Champion in Love (bxb)

CHAPTER 15. Ready or Not

Quintus had wisely chosen a spot among the spearmen at the platform. Judging by the turmoil in Victor's blue eyes, the boy might as well try his luck with the beasts; and it had nothing on the thunder and lightning I would have unleashed on that curly head, were I on the boat...

I wasn't.

Victor and Junius were my best chance to keep the young idiot alive, so I shouldered my way back to the railing. The gladiators' boat made it about the third of the way to the island.

Could Victor read the command on my face over that distance? I could rely on Junius, but Victor was an unknown quantity. Would he look after Quintus on his own accord? Under his arrogance, he had to hide a heart of pure gold... right? I had nothing else to count on. Nothing!

Around me, silence replaced the screaming, in that breathless moment of calm before the storm. Only the splashing from the oars broke it, because the behemoth made less sound than shadows as they ran underwater, on the bottom of the lake.

I leaned over the railing, stretching toward Victor. He eyed the island—they were half-way to the shore—then faced the dark shapes charging at them under water. I did too, making a quick, deadly accurate calculation. There were no ifs or buts about it: the alpha behemoth would hit the longboat before it made the landfall.

Victor handed his spear to Junius.

I pounded the railing, scraping skin off my knuckles. So, it stung, so what? Mithras' bulls, I wanted it to hurt more! What was Victor doing? This was no time for clowning around, let alone laying down his weapons. The crowd in the arena might spare a favorite's life on a whim, but counting on the beasts' mercy? He had to fight if we stood a chance.

Victor crouched, searched for something by his feet, then straightened back up. He held a baby-sized bundle. I didn't have a chance to freak out, because he ripped an animal hide off of it, revealing its content.

It wasn't a baby.

I expelled a sigh of relief, because I didn't know what to expect from Victor.

What he revealed was another sack, made of rough cloth. It dripped inky liquid. O praise Mithras! We were safe, and the behemoths pissed themselves.

The men closest to Victor leaned away, scrunching their faces in disgust, but they didn't have to suffer the stench for long. With a mighty swing of his arm, Victor flung his parcel far out into the lake. It hit the water with an enormous splash, bursting open on the impact. Dark circles spread from it on the still surface. It was dramatic, but...

"Are you mad?" I hollered. "Are you raving mad?"

People around me must have felt differently. Nobody else pulled the hair on their head. Some of them boo'd, while the others cheered the behemoths on, as if the savage beasts needed their encouragement to do the thing.

The gladiators on the oars rowed, oblivious to the pandemonium. The world probably went black for them, their bodies strained so hard. I could see ropes of muscle bulging with every move in their backs, and the veins swelling with racing blood spider webbing under the skin. Blue skin or brown, it didn't matter; they were in it together.

I bit my nail down to the meat. It wouldn't matter if their tendons burst, trying to get away.

The alpha behemoth would batter the flimsy boat any moment now. Or upend it for the rest of his herd to join into a festival of stomping the squishy humans. If there was mercy in this world, the men would drown on their way to the bottom of the lake.

The alpha's body reared up from the water. His jaws broke the surface already gaping in a blood-curdling scream. The tusks and the boils on the behemoth's nose menaced us as it swirled in a circle, creating a vortex. This agitated water drew the boat toward its demise.