THE HALLS OF SPORT were gigantic caverns, full of shouting, cheering, high-spirited vampires. They were exactly what I needed to perk me up after the disturbing visit to the Halls of Cremation and Death.
Various contests took place in each of the three Halls. They were mostly games of physical combat - wrestling, boxing, karate, weight lifting, and so on - though speed chess was also strongly favored, since it sharpened one's reactions and wits.
Kurda found seats for us near a wrestling circle, and we watched as vampires tried to pin their opponents down or toss them out of the ring. You needed a quick eye to keep up with the action - vampires move far faster than humans. It was like watching a fight on video while keeping the fast-forward button pressed.
The bouts weren't just faster than their human equivalents - they were more violent, too. Broken bones, bloody faces, and bruises were the order of the night. Sometimes, Kurda told me, the damage was even worse - vampires could be killed taking part in these games, or injured so badly that a trip to the Hall of Death was all they had to look forward to.
"Why don't they wear protective clothing?" I asked.
"They don't believe in it," Kurda said. "They'd rather have their skulls cracked than wear helmets." He sighed morosely. "There are times when I think I don't know my people at all. Maybe I'd have been better off if I'd remained human."
We moved to another ring. In this one, vampires jabbed at each other with spears. It was a little like fencing - you had to prick or cut an opponent three times to win - only a lot more dangerous and bloody.
"It's horrendous." I gasped as a vampire had half his upper arm sliced open, only to laugh and compliment his enemy for making a good strike.
"You should see it when they play for real," someone said behind us. "They're just warming up at the moment." Turning, I saw a ginger-haired vampire who had only one eye. He was clad in a dark blue leather tunic and pants. "They call this game the eyeballer," he informed me, "because so many people lose an eye or two playing it."
"Is that how you lost yours?" I asked, staring at his empty left eye socket and the scars around it.
"No." He chuckled. "I lost mine in a fight with a lion."
"Honest?" I gasped.
"Honest."
"Darren, this is Vanez Blane," Kurda said. "Vanez, this is -"
"Darren Shan." Vanez nodded, shaking my hand. "I know him from the gossip. It's been a long time since one his age trod the Halls of Vampire Mountain."
"Vanez is a games master," Kurda explained.
"You're in charge of the games?" I asked.
"Hardly in charge," Vanez said. "The games are beyond the control of even the Princes. Vampires fight - it's in our blood. If not here, where their injuries can be tended to, then in the open, where they might bleed to death unaided. I keep an eye on things, that's all." He grinned.
"He also trains vampires to fight," Kurda said. "Vanez is one of our most valued instructors. Most Generals of the last hundred years have studied under him. Myself included." He rubbed the back of his head and grimaced.
"Still sore about that time I knocked you unconscious with a mace, Kurda?" Vanez inquired politely.
"You wouldn't have had the chance if I'd known what it was in advance," Kurda sulked. "I thought it was a bowl of incense!"
Vanez bellowed with laughter and slapped his knees. "You always were a bright one, Kurda - except when it came to the tools of war. One of my worst pupils," he told me. "Fast as an eel, and wiry, but he hated getting his hands bloody. A shame, as he would have been a wonder with a spear if he'd set his mind to it."
"There's nothing wonderful about losing an eye in a fight," Kurda huffed.
"There is if you win," Vanez disagreed. "Any injury's acceptable as long as you emerge victorious."
We watched the vampires cutting each other to pieces for another half an hour - nobody lost an eye while we were there - then Vanez led us around the Halls, explaining the games to me and how they served to toughen vampires up and prepare them for life in the outside world.
All sorts of weapons hung from the walls of the Halls - some antiques, some for general use - and Vanez told me their names and how they were used; he even got a few down to demonstrate. They were fearsome instruments of destruction - jagged spears, sharp axes, long and glinting knives, heavy maces, blade-edged boomerangs that could kill from eighty yards, clubs with thick spikes sticking out of them, stone-head war hammers that could cave in a vampire's skull with one well-placed blow. After a while I noticed there were no guns or bows and arrows, and I asked about their absence.
"Vampires only fight hand to hand," Vanez informed me. "We do not use missile devices, such as guns, bows, or slings."
"Never?" I asked.
"Never!" he said firmly. "Our reliance on hand weapons is sacred to us - to the vampaneze as well. Any vampire who resorted to a gun or bow would be held in contempt for the rest of his life."
"Things used to be even more backward," Kurda chimed in. "Until two hundred years ago, a vampire was only supposed to use a weapon of his own making. Every vampire had to make his own knives, spears, and clubs. Now, thankfully, that's no longer the case, and we can use store-bought equipment; but many vampires still cling to the old ways, and most of the weapons used during Council are handmade."
Moving away from the weapons, we stopped beside a series of overlapping narrow planks. Vampires were balancing on the planks and crossing from one to another, trying to knock their opponents to the ground with long, round-ended staffs. There were six vampires in action when we arrived. A few minutes later, only one remained aloft - a woman.
"Well done, Arra." Vanez clapped. "Your sense of balance is as awesome as ever."
The female vampire leaped from the plank and landed beside us. She was dressed in a white shirt and beige pants. She had long, dark hair, tied behind her back. She wasn't especially pretty - she had a hard, weathered face - but after so much time spent staring at ugly, scarred vampires, she looked like a movie star to me.
"Kurda, Vanez," she greeted the vampires, then fixed her cool, gray eyes on me. "And you are Darren Shan." She sounded decidedly unimpressed.
"Darren, this is Arra Sails," Kurda said. I stuck out a hand but she ignored it.