Shadow On The Road Ahead

At the sound of his name, Kienan looked up at Toriares. His emerald eyes were wide and still shone with something surrounded in darkness. His chestnut hair shadowed his eyes and made his gaze seem that much more intense. His hair was braided despite its short length. His braid swayed at his left shoulder.

"I know you," Toriares said, pointing his cane at him. "You were the kid who won the bloodmatches."

Kienan nodded. About six months ago he'd come to the colony and found a network of fights called bloodmatches. They were reserved for aliens, but Kienan had persuaded them to let him in. And despite being less strong and more easily hurt than most of the other combatants, he had triumphed.

"I think I lost 500 credits betting against you," Toriares said, smirking. His face dropped the smirk and suddenly became serious. "You know when you go into this, there's no going back, right?"

Kienan nodded.

"Still want to come along?"

Kienan nodded again. Toriares furrowed his brow and looked at him, a little puzzled. "You don?t say much, do you?"

Kienan smiled and shook his head.

Marasi sat in her office in the back of her club, the Last House on The Left. She watched the strippers dancing onstage through the 2-way mirror before a sea of men doing an impersonation of fish being sold at market.

"They're already trying to muscle in," the burly man in black said. He stood behind Marasi, ramrod straight. "My boys saw one of their men talking with one of the guys who runs a house on lowtown, offering him a lower percentage if he could convince more of our people to turn to them."

"And how did the house owner--what was his name?"

"Gao something."

"What did Gao say?"

"He said he'd think about it. He'd much rather work with his countrymen, I suppose. Should we lean on him?"

"Not right now, Androv," Marasi said. "Last thing I need right now is a war, and they're not gonna start one over a brothel in lowtown."

"You let Gao go over, it sets an example--"

"Gao's not going over," Marasi said. "Because you?re going to be there to remind him who keeps that nice little house from burning down. Besides, you spend the weekends there anyway with that girl--what's her name? Lil? So consider it a working vacation. Keep your eye on him and let him know we're watching him. Might not be so inclined to jump then."

"What happens when they send other people out?" Androv replied. "You gonna have one guy at every place?"

Marasi turned to him. "No need for that. Just keep your eyes on our key people. Show the flag, let them know we're not turning tail just because the big bad Blue Dragons showed up."

"That many guys on the street, things as tense as they are," Androv said, shaking his head. "One itchy trigger finger could mean war."

"I know," Marasi said. "But not war right now."

Toriares rocked back and forth on his heels in the fine sand of the circle. Opposite him stood Kienan, staring impassively at him. Toriares has dressed down into his training gear--though he could fight well in a suit, he preferred to have his full range of movement.

Toriares raised a small white club up in front of Kienan. "You got a weapon?"

Kienan reached behind him and pulled out a huge knife. The Midare-Giri had been his prize for winning the bloodmatches, and it was proof to anyone of what he had achieved. Toriares looked at it a little worried.

"Uh," Toriares said. "You do know I'm just testing you, right?"

Kienan nodded.

Toriares looked at the knife again and focused himself. "Then let's begin."

Kienan stepped in and kicked out at Toriares, who ducked and flipped Kienan onto the sand with his club. Kienan flipped back to his feet and swept Toriares' legs out from underneath him. Kienan kicked his leg up and drove it down onto Toriares, but Toriares rolled clear and caught him with a quick kick to Kienan's ribs. Kienan reeled and that gave Toriares time to get up and try to tag him with the club.