Leodan the Son of Lion Chapters 1-7

— "I spit on him! I am waiting my money from this toad. Fifteen sakkars, may the plague kill him! He underpaid me fifteen sakkars. And I will return to circus only when he pays me everything to the last coin. I am not be allowed to aprroach circus, you speak? He will come crawling to beg me to start acting over again. The public loves me. And he has no standing fighter, only sissy bastards who are befouled of fear hardly having heard the word "arena".

— "These is case of you and Abnun. I came not for that".

— "And for what, it is interesting to know?"

— "You should be careful".

— "Careful? What do you mean, Derak?"

— "I was reached by a gossip that Abnun wants to revenge you".

— "What? — Casta crookedly smiled. — This pig wants to revenge me? And how, I wonder? Will crush me with the paunch? Or will spoil at my door?"

— "I do not know, daughter. But you should not underestimate Abnun. He lured many bastards in the Old city, and has big communications. Today you caused Abnun deadly offense — he was expecting you to kill an orc as it had been demanded by organizers of games. You know that there is one rule in such fights — not to leave the defeated alive. Very many are dissatisfied with what you made".

— "I don`t care, old man. I made what I made".

— "Really you think that orc will keep his life?"

— "What do you tell? — Casta set aside the cup. — What do your words mean? Speak, let strike you an arrow of Nekrian!"

— "Right after your leaving circus Shabak ordered to finish orc".

— "And they ... killed him?"

— "How do you think?"

— "Damned pigs! — Casta furiously began to sparkle eyes. — Abnun will pay me also for this mean murder, I swear!"

— "Do not get excited. I came not for telling you about murder of an orc".

— "Then that it is necessary for you, Derak?"

— "That orc whom and unclearly why we speak very much about asked me to find you. I swear by Ygerabal, any orc did not deserve such attention. And I do not know why you ..."

— "Become silent, Derak. — Casta felt that hop flies from her with extreme speed. — Keep to the point. What did he tell you?"

— "The tribespeople had had this Tulkan like the shaman sorcerer. When he was carried away in cubiculum, I tried to find out where you left away. And here some of Shabak's underlings ran up to me and asked to follow him. I rose to Shabak and accidentally heard as he ordered to his people to finish off an orc and to get rid of a body. It was not pleasant to me, and I after the conversation with Shabak went to look for our doctor — I thought that the doctor would be able to convince Shabak to save life to an orc. I did not want that your noble, though silly act was gone for nothing".

— "Speak, Derak. Speak on case".

— "Well, I went down in cubiculum and saw an orc — he was lying on a mat, and the slave doctor was tying up his wounded leg and side. He saw me and asked where you were. I told that I didn`t not know. It seemed to me, the orc was very upset. Then he told me to find you and gave this, — Derak stretched to the girl a strange amulet: the round gray stone with a hole hung on the greased leather lace in the middle. — He wanted very much to talk to you and asked you to find".

-" I`m going to Circus", — Casta rose from a stool, but the head began to spin, and the girl grabbed the table edge not to fall. Derak shook the head.

— "Hard drinking doesn`t suit you, daughter, — he told. — And especially you should not go now there in such condition".

— "Perhaps, you are mistaken, and Tulkan is still alive. I will not allow to kill him, I`ll be damned!"

— "Oh, absolutely forgot to tell — the orc ordered to transfer to you to show stone to some Dinche. He told she lives here, in the Sacred city, near the market. Than he told nothing anymore, only asked again to find you. I think, he would tell you much more".

— "And so that I have more reasons to go to Circus and to be convinced that Shabak and his henchmen did not manage to finish off the poor guy yet".

— "And still, I would beware".

— "Since what time did you become a coward, Derak?" — Casta said with bitterness.

— "Since I grew old. You are only twenty two years old, you are strong and healthy as a tigress, and you do not know how the old age mocks at us. Every morning I thank gods that my hands and legs still obey me, and my brains did not dry yet as a spittle right in the sun. When you live about my years you will understand. For now I have warned you. Once again I speak to you, Casta — be careful. Abnun is dangerous, and you angered him".

— "Thanks for advise", — the girl threw gold coin on a table and went to an exit. Derak looked her following and swung the head.

* * *

The entrance to the Big Circus used to be closed before midnight if the round-the-clock fights weren`t held therefore Casta didn`t hope that the gatekeeper will open gate especially for her. However she was also not going to break through the central gate. She intended to enter from an entrance about which only gladiators and circus servants knew — this entrance was near the channel. Exactly here cargo vessels with supplies and animals for circus unloaded, and from this entrance all this good was brought to storerooms and cages under the arena. Casta did not doubt that she would manage to pass — she, as well as all elite gladiators, had a key from an office entrance, and the fellow countryman, the Celtonian, was a watchman. And still Casta hoped very much that Abnun or at least Shabak would appear in that hour in circus. She had a lot of things to talk with them.

Having passed narrow and dirty streets of Trade Quarter, Casta came to the embankment and went along the wide channel cutting Seaside Quarter in two almost equal parts. The Big Circus was on the hill, in the most northern part of the Seaside Quarter, and there were gardens of Ygerabal and the temple city. Casta went and thought that it would be quite good to pay a visit to Abnun this night — the owner of circus lived just in the temple area, — and to ask for an unfortunate orc.Casta also could not understand why she was so caused anxiety by Tulkan's fate, he was only the orc. However the story of Derak enraged the girl. She kept life to an orc in a duel, and these pigs ... She hated Abnun and his henchman Shabak who scared together a huge fortune on human blood earlier — on blood of Casta including. Now she was overcome by blood-thirsty thoughts. But at first it is necessary to get to the Circus.

She reached a pier for a quarter of hour. The moon was behind clouds, and streets plunged into a dense gloom, but it suited Casta. She quickly passed the tiny square with a statue of the goddess-mother Mammu-Ashtennet, overcame several narrow lanes and appeared directly before pier. In the light of torches several slaves loaders put boxes and bags towards a wall, they did not pay any attention to Casta. The girl quickly slipped for gate and began to climb the paved road conducting on the hill to the Circus.

The many-tier bulk of the Circus hung over her, having closed the half-sky. Near entrance Casta stopped, pulled out Tulkan's amulet from a satchel. The gray ordinary-looking stone with a hole in the middle had no any value— it was just the stone. And why for the sake of godsTulkan decided to give her this amulet? There is something inexplicable in it. All events happened with her in the last day are too strange. Beginning with the fact that she spared this orc. She, Casta the Amazon who killed young and handsome men in the arena without mercy took pity on a monster. Derak tells the truth — orcs are only spiteful creatures, furious beasts which hate people. If orc won in fight, hardly he would be so generous to Casta. And she spared Tulkan, and more than that, now tries to learn about his destiny. Yes, Tulkan behaved nobly during their duel, but only whether the reason is? All this is strange and unclear.

Casta did not concern for a long time how people live there around her. Even in the arena, looking in eyes of the enemy, she thought only of one — kind of to be finish off with him quicker and to hear an enthusiastic cry of stands. How many did she kill that way under the applause of the audience? First Casta kept count to the victories, then ceased. The gladiators killed by her stopped to come in her dreams, and even their faces began to be erased from her memory. She was not concerned any more by their death shouts, their agony, their views full of inhuman horror. So that it was more unclear to Casta everything that happened in the arena yesterday morning.

She ceased to feel personal and other people`s pain long ago. Four years came from that day when the plague came in her hometown of Tseruni. The disease destroyed in a week the world in which she was called not Casta, but Leyda. The world of her childhood and youth where she was happy and which seemed to be eternal and invariable. At first her mother died. She was tormented not for long time, and Casta was near her until last minute of her life though the priest of Beris warned her how dangerous for her to visit dying. She did not catch the plague, but "black death" after all came to her house — in two days after the funeral of mother her husband and the tiny eight-months daughter Elea got sick. Her beloved Aylor died for the fifth day of disease, having endured their daughter for one day. Casta badly remembered how she felt washing bodies of the daughter and the husband, turning them in pure unbleached linens, and she laid them near on beds, and then locked the hut and set fire to it. She stood and watched how the fire inflamed and devoured her house and bodies of her darlings, and inhabitants of neighboring houses stood and looked at her, and there was horror in the eyes of them. Casta knew that they were afraid, kind of the flame of the fire was not thrown on their hovels. And they were afraid of infection. They were looking at Casta as at the dead man. When the burning roof collapsed, Casta turned and, without looking back, left Tseruni to the south, to Eponar. The infection spared her, she survived though she dreamed to die. In Eponar she earned some time a living by hunting, selling meat and skins of the animals got by her in the market. And then there was a meeting with that strange old man, Martsevius. He bought from her goods several times, but one morning approached a counter and told her:

— "You are really good hunter, girl. I see that you cope better with bow and a hunting knife, than with needlework. Who taught you?"

— "It`s not your business".

— "I have just asked. I look attentively at you and I see that you are a special girl. You are very beautiful, but at the same time aren`t coddled. Probably, you were always daredevil".

Casta only shrugged shoulders. Is it worth saying to the old man that he is right? She hated dolls and fuss with rags since childhood, always associated with boys, arranged different mischief on an equal basis with them and did not concede in anything to them, sometimes even beat her pals. Aylor before wedding taught her to shoot a bow, and she well turned out in archery. So well that old Virion, the uncle of Aylor, presented her expensive Logarian bow made from black bronze and a quiver of arrows on a wedding. All were surprised then by this wedding gift, but Casta was very glad to it — because her progress in archery was a merit of Aylor. The husband said to her that she was the born archer.

-" If you were born the man, you would become a soldier", — Aylor told her once. It became ridiculous to her, but for some reason she thought that her darling is right. Now the old man in the market noticed what had been noticed once by Aylor.

— "I need the person for very important and responsible work", — the old man continued meanwhile. — "I feel unknown force in you, the beauty, therefore I suggest you to accept my offer. I will feed you, dress and pay two gold Toulons monthly — it is good money. Think and make a right choice. If you decide, come to my house on the Moon and the Sun Street. I will be waiting for you".

He gave her an earnest — one piece of gold — and left. Casta thought not for long. In the same evening she came to the house of the old man and arrived to him on service. The old man was the rich merchant, and he needed soldiers for protection of trade caravans. So she became the security guardian at Martsevius`. The old man gave her weapon, a cheap leather armor and charged to the foreman of the guardians to train the girl in techniques of fencing and hand-to-hand fight. The foreman got down to business. Other security guardians laughed at Casta, but there time passed, and they stopped laughing. In six months of training the girl handled a long sword so surely and skillfully that the foreman Tannik allowed her to get to the real work for the sake of which the old man also employed her — to protect Martsevius' caravans from robbers. He even tried looking after the girl, but Casta was unapproachable. Then Tannik called her the Amazon for the first time. The young and hot soldier outright fell in love with this strange wildish fair-haired Seltonian girl with scintillating chartreuse eyes and gentle golden skin, such fragile and womanly by sight — and such unlike all women seen by him before, aggressive, ruthless to herself and to the others, and brave. Tannik also nicknamed her Casta. She asked him that this word meant, and Tannik, having reddened as the boy, answered that "Casta" in Logarian language means "Fair-haired". She saw that Tannik was in love with her, but she did not want to love. Neither Tannik, nor somebody else. She lived, not thinking of tomorrow — all her life remained in the past. With the death of Aylor, daughter and mother something seemed to have died in her soul. She continued to live, but life resembled a dream — gray, incoherent and senseless.

By strange coincidence just in anniversary of death of her little Elea she was taken prisoner. Everything happened unexpectedly, the big gang of Faracks nomads attacked caravan which they protected. Tannik and three more security guardians were killed in the first minutes. Casta managed to kill four attackers before she was deafened by a bone mace. She got concious in a stinking earth hole covered with wounds and sewage, bonded by leather belts regained consciousness and there were three more captives with her in a hole. They tried to start talking to her, but she was silent and did not respond to their inquiries. She did not learn who they were and how had been got to Faracks— in the same night they were taken away to an altar of ancestors and sacrificed there. Casta was staying in a hole more two weeks: from time to time the Faracks pulled her out the hole, washed from dirt, and then raped — five or seven men for time. Wives of Faracks came to look how their husbands rape the fair-haired captive. In the evenings, when in a settlement of nomads fires were lit, children of Faracks were going to take a look at her, got up crowd around a hole, sneered, spat and urinated on her, threw in her clay lumps, manure, a garbage and dead rats. Casta did not pay any attention to them; the Faracks meant to her less, than the clouds of flies annoying her. In wounds of Casta their larvae appeared, and she picked them out with a straw. Everything what she wanted those days was to die quicker and meet Elea, Aylor, father and mother. But Nekrian, the goddess of death, did not come for her. When she finally lost count of time, and madness already began to obscure her mind, she was suddenly dragged out from hole, and the chief of Faracks sold her to the visiting slave trader from Nieguan, and the trader resold Casta in the slave market in Darnat for fifty sakkars. Derak the lanist bought her— the old man correctly estimated character and strength of the girl. So in the nineteenth year of life Casta became the circus fighter. She was demanded to kill her associates by misfortune in the circus ring and she killed without asking questions. Never before Darnat saw the female warrior in the circus ring, and fights with participation of Casta attracted thousands of people. Casta well remembered her first fight in the arena; she was given a curve bronze dagger and a leather light shield and released against the black Afari fighter named Mshai-the-Hunter armed with a long heavy spear. The Afari went forward at once, furiously crying out, calling her dirty words and rolling the furious eyes poured by blood, but Casta didn`t become puzzled; having rejected shield, she contrived and grabbed the spear of the enemy by a staff and during the next moment cut the Mshai`s throat with a wave of a dagger. Tribunes were discontentedly silent when she left the arena through Gate of Winners -everything ended too quickly. After this duel she was summoned by Abnun the owner of circus and angrily explained that the viewers need a show, but not a slaughter, and after that the silent Seltonian was sent again to the arena to battle against the next fighter. That time Casta did not disappoint the audience. Her new opponent was a Farrack, and Casta was eager to kill him slowly, prolonging pleasure. She understood from first minutes that she will cope with the opponent without effort, but long and skillfully sent the enemy in the arena until she knocked out life from Farrack with blow of her mace together with brains. That day, three years ago, Casta understood that she is a born soldier, though a woman and had only one opportunity to survive — to kill. And she killed quietly and coolly all these years, killed without mercy and doubts, and only today in a duel with an orc changed the most established rules. Why? Whether only the look of the beauty Kuati full of horror was the cause? Or gods again inexplicably decided to change her way?