Bladeraver (pt53) (283 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.8 on 16 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Tactile Ire (View user info) at 2007-04-26 19:39:46 EDT
Over the next few weeks he fought three more times. Each time he was the very picture of focused and controlled aggression. He met the drug-fuelled fury of the other bladeravers with a cold, merciless precision followed by an explosion of raw emotion to drive his weapons home quickly and brutally. These were exhibition matches. He toured the lower underground clubs on hire from his promoters, Puila and Rhys, for a fee negotiated by his manager Charke. He was fighting well below his ability but the clubbing trinity in charge of his destiny claimed this was necessary to build his rep. Necessary to put easy money in their pockets was closer to the truth but he was getting paid too. He had uses for the money and so he bided his time.
Building Puila's trust.
Setting things in motion.
***
Puila met him down at the docks in the early afternoon of an idle Tuoosdy - a mid-week day distant from the weekend action. They met in a seedy bar, all greasy bar tops hiding beer stains and grimy floors showing blood stains. They stayed for a quick drink, neither man showing discomfit in the dank surroundings. Afterwards they strolled the docks down to a vacant berth. In the distance a long supplyliner could be seen pulling towards them. The Mantling had done his research. He knew what was coming and he was careful to keep that knowledge from his face. He had a couple of items in a satchel on his back - just in case.
"Now boy, I don't know what you know about me - most people think I'm a club owner. Got a shady side to my business is the rumour. Tend to do all right. And I do tend to do all right. In fact I make it my business to do a damn sight better than just all right. I am worth more than most people know. For instance - see that?" Puila indicated the steadily approaching supplyliner with a fat thumb. The Mantling allowed as how he could see the train of hoppers drawn by the gargantuan beast.
"I started in life as a lice-picker on that very same animal. The linebeast Gilgamesh. I worked hard, kept me nose clean and hid the bodies well, if you know what I mean. Came up from lice-picker to trail-boss through hard work, good sense and never getting caught. Now, I own the whole falling thing. Employ everyone on it. And that's just one of my many business interests. I've got lots of little businesses but that liner was my first. My hardest."
By now the liner was close enough to smell as the teamsters aboard it nosed the great beast into the berth. "I brought you here to give you a bit of insight into me. Who I am and how I tick. And now that I have I want to ask you a question, me son. I want to ask why a man like me should take even the tiniest risk on a bright spark of a blood-bag like you?"
The Mantling knew he was supposed to be impressed by this display of wealth and will. He let a little eagerness bleed into his tone as he spoke. "Ser Puila, I believe you won't be taking a risk. This match-fix is perfect. It can't fail."
"Convince me, my little trove. Lay it all out for a fuddled old man. I still don't see how the House of Pain knowing that you plan to throw a fight can help."
The linebeast had drawn to a stop and the teamsters were busy with tethers and stays. The dockworkers were moving away from the city, down the line of the hoppers. They started at the rear, unhooking each hopper from the supplyliner in turn and reattaching them to the man-high, steam-powered shunt engines they used to pull the hoppers around the docks. They were pulling the hoppers over to the cattle yards at the end of the docks. Gilgamesh's load must be nerghs, long-necked brush grazers kept as meat animals in outlying flesh-farms.
The Mantling watched the activity as he spoke - carefully trying not to give too much away. "You saw me the first night in your club. You know I can lose convincingly. And so does the rest of clubland. Anyone who thinks about it will know I have no qualms about throwing a fight. After all, I've done it before. So you spread the word that I want a gig at the House of Pain - and whisper to them that I plan to throw the fight and pick up by betting against myself."
"The House of Pain will react in one of two ways. They'll deny me a match and smear my name, or they'll give me a match that is impossible for me to survive."
"With your help, I'll make such a noise in clubland they can't deny me a match. The clubbers will demand it when I start carving through some of the big-name bitches out there."
"So they give me a match. Then they'll let it slip that I'm going to throw the fight. The odds go so far against me our plan to get rich betting on my loss is doomed to failure. I get my match and put in my place. Six feet under."
"And then I win anyway. House of Pain will be so heavily into me losing that we'll turn their crowds. The rumours mean we'll be able to pick up plenty of losing bets from management. I tell you, if you do your end properly we can take their falling club! All I have to do is win!"
Puila looked at him sideways. "How do you plan to manage that?"
"For my final fight - I'll be on charge," the Mantling said with a gleam in his eye.
Puila looked out over the linebeast, now being rubbed down by its crew. He heaved a sigh and turned back down the docks.
"No deal boy. The House of Pain would just grind you up and use your bones for drumsticks. Not even on charge could you face what they'll throw at you." Puila walked away.
The Mantling gave it a few heartbeats, hesitating in indecision before calling out to the retreating back. "All right! That's not my only ace in the hole. If I tell you the rest will you reconsider?"
Puila turned back towards him with a satisfied sneer. "That's it boy, tell your uncle Puila all your little plans..."
The Mantling looked downcast and furtive as he pulled his satchel from his back and eased it open. "I don't know what you know about me and my friends but I can tell you, the stories in the papers were no exaggeration. A deranged nest of mants held us captive. We few barely escaped. A handful of us, out of hundreds."
"What the papers didn't tell you was that the mants weren't the only species we encountered out there. We also came across the Terror."
Puila gave a disbelieving snort that was cut short as the blood-bag produced a small tub of clear, golden, viscous liquid. He took it carefully, opened the lid and sniffed. The aroma of cloves and cinnamon was exactly as reports described it. If the young fighter spoke the truth, then he was holding enough wealth to buy another supplyliner. The city had never seen such honeysalve. His hands almost shook.
"I'll be combining the effects of the charge with that," said the Mantling.
Puila stood looking out over the busy docks, wheels spinning in his mind. The possibilities were too open-ended. He had to narrow his options. He needed more information. Keep the boy talking then. "Still not interested," he said. "Relies on the unknown too much. The interaction of charge and...this..." a reverential stroke of the pottle in his hand. "It's too uncertain."
"That's not the only relic of the Terror I'll be using," said the Mantling as he drew out and carefully unwrapped a black bulb the size of his fist. A long, wickedly curved spike protruded from it.
"This," he said, "is a Terror tail, still full of venom."
Puila did not reach for this item, no matter how valuable it might be. The potency of Terror venom was the stuff of legend. "Tell me again how you want to make enough money to retire?" he asked. "If these things are genuine, you've got your retirement fund right here on these docks. Sell them to me and have done with the danger boy."
The Mantling wondered what kinds of danger Puila referred to. The bladeraves, or the now very real risk of being a target for all kinds of unwelcome attention. He continued his pitch. "What, and settle for what these scraps can supply? I'm telling you man - there's a whole hive of stuff like this waiting out there. It's lying open to the world. Broken and deserted. But I need money to go after it."
Puila almost froze in place. His brain continued to cycle through the information he had. Very carefully he said, "How much money? What for?"
The Mantling looked chagrined. "A lot. More than I've currently got. More than you've got. We need enough to raise an army. Y'see - standing between us and the hive - is the nest."
"Well if what you have here is genuine," said Puila shaking the pottle, "I'll back your scheme. Of course I'll have to hold on to it for a while. Have it assayed. Just to confirm."
The Mantling shot him a hard, lethal look. "Don't fall about Puila. I know what that's worth. I'll give you a sample the size of your middle finger. No more."
Puila readily agreed. Now was not the time to go to war with the young man before him.
User Reviews
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2007-04-30 13:47:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2007-04-29 15:41:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
wow long series.
+2 for keeping it up.
Submitted by silent1 (user info) at 2007-04-28 19:55:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Ildeth (user info) at 2007-04-28 11:11:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Snare (user info) at 2007-04-27 17:08:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Ildeth (user info) at 2007-04-27 01:48:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Loved it, as always... however the 'Tuoosdy' somehow felt wrong to me.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never cross your worried mind. The kind of thing that blindsides you on some idle Tuesday."
++++++++++++++++++++++++
It's past 4pm though..... Does that mean I'm safe until next week?
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-04-27 16:26:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
~~~MY NUTS, MY NUTS, MY NUTS ARE IN YOUR BUTT~~~
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-04-27 13:00:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-04-27 13:00:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by zwerg (user info) at 2007-04-27 11:28:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Great as always. I was wondering if Puila knew that the Mantling was Hunter, and I like that he doesn't. It will be very interesting to see what happens if/when the Mantling reveals who he is.
Submitted by genericIntent (user info) at 2007-04-27 10:25:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-04-27 05:43:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by messmind (user info) at 2007-04-27 05:42:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The sun is turning me into a lobster...
Submitted by Snare (user info) at 2007-04-27 03:08:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Ildeth (user info) at 2007-04-27 01:48:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Loved it, as always... however the 'Tuoosdy' somehow felt wrong to me.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never cross your worried mind. The kind of thing that blindsides you on some idle Tuesday."
Submitted by Ildeth (user info) at 2007-04-27 01:48:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Loved it, as always... however the 'Tuoosdy' somehow felt wrong to me.
Submitted by whiskey_jack (user info) at 2007-04-26 23:29:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is cereally really good. I'm super cereal.
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2007-04-26 20:54:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Continued awesomeness!
"The Mantling allowed as how he could see the train of hoppers drawn by the gargantuan beast."
feels... odd.
Submitted by Zebra (user info) at 2007-04-26 20:28:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment