The Neetha villagers swarmed to take their places on the steps flanking the Fighting Stone, to watch the bloodsport.

Two swords were tossed onto the Fighting Stone.

Lily watched in horror as Solomon picked up his blade-he held it all wrong, as though he had never swung a sword in anger in his life, which so far as Lily knew, was probably true.

Warano, on the other hand, twirled his sword easily and fluidly in one hand: seasoned and experienced.

Ono appeared beside Lily's platform, spoke across the tenfoot gap. "This madness. Even if thin man beat Warano, he be sentenced to maze for killing royal son. Is your friend skilled fighter?"

Lily's eyes were filling with tears. "No."

"Then why does thin man challenge Warano for you?"

Lily couldn't answer. She just gazed out at Solomon, standing out on the Fighting Stone on her behalf.

Zoe answered Ono's question. "Where we come from, sometimes you stand up for your friends, even when you can't win."

Ono frowned. "I see no sense in this."

At that moment, a great drum was struck and the obese chief of the Neetha a.s.sumed his place in a royal box overlooking the Fighting Stone and called, "Fight!"

It would be the most horrific spectacle Lily had ever seen.

Warano lunged at Solomon with a flurry of powerful blows, and Solomon-gentle Solomon, kind Solomon, who had bounced Lily on his knee as a baby-parried them as best he could, staggering back toward the edge of the Fighting Stone.

But it was clear this was a total mismatch.

Wideeyed and venomous, with five crashing blows, Warano disarmed Solomon and then without so much as a blink, ran him through, the b.l.o.o.d.y blade of his sword protruding from Solomon's back.

Lily gasped.

Solomon dropped to his knees, skewered by the sword, and he looked over at Lily, locking eyes with her, uttering, "I am sorry, I tried," a moment before Warano sliced his head from his body.

Solomon's corpse slumped to the ground, headless.

The crowd roared.

Tears flowed down Lily's cheeks. Zoe clutched her to her chest, holding her tight. Wizard and Alby just stood on their slab, watching in abject horror.

Warano raised his fists in triumph, his eyes insane, before casually using Solomon's body to wipe the blood off his blade.

Then he kicked the body off the Fighting Stone, leaving the crocs to fight over it.

"Are there any other challengers!" he roared. "Does anyone dare oppose me now!"

The crowd of natives cheered.

Lily sobbed.

But as she did so, in a distant corner of her mind, she heard a strange voice coming from Ono's radio saying,"-picked up a residual heat signature about a half hour ago. Just found it. Looks like a downed Huey, UN markings. Near a strangelooking forest.

Sending you my coordinates now, sir-"

The cheering died down and suddenly there was silence around the Fighting Stone.

Long silence.

The only sound was the foul crunching of the crocs tearing Solomon's body apart.

"So there is no one then!" Warano shouted again, quickly translated by Ca.s.sidy.

"Excellent! I shall take my new woman and enjoy her...!"

But then someone spoke.

"I challenge you."

This time it was Zoe.

THE RESPONSE from the a.s.sembled Neetha said it all. They had never seen anything like this.

Awoman challenging a royal son.

They murmured animatedly, aghast.

"Unless the chief's son is too cowardly to do battle with a woman," Zoe said.

Sensing the moment, Diane Ca.s.sidy immediately translated Zoe's words for the others and the crowd went into total apoplexy.

Zoe shouted to Warano, adding the sweetener. "If he defeats me, this Warano can have two white wives."

When Ca.s.sidy translated this, Warano's eyes lit up like lightbulbs. To own a white woman might have been the ultimate status symbol, but to owntwo...

"Bring her to me!" he called. "After I beat her, I shall keep her, but as a master keeps a dog."

Zoe was released from her platform, and she strode down the long plank that gave entry to the Fighting Stone.

Once on the Stone, the plank was withdrawn, and she faced off against the giant Warano.

Wearing only a singlet, cargo pants, and boots, she wasn't exactly big. But her lean muscular shoulders, glistening with sweat, contained a wiry strength.

Standing before the Neetha chief's number one son, the top of her blond head came level with his shoulders. The great black warrior loomed over her.

He kicked Solomon's sword across to her, saying something derisive in his own language.

"Is that so?" Zoe picked up the sword. "But I don't think you've ever met a woman like me before, a.s.shole. Let's dance."

With a roar, Warano lunged forward, swinging his sword in a crushing downward motion that Zoe parried away with some difficulty before sidestepping out of the way.

Warano stumbled and turned, snorting like a bull.

He engaged Zoe again, raining a flurry of blows down on her, only for Zoe to desperately deflect each one, her sword vibrating terribly with each thunderous. .h.i.t.

Warano was obviously stronger, and he seemed to gain confidence with every volley of blows he unleashed. Zoe was doing all she could to defend herself, so much so that she hadn't even been able to attack once. This, it seemed to the a.s.sembled Neetha, would be easy.

But as they continued to fight-as Zoe continued to parry all of Warano's lunging blows-it soon became apparent that it wasn't going to be so easy at all.

Five minutes became ten, then twenty.

As she watched the fight tensely, Lily could see Zoe just weathering the storm, blocking blows and then retreating and waiting for the next flurry.

And gradually, Warano's attacks became slower, more labored.

He was sweating profusely, tiring.

And Lily began to recall a movie she'd watched with Zoe once-a doc.u.mentary about a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Africa. Foreman had been bigger, stronger, and younger than Ali-but Ali had just weathered his punches for eight whole rounds, letting Foreman grow tired in the process, and then Ali had pounced- Zoe pounced.

As Warano lunged wearily in another attack, quick as a flash, Zoe dodged out of the way and plunged her shortbladed sword into his fleshy throat, right through his Adam's apple, all the way up to the hilt.

The big man froze where he stood.

The entire crowd gasped.

The chief leaped to his feet.

The warlock turned to his priests and nodded. Some priests dashed away.

Warano wobbled unsteadily on the Fighting Stone-alive but incapable of movement, speechless on account of the sword lodged in his throat, his bulging eyes staring incredulously at her, at this woman-thiswoman! -who had somehow bested him.

Zoe just stood in front of the paralyzed giant, looking him right in the eye.

Then, slowly, she took his sword from his useless right hand and held it in front of his horrified eyes.

She addressed the crowd: "That sword in his throat is for all the little girls this man has 'married' over the years."

Diane Ca.s.sidy translated in a quiet voice.

The crowd watched in stunned silence.

"And this is for the friend of mine he killed today," Zoe said, grabbing the grip of the sword lodged in Warano's throat and gruesomely pushing on it, driving him back toward the edge of the Fighting Stone, where he fell, landing on the very edge.

Zoe then kicked his useless legs out over the rim, allowing Warano to watch in paralyzed terror as the nearest crocodile saw them. With a fearsome lunge, the croc launched itself out of the mud and brought its jaws down on Warano's feet with a crunching sideways bite.

A second croc joined in, and before he was dragged into the muddy pool, Warano got towatch as the two crocodiles ripped two of his limbs from his body, literally eating him alive.

His blood washed across the Fighting Stone before the crocs took him under and the muddy waters were still once again.

"Holy f.u.c.king s.h.i.t," Alby gasped, breaking the stunned silence that followed.

The chief stood in his box, speechless with rage. His firstborn was dead, killed by this woman.

But the warlock beside him still had his wits about him. He called out in his native tongue, shouting in a shrill voice.

Diane Ca.s.sidy translated: "A member of the royal clan has been slain! All know the punishment for such an outrage! The murderer must face the maze."

ZOE'S CHALLENGE: THE MAZE PLANKS were thrown down onto the Fighting Stone and Zoe was suddenly surrounded by warriormonks. She dropped her sword and was immediately shoved at spear point off the Stone toward the templefortress, the only point of entry to the giant maze on the other side of the lake.

The warlock stood beside Zoe at the gate to the templefortress.

"This woman has taken royal blood!" he called. "Her sentence shall be as follows: she will be condemned to the maze, where she will be hunted by dogs. Should the G.o.ds in their eternal wisdom allow her to emerge from the other side alive and unscathed, then it is not for us to deny the great G.o.ds their will."

"Such an old conceit," Wizard spat. "Since she can't escape the maze, the G.o.ds will be a.s.sumed to have sanctioned her death. It's like dunking a woman accused of witchcraft in a river and saying if she drowns, she'snot a witch. It's a nowin situation for her and an allwin situation for the priest who claims a connection with the divine."

Standing at a discreet distance, Diane Ca.s.sidy said formally to Zoe, "The maze has two entrances, one to the north, another to the south. It also has many dead ends. Both entrances have separate routes that lead to the center. You will be thrown in at the northern end-a few minutes later, four warriormonks with hyenas will enter behind you.

To live, you must navigate your way to the center of the maze and from there, successfully negotiate the southern half to the south entrance. That is the only way to survi-"

The warlock barked something at Zoe. Ca.s.sidy translated: "The warlock asks if you have any final requests."

Zoe gazed out from the gate of the templefortress. She looked out at Lily and Wizard on their platforms, their eyes wide with horror, and at Alby as well-when suddenly she spotted something hanging from Alby's neck.

"As a matter of fact, I do have a request," she said.

"Yes?"

"I would like one of my group to accompany me in the maze: the boy."

Wizard and Lily both blurted,"What?"

Alby pointed at his own chest. "Me?"

Diane Ca.s.sidy frowned with surprise, but relayed Zoe's words to the warlock.

The warlock glanced at the little figure of Alby and, apparently seeing no danger in him, nodded his a.s.sent.

Alby was taken from his prison platform and led to the steps of the templefortress, where he joined Zoe.

"Zoe...?"

"Trust me, Alby," was all she said as the gate to the templefortress rumbled open, lifted on chains.

Just before the two of them were led inside it, Zoe called back to Lily: "Lily! Keep listening to your friend's radio!"

"Huh?" Lily said.

But by then the great gate to the templefortress had rumbled ominously shut behind Zoe and Alby.

Two mighty drawbridges were lowered into place and they crossed them, arriving at the edge of the vast circular maze, looking back at the village at Lily and Wizard on their platforms at the villagers on the amphitheaterlike seating around them and at the sacred island with the Orb and the Second Pillar displayed on it.