I watched the two of them staring at each other and felt like someone had dumped a whole load of ice cubes into the pit of my stomach.
Oh, Sir, I thought. Oh please, please be careful! Please, don’t let him hurt you! Don’t—
My thoughts were interrupted when Gra’multh struck the first blow. How do I know he did? Because I could actually see it—it looked like a flaming red spear shooting out of the older Korrigon’s forehead straight at Sir’s chest.
Sir managed to throw up a shield of glowing blue fire in time to deflect it and the red spear bounced off and flamed out of existence before it hit the floor.
“Ah-ha!” I heard one of the guards, who was standing behind me, out of range of the action, mutter. “Good deflection by the Overlord of the North!”
At first I couldn’t understand what was happening—I had never seen any of this before when I watched Sir use his Mental Abilities. But then I remembered what he’d said about the dueling bands he and Gra’multh wore—how they focused and amplified Mental Power and also made it visible to outsiders watching. That must be what was happening—I was actually able to see what Sir could do with his mind.
It would have been fascinating if it wasn’t so terrifying. I gasped and winced as the two males exchanged fiery spears and arrows and shielded against the attacks of the other. It seemed to me that they couldn’t launch an attack and defend against one at the same time, so it was a kind of game to see which one of them could get off an arrow or spear before the other one could get up his shield.
Despite my intense worry, Sir seemed to be holding his own. He even hit Gra’multh several times, his blue spears and arrows finding their way to the older male’s chest before Gra’multh could get his shield up.
But though Gra’multh staggered and gasped when he was hit, he showed no signs of slowing down. And meanwhile, Sir was getting hit pretty regularly too. I watched him anxiously every time it happened but the mental projectiles didn’t seem to do outward damage. There was no blood or gore—but maybe they were causing internal damage to the organs? I pushed that thought away, not even wanting to consider it.
The whole time the guards behind me were making comments about how Gra’multh was undefeated in duels and had the strongest Mental Ability in all of Korrigon Four, which didn’t make me feel any better. I wanted to turn around and yell at them to shut up, but I was afraid I might miss something if I looked away or distract Sir if I shouted. So I held my tongue—which was what I should have done in the first place—and just watched the duel with my hands clenched into fists and my heart pounding in my chest.
At last Sir seemed to get an advantage. Instead of trying to shield against one of Gra’multh’s arrows, he let it hit him. At the same time, he sent out a projectile but instead of a spear or an arrow, it was a flaming blue rope.
The rope wrapped around Gra’multh from his shoulders all the way down to his ankles like a snake determined to strangle its prey. No matter how much the older Korrigon struggled, he couldn’t seem to break free. And since he was trying his best not to get squashed—I knew because I could see little fingers of red flame prying ineffectually at the glowing blue rope—he couldn’t launch a counterattack of his own.
“Yield!” Sir spoke, panting with effort, but his voice was loud and clear. “Yield the duel, Gra’multh. Admit you’ve been beaten and I’ll release you.”
“Never!” Gra’multh’s voice was tight but angry. Suddenly the red flames prying at the rope that held him vanished I saw him turn his head and look directly at his pet.
I blinked. Had I imagined it, or had a little fiery red dart moved between Gra’multh’s forehead and his pet’s? If it was true, I was pretty sure I was the only one who saw it. Everyone else was concentrating on Sir and the effort it was taking him to hold the glowing blue rope in place.
Meanwhile Clarissa suddenly seemed to wake up. All this time, she had been standing there, watching the duel with an empty expression on her face. If anyone had asked me, I would have said there was something wrong with her—“the lights are on but nobody’s home,” as the expression goes. But now, at a look from her Master and that little red dart that seemed to hit her right between the eyes, she suddenly sprang into action.
With an unholy shriek that scared the crap out of everyone in the room, she rushed forward at Sir. As she ran, I saw a flash of silver in her hands as she lifted both of them above her head. Too late, I realized she had drawn the ornamental dagger I had seen on the gravity belt she wore around her waist.
Oh my God, I thought. Oh my God, she’s not going to—
But before I could properly grasp what was happening, Clarissa had leapt high in the air like a gymnast. As she came down, she buried the dagger in the left side of Sir’s chest—stabbing him right through the heart!
With a sense of slow-motion horror, I saw him stagger and fall to his knees. The blue rope of Mental Power he’d had wrapped around Gra’multh fizzled and then went out as Sir fell over, onto his back.
“Sir! I gasped. “Oh, no! Sir!”
Not knowing what I was going to do, I rushed forward. I saw Clarissa was bending over him, about to pull out the long silver knife and stab him again. Suddenly my pain and confusion turned to righteous wrath.
“No, you don’t, you bitch!” I shouted at her and bowled into her, knocking her away from Sir’s supine body.
Suddenly, we were in a scratching, biting, screaming fight like I hadn’t been in since that time in Elementary school when Amanda Sebring stole my favorite pencil and then wouldn’t give it back. I was grabbing handfuls of Clarissa’s long, silky hair and yanking for all I was worth and she was biting and snapping at my neck and shoulder, apparently trying to take a chunk out of me with her sharp white teeth.
“Watch them!” I heard one of the guards shout. “The stairs! The hundred stairs!”
Looking over my shoulder, I saw that he was right—somehow Clarissa and I had rolled right over to the edge of the steep golden steps the led up to the top of the pyramid. And if we weren’t damn, careful, we were going to go over.
Well, I’m not going over! I thought, with renewed determination. I needed to find a better handhold—Clarissa was fighting with a kind of mindless fury that made me think something or someone else was controlling her. She was like a wild animal and if I didn’t end this fight soon, I was going to lose it and we were both going to fall over the edge.
Somehow, my hand happened to land on her gravity belt. I don’t know if someone guided me or if it was blind, dumb luck. But the minute I felt it under my fingertips, I knew what to do.
I stopped trying to keep her from biting me and just concentrated on the damn belt. Clenching my jaw, I fought past the pain and forced myself to ignore the sharp teeth digging into my shoulder. And then, just as her teeth drew blood, the golden belt came loose, and I pulled it off her. At the same moment, I kicked out with both legs, catching her in the midsection and sending her towards the edge of the steep, golden stairs.
Her teeth came loose from my arm—thank goodness or she would have taken me with her—and her long, skinny body seemed to crumple as the weight of Korrigon Four’s immense gravity squeezed and crumpled her like I might crumple an empty diet Coke can in my fist.
Then she went flying over the edge of the stairs and I heard her tumbling all the way down—thump, thump, thump, thump, thump…
Oh my God, did I kill her? I think I killed her! were the thoughts that flew through my head. But then I remembered the reason I’d been fighting the other human pet in the first place. Sir! Was he dead?
Feeling shaky, I got to my hands and knees and crawled over to him. He was still lying there on the golden floor, his eyes closed and the jeweled hilt of the dagger sticking out of the left side of his chest. And nobody was lifting a finger to help him!
“Oh, no! No, no, no, no!” I heard myself gasping as I gathered his head into my lap. He didn’t move or respond to my touch and I felt my heart clench in my chest. I looked around and saw that a bunch of the guards were just standing there like they didn’t know what to do.
“What the hell is wrong with you people?” I shouted at them. “Call 911 or whatever kind of emergency services you have here! Get someone over here to help my Master—to help Sir! Come on—move it!”
One of the guards acted like he might go do as I said, but just then Gra’multh came strolling over, a nasty smirk on his ugly face.
“I don’t think there’s any helping your Master now, little pet,” he drawled, looking down at me. “He’s been beaten and so have you—your little galaxy is about to be overrun and I shall take great pleasure in leading the charge myself. Every mind on your planet will be under my control before the solar year is out.”
A red curtain of fury seemed to drop over my vision as I stared up at him.
“You asshole,” I said thickly. “You killed him! Or you had your pet kill him! I saw you sending her thought messages—did she have a Mind Control chip? Of course she did,” I answered my own question. “You cheated and you killed Sir!”
Gra’multh gave me a disgusted look.
“How dare you speak to me that way, you ignorant little slut? I won’t hear such insulting language from you. Guards, take her away!” He motioned at me. “Put her in my quarters and I’ll deal with her later. I dare say you’ve been trained as a Sex Pet, have you not, my dear?” he added, leering at me. “I’m sure I can find some use for you.”
I could feel my hands curling into fists again. Oh hell no, he wasn’t getting away with this! But how could I stop him? The guards were already moving towards me, long arms outstretched to drag me away from Sir’s body.
Suddenly, my eyes fell on the black wire around my Master’s temples—the Dueling Band he had told me would focus and amplify his power.
Well, why not? I thought. If I can use the controller to make the Matter Synthesizer work and I can get his ship to work for me, why shouldn’t I be able to use this band too?
It was a crazy thought, but I seemed to hear a voice inside me, urging me on, telling me I could do it. It whispered that I was stronger than I thought, that I could do anything I put my mind to.
I decided to listen to it.
Gritting my teeth, I slipped the black metal band off Sir’s forehead and settled it around my own, where it promptly shrank to fit against my temples.
The effect on the assembled Korrigons wasn’t exactly what I had expected. The Sovereign looked concerned.
“Stop her—she’ll hurt herself!” she said to one of the guards.
“That she will, Your Majesty—that Dueling Band will turn her primitive little pet brain to mush,” the guard she’d been speaking to answered her. And some of the others murmured agreement.
However, I wasn’t interested in them—I was focused on Gra’multh.
The older Korrigon was standing there, staring down at me and laughing! That’s right, the bastard was laughing and not even trying to shield himself.
Taking a deep breath, I gathered all the rage I was feeling and flung it out at him. I felt it leaving me—as it went, I pictured it as a big orange fist aiming right for his face.
And then, to my utter surprise, I saw it in the air in front of me! It looked just like I had imagined it—a big orange fist, glowing and flaming like it was made of fire, and bigger than my head. And it was headed straight for Gra’multh.
The Korrigon Overlord was so surprised he didn’t even try to shield himself. I saw the look of shock on his face as the fiery orange fist punched him right in the nose, just as I had imagined it doing.
There was a crunching sound and suddenly Gra’multh was howling and holding his nose, which was streaming purple blood.
I didn’t give him any time to recover. I took another breath and sent out another Mental projectile—this time it was a flaming orange rope, like the blue one Sir had used earlier. But I didn’t bother trying to wrap it all around Gra’multh’s whole body—instead I wrapped it around his throat.
He choked and gurgled, his fingers prying at the Mental rope, but I wasn’t letting go. I still held Sir’s head in my lap and I was certain by now he was dead. All my love for my Master had turned to bitter rage and I poured it down the Mental connection I had established using the dueling band, wrapping it tightly around Gra’multh’s neck and squeezing as hard as I could.
“Mer…cy!” the Korrigon Overlord choked, falling to his knees. “The pet…is killing…me!”
“Because you killed my Master—you killed Sir!” I shouted at him. My eyes were blurred with angry tears but I could still take pleasure in hurting the one who had killed the man I loved. “You bastard, I’m going to kill you too!”
“Goddess Eternal!” I heard the Sovereign breathe somewhere to the right of me. “Look at this! Has anyone ever seen a pet from a primitive species with Mental Abilities before?”
“No, Your Majesty!” The guards all sounded frightened. “Gods, she’s every bit as strong as an Overlord!” I heard one of them mumble.
“Stronger, even,” another one answered. “She actually drew blood!”
“Someone must stop her before she kills Gra’multh,” the Sovereign said. “There will be civil war if he dies like this! There’s already enough unrest between the Northern and Southern Continents as it is.”
All the guards shuffled their feet, but none of them seemed to want to come near me. And in the meantime, Gra’multh’s face was turning from gray to purple to black.
“Mer-cy!” he choked again, and finally he was looking at me. “Please…I beg you!”
“No!” I snapped, still cradling Sir’s head in my lap. “No, you killed him, so now you’re going to die too! You’re getting exactly what you deserve!”
It was the Sovereign herself who finally approached me as all her guards hung back. She came down off her huge golden throne and knelt on the ground beside me.
“Little one?” she murmured tentatively. “I know you’re upset, but can you listen to me?”
I cut my eyes in her direction, though I kept my attention on Gra’multh, who was lying on his side on the golden floor by now, with his full-black eyes bugging out of his head. I had to keep my concentration up in order to make the Mental rope I was using solid.
“What do you want?” I demanded tersely. “I don’t care what you say, I’m going to kill him! He used that Mind-Controlled pet of his to kill Sir so now he’s going to die, too!”
“But—” the Sovereign began.
“And I don’t care what you do with me afterwards either,” I continued recklessly, interrupting her. “Nothing matters to me if Sir is dead. I…” I choked on the words. “I loved him! And that bastard killed him—so you can torture me and kill me if you want to, but not before I kill Gra’multh first!”
“I understand how you feel,” the Sovereign murmured gently. “Really, I do, little one. But I think there’s a chance your Master might not be dead. Only no one can get to him to help him while you’re still wearing the dueling band because no one will dare to come near the two of you.”
“What?” I looked down at Sir, startled. “But…he’s been stabbed through the heart!”
“Only his secondary heart,” the Sovereign told me. “We Korrigons actually have three hearts—the primary one located on the right side of the chest, the secondary one on the left side, and we have a tertiary heart in our abdomen. We can live without one of them—that’s why we have two more as backups.”
“Really?” I looked at her with wet eyes. “That…that’s really weird.”
The Sovereign gave me a little smile.
“I’m sure I would find your anatomy strange, too. But the fact is, if we can get Sir Barinthian to the House of Healing in time, he may still be saved. But you must let go of Sir Gra’multh so the Healers can get to your Master.”
I frowned at her suspiciously.
“What about my galaxy—the Milky Way? I mean, the Goddess’s Cloak? Are you still going to let Gra’multh take it over if I let him go?”
She shook her head.
“You’ve won the duel and the right to keep your galaxy intact, little one. I give you my royal word as Sovereign of Korrigon Four that my people will not touch The Goddess’s Cloak.”
This made me feel a little better, though I was still pretty upset about Sir. But just then, something else happened. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something waving at me.
Turning my head, I saw that it was Sir’s candalla. The long, gray tail had somehow wiggled its way out from under his supine body and it was waving urgently, as though it was trying to signal me.
“Oh, look!” I exclaimed, pointing to it. “Sir’s tail—his candalla! It’s telling me he’s not dead!”
“See, I told you he was still alive,” the Sovereign said, giving me a smile. “If you’ll just let Sir Gra’multh go, I will call my personal healer to attend to your Master right away.”
“All right, but Gra’multh shouldn’t get away with what he did,” I said, frowning. “He was using Mind-Control on that pet of his—that’s what made her try to assassinate Sir. He was losing the duel, so he cheated.”
The Sovereign nodded gravely.
“There will be severe repercussions for his actions—you have my royal word,” she promised. “But if he dies by the hand of the pet of the Overlord of the Northern Continent, my entire planet will be thrown into civil war.” She gave me a pleading look and her face looked extremely vulnerable. “I’m a very young Sovereign—I only ascended the Golden Throne of Ten Thousand Steps last year, when my big sister was killed. I just…I really don’t think I can deal with that right now.”
“You would have had a civil war on your hands if Gra’multh’s pet had really managed to kill Sir,” I pointed out.
“I know and he will be punished for the attempt he made on your Master’s life,” she promised. “But if he dies, many, many others are going to die, too.”
I sighed and finally relaxed the burning orange rope I had around Gra’multh’s neck. The Sovereign was so young—so relatable. I just couldn’t stay mad when she was talking to me so reasonably. Especially now that I knew Sir wasn’t dead after all and would probably be all right.
I took off the dueling band and at last, the glowing orange rope melted completely away.
“That’s it—it’s off her head. Get her!” I heard the guards behind me shouting.
But the Sovereign put out a hand and glared at them.
“Stop! This female is under my royal protection!” she proclaimed. “You will not hurt or imprison her—instead, you will accompany her along with Sir Barinthian to the Royal House of Healing. And there you will stand watch by his door and make certain no other attempts are made on his life.”
There was some grumbling among the guards at this—they clearly didn’t like me or the idea that I had Mental Abilities as strong as any of them—or even stronger. But with the Sovereign glaring at them like that, they had to obey.
“Thank you,” I said to her, as a couple of Korrigons in long white coats ran over to examine Sir. “I appreciate your help.”
“And I appreciate you helping me to see things clearly,” she said to me. “After your Master is better, we will speak more. For now, go with him. May the Goddess Everlasting grant that his recovery will be swift.”
As she spoke, the two Healers were loading Sir carefully onto a floating stretcher. I followed along behind them, adjusting my gravity belt so I could hop along quickly to match their long strides.
I was afraid that we were going to have to go down all those thousands of steps, but it turned out that the Sovereign had a private elevator that was hidden behind the throne. And thank goodness, Sir’s stretcher just barely fit inside it.
It was a tight squeeze for the rest of us, between the two Healers, two guards, and me, but I wedged myself in with them—I was determined not to leave Sir’s side.
As the doors closed and we began to drop silently down, I took his limp hand in mine and squeezed it tightly.
“It’s all right,” I told him. “You’re going to be okay. You’re going to get well and then we’ll be together forever.”
I had no idea how wrong I was.