head to the rim of the pit. The fighting knife flashed in a
savage arc. A warrior's shout choked off in a rush of blood. The others
about him scrambled back from the slashing blade.
Behind Shane, back in the pit, the _zanth_ screamed and hurled itself
upward. Its head came over the rim. With a mighty, surging leap, its
forefeet followed. A terrible roar burst from its throat as it caught
the scent of the _Malya_ warrior's blood, and it clawed its way onward,
upward, out of the pit and into the rising tiers of seats.
* * * * *
It was a nightmare, a world gone mad. Wildly, the screaming _Malyas_
fled. But the _zanth's_ great tail lashed out and a score of them fell,
crushed or smashed into the pit. The knife-claws tore; the great jaws
ran ruby-red with blood.
Forgotten, Shane followed the panicked mob.
Only then, somehow, a voice slashed through to him through the tumult:
"Shane--_Shane!_"
He whirled.
Talu was running towards him, across the seats. "This way!"
For an instant he hesitated, then changed his course to meet hers.
She caught his hand. "This way!"
Together, they raced back towards the chief's box at the rim of the
pit, and now Shane saw that a trap door in the floor had been lifted.
"Hurry!" cried the _Malyalara_. "In a moment the warriors will bring
in a proton cannon to kill the _zanth_, and someone will think of you,
too. You must be gone before then!"
Shane shot one look at the pitch-black shaft. "Where does it go?"
"To a passage below the arena that leads to the chief's castle and the
ramps. We can steal a flyer there. But hurry!"
Shane shot one quick look back.
The _zanth_ still raged and ravened through the crowd, but already the
warriors had rallied to hem it in.
Tightly, he said to Talu: "You first, then."
"First?"
"Do you think I'd let you get behind me?" he clipped bitterly. "Fool
that I am, I'll go with you, because I have no choice. But my knife
will be in your back every step of the way, ready for your next
betrayal."
"'Betrayal'?" she repeated, and now the heat of anger was in her voice,
her eyes. "Did you say betrayal, Earthman?"
"What would you call it?" He made no effort to keep the fury from his
tone. "Who tripped me when I would have stabbed Quos Reggar? Who shot
a second dose of _theol_ into my veins?"
She drew away from him, then, and the look she threw stung like a
whip. "Come, _Sha_ Shane. If that is your belief, then I must indeed
go first." Lithely, she lowered herself over the edge of the shaft and
disappeared down a metal ladder set in one wall.
* * * * *
Knife still in hand, Shane followed. The effort made him shake, and
under the strain of climbing, the claw-wound in his side began to bleed
again.
Then, at last, they were in the murky passageway below, and Talu was
leading him swiftly through the darkness. Once Shane staggered and
would have fallen, had not the _Malyalara_ caught him; and once he
dropped the knife. But she picked it up again, and her groping hand
strayed into the blood as she sought to return the weapon. So she made
him sit down while she tore up some garment and bandaged his wounds,
and her fingers were very gentle.
They went on again, then, for what seemed endless miles, till at last
they came to a huge, dim-lighted ramping-spot where dull black _Malya_
flyers stood in ordered rows, their bubbles pointed up into the starlit
sky. And finally they even found one with its lower hatches open, and
the girl helped Shane to climb aboard. She strapped him in the pilot's
seat, and herself in the other seat beside him.
For a long time, it seemed, he worked at the controls with clumsy
fingers, till at last, somehow, they were blasting off, roaring up and
up and up into the gaudy heavens. And Talu talked to him, and braced
him, and helped him hold the jet-globe steady, while seconds, or maybe
hours, ticked by.
Only then, suddenly, the sky about them was full of ships, great
black-hulled ships that were built for ranging clear across the void.
They came in hundreds--thousands, maybe--blazing in thunderous silence
through the blackness of spatial night. And one of the ships swerved
and came alongside the little _Malya_ flyer, and a great hatch opened
in its side and sucked them in.
Then the hatch slid closed again, and the darkness about them was
complete. Even their jets were blacked out, killed by the great ship's
pickup neutralizers.
And still Shane sat in silence, staring stupidly straight ahead.
But the body of the girl, Talu, came warm against him in the ebon murk,
her voice a fierce, husky whisper in his ear: "You must believe me,
Shane! I did not betray you--not ever! The things I did, I had to do,
in order to live to pay back the blood debt of my people. You could
never have killed Quos Reggar with one thrust, no matter where, for he
is a cross-bred mongrel, and his body does not work as ours do."
Shane forced out words: "Why tell me now? Why care about it?"
"Why? Why?" The girl's voice held a tremor now, a fear not even the
black could hide. "I tell you so that you will know, and not die hating
me to your last breath. That I could not stand! For die we will, and
soon--because this ship is one of Reggar's slavers!"