Chp.2: Searching for a leader

Misune thought she had gotten used to the strangeness, but when she heard Darbi's words she was somewhat shocked. "Um... sorry, but why were you interested in knowing where the armory was? And which army are you talking about?"

Darbi fell silent, realizing that until now Haku had been very vague when he spoke. As soon as he met his brother's eyes, he found them filled with reproach. "I hadn't told her yet" the dragon said.

"Oh... sorry, I thought you already talked to her about it too, since you seem very close" Darbi said scratching his head in embarrassment.

"Tell me what?" Misune asked a bit tense.

Haku sighed. The reason he hadn't told Misune about his plan was that she actually had no role in it. She couldn't know where the armory was or how to get around the arena. As a result, revealing the truth to her would only risk Misune letting something slip with the wrong people, risking ruining their plans. It was much more convenient to keep her in the dark and take her away when the plan had already been implemented. But it might as well have told her now. "Me and Darbi are planning a prison break"

Misune's eyes opened so wide it felt like they were about to pop out of their sockets. "Do you want to escape...? Do you want... to leave...?"

Her body trembled slightly at the prospect. After what had happened to her, the space within a five meter radius of Haku was the only place where she felt safe, because she knew that no one would ever dare approach her again as long as the dragon was around. But if Haku had gone away... if he had escape... what would she have done? There would be no one to protect her… no one to drive away the bad guys… she would be… alone… again…

"Don't worry, you'll come with us too". Haku's voice stopped her thoughts, and a wave of relief filled her heart. "If you wish, of course"

"O-Of course!" Misune nearly screamed. "I will follow you wherever you want, even to the ends of the world if necessary! Tell me what to do and I will do it!"

"You don't have to do anything. That's why I didn't tell you anything yet" Haku grumbled. "Simply when we tell you to run, you run. If we tell you to stop, you stop. And if we tell you to hide, you hide. Is that clear?"

Misune felt a little discouraged by those words. It was clear that Haku didn't consider her at all important for his plans, on the contrary he probably considered her just a useless weight that he carried with him just for a strange form of pity, certainly not because she had any value. "Yes... I understand" she said disconsolately, going back to cleaning the dragon's horns.

Darbi looked at the slave, a little sorry for her. "You were rude, brother. I also think she is useless, but you could have explained it to her in a kind way"

'Does he remember that I'm literally two meters away from him and I can hear everything!?' Misune yelled in her mind. Seriously, Darbi was loudly saying that she was useless, with her next to him as well, yet he had the courage to tell Haku that he could be kinder.

"Let's focus on the plan" Haku said, changing the subject. "So, what about the armory? Could you be able to get to it?"

Darbi nodded. "I can deactivate the traps and cancel the spells that protect the doors, and thanks to the limited space it will be easy for me to deal with a couple of guards. The problem is that I won't have to deal with just a couple, but several of them"

"Mh" Haku scratched his chin, as he often did when he was thinking. "Then all we have to do is lure the guards elsewhere"

Darbi was always happy when he saw his brother brooding like that: it meant that some good idea would come out soon. "What are you going to do?"

"Using a decoy to lure the guards to a specific side of the arena. We'll use the biggest decoy of all: me" Haku replied. "In about six days, I'll have to fight in the arena again, so they're taking me out. That's when the others will have to carry out their part of the plan. As soon as all the city guard goes into emergency mode, I'll take off this stupid collar and I'll start attacking the guards. Better yet, I'll take advantage of my position to break through the gate the beasts enter and free them too, and I'll use the invisibility rune to create illusions to make them attack the guards back. Since the arena will now be sealed off from the outside world, the only solution for the humans is to turn all, or at least most, of the arena's guards against me"

"It's impossible for you to defeat them all by yourself" Darbi pointed out.

"No, that's for sure. But you and the other gladiators can use this opportunity to break down the dormitory door and run into the armory". Haku looked up at the wall where his trophies were hanging. "And to avoid going there unarmed, you can use these as weapons. Many of the items I have hanging are very dangerous. Even if you encounter some guards on your way, combining your numbers with these weapons, you will have no problems. Once you conquer the armory, you can come to the arena and give me support"

"And once we've defeated most of the guards, we'll just have to destroy the barrier and wait for Maldor to arrive with the portable gate!" Darbi exclaimed, beating his fists, having finally fully understood his brother's plan. "Great thought! Now all the pieces have finally fallen into place! The others will be happy when I let them know this tonight!"

Misune was obviously listening to the conversation, and the more the two talked the more she couldn't follow them. The others? Who were the others? Were there other individuals involved in that plan? Maybe even outside the arena? And how did Darbi communicate with them? Did he have a secret means of communication, or did he have help from some guard? And what was the invisibility rune? And how did Haku think about taking off his collar of submission? She wasn't really understanding anything anymore.

"Stop your enthusiasm" Haku said calming the red lizardman. "We have a working plan, but we still lack one thing to implement it. We have to convince the other gladiators to follow us, and it won't certainly be easy"

"The other gladiators?" Misune exclaimed almost without realizing it, putting a hand over her mouth when she realized she had spoken aloud. "Sorry. I didn't mean..."

"We need everyone's help to escape" Haku explained. "Without an army, we have no chance to conquer the arena, and we won't be able to destroy the magical barrier. I am strong, not omnipotent, Misune. We will need everyone's help"

"Oh… I get it, sir" Misune said going back to what she was doing, a little disappointed. She had imagined their escape as something that would involve only the three of them, not all the gladiators, and that they would flee together away from civilization, as in the stories her mother told her when she was a child in which the holy maid was carried away by a winged horse. But after all, if she thought about it very well, she could understand that it was impossible to escape from the arena only in three; she didn't know what Darbi and Haku had in mind to escape, but it was clear that it was an extremely complex plan involving many people. So it was better that she too learned to separate truth from fantasy and look at reality: if they were to escape, they would need many warriors at their side. And as much as she hated gladiators after what had happened to her, she couldn't help but admit that without them they wouldn't have gotten very far away.

"I don't understand what's so difficult about it. After all, we're talking about their freedom" Darbi said. "As soon as I open the doors and tell them they can escape, they will immediately follow me"

But Haku shook his head vehemently. "I wouldn't be so sure. You underestimate fear too much, Darbi. Not everyone jumps into a fight as soon as they see one, like you". Darbi looked a little offended by that comment, but Haku looked at him with a look that seemed to invite him to deny that this was true, and so he didn't say anything. "If you suddenly ran to the door, slammed it open and cheered the other gladiators to follow you, hardly anyone would do it. Perhaps a few hotheads would try to escape, but the most of them would be too afraid. After all, why risk your life if you don't even know what is going to happen? From their point of view, you could very well just want to use them as human shields, and you would actually be planning to escape on your own. No, the gladiators need to know the plan right away, and above all they need to believe that the plan will work. We need someone who can convince them, a charismatic leader in which everyone places their trust"

"A charismatic leader?" Darbi murmured. "Are you going to do as you did with Sarpa? Make someone loved by his people enough to elect them king, and then use it to our advantage?"

"Exactly. The best choice would be you, but unfortunately we don't have time to transform you into a person that everyone admires" Haku explained. "And I certainly don't fall into that category. They are afraid of me, but fear in this case is not what we need, we need confidence and will to fight. We need to find someone in here who already inspires these feelings in the gladiators, and who need only a small incentive to lead them to freedom"

Darbi looked at the gladiators, who obviously kept their distance from them. "I assume you're right. On my way back to the dorm today I tried to bond with the lizardman who escorted me here yesterday, but although I think I made a good impression he still doesn't trust me or my judgement. Since we only have six days of time, it is impossible for me to gain everyone's trust" he said reflecting on his brother's words. "How do you plan to find someone that everyone already respects?"

"I can't do anything. But you can do a lot" Haku replied. "Right now, you are one of them, so take advantage of it. Go among them, talk to them, joke with them, and find out who is the person they admire the most"

Since he was a dragon and didn't have a good reputation, none of the gladiators would give Haku any valid information. However, for Darbi it was different. He was now using the body of a lizardman, so he could mix with the gladiators easily. That way it would have been easy to find the right person. Once they figured out who she was… they'd just have to figure out how to get her to help them. But Haku didn't fear much that such a person would refuse: everyone, in fact, had a weak point. And since most of the gladiators were former criminals, his siblimgs would investigate them and find out why they committed their crimes. Once that was discovered, it would be easy to spot their weakness and use it as a bargaining chip. Sure, that didn't apply to psychopaths or insane... but Haku doubted that a person the gladiators admired would fall into that category.

Once they got that person's help, turning the gladiators into warriors fighting for freedom would be easy. Any prisoner couldn't wait to free himself, so if someone he trusted promised him freedom he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to follow him. If it had been someone he barely knew, then he would have been hesitant and probably would have refused… but that didn't apply if it was a charismatic leader who was admired by all. As for what Haku and his siblings would do once the portable gate was activated and all the gladiators were free… well, dealing with them would be easy. At best, they would have parted without bloodshed. At worst, Haku alone could already hold his own against more than half of the gladiators combined, so seventeen dragons would easily tear apart their opponents.

Darbi nodded. "You're right. I'll get to work right away. You know I like socializing, after all"

"Um... can I say something?" Misune whispered a little hesitantly.

Haku shook his head, already imagining what the slave was about to say. "No, you can't help him. You wouldn't be comfortable talking to gladiators, and they wouldn't be comfortable talking to you knowing what I would do to them if I thought they hurt you"

Misune understood Haku's thought, but she wasn't willing to be left out. "But I can talk to the other slaves" she said. "Both they and I would be safe... and servants often know their masters better than the masters themselves... I might get some useful information..."

"That's fine with me. A little more help won't hurt" Darbi said. "What do you think, brother?"

Haku glared at him, but then he gave up. "Fine. Go ahead"

Misune looked over the moon. The thought of finally being of use to the dragon made her eyes shine with happiness. "Thank you, sir! I won't let you down!" she exclaimed, standing up and walking towards the gladiators.

Darbi smiled as he watched her walk away. "She seems really enthusiastic. Why didn't you want to let her help us?"

"Because she can't help us carry out this plan!" Haku growled furiously. "She's like a chick. When we hatched we were a thousand times stronger than she is now! She can't take risks!"

"She's just offered to talk to some slaves. I don't think it's that risky" Darbi pointed out.

But Haku shook his head. "The problem isn't what she's doing now, but that she's now convinced that she can help us! She'll want to help us in the future too and she'll get into trouble! She'd do much better to accept that she's useless and let us do it! That's why I didn't want to tell her nothing, it was better for her not to know about this plan!"

"You mean just like it was better for us not to know about your plan to kill our mother?" Darbi asked.

Haku dug his claws into the floor so hard that he cracked a tile. That was a low blow. "The situation is different"

"No, it's always the same. Only the subject involved changes" Darbi answered. "You're making the same mistake again. You want everyone to be safe, but at the same time you pretend you can manipulate them. She'll abandon you too if you do that"

He expected to be able to convince his brother like that, but Haku snorted instead. "So? Abandoning us is exactly what she should do as soon as we get out of here. She will be better off with her kind, certainly not with us"

Darbi was silent for a second, then stood up. "Do as you please, I trust your judgment. After all, you didn't come here listening to others, right?" he said rhetorically. Judging by the sound that came from behind him, Haku must have taken those words wrong, but he didn't turn around and walked towards the gladiators in his turn.