The Hunter on Arena Read online

  Finally, it seemed that the transmissions were ended. The corridors were filled with the various tribes who had sorted themselves out at last and were glowering at one another and hurling insults. But no actual fighting had begun, for they were evenly matched and no one group knew what to expect if fighting actually began. What if one group allied with another? It was too uncertain. It was easier to throw insults. Nor was it safe to turn and run. It was an intergalactic stand-off.

  The man at the controls rose. “Brandtson?” he asked, tentatively. “Then the message did reach you. I—I didn’t know if it would.”

  An old man, taller and bulkier than Braldt, his once blond hair shot with silver and worn long upon his shoulders, stepped forward. “Jorund! That message, it came from you! Is it true? Is he really here, the one they call Braldt?”

  Braldt stepped forward, his steps hesitant, feeling at a loss for the first time in his life. “Sir, I am the one known as Braldt. And you are the father of my father?”

  The two men stared at each other, the longing apparent in their eyes. Keri looked from one to the other and saw how much alike they were. There was no mistaking that they were kin.

  Braldt started to speak. He took a step forward, and then the transmitter seemed to explode outward, deafening them with the power of the force. A portion of a body flew through the remains of the device and landed on the floor with a bloody thump.

  A loud outcry went up among the Madrelli and Braldt’s tribe; a sob, screams of rage and deepest despair.

  Braldt picked himself up from the floor and looked around him in complete confusion. What had happened?

  “Our world is gone,” said the thing that had once been his brother. “You have killed our world, you and your kind.”

  “What is he saying?” Braldt asked, turning to Jorund and Brandtson, refusing to believe that Carn could be speaking the truth.

  Brandtson turned to a large display on the wall, studied it for a moment, then turned to Braldt. “There has been a disturbance; it appears that K7 is gone,” he said heavily. There was a loud outcry at his words and the Madrelli and Braldt’s tribe surged forward, only to be held at bay by Brandtson’s men.

  “We are not your enemy!” cried Brandtson, holding up his hands and trying to be heard. “We have risked much and lost much in our lives and we are here to aid you. We are allies!”

  It was difficult convincing them of the truth of his words, but eventually, since they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, they allowed themselves to be convinced.

  “Let us end this fight that has cost us our children and the children of our children,” said Brandtson. “There can be no victory based upon defeat.”

  “What will become of us even if the fighting ends?” asked Keri, her face streaked with tears and her heart aching with the thought of all she had lost. “Our world and all that we love is gone. You and others like you have killed it. How can we ever forget?”

  “There is another world,” Brandtson replied at last, his voice gruff with emotion and unshed tears glittering in his eyes. “It is our world, that which we have carved out of the universe for those of our kind. It is a beautiful world. It is Valhalla. After all that we have done to you, all that has happened, it is only fitting that it become your world as well.”

  “But, Brandtson… how, there are many who will oppose you,” stammered Jorund, staring at Brandtson as though he had lost his mind. “It can never be.”

  “It must be,” Brandtson said firmly as he took Braldt’s hand in his own then topped it with the shiny scarred hand of the embittered Cam and the furred hand of the old Madrelli, “there can be no other way.”

  BRALDT ON ARENA

  Once, Braldt the Hunter was a warrior lord of his Ice Age tribe—now he is a gladiatorial slave, forged to fight death duels for the amusement of unseen Masters on planet Arena.

  To escape, Braldt needs answers.

  But he can gain information from his captors only if the Hunter and his team of multiworld battlers win endless combats against hideous alien monsters.

  And to survive, Braldt must become a mindless, feral killing machine, forever unable to ask questions—or even dream about escape…