Rise of the Gryphon (Belador #4)(74)

She turned back to him. “Is he anything like a purple cannibalistic zombie with a bad hair day?”

“Not even close.”





TWENTY-FIVE





How ya doin’?” Evalle asked as she walked up to Lanna twenty minutes later. The teen couldn’t look more miserable if she tried.

“I have headache.” Lanna sat back against the base of the stadium seating.

Storm had his back to them, keeping Evalle and Lanna shielded. He glanced around at Lanna. “Stop trying to cross the spellbound area and you won’t have a headache.”

Ignoring him, she argued, “I am rested. I can cloak myself. Let me out and I’ll help you.”

“No.” Evalle had all she could handle keeping Storm from interfering. Lanna’s middle name was Meddler. “Just sit tight. I’ve been called to my second round. As soon as I finish the third round, we’ll go.”

“If you win,” Lanna started saying, then quickly amended her words. “When you win, they will offer you immortality. I have heard this. You will not accept?”

“From the Medb? No, of course not.”

Dame Lynn’s voice interrupted, announcing, “Moonlight Warrior takes on Sandspur in five minutes. Place your bets.”

“What is Sandspur?” Lanna asked.

Evalle considered the match she’d just seen and answered, “Have no idea, but with any luck it won’t be twelve feet tall with an arm span just as wide.”

Storm said over his shoulder, “People are noticing that you’re over here.”

“I’m coming.” Evalle told Lanna, “I’ll be back soon. Okay?”

Lanna pulled her knees up tight and sent Evalle a teenage glower for an answer.

What made Quinn think I had a clue about how to deal with Lanna? Evalle returned to her holding room just as the guard came for her. Storm gave her arm a squeeze and left.

Her wounds had healed. She was as ready as she could be and reached Gate One as Dame Lynn announced, “Moonlight Warrior the Alterant versus Sandspur.” But this time when both gates vanished then reappeared, no opponent stood on the other side.

Evalle stepped into the battle dome, surprised when her boots sank into sand as fine as sugar. She searched the stands on her right for Storm and found him close enough to see the lines in his frown.

Maybe she was getting a pass or . . .

Energy entered the dome.

Evalle spun her attention back to the far side where a knee-high lump pushed up from underground at the mouth of Gate Two.

Displaced sand bulged as a fat, cylindrical creature five feet long burrowed forward.

Evalle didn’t move as her opponent continued to worm its way to the center of the theater. Shouting quieted to a low rumble of murmurs. Excitement mounted as everyone waited to see Sandspur.

When the critter finally burst out of the sand, Evalle had her dagger in hand, ready.

Sandspur pushed its head up first, two horns bouncing, as if rubbery. Lifting half its body upright, Sandspur was a caterpillar version of the Michelin Man, but this overgrown bug didn’t have the little legs wiggling along the underside. Tigerlike black stripes reached around the aqua-colored body with the wide bands narrowing as the tips almost touched on its belly. Sandspur’s head resembled a daisy, with three white petals fanning out and huge pink eyes with blue centers.

Cute, in an odd way.

Feenix would love that for a playmate.

How was she going to hurt, much less kill, something that didn’t even have legs? How did fighters come into these rings—theaters—and attack something that had never threatened them?

She could see how boxing was a major sport, but beast battles weren’t sport.

This crowd demanded dismemberment and death.

Smiling at the cute little devil would send the wrong message. She’d try to scare Sandspur into begging for relief. Storm wouldn’t be happy with her, but he’d just have to get over it. Flipping the dagger end over end and catching the grip, she moved into a crouch attack position.

Sandspur opened a maw of finger-length sharp teeth and let out a yell that might be impressive for a caterpillar, but was too thin and high-pitched to be anything scary. Laughter bucked through the crowd.

Evalle had to bite her lip to keep from smiling. Poor thing. Hopefully, this wouldn’t take long. She didn’t want to see Sandspur humiliated.

“Come on, buddy,” she called over quietly, her words shielded by the roar of laughter. “Let’s rock and get you out of here.”

Sandspur’s eyes went from pink to hot blue flames. Six black tiger stripes wrapping its body unleashed, stretching ten feet out on each side. Along the edge of each stripe, tentacles spiked up like shark teeth and sharp pincers clicked at the tips.

Crap.

Sandspur moved forward as if on a supersonic railway.

One tentacle whipped at her.

Evalle pushed off the ground with kinetic force and landed on the opposite side of the dome.

Sandspur spun in place like a whirligig, tentacles flying in all directions.

So that’s where it got the name.

Getting close enough to stab the fat body would be tough.

Sandspur spun toward her with amazing speed. Its pincers clicked close to her face as she dove away once again. A row of teeth along the tentacle caught her left shoulder, ripping open skin and tearing muscle.