Chapter 7: Masks

[Eric Hood]

Eric handed his money to the shadowy man on the other side of the darkened window. He squinted, trying to make out the man's face, but the dim lighting made exact identification impossible. He watched the man count the money, count it again, eye Eric suspiciously, and then count the gold a third time. Sinterbourne was certainly a careful man... even though Eric had the correct sum of money, the guards hesitated before letting him in. He was a stranger. A newcomer.

"Not enough," said the man inside the window.

"The Hell it isn't." replied Eric.

"You're new. You gotta pay a special fee to get in."

"I'll bet..." Eric produced a handful of coins. "Will this do?"

"That's it exactly." The man snatched the gold and waved to someone Eric couldn't see.

Eric knew that the extra gold went directly into the money-handler's pockets, but he didn't care; it wasn't his money.

After a short delay, the large metal door opened and Eric was allowed into a dark hallway. Guards stood on either side just inside the door.

"Too late to view the combatants," said one of the guards, "You bet blind or not at all."

"I came for the show, anyway." replied Eric.

"Down there," said the other guard. "We're watching."

Me, too, thought Eric as he walked down the dismal hallway. He could feel the guards eyes burrowing into his back. The corridor opened into a huge, brightly-lit chamber. The sudden change in illumination caused Eric some discomfort at first, but after his eyes adjusted he was able to get a full measure of his surroundings. The room was rectangular, with a stone floor, wooden walls and several closed doors leading away into other areas of the building. Each door was guarded. The ceiling was high, and as he looked up, Eric saw a wide balcony running along the west wall of the building, opposite the door through which he had entered. There was no one on the balcony, but Eric assumed that this is where Damion Sinterbourne enjoyed the show... well above the boisterous crowd.

Despite the room's size, the place was packed with people. There were two or three hundred spectators, mostly men, who were milling around, placing bets and making small talk as they waited for the show to start. The crowd squeezed against him as he forced his way closer to the center of the room. Several of the patrons wore eloquent masks, which puzzled Eric until he realized that, judging from the price of admission, most of the people in the room were men of some importance who would not want to be recognized. A quick look at the crowd revealed a higher-than-normal presence of expensive silks and jewels.

There was a large, elevated dais in the center of the room. A metal cage, approximately 15 feet by 20 feet stood on the platform. Though, the cage was currently empty, it was obvious from the attention it was receiving that something important was about to transpire inside of it.

A circular area was roped off at some distance from the cage, and inside this area were three rows of seats. Almost all of them were occupied, and most of the occupants wore animal masks or disguises of some sort. Eric wondered how much the patrons paid for those seats. He was about to ask one of the guards who stood just inside the roped area, but then he remembered that he had spent almost all of his money just go get this far. Surely he didn't have enough to purchase one of the VIP seats. Eric contented himself to standing just on the other side of the rope. He had to shove several men out of the way to secure a spot. They protested, but a scowl from Eric reminded them that they had urgent business in another part of the room.

Eric studied the crowd, especially the guards. A loud argument broke out amongst one of the guards and several of the patrons. Eric was too far away to hear what was going, but his curiosity was soon satisfied. A richly dressed man in a lion mask walked up and sat down in an empty seat directly in front of him. One of the man's neighbors turned to him.

"What's that over there?"

"Something about the wine being bad. They're going to stop serving in a moment..."

"What? No WINE!? That's the whole reason I COME to these things. Sinterbourne always brings out the best wine from his cellar for these fights."

"I thought you came for the blood and gambling... like everyone else."

"Well,... that too."

The men laughed as if something were incredibly funny.

How come no one offered to bring ME any wine? thought Eric. He answered his own question.... he was standing on the wrong side of the rope.

"GENTLEMEN!" a voice boomed. Eric looked up just as the lights began to dim, and saw a large

man standing in the center of the cage. He was dressed in red and gold silks... the color of royalty... and

was surrounded by several bodyguards, one of which was a voluptuous dark-skinned woman. Eric could only assume that the man was Damion Heinrick VonSinterbourn.

"WELCOME TO THE ARENA OF BLOOD!" continued Damion.

Sinterbourne was holding a large cone up to his mouth. Both ends of the object were open, and by yelling into the small end, the man's voice was amplified a good three or for times as it exited the large end.

Some kind of magic... thought Eric. I'd better tell the boss about that.

"WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY..."

"...We want wine!" came a faint shout. An almost imperceptible nod by Damion caused

one of the guards to begin elbowing his way into the crowd towards the source of the interruption.

Damion continued...

"WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY, I BRING TO YOU THREE BOUTS. SAVAGE VERSUS SAVAGE...MAN VERSUS ANIMAL! ARE YOU READY TO WITNESS NATURE'S FURY AT ITS MOST BRUTAL!?!?"

A half-hearted cheer resonated through the crowd.

"I SAID ARE YOU READY!!!" Another stealthy motion by Damion brought a fierce roar from some unseen location near the rear of the room The crowd responded...mostly out of fright... with a powerful roar of its own.

"YOU HAVE SEEN THE COMBATANTS! YOU HAVE PLACED YOUR BETS! NOW PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR A FIGHT THAT MUST BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED!" Damion raised his hands above his head, eliciting an almost deafening cheer from the crowd. The energy in the room quadrupled as the anticipation grew. Grown men jumped up and down yelling and screaming like children on Solstice morning. And to think... this was WITHOUT the influence of Sinterbourne's wine.

Eric watched as Damion, still surrounded by his guards, stepped out of the cage. A tall, somewhat thing man who was also dressed in silk, walked up and secured the cage door with not one... but three chains and locks.

How are the animals going to get in? thought Eric. The though had barely passed when there arose a mechanical grinding sound from under the floor. The sound intensified, and then changed to a distinct series of metallic clicks that seemed to emanate from the cage. It took a moment for Eric to realize that the seemingly-solid floor of the cage was being lowered... supposedly into another room that existed underneath the one in which he and the rest of the crowd were standing. There was a loud 'CLANG' of metal against stone as the cage-bottom ceased it's motion. Eric listened, trying to detect what was going on in the secret basement, but the steadily increasing noise of the crowd preventing him from hearing much. He DID, however, hear the bellowing of some huge beast. Not the same roar as before... this one was a lot more frightening. The crowd responded by yelling and clapping and stomping their feet like a tribe of savages.

The cage's floor began to rise again, slowly revealing the combatants. A huge, furry black head rose into view, followed by impossibly large shoulders and an even larger chest. It's arms were enormous, muscles the size of barrels bulged as the creature strained against the chains that restrained it. The man-shaped beast was covered in a thick mat of black hair. It was an ape. As the floor rose further, Eric saw that someone had place something in the beast's left hand. No... something was ATTACHED to the creature's hand. A set of claws, almost a foot long and slightly curved at the tip, were secured with an assembly of bolts and pins that pierced the flesh of the ape's hand and forearm. The blades appeared to be razor sharp, but, even if they weren't, they would still do damage when wielded by a creature that strong. As the crowd looked on, the beast leaned its head back and let out a roar that seemed to shake the walls. The ape's mouth was bloody, and Eric saw that someone had recently filed all of the ape's teeth down into sharp points.

Who in their right mind is going to fight something like that? Eric broke his gaze away from the giant ape and looked to his opponent. A pale man wearing nothing but a loincloth stood shivering in the opposite corner of the cage. Small, thin, and weak, he was everything that the beast was not. He had no weapons that Eric could see... not a sword, a spear, or even a dagger... and judging from his physique, the man was most certainly NOT a martial-artist.

The ape saw him and jerked violently at its restraints. The entire cage shook, and the crowd roared in anticipation.

"This is going to be a slaughter." Eric said aloud.

"Think so?" said a man in a snake-mask standing next to him.

"Absolutely... I mean look at them..."

"My money's on the man...Wanna place a bet?"

"It's your money," said Eric. He pulled out one of his few remaining gold coins.

"That all?"

"I had to pay the 'new spectator' tax at the door."

The snake-mask laughed, but Eric barely heard it over the roar of the crowd.

Several guards had approached the cage. Two of them had long pointed sticks. At first, Eric though that they were going to give them to the pale man in the cage, but instead, they walked over to the ape and began jabbing at it, raising its fury even further. Another man stood by the chains that secured the ape to the cage bars.

"Oh, I get it..." said Eric. "They're not going to let the ape loose. He's going to fight in place while the man has free run of the cage."

"Boy... you ARE new here." said snake-face. "Still betting on the ape?"

"Damn straight I am."

As he spoke, Eric saw another man... the same one who had secured the cage door after Sinterbourne left, walk to the other side of the cage. He carried a small glass bottle in his hand. The bottle was filled with some oddly-colored liquid. As the man approached the cage, the combatant reached through the bars, snatched the bottle away from the guard and quickly gulped the entire thing down. Several other guards ran up and grabbed the man's arms, restraining him. Eric had no idea what was going on... but the naked combatant seemed to be having some kind of fit. He began jerking against the guards who were hard-pressed to hold him still. He started screaming and shaking his head from side to side, and soon he had build up a unhealthy-looking froth around his mouth and chin. Several more guards were called over to hold the screaming man still.

"ARE YOU READY!!!" came a shout from high above the floor. Eric looked up. Sinterbourne was leaning over the edge of his balcony, shouting down at the crowd with his magic-cone. The crowd responded with a resounding:

"YESSS!"

Damion paused dramatically... and then:

"FIGHT!"

The guards released the man and unchained the ape at the same time.

At first, Eric thought that there was some kind of magic at work. As soon as he was released, the man simply disappeared. Then, Eric heard the crowd cheer... and the ape roar in pain. Eric looked to the beast, and saw that the man was swinging from the animal's neck like a man-shaped pendant. He was scratching and biting furiously at the ape's throat, and using his bare hands to yank out plugs of dark fur. The beast swatted at the man, who jumped away, hit the ground, and rushed in again. The man was fast. Too fast. Animals, in general, have reflexes at least twice as fast as those of a normal human. But this human wasn't normal. He dodged the ape's grasping arms and leaped once again upon the beast. The man's knees were firmly planted in the beast's chest while his fingers scratched at the ape's eyes. The beast snapped and bit at the man, but to no avail... the naked savage had already crawled over the ape's shoulder. The ape got a hold of the man's leg and pulled him off like a particularly large parasite, then flung the man clear across the cage. The man hit the bars hard... as if he had just fallen from a very large height. He fell to the floor like a sack of rocks, and a cheer went through the crowd.

"See..." said Eric.

"Not so fast... the fight isn't over."

True enough, the man got to his feet and snarled at the beast that was baring down on him.

"That's not possible," whispered Eric, still in shock. He felt for sure that the man was dead.

Instead man stood upright, and seemingly in perfect health... no bones protruded through his skin, no internal organs oozed onto the floor. The only signs of injury were the black bruises that ran like horizontal bands across the man's chest and legs. The cage bars had left their mark on him. Eric watched as the bruises began to change color... from black to purplish-blue, from blue to dark red, then to brown... then they shrank and disappeared entirely. The man had undergone several weeks worth of healing in less than three seconds.

The ape, however, was not impressed. With a fierce roar, the beast brought both of it's fists down at once. They thundered into the floor of the cage, but the man had already dodged away. The ape spun and made a powerful sweep with its metal claw. A shower of sparks flew into the crowd as the claws scraped across the metal bars where the man had been standing a second ago. The beast roared and made a second sweep... this time it connected. The man had been running forward when the attack came. The metal blades swept across his mid-section and sent him careening into the bars once more. Blood sprayed into the crowd, but the masked men sitting in the VIP section yelled and cheered loudly.

The man sank to his knees, but stood up again almost immediately. He was whole and uninjured. No blood flowed... not even a scar remained on the man. It appeared that any injury that was not immediately fatal simply healed itself in just a few seconds. The man turned, just in time to catch a claw to the face. The blades raked down across his face and chest, but, seemingly oblivious to the pain, the man ducked down and crawled between the creature's legs. When he stood up behind the beast, his wounds were again healed.

This time it was the ape's turn to be caught by surprise. The savage man jumped onto the beast's back and bit down into its neck. He bit down HARD. Blood poured out the ape as the man yanked his head way...taking a mouthful of ape-hair with it. He repeated the measure... biting down in the same spot. This time, the man ripped out a sizable chunk of flesh.

The ape bellowed, and began flailing its arms in an attempt to dislodge the man. Meanwhile, the savage continued to rip and tear at the ape... almost as if he were trying to chew completely through the beast's neck. Blood poured like a fountain... the ape did not have the quick-healing advantage that had kept the man alive.

The crowd was in a frenzy. Their shouts drowned out the ape's bellows of rage and pain. Eric watched the spectacle with a slight smile on his face. The show was everything Hars had said it would be.

The ape's struggles became more and more violent, and now both man and beast were completely covered in blood, as was the entire floor of the cage. As the beast spun around, its foot slipped and the ape went down. It fell backwards, and Eric heard the man's bones snap as he was crushed between the beast's incredible bulk and the unyielding metal floor of the cage.

The crowd screamed and howled.

The ape struggled in an attempt to rise, but it suddenly found itself being lifted up off of the floor.

"You gotta be freakin' kidding me!" shouted Eric, his voice lost in the crowd. He stared incredulously as the tiny, thin man lifted the struggling, 500 pound beast over his head. The blood-covered man screamed and hurled the ape across the cage... just as he himself had been thrown a minute ago. The cage...in fact, the entire building... shook violently as the ape bounced off of the bars and hit the floor.

"No WAY! No freaking WAY!!" Eric continued to shout. "What was in that potion??" He couldn't even hear himself above the commotion of the other spectators.

The fight was not quite finished. The ape was attempting to stand, but the man rushed over and began clawing at the beast's face. The ape grabbed him and flung him away, but the man flipped and landed on his feet. He was at the ape's throat again almost instantly. The bloody metal blades on the beast's hand slashed through the man's leg, nearly taking it completely off. The man fell, but was up again in seconds. He grabbed the bladed hand and began twisting it fiercely. The beast bellowed in pain as the blades were ripped free.. along with most of its hand. The man raised the bloody contraption above his head and drove it deep into the ape's chest. The beast jerked wildly once...twice... and then fell still.

The crowd went absolutely insane.

Everyone was on their feet screaming and howling at the victorious man who, now devoid of anything to kill, grabbed onto the bars of the cage and snarled back at the masked men in the VIP section. Slowly, the bottom of the cage began to sink into the floor, and the man in the snake mask snatched the gold coin out of Eric's hand. Eric was so enthralled by what he had seen that he didn't even notice.

"You lose," said snake-face. "Hey, stop smiling like that or your face'll stick that way."

"That was.... amazing!" Eric replied without taking his eyes away from the rapidly disappearing savage in the cage.

"If you think THAT was good... wait 'till you see what they've got NEXT..."

[Sinterbourne]

Damion frowned as the floor of the cage was lowered into the preparation room.

"What a mess." said Fletcher. His assistant sat on his right side on the high balcony. His chief bodyguard, Zade, sat on his left. Together they looked down at the crowd.

"Rather poor show, I think." said Zade. "Even with the blades, that ape never had a chance."

"Maybe two apes, next time. Yes... two apes and one man." said Damion. "The next fight should be better."

There was a knock at the door.

"WHAT!!" shouted Damion.

The door opened, and Slimmon, one of the guards, leaned out onto the balcony.

"We've got a guy here to see you, sir."

"No one sees me." said Damion.

"You might want to talk to him. There was a problem with the wine earlier and..."

"The wine? What's wrong with my wine?"

"It's gone bad, apparently. We didn't want to disturb you with it before the first fight, but-"

"GONE BAD! My wine does not GO BAD!"

"Well, we've had several people say that-"

"Show this idiot in."

Slimmon disappeared, then returned a few seconds later with a man wearing a tiger half-mask. The man stumbled onto the balcony, almost spilling the contents of the wine glass he was carrying. He righted himself and then turned to face Damion. Zade rose and stood next to Sinterbourne, with her hand resting on her whip.

The man ogled Zade for a moment, and then spoke. His breath betrayed the fact the he was far from sober.

"Thish, shir.... is shwill!"

"You're drunk." said Damion. "I don't know who you are, but you're so far gone now that you couldn't tell Dark Taint from dung."

"Taaysht it for youshelf." The man shoved the glass in Sinterbourne's face. Damion grabbed the glass and took a healthy sip. He immediately spat the foul liquid out...

"GAAAAAAHH! That's pure alcohol! What's happened to my wine! Who's been in my wine cellar!"

"No one, sir" said Slimmon. "We brought this batch out last night just like you said. It's been under

lock and key since then."

"Fetch me a fresh bottle straight from the cellar.... and STOP SERVING THIS SWILL!!"

"We already have, sir. Well, I thought we did. Then someone got confused and started handing it out again."

"People are drinking this!?! And they think it came from MY WINE CELLAR?!"

"Well, sir..."

"And You!" Damion turned to the tiger-mask. "How much of this have you had?"

"Well... I...uh... that is, I...oh....oh my..."

"Oh no," mumbled Fletcher. He backed away from the drunk, but was a half-step too slow...

"...OOOOOOF!!!!" Tiger-mask vomited all over Fletcher and then collapsed onto the floor

"AAIIIIIIGH!!!" Fletcher screamed. His effeminate cry drew the attention of quite a few patrons on the level below. "Not Again!!" Fletcher blew past Zade and Damion and bolted down the steps.

"Clean this up and get this man out of here," said Damion to Slimmon. Several guards appeared and carrier off the unconscious man in the tiger-mask. "Here." Damion handed the half-full wine glass to Zade.

"Pure alcohol, eh?" she said.

"Yes. Ruinous swill."

"Oh." Zade put the glass to her lips and drained it in one gulp.

"That reminds me, are you going to the brewery tonight?"

Zade nodded silently.

"Take some men with you."

"Of course."

[Zade]

Zade wandered over to the edge of the balcony and looked down. She scanned the crowd, looking for no one in particular. Not that she would recognize anyone.... most of the patrons were wearing

those ridiculous animal masks. Her eyes was caught by something peculiar near the rear of the

mass of people. There was something there... a calm spot amidst a sea of movement.

The man was dressed in a hooded blue cloak that covered his musculature and concealed any weapons

he may have been carrying. He was searching for something... he would stare intensely in one

direction for a few moments, sweep his gaze ever-so-slightly along the crowd, and then stop to look in a different direction. He was slow and methodical, yet there was something about him that suggested power... quickness....an energy that was yearning to be released. He was also very familiar.

Don't let that be him... she thought. Zade's skin grew warm and her normal frown deepened into a concentrated sneer. She watched the man, waiting for him to step out of the crowd.... she had to know...

Almost as if he were reading her mind, the blue stranger looked up. He wore a blue sash tucked tight around the bottom part of his face, but Zade saw enough. His skin was brown with a texture almost like leather. His eyes seemed to shine with a light of their own, and Zade knew that, if she were close enough, she could see them change color once every second, like the ticking of a metronome. The stranger was looking directly at her.

Zade gasped and backed away.

"What?" said Sinterbourne. "See something?"

"No." Zade lied. "I was thinking... maybe I should get the brewery ahead of the others. Take a look at whatever security they have."

"When? Now? You're going to miss the next bout?"

"Yes, I am. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

"Well, I.... no. Go ahead." Sinterbourne sat down in his stuffed chair. It was obvious that he was still fuming over his ruined wine.

"Send the men to the brewery after the show. I'll meet them there." Zade turned and left Damion alone on the balcony.

---

[Zade]

"Blaymore!!" Zade walked down the deserted street, her whip curled into a tight loop that hung from her waist. "Blaymore!" she shouted. "I know you're out here!"

"I can hear you," said a voice, "there's no need to shout."

A blue haze formed in front of her and began to coalesce into a man. The figure wore a bright blue cloak, with a small hood that was pulled over his head. He wore a scarf the same color of his robe around the bottom half of his face. He had no weapons that Zade could see, but she knew better than to think that the assassin was unarmed. Blaymore carried an arsenal of weaponry concealed within the dark confines of his cloak.

The two figures stared uncomfortably at each other. Zade scowled, while Blaymore ran his eyes up and down her tall frame. Neither figure spoke for several moments. Finally, Blaymore broke the silence.

"Still carrying the whip, I see."

Zade nodded.

"Bethsaida..."

"It's 'Zade' now."

"'Zade?' What kind of a name is 'Zade?'"

She simply stared at the man.

"It's been a long time... Zade."

"Not really. Not long enough."

"Time is different for me. You know that."

"So you say. Doesn't keep you from showing up and ruining my life every chance you get. Or is it only when it's convenient for you?"

"Beth, about before... I'm so-"

"Don't you DARE apologize! I don't want your apologies! You could spit out an ocean of words about how sorry you are, and it still won't amount to a steaming pile of dung."

It was Blaymore's turn to be silent.

Zade continued.

"Do you know how many thieves and rapists I had to kill while I was out looking for you?"

"Tonight? Five thieves. Two rapists."

"So, how long have you been following me?"

"Since you left."

"And you made me walk around out here for an hour?"

"Had to make sure you weren't followed. Besides...I've got an image to uphold. You can't just call my name a few times and expect me to appear out of thin air like a genie."

Zade sighed.

"I saw you at the arena tonight."

"Yes. Nice show your boss puts on. Very tasteful. He IS just your boss, isn't he..."

"Don't go there."

"Well... given the nature of your past acquaintances, I just thought it prudent to ask."

"What I do is none of your concern. So, what were you doing there? You after Sinterbourne?"

"Does that frighten you? That I might be after your employer... that we might have to face each other in combat?"

"No. Not even a little bit. You fight like a little girl... the best you can hope to do is jump out of a dark corner and frighten somebody to death."

"You wound me."

"If I wanted to wound you I'd talk about the time you-"

"BETH!"

"I told you: My. Name. Is. Zade. Now answer my question... are you after him or not?"

"You know that, if I WERE after Sinterbourne, I couldn't tell you. An assassin never reveals the identity of his mark."

"So if you DON'T tell me, I'll just assume that you ARE after him and kill you right here."

"You'd be wrong. And then Sinterbourne would be in need of another bodyguard."

"So you say. You going to answer me or not?"

"I'm not after him. But someone else is."

"Who? Another assassin?"

"Worse."

"Who?

"Winter."

"'Winter'? What are you talking about."

"December. He had a man there tonight. Snooping around... measuring up your security. If he decides he wants the arena, then you and your boss are... expendable."

"Great. More criminals. And what's your interest in this?"

"That's not your concern."

"So, why were you at the fight?"

"To watch the watchers. And to get your attention."

"My attention..."

"So I could warn you."

"About what? This 'December' character? I'm not afraid of him."

"He's coming for Sinterbourne, which means he's coming for you. Stay away from him. He's dangerous."

"So am I."

"No. Dangerous."

"So am I."

"Beth-"

"ZADE!"

"Zade, listen to me. Stay away from December. Tell Sinterbourne to do the same...."

"He won't and neither will I."

"Do it for me. Please."

"HA! After what you did!"

"I tried to apologize. Make it up to you."

"I don't want to hear your lies. Now tell me the REAL reason you were there tonight."

"I told you."

"You told me that it was none of my concern. Then you made up some bull about warning me."

"Well, that'll have to do. Here... I brought something for you" Blaymore reached into his robe and pulled out an object wrapped in a silk cloth. He tossed it to Zade.

Zade started to let it hit the ground, but Blaymore had thrown it in such a way that it was going to hit her in the face if she didn't catch it or move out of the way. Zade reached up and snatched the thing out of the air.

"Open it." said Blaymore.

"No."

"Don't do this. Open it."

Zade unwrapped the gift. It was a small metal contraption consisting of three claws and a complex mechanism that caused the claws to clamp down when the device was twisted a certain way. She looked up at Blaymore with one eyebrow raised.

"And this is..."

"It's for your whip."

"It's too heavy for my whip. What is it?"

"You'll see. You'll need it when Winter comes."

"This 'December' person again? Here..." Zade tossed the gift back to Blaymore. "I don't need it."

"This mean you're going to stay away from him?"

"No. It means I don't need anything from you. Ever."

"Stay out of his way... please..." Blaymore said as his form began to grow hazy... less solid.

"Oh no you don't! Don't you disappear on me again!"

The assassin faded rapidly into nothingness.

"You come back here you bastard! I'm not through with you!!"

The only response was silence.

"I know you're still here!!" Zade unfurled her whip and snapped it at the empty air.

*CRACK*

"Missed me." taunted Blaymore's disembodied voice.

"Oh yeah!"

*CRACK*

"Not even close."

"Come back here!"

*CRACK*

"Oh, one more thing...." Blaymore's voice was faint, almost a whisper, "I like 'Bethsaida' much better than 'Zade.'"

*CRACK*