Won't Back Down: Won't Back Down Read online

  "Have you ever done something like this?" Keel asked, wondering if Saar had more experience with solving a mental fighting problem.

  "Never," Saar replied immediately. "But if you can't use your arms, I guess you should focus on your legs." They talked about different sorts of kicks they could use and where on their opponent they should aim while Linalee and Sariel jogged by to start their second lap.

  "So, roundhouse to the knee, stomp to the stomach, or a kick to the kidneys?" Keel reiterated when the warm-up jog was finished. "Finish with a kick to the head when the opponent is down to end the fight?" Saar nodded in agreement.

  "Your opponent blocks your kick and replies with a haymaker towards your head on your injured side," Sariel countered quickly. He was touching his toes, so Keel could only see the back of his head, but the tone of Sariel's voice told Keel that they hadn't gotten the correct answer. "For every scenario there are always two possible options. You attack successfully, or your opponent defends successfully. You gave me an answer to the first option, and I have now given you the second."

  "So you've kicked your opponent. Your opponent has successfully blocked and is counterattacking with a fist to your head on your injured side," Linalee interjected. She was stretching her quads and looked unimpressed with Keel and Saar's original answer. "What is your next move?"

  "You can't not defend at all," Saar began. "A punch to the head could knock you out of the match entirely, or at the very least prove to the judge that there's something seriously wrong with your arm."

  "So you could block with the opposite arm," Keel continued, catching onto the thread of Saar's idea. "It's not optimum because you leave your side and back undefended, but your head is safe and there's no actual proof you're protecting a broken arm."

  "Or," Saar added, "with some quick footwork you could step out of range of the punch and retaliate without needing to use your arms at all."

  "How would you retaliate if you managed to get your footwork correct?" Sariel asked. He was shaking out his legs to loosen them out, Linalee doing the same at his side. They were done stretching.

  "Hammer fist to the head," Keel replied immediately, without needing to think. With a proper dodge to the side away from the oncoming punch the opponent would overextend themselves and have a hard time defending against anything, let alone something as powerful as a hammer punch.

  Sariel smiled. "Exactly. That is how I won my only fight during my first year as an alternate. A hammer fist to the head knocked out my opponent, but when I went to get my arm bandaged for the next fight they declared me too injured to fight."

  "Here's another scenario," Linalee said. "The fight schedulers for the preliminary rounds have messed up. Your first three fights are all on the same day, one right after the other. You manage to win the first two, but as you step onto the platform for fight three, your legs tell you they're too tired to kick any higher than an opponent's knee and your arms aren't much good for more than basic blocking techniques. You need to win the fight quickly before your exhaustion ruins it for you, but your opponent is rested and ready to go."

  Keel glanced over at Saar, who was biting his lip in thought, and then back over to Linalee. "We're going for a run and we won't be back for at least two hours," Linalee added. "Have every single scenario planned out all the way until the decisive end to the fight."

  She and Sariel hopped down from the gazebo and took off at a run for the longest path around the park. The path didn't run by the gazebo, so Keel and Saar wouldn't see them again for a while.

  "What do you think?" Saar asked.

  They talked through the scenario for over an hour. They were trying to keep movement as limited as possible so extra energy wasn't expended in the battle, yet they still had to find a way to attack and win. Time was the enemy for any battle; a swift fight always ended better than a prolonged one, and when a fighter was exhausted, that became even truer.

  Saar and Keel were standing up, trying to work out the possible moves without jarring their own injuries. Keel stepped forward excitedly as he mimed a kick to the back of Saar's knee, but he landed badly on his injured leg and stumbled into Saar. Saar tried to keep them both upright, but with only one usable arm he couldn't hold up both their weights and grab for something to steady them.

  They crashed to the floor of the gazebo, Keel falling on top of Saar. Saar was on his back, his legs splayed open, and Keel was facedown with his nose pressed into Saar's neck and his own legs between Saar's. Keel looked up and caught Saar's bright green eyes with his own.

  Their chests were touching, and their thighs. Keel could feel Saar's hard muscles pressed against his own. The warmth of Saar's body made Keel shiver with want. He was getting hard, Keel realized. Their groins were pressed together, but when Keel tried to shift his hips away in embarrassment he realized he wasn't the only one trying to hide a very physical reaction. Saar was hard too, his length pressing into Keel's inner thigh.

  Keel realized his eyes were closed in order to better take in the sensation of Saar's body beneath him. He fought to open them—he didn't want to diminish his experience of feeling Saar's hot length pressing against him—and was immediately caught in the sparks exploding from Saar's heated stare.

  It was weird, Keel thought. He was used to hiding away in his room where no one, Saar especially, would know. To taking himself in hand and stroking deep while his thoughts were of Saar's smile, all while muffling his moans to keep his strange desire secret.

  Yet the look in Saar's eyes and his very evident reaction told Keel that maybe it wasn't weird. Maybe Saar had been hiding his desires too.

  Keel decided to take a chance. He slowly leaned his head forward until he could feel Saar's hot, panting breaths against his lips. Saar had plenty of time to pull away. Their lips touched and a frisson of heat ran down his spine, pooling in his stomach and making his head spin.

  Saar pressed forward, his lips opening and his tongue darting out to taste Keel, who eagerly responded in kind. The sensation of Saar's strong body beneath Keel's hands and the wet tangle of their tongues made Keel moan aloud. Keel wanted to feel more, to touch Saar's skin and the ridges of his stomach muscles. To take Saar's twitching length in hand and stroke him off until he came in Keel's arms. He wanted Saar.

  "Hey, you're running out of time," Linalee's voice called from around the corner. Keel couldn't see her, but once he was listening he realized he could hear two sets of panting breaths aside from his and Saar's. "We're going to run a quick cool-down lap and then we expect an answer."

  Two sets of footsteps hurried away, but they would be back in less than five minutes. The moment was thoroughly broken; Keel could feel his pounding blood leaving his groin, but the knowledge he had gained was permanent. Keel wanted Saar and, more importantly, Saar wanted him back. The banked flames still smoldering in Saar's eyes convinced Keel of that.

  "Third Night," Saar insisted with a glance downward to where Keel was still tenting his pants. "After patrol. We'll finish this."

  Keel couldn't stop a wide grin from blooming across his face even as he gently rolled off of Saar's body. He got to his feet and held out a hand for Saar to take to get to his own feet. Saar plucked at the bandages still keeping one of his arms immobile until they were properly settled again.

  "A kick to the back of the knee," Keel insisted, his mind fumbling to return to their assigned task in the hopes that by the time Linalee and Sariel returned, his and Saar's flushed faces and erections would have vanished.

  "We set it up so there's no way the opponent could block it," Saar added eagerly. "They're on the ground, and we're in position to deliver a swift kick to the head."

  "And the fight is over," Keel agreed.

  "I'd like to hear how you got that far," Sariel said from the entrance to the gazebo, Linalee standing behind him. They both looked sweaty, but the smiles on their faces said they had been having fun too. "But it sounds promising. Just remember that in the tournament, a kick to the head cannot be
deadly and on a finishing move, it can't connect at all. The judge will decide if the technique was severe enough to end the fight."

  "When you're on patrol, though," Linalee cut in, "kick as hard as you can. The goal is to keep any attacker from having a second chance. It's best to immobilize them as swiftly and strongly as possible so the jail guards can take the miscreant away. Now, start from the beginning of the fight."

  They both took seats across the gazebo from Keel and Saar and waited expectantly for the fight to begin.

  INTERLUDE

  SEE YOU IN THE RING

  There really wasn't any way to tell which twin won the alternate battle the year Keel and Saar were nineteen. Sariel knew that, but he would always wonder. Alternates and their trainers were required to remain anonymous by wearing form fitting masks that covered their hair and mouths while leaving a wide strip open across the eyes. Trainers wore a gray mask while fighters wore black. The crown had decreed that it was absolutely necessary for a number of reasons. It was meant to keep the winning fighters safe from the losers while the tournament was in session and, more importantly to the crown, it was to ensure everyone fought and cheered to the best of their ability. Cael wouldn't have thrown a fight against Sariel, he wasn't that type of person, but the fear that fighters from the same guild would work together to ensure their best fighter reached the final was one the crown wanted to avoid by enforcing anonymity.

  The crown also wanted the spectators to cheer for the quality of the fighter, not their guild. It was meant to promote unity in the otherwise divided city and for one week of every year it was successful. Even the trainers had to remain disguised so that guild members wouldn't recognize one of their fighters coaching from the side of the ring and choose whom to support. Not that Sariel could tell which twin was which even when they weren't disguised, but he did try to guess.

  Sariel was fairly certain he had helped Keel fit the mask in place so it wouldn't slip and didn't obscure any of Keel's vision and pin his identifying number to his shirt. He was also sure he had been cheering Keel on as Keel won his first three matches with ease. But somewhere between his third and fourth match Keel had vanished for a quick bathroom break in the locker room and Sariel would never know if the green eyes peeking out of the mask from then after belonged to Keel or to Saar.

  He wasn't surprised in the least when he stepped into the trainers' box for the final alternate fight to find Linalee already there. She had her telltale braid of hair tucked away under her gray mask, but after fighting against her in the tournament and in training he would know her anywhere.

  Keel and Saar had been wiping the floor with their trainers for the last few months; Sariel and Linalee were hard pressed to outfight their protégés and only their experience and knowledge of more advanced techniques separated them from Keel and Saar. Sariel had little doubt that both twins would be fighting in the alternate final and that in the real tournament, they would both easily get to the final then too, but which twin would win was anyone's guess.

  It was still Sariel's guess as to which twin was which as the two obscured forms circled each other in the ring. They were engaging with each other, a flurry of moves and blocks exchanged between them that had the audience gasping at their intensity. One would kick and the other would almost simultaneously block and counter. It almost looked like a choreographed dance, but then no one knew another person's battle style the way the twins knew each other.

  They had been sleeping together for a few years as well, Sariel knew, which made their body awareness of each other even stronger. Not that he understood, but it had made them fiercer fighters in the end.

  He had asked Linalee about it one night after patrol when Keel had gone to hang out with Saar for some alone time together.

  "It shouldn't have happened," Linalee agreed. "I think if they had grown up together like normal brothers then it would never have even been a thought in their heads. But they were forcibly separated so young and their deepest, most fervent desire during their most formative years was to find each other again."

  "And then puberty hit," Sariel sighed. He had been a teenaged boy not that long ago, so he could empathize a bit.

  "Feelings of overwhelming desire for each other morphed into a sexual relationship almost naturally, thanks to puberty," Linalee agreed with her own sigh. "They have barely had a thought about another person in their lives for so long that it would be cruel to steer them apart now."

  "We enabled them, you know," Sariel said, shaking his head in disappointment as he spoke. "We both knew they were sneaking out, and we never seriously tried to stop them."

  "They were too independent to stop," Linalee disagreed. "I was afraid Saar would never return if I tried to keep him penned."

  "Me too. Heck, Keel had a couple of the Simola Masters convinced. But it was more than just that. We brought them together for training. We showed them exactly what they could have had as brothers but were instead forced to endure singly. Their wish to never be apart as adults only multiplied. And, as we said, puberty hit and it was a foregone conclusion."

  Linalee groaned and rubbed her face tiredly. "We made the right decision to train them secretly. We probably avoided a war by keeping their secret. But when they reach the final battle and take their masks off for all of Lev to see, the charade will be over. Everyone will know that they have been tricking Simola and Yimina, getting training from both sides and taking advantage of the Masters' ignorance. Each guild thought they were exclusively training the fighter that would win them the city and instead they've been training the other guild's fighter too? I'm worried about the backlash."

  "Me too," Sariel agreed despondently. "But they take their duty to the fighting ring too seriously to back out now. We'll just have to deal with it when the time comes."

  It wasn't quite that time just yet, but in another year it would be. As one of the fighters in the ring fell under the onslaught of the other, only to regain his feet a moment later and force the other fighter back, Sariel hoped that Keel and Saar's strength would hold out beyond the tournament fight. He glanced over at Linalee and saw the same determination in her eyes that he was feeling. They would have to put their heads together and try and find a solution before it was too late.

  The fight ended with an unlucky knee to the head for one of the fighters. The judge lifted the winner's hand into the air to the cheers of an audience who hadn't seen such a good alternate fight in a very long time. They left the stage after congratulations to both fighters had been offered, but by the time Sariel and Linalee caught up with the twins in the locker room, he had no idea which shrouded figure was which.

  "That was a great fight," Sariel said to them both. They were the last ones left. All the other alternate fighters had collected their things and joined the viewing stands long before the start of the final fight. "There are some things we will work on for next year, but overall it was a great showing. It doesn't matter who won," he added despite his own curiosity, "because you're clearly equally matched in ability and aspiration. The outcome of the battle was based solely on luck, not personal weakness, so there is nothing to be disappointed about."

  Linalee was nodding along with everything Sariel was saying. "Go celebrate," she added when Sariel finished speaking. "You deserve it. Take three days after the tournament to relax and recover together. We'll start up training again on Fourth Day."

  "Thanks Sariel, Linalee," the twin on the left said, his shoulders straightening proudly in response to their words.

  "Now you have to go get ready for your own fight," the twin on the right said pointedly. "The final tournament battle, and Linalee has eight wins to Sariel's seven. It should be fun to watch."

  Keel and Saar wandered off in the direction of the showers together, and Sariel didn't have any illusions about what would happen once they were both naked. Still, he forced his thoughts away from his protégés and onto his upcoming battle against Linalee. He was going to beat her this year, he just knew it.
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  "Good luck," he said to Linalee as they both walked out of the alternate locker room together. He turned left to head to his private locker room, provided to each of the finalists, and she turned right to go to hers.

  "You too, Sariel," Linalee called over her shoulder with a backwards wave goodbye. "See you in the ring!"

  FOUR

  LET US WELCOME OUR FIGHTERS

  "Sariel and Linalee are worried," Saar said suddenly. They were relaxing together in the gazebo after dinner, having been excused from patrol until the week after the tournament was over, and were taking full advantage of the extra time they had together.

  "What about?" Keel replied. "Sariel's already passed his level one Mastery test. What does he have to be nervous about? Unless he thinks Grand Master Ferris will finally pull him from training me to training the level one kids."

  Saar tilted his head to give Keel an unhappy look. He wasn't impressed with Keel's flippant answer, but Keel wanted to keep the bottom in his stomach. The looks shared between Sariel and Linalee had lately gone from cautiously flirty to dark and grim. And Keel knew the reason why too. The time of training in secret had ended. Keel and Saar were going to be the final two fighters standing, and they were going to take their masks off and all of Lev would know their deception.

  "Fine," Keel grumbled. "But it's not like we can throw the fight and lose."

  "That would solve everything," Saar complained, "but it's not right. It wouldn't honor Sariel or Linalee, who have put so much time and faith into us. It wouldn't honor our city or our duty to Lev and the crown."

  "And it wouldn't honor our own hard work," Keel agreed. "I didn't train and sweat and sacrifice to come in second to anyone but you."

  "So what do we do?" Saar asked. "The tournament starts in two days."

  Keel just sighed. There wasn't a good answer. "We fight and we win," he finally replied. "There's going to be some fallout when we finally remove our masks. We'll just have to deal with it as it comes."