Page 108 of Blightfall

“Is that really the only difference? It’s strange that they look so alike. Do you think they’re related? Did the trees evolve into scions, or the scions into trees? Or were the scions an entirely different species that just evolved to look like the trees that they happened to be near?”

Stars, I was rambling again. At least this time I wasn’t rambling about Nedd’s trauma.

“It’s probably the last one,” Nedd said. “Turning from a tree into a scion seems like a pretty big evolutionary jump.”

“Good point,” I said. “And I suppose it’s probably a step backward to put down roots and stop moving forever.” I wondered if they reproduced by similar spores, if they’d come to this planet together.

We began to pass other boats on the river—motorized barges, small motorboats, and even the occasional barge pulled by a pruned scion like the one we’d followed up to the city the first time. Nedd and I had to be careful to keep our legs from dangling out of the parts of the illusion where they would fall right through. Even busy sailors would have to notice that.

A short while later, the city came into view over the trees, slowly becoming more and more visible as the trees began to thin on the approach. I heard Dayan swear. Straight ahead, on the edge of the riverbank, was the wreckage of one of the enemy ships, partially submerged as if it had fallen into the river and then been dredged out.

“Stars,” I said. “Do you think they’ll think those are alien ships, come to attack them all the way from Elysium?”

“That’s what I would assume,” Dayan said.

At least if it landed in the river and not the city, the casualties were probably at a minimum.

Arturo’s “boat” sped up until it pulled beside us. “Let’s find someplace to hide the ships,” he said. “We’ll go the rest of the way on foot.”

That made sense. We could dock our ships by the city, but Hoid wouldn’t be able to maintain the illusion permanently if he was coming with us to sneak into the portal.

At the next bend in the river, we pulled over to the side and waited until no boats were passing by. Then we had Hoid put up an illusion of the riverbank behind us while we flew our ships at hangar speed into a grove of trees. This wasn’t as remote as our previous hiding spot, but the vegetation looked undisturbed, so it should work for a few hours, at least. When the ships were safely stashed out of sight, we all climbed out to walk the path along the bank up to the city.

“You could stay with the ships,” Arturo said to Alanik as she climbed out of the Dulo. “Make sure no one discovers them.”

“You could also stay,” she said. “Or assign someone else to do it.”

Arturo sighed. “Fine. But if the pain gets too bad, or you start to feel faint, you let me know immediately. Promise me.”

Alanik nodded. “I promise,” she said.

I didn’t know if Alanik would keep that promise, but I wasn’t going to argue for leaving her behind.

The marketplace was emptier than we’d seen it before, and as we passed through, a woman flagged down Dayan, waving her arms excitedly. “Why aren’t you at the coliseum?” she asked. “Isn’t the final tournament about to start? I’ve been betting on you to ascend!”

“I’m on my way,” Dayan said. “Did you see the fallen ship outside the city wall? What happened?”

“The End Times are here,” the woman said. “Some of the gladiators will go to Elysium, and those who don’t make it will remain here to defend us when the rest of the aliens come.”

Stars, they were going to need a lot more than a few gladiators if that happened. I was glad we weren’t actually fighting a galactic war, because we didn’t have enough ships here to defend these people if it came to that.

“We’ll make sure Dayan gets there on time,” Arturo said, hurrying Dayan off in the direction of the arena.

“They must have started early,” Dayan said. “I won’t have as much time as I wanted to talk to the other gladiators. But I’ll get the word out. They all know about Zimmel’s disappearance. They’ll be ready to fight.”

I hoped so, because we were going to need them.

When we’d been to the arena before, the crowd had been impressive, but this time, the place was packed. People stood in the aisles and along the back wall, many using the stairs as seats or standing on the ground floor with their arms dangling over the edge into the arena. The crowds were great cover—there was no way our small group would stand out. Nedd and I left the others to find seats as we headed toward the stairwell that led underground.

We weren’t going anywhere in a hurry. The crowd was so thick that at this rate, the battle was going to be over by the time we got there.

I kept my pack strapped to my chest and stayed close on Nedd’s heels to shelter Hoid and Bob from the elbowing crowd. Nedd had Twist in his pack on his back, where I could look out for them while Nedd pushed through the crowd.

Dayan had already joined the other gladiators, who stretched and waved to the crowds and waited for the fight to begin, their images projected on the screens above. There were seven of them so far. If this tournament battle was anything like the one we’d seen, it was likely to be over fast.

A wagon backed down the ramp and released a large scion onto the arena floor. A gate opened on the opposite side of the ring, and two more scions with several broken branches each were prodded into the sandy fighting arena. Those two were covered in cuts and scars, healed over by thick, burled layers of bark. The survivors of past battles, probably, brought here for the last fight.

As we worked our way along the crowded lower aisle, I caught sight of Arturo, Alanik, and Gilaf squeezing themselves along the aisle near the ramp that led to the gate to Elysium. They’d wait there to support Dayan after the fight was over. Arturo watched us, a concerned look on his face. He was probably both worried about what would happen if we didn’t reach the portal in time and what would happen if we did.