by Noëlie Frix
“Fine, you have yourself a deal,” he extended his hand and they shook on it, his palm engulfing hers but her grip as strong and callused as his.
“When do I start?”
“I’ll give you the opening match, you’ve got about an hour. Do you need any gear or fighting attire?” Yankari inquired. “What’s your fighting name?”
“I’m all set,” she shook her head. “And the Warrior if that works.”
“Sure. What about you, young man?” the owner gruffly asked, turning to Andy, “Are you also here for a job?”
“No, no,” he vehemently shook his head, “I’ll just watch,” and try not to puke. “See, I can sell a dress to save my life, but I can’t fight,” he laughed nervously.
“Then both of you get out of my sight ‘til noon,” he warned menacingly, pointing behind him to the gladiators’ quarters from where Cassius had walked out just a few minutes earlier.
Heka grabbed Andy’s hand and pulled her friend toward the area her new boss had indicated, “I think you’d look smashing in a dress,” she threw him a big, toothy grin, referring to his earlier comment.
“Those quarters are reserved for fighters,” Yankari started to complain.
“He’ll be out in the stands before it all starts,” Heka dismissively retorted without looking back.
Andy shook his head, “You’re insane.”
“What? With the cute bit of lace and…”
“No, not the dress. Obviously, I look good in anything and everything,” he interrupted with a smirk of his own, “this whole fighting thing.” Andy was hit by the realization that he knew surprisingly little about his friend’s life before arriving in Adalr’s city. “Are you some sort of secret assassin from a powerful, clandestine guild hidden in the mountains somewhere remote, plotting to overthrow the kingdom?” he mused, though somewhat seriously.
“You read too much,” she pushed open the door to the armory which was empty. She supposed the other gladiators preferred to rest before the fights, especially on such a hot day. This way, the two of them could chat in peace.
“I’m not the one who’s spent the last four months cloistered inside the royal library,” he contradicted.
“Touché,” she picked up a knife, sharpening stone and polishing cloth, pulled up a stool and sat down, inviting him to do the same. “I’m not an assassin, but I have trained as a warrior since I was young,” she offered, raking the blade smoothly along the dark whetstone.
“Why?”
Heka’s lips quirked up in a strange sort of way that was indecipherable to Andy and laconically replied, “My uncle.”
Knowing she’d been guarded about her past from the start and didn’t seem inclined to delve into it deeper today, Andy changed the topic to her research and realized her ability to fight shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given she’d been ransacking the military and naval strategy sections of the library and had consulted with the capital’s foremost technical experts on weapons technology. “Aren’t you a bit young to be researching that sort of thing?”
“Well, your apprenticeship started four years ago too, didn’t it? Never too early to accumulate knowledge in what interests you. Want me to teach you how to hold a knife properly?” she winked, running her finger along the sharpened edge. Andy worried she’d cut herself, but apparently she was experienced enough to know how to check its sharpness without injuring herself.
“Actually, I’d rather not,” he grimaced.
Heka realized he looked nauseous and proposed a different lesson, “How about how to defend from a punch? I know the jeweler’s workshop is in a good part of town, but it’s a good skill to have no matter what.” She stood up and gestured for him to face her, “If it’s an amateur coming at you, or maybe a drunkard, they’re likely to telegraph their punches and come at you in a wide arc,” she swung her arm toward him slowly to demonstrate. “That’s the kind of attack you hope for, in most cases, it gives you more time to react because you can see it coming.”
“Uh, ok,” he wasn’t sure what he’d done to get himself into this, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to indulge her.
“If it’s a straight punch,” she demonstrated again, “it’s a different matter altogether.” Andy blinked. One second her hand had been hanging loosely at her side, the next it was an inch away from his nose. “Someone who knows what they’re doing is going to be much quicker and direct, so it’ll leave you with less time to react. In this case, you don’t so much block as redirect the punch. Like so,” she had him throw a punch at her and deflected it with a small but sharp movement, the blade of her hand gliding along his arm, offsetting his fist just enough to avoid her face. She spent the next thirty minutes showing him how to defend from both kinds of punches, then insisted they spend another solid ten minutes learning how to throw a straight punch, “Cause if someone attacks you, you want to make sure you surprise them and daze them long enough to give you time to run away. Or if you’re me, you turn them into a pile of mush for having the gall to target you,” she smirked.
“You’re getting scary again,” Andy rolled his eyes, wiping sweat off his brow.
“Thank you,” she bowed, the gesture full of good-natured irony. “Honestly though, I feel better knowing you have those skills.”
Andy smiled, “Me too, thanks for teaching me. I should probably head out to place my bets. Noon is coming up.”
“You’re gambling?”
“Doesn’t seem like much of a gamble, I know the best gladiator personally. She can’t lose,” he smiled again and gave her a hug before disappearing with a small wave.
As noon crept ever closer, Heka could hear more people coming in, chattering excitedly, anxious to see the combats. She walked to the gladiator’s entrance into the arena and watched from inside as Yankari came to stand in the center of the sandy ground, opening his arms wide as his loud voice boomed, “Welcome!” The audience quieted down and as he kept talking, it eventually went completely silent. “My most esteemed guests, it is a great pleasure to welcome you once more to my humble but oh-so-exciting arena!” Heka could tell he was playing off the exotic factor and making his accent more pronounced. “What makes this place so special? Three things. Me!” he winked. “You, the spectators, and…” he paused dramatically, his flair for theatrics innate, “the gladiators!” the crowd cheered excitedly. “Today, we welcome a new recruit who will fight for your entertainment. Please help me welcome…the Warrior!” He pointed to where Heka waited, and she walked out into the light, coming to stand by his side. “She will start by fighting Torreno. The betting table is open. She is the right side, and he is the left. Do not,” he warned, “be fooled by what you see!”
The crowd of this tradition-bound nation murmured incredulously, hardly believing it. After a short moment of hesitation, they came to the betting table. The Torreno’s pile towered high, while only three bronze pieces, Andy’s, glimmered on the right. Heka smiled.
“This combat will be fought with the gladiators’ choice of weapon. Don’t worry you faint-hearted lads,” Yankari seemed to pointedly glare at Andy, “they’ll both live…lest an unfortunate accident arises” he smiled mockingly. “Gladiators! To your place!”
Heka and the Torreno moved to opposite sides of the arena. The Torreno pulled out a mean-looking sword, the sun reflected off his bare, sweaty chest and bald, tattooed skull. He wasn’t quite as big and imposing as Cassius had been, but he still dwarfed his youthful opponent. And by the way he held and swung his weapon, Heka could tell he was a talented, seasoned swordsman. Slowly, deliberately, Heka unbuttoned her cape and theatrically let it fall to the ground, giving Yankari competition in the acting department too. Her black silk pants which were tucked into her knee-high leather boots, allowed for great movement, which was necessary for fighting. She wore a type of reinforced corset. Unlike the ones most women wore which prevented them from breathing, it was tailored with fighting in mind. Made on the inside of soft silk while the outside was thick protec
tive, and in her case red, leather, which laced in the back, the corset actually went all the way up to the neck and covered the top of her shoulders. She wore matching protective wristbands and had a tight bracelet around her right bicep. Strapped to her back was a pair of swords which she expertly unsheathed.
“Let the fight begin!” announced the ringmaster, who silently approved of his new recruit’s flair. And of her choice of moniker—she looked every bit the warrior she claimed to be.
The two gladiators cautiously approached the center. The Torreno lunged and mercilessly aimed to stab her in the ribs. He had been warned not to underestimate his opponent. It was not like him to hold back, and he was not about to start now—not even for a girl, no matter how pretty and harmless she looked. She dodged his first strike, then parried his next blow, which would have otherwise decapitated her, and struck with the second sword. Heka felt ashamed at how sloppy her technique was, but this type of crowd wanted the fight to last so she had no choice. She swung her sword in an arc which the Torreno was able to parry, but feinted with her other sword and managed to wound him, leaving a gash across his thigh. Heka pursued the advantage she’d just gained. Once again, Andy was struck by the gracefulness of her movements, the way she seemed to dance in and out of range of the Torreno’s long-reach, wicked-looking blade, almost as though she were teasing him before striking, quick and ruthless as a viper. At the end of the fight, the Torreno was bruised, cut and exhausted, “Do you yield?” she asked sweetly, contrasting with her domineering position, her swords at his neck.
“I yield,” he breathlessly admitted defeat. While the experienced gladiator suddenly considered a mid-life career change, Heka’s blood boiled with anticipation.
The crowd’s reaction was noncommittal…undecided? Or rather, just puzzled. Shocked even. Yankari’s greedy eyes looked to the pile of gambled money he’d just raked in and walked back out, “The Warrior princess fought off her opponent with more derring-do than any of us could have expected. It seems she is determined to make it out of here with her pretty face intact,” he smiled. “Can she hold off against her next opponent, though? And the next? If she wishes to hold on to her title, she had better be ready to face the strongest gladiators this city, this kingdom, has to offer!”
Heka expertly flicked the blood off her blades before sheathing them and replied, “By the end of the day, I’ll have done more than defend my title,” she cockily declared. “I’ll show you I’m a queen.” It was true. Her first fight had been a mere warm-up. As she fought against other gladiators, her pile of money became taller and taller, until only a few coins went to the left side of the betting table. And she and Yankari had woven a tale out of the combats, it almost seemed as though they’d put on an impromptu play. Initially worried it would seem too scripted, Yankari decided he might start to incorporate a story-telling element to the gladiator fights more often, as the audience became more and more enthused and involved, cheering on the Warrior, berating the villainous men who had come to steal her beauty.
Heka had found the experience a lot more enjoyable and entertaining than she’d anticipated. The fights weren’t much of a challenge, but it was good practice, and she found herself smiling along with the crowd. Andy too, was glad to have an improvised storyline to focus on rather than the blood which sank into the sand with every fight.
Not everyone was so charmed, however. More orthodox members grumbled about women’s proper role and place in society, indebted gamblers complained of a scam. Most of these men were familiar enough with these fights to know she had won fairly, however. Someone in the audience was not so discerning and well-informed. The man stood up furiously, angry because he had lost most of the money he’d brought with him.
“You cheated!” he yelled, spittle flying into his own overgrown beard. “The others let themselves get beat up so you could swindle the lot of us!”
“Is that really what you think?” she asked evenly, all smiles and theatrics drained from her.
“That’s what I know. Hell, I could beat you up right now!”
“Come and prove it,” Heka said coldly.
He hadn’t been prepared for a gesture so drastic, “What?”
“If you truly believe I am faking, then, as you said before, you will have no problem beating me. However, you should know that I was indeed faking…”
“Ha!” he exclaimed. “What did I tell you?” the man looked around him but did not find nearly as many supportive, approving faces as he’d expected and hoped for.
“I tried to be nice and make the combats last longer than they should have. I only did so because the crowd likes it that way. Normally, I’m a much more efficient and better fighter. The way I see it, you have four options to proceed from here.”
Yankari tried to intervene but had no time.
“One: you stay, you sit down, you prove you’re smart. Two: you apologize, you prove you’re brave. Three: you leave…coward. And four: you try and fight me, the best gladiator here, and prove that you are nothing but a stupid, misogynistic, stuck-up fool.”
“I will not take this insult,” he said angrily and stepped onto the sand. “Let’s see how you really fight!”
“Well, this certainly is an interesting turn of events,” announced the ringmaster, regaining control of the situation. “Gentlemen, I believe the betting table is open once more.”
This time, the gap between piles had evened out, though they still decidedly leaned in favor of Heka. Those who knew anything about fighting put all their money on her side, while those like the man she was about to fight, those who were persuaded they had been duped, who had grumbled and complained incessantly, bet on him.
When the fight started, the man threw himself towards her. She didn’t fake this time. Instead, the girl simply turned her waist, letting her arm twist along. Her hand turned into a fist and caught the man squarely on the cheek. He looked at her furiously, but before he knew it, the man was on his knees, hands pressed to his stomach. She had won, but she was not entirely done with him, so she gave him time to stand. The man staggered up to his feet, his hands reaching for her neck. Heka grabbed his shirt and brought her knee up forcefully…right between his legs. The audience “oofed” with him but didn’t protest. This girl, whoever she was, knew how to fight better than any of them.
“Your winner,” simply said Yankari and, for the most part, the crowd cheered. It was nearly five past noon when this last fight ended. With the solstice fast approaching, the sun remained high in the sky, though at least it had cooled off a bit. Slowly, the arena emptied out, until it was just Heka and Yankari standing where they’d first met, a hefty pouch of bronze and silver coins tucked under her cape.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” her momentary boss asked. “After all, it would be highly profitable for both of us.”
“I have to leave today,” she explained. “It’s why I needed the money. But thank you for your offer. I did thoroughly enjoy my new job, however brief it was.”
Seeing he was not going to change her mind, Yankari left her alone, sitting behind his desk to finish counting his freshly-made fortune. Heka took back the other weapons she had stashed away before the battles and left the place without a glance backward.
Chapter 2: Jason
Andy was waiting for her outside, smiling a bit awkwardly, “That was impressive. I even managed to ignore the blood, so it was pretty entertaining.”
“Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it!” she beamed.
“Probably for the first and last time,” Andy rolled his eyes. “Not that I planned on it, but now I’m going to make extra sure to never get on your bad side,” he chuckled.
“I’m not that scary,” she protested a bit too forcefully.
He frowned skeptically, “Sure, Warrior queen, whatever you say.”
“Darn, I forgot to ask for my crown!”
Andy laughed, “Well I don’t have anything so grand to offer,” he started, “but I do have a birthday gift.”
“You really didn’t have to, but thank you,” she genuinely said as he reached inside his satchel and dug out a small rectangular package wrapped in dark blue and tied off with a silver bow. She delicately untied the ribbon and removed the paper to reveal a black jewelry box. “Did you make this?” she breathed, impressed. He nodded, “Andy, that’s amazing!” she lifted the necklace and clasped it around her neck. The fine silver chain glittered in the orange-tinged evening light. The main, abstract design of the pendant was also silver, with a few sharp gold lines accenting the edges, while a smooth, polished emerald the color of her eyes adorned the center.
“I’m glad you like it,” he blushed.
“I love it! Despite what you said this morning, I’m pretty sure you’re ready for your career as court jeweler,” she praised.
“Ha ha, well thanks, but my master doesn’t agree with you.”
“Not yet, but soon,” she kissed his cheek. “Thanks again. For everything.”
“Does this mean you’re leaving?” he sadly inquired.
Heka looked at him tenderly, “I need to head to the harbor now, yeah. Good luck with your apprenticeship. I’ll see you again, as promised.”
Andy gave her a hug and stepped away, “Safe travels and see you later, then.” He turned around and hurried back to his home.
Heka tucked the necklace safely inside her corset and began navigating the maze of narrow, seedy streets on the way to port.
The tightly packed tenements now cast elongated shadows against the uneven cobbled street. She suddenly felt a chilling presence behind her. “Sweet friend you just had to leave behind,” the cold voice had come out of nowhere, the man’s whisper tickling her ear.
“Sweeter and more polite than a certain someone,” Heka calmly turned around, a bright smile plastered on her face, not the least bit startled.