Chapter 232 - Time [VII] (2/2)

”Nope.”

”Thank you.” Gorbin sounded incredibly relieved.

To Gan's amazement, it seemed that—when Ju Feng To Gan's amazement, it seemed that—when Ju Feng grabbed the sides of Gorbin's hairless head and yanked it to one side, snapping the mul's neck—Gorbin died happy.

However, Gan had someone else's happiness on his mind—not so much that of a dead fighter, but that of a restless crowd who had come there to watch the latest in a series of predetermined Gorbin fights.

The silence extended for several seconds.

It was broken by Jago, who was grinning even more widely than Ju Feng had been.

”My friends, we have ourselves a new champion! For the first time in a decade, Gorbin has been defeated!”

More silence.

Gan was seriously worried that the crowd would riot.

Then one person in the audience bellowed, ”It's about damned time!”

Someone else—or it might have been the same person, Gan couldn't tell—started to clap.

Then another.

Soon the applause started to spread throughout the arena.

After a few seconds, one of the incomprehensible yells started to coalesce into something understandable:

”Feng! Feng! Feng! Feng!”

At once Gan was relieved and frightened. The former because the crowd seemed to accept Feng's victory. Indeed, they were embracing it, having gotten over the shock of Gorbin's defeat.

The latter because what he Just saw was completely impossible. There was no way, none, that an unenhanced human of Feng's strength and talent—considerable though both were—could have wiped the floor with any mul like that, much less a mul as talented as Gorbin.

Something was wrong with Feng, and Gan needed to find out what it was.

He really wished that Fe Ying was there …

Feng's hands hurt. That was the worst part. No, the worst part was the headaches. They were awful. No, the worst part were the horrible lesions that kept sprouting on his skin and would not go away. No, the worst part was that those lesions would sometimes pop and smear red ooze all over everything.

No, the worst part was constantly being forced to fight for the p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e of other people instead of being paid for it like a sensible person.

No, the worst part was that Ju Feng was starting to forget who he was. Yes, that was definitely the worst part.

Besides, that was only sometimes. Most of the time he knew damn well that he was Ju Feng Feng, that he was a human, that his best friends were Fehrd Anspah and Gan Storvis, that he hired himself out as a rent-a-thug, and that his parents were named—

He couldn't remember his parents' names. But he tried not to think about it too much. His hands hurt.

Some nights, when he slept—on those rare occasions when he could actually sleep, not toss and turn in the ”cubicle” that Calbit and Jago had put him and Gan in—he dreamed about the red liquid. But in the dream, the red liquid was swirling madly in a whirlpool. Unfamiliar images crashed onto his consciousness like dunes overflowing during a sandstorm: a large golden vortexlike eye, a strange creature with gray skin but with shoulders covered in red crystal, a female wizard turning a tiefling into stone …

Plus phrases he did not recognize: the Elder Elemental Eye, Bael Turath, Voidharrow.

That last one he heard a lot in his dreams. But then he woke up. And he tried not to think about it too much. Sometimes he thought that he was better off not thinking at all. Ju Fengst giving in to all of it.

That would make life easier.

”Feng, you okay?”

For a moment, Ju Feng panicked. He knew the voice, knew it, as certain as he knew his own name was—

What was his name?

Gan. That was it. No, Gan wasn't his name, Gan was the name of the person talking to him. His own name was Ju Feng Feng. He knew that.

He always knew that. Except when he didn't.

”Feng.”

”I'm fine.” His voice sounded weird. ”My hands hurt a little, but I'm fine.”

He looked around the cubicle, but couldn't see Gan.

Maybe he was imagining Gan. Maybe he was imagining all of it. Maybe Gan didn't exist. Maybe it was all a dream and he'd wake up from it soon.

Maybe the red liquid was the reality and Gan was the fantasy.