“It is tradition. The gladiators who are most favored get gifts, and the women and men out there are announcing who they favor the most.”
He had seen all of that before; it was obvious. Equally obvious was that he was starving. Reena watched his eyes float down to the food she had not yet eaten and then yanked away. She had heard that in Aretula it was possible for servants and slaves to starve to death in the grand palaces of their masters. Apparently that was true.
“What is your name?”
“I don’t have a name.”
He did not have a name? Was he saying that just to mess with her head? Hector had said that until you proved you were somebody you were nobody. “My name is Reena.”
He scratched his arm with thin fingers, “Is it true that you came from out there?”
“Out there?”
“Past the villages that are protected by the city. They say you were an Outlaw and that you lived in the woods past the rule of the Governor.”
“What do you mean past the rule of the Governor?”
“They say you lived on the edges of the Free Land.”
“Free Land? I have never heard it called that before. Why is it called that?”
“Because the Governor cannot rule it.” He looked at her as if she were simple, “Everyone knows that.”
“No, not everyone knows that. Out there – there are people who are living in terror. We are called Outlaws, and we’re caught, we are dragged here to the city to die. There is no such thing as free land.”
Before he could say anything else, Reena went to her pallet and took out the food that she had been hiding. “Here, have something to eat.”
He backed away, his hands coming up as if to ward off an evil spell. “I must not.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes, I am always hungry.”
“Then why do you not take it?”
“It is against the rules. Gladiators must be fed, I am just a serving boy.”
“Are you not a person? Do you not need food in order to survive?”
He was hungry. It showed in every line of his body, in the way his eyes stared at food: mesmerized and haunted. He nodded slowly, and then he moved closer to the bars. “If I am caught they will kill me.”
Surely he was joking! They would actually kill him simply for eating? Before she could ask him to explain that remark, he did, “if I were to dare to touch the food that belonged to a gladiator, then I would care to touch the food that belongs to a soldier. Or Governor. We’re not allowed to eat until all of those who are of importance are fed. I’m not allowed to put myself above those who are actually important.”
Rage burned deep and low in her belly. “You are important. Never let them make you think that you are not. Take it; I have been fed. Step a little closer to the bars, and eat quickly but eat.”
“I cannot.” Tears glistened in his large brown eyes, he was starving – but he was also terrified.
“Yes, you can.”
He took the bread with trembling hands, and began to stuff it into his mouth – barely taking the time to chew it. Reena’s heart almost broke, how could it be fair for a boy whose job it was to deliver food to others be go hungry? How could anyone live under that kind of rule?
What did he mean by free land? If there were lands beyond the rule of the Governor — where were they? She had never heard of them. Perhaps it was just a tale that they told here in the city, maybe it was just one of those places that had existed long before the Final War.
He ate every morsel of food that she offered. When it was all gone, he looked slightly better: the rose color returned to his cheeks and his eyes were a little brighter. He stepped back from the bars, carefully wiping his face with a ragged sleeve of his robe. “May the gods favor you.”
“And you as well.”
He nodded and turned away but Reena called out to him to stop for a moment and he did. “My name is Reena,” she repeated. “You have a name, you have the right to a name. Never let them tell you that you don’t.”
“Before I was brought here to work, my mother called me River.”
“It’s nice to meet you River.”
He practically fled. She could hear his plain rope sandals flopping on the floor as he went. Alone again she flopped down on her pallet and closed her eyes, thinking hard. Tomorrow would be her last day of training, the day after that – she would be in the arena, fighting for her life.
But not just her own life, no. The Governor was far too evil to allow her to simply fight for her own life. She’s fighting for the lives of all those who had been in the arena with her on that first day, as well as Hector’s life.
Where was her father? Was he okay? Was he being forced into hard labor and starvation? Was he being beaten or mistreated? All those thoughts swirled around her head. Reena knew that Liam was a survivor; he was tough. Liam had been an Outlaw most of his life. He was used to surviving under the harshest conditions and against the longest odds.
It would have been easier if she were fighting simply for her own life, and she knew the Governor had known that. It would’ve been far too easy to give up. To allow her own death, to just lay down and die and be free of it all..
That brought her back to the thought of the free land. Could it possibly exist? Past the woods there was only the Barrens. Nobody ever crossed them, nobody had since Barkley and his small band.
River had not called the Outside the Outside as others did within that section of land. Perhaps he had heard tales of those who had once lived Outside: exaggerations of life beyond the walls of the city. It had to be so.
Once the idea of a place where the Governor could not rule became rooted in her mind, Reena could not dig it out. It was not possible, she knew that and yet it was such an incredible idea!
What would it be like? Would there be no arenas? Would there be no starvation? What about Culling, would it exist? Supposedly the gods themselves lived in a land without any type of pain, hunger, or even death.
The dream of a free land was nothing more than the dream created by a starving populace, people who had no patience for death to take them away from the deprivation that they knew in their daily lives. Reena had heard that somewhere, where?
She could not recall and she was really too tired to try to remember it now, so she slumped into her pallet and went to sleep almost as soon as her head touched the rough pillow.
**
The next day’s training was even more intense. Both Hector and Kale attacked her, coming in at her from both sides. All through the long and tiring day Reena heard the other gladiators laughing, saw them pointing at her. She knew that nobody thought she would survive her first battle. She did not even think she could survive her first battle and that angered her as nothing else could have.
At the end of the day when she was allowed to go back to her cell, she washed and put on her own clothing. She wanted to pray, but the gods had never seemed so far away as they did that moment.
River brought her food. Reena removed some of it from the tray but not all of it. “You must eat River.”
“And you must have your strength for tomorrow.”
“I am sure they will feed me well in the morning. The condemned eat a hearty last meal and all that.”
She was trying to joke, but there was nothing to laugh about. In the morning she would be led into an arena. She would have to murder another human being in order to save her own life, and the lives of both Hector and one of the people who had been hauled into the arena with her, was it worth it? Were three lives worth one?
Who could say? It was too difficult. It was not something she wanted to think about, much less try to answer. River reluctantly took some of the food and even more reluctantly began to eat, but after a few bites he gladly accepted more when she pressed it upon him.
After River was gone and she was alone, Reena stood at her window, staring down at the city below her. She wondered how the people down there could stand it, how could
they stand living in such close quarters to each other? How could they stand the stink of the gutters, the noise that was constant? There were no trees within the city, and no grass either — or at least none that she could see. The ground was covered with odd stones that looked as if they had been broken into bits many many years ago and put back together badly.
She longed for her own home. If she managed to survive all these battles, if she managed to survive the arena, what then? Reena was not a fool — she knew very well that the Governor was not about to let her go. He would make her fight until she was dead and that he would still come up with an excuse to kill her father and all the others.
There it was, the truth that she had refused to think about before.
There had to be a way! Hector spoke up from behind her, interrupting her thoughts. “I have brought you something.”
Reena turned, “What is it? Is it the key to this cell and the one holding my father as well?”
“You are a funny girl.”
“I see nothing funny about this Hector.”
“Neither do I. That is why I am here; if I were caught here I would be killed. Since I’m probably going to be killed tomorrow anyway, I figure what the hell.”
“Do you really think that I will not survive tomorrow?”
“I just got word of who it is you are fighting. My prayers are with you, but I do not know if they will be heard.”
“Who am I fighting Hector?”
“You are fighting a soldier. He was a deserter, or so they say, and now he has been brought into the arena to fight. No matter what his crimes, he is used to fighting. He’s an older man and well- seasoned in battle.”
Reena’s heart sank. So that was it then. She was going to fail, and everyone was going to die because of it. Why even bother? Why not just figure out a way to do herself in right here in a cell and save everyone the trouble?
Hector held out an amulet on a rough leather string. She took it, looking at it closely unsure of what it could be. “What is it Hector?”
“It is small enough that you could wear it around your neck and carry it as a weapon.”
“Hector, it is an amulet.”
“One that opens quite cleverly. It is, in fact, a tiny jar. Be careful, don’t open it now. You will need it to survive tomorrow.”
“Hector, it’s a jar.”
“Yes, it is. It’s just a jar. But even a jar can hold death.”
Her heart filled with hope. “Is there anything in there?”
“There is. The god’s fire is in there.”
The god’s fire? It was impossible! Only the highest up of soldiers were allowed to use that, only the most skilled alchemist knew how to create it! What had this cost him? Dear gods, what if it escaped the amulet and touched her skin? Her very flesh would melt from her bones! “Hector, what have you done?”
“Every gladiator is allowed two weapons. You have your knife, and now you have this.”
“What am I supposed to do with it? Hand it to him and ask him to drink it?”
“No, as soon as you’re close enough – throw it into his face. Make sure it goes into his face — hear me well on this one girl. It must hit his face for you to have any kind of chance in the arena tomorrow. You understand me?”
“Yes.” She didn’t, not really. What was so important about it hitting the man in the face? Either way it didn’t matter. She was going to use it, she had no choice. This jar and the small knife were all the weapons that she had to take with her into the arena.
Hector turned to leave and she said, “Thank you Hector.”
His voice was gruff and he did not turn back around, “Do not thank me. I was not the one who provided it for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have a Protector, one that must remain nameless for many reasons. Chief among them is the fact that the Governor has ordered that none shall offer Protection to you. It is a move that is already causing some anger among the spectators.”
He left before she could ask anything else. She did not really need to ask anyway, she had seen the procession the day before — people coming bearing gifts for those that they had chosen as victors in the arena. Somebody had chosen to favor her! But who?
Hector was not allowed to tell her who she was fighting. It could mean his death and it probably would mean his death. He had known that and come to help her anyway. He had brought her something that could get him killed for treason, and not just him but the person who had sent it.
People all around her were taking high risks for her and she had no idea why. In a way it made her happy but in a way it worried her deeply. Reena knew damn well that there was nothing free in this world…
“A distant heaven is useless to a hungry man.”
Where had she heard that before? She closed her eyes, trying to think and she managed to summon up a vague memory of her father’s beloved face highlighted by the flickering yellow-orange flames of a small fire, the gray outcroppings of rock behind his head and…
There had been another man there, but she could not remember who he had been—only that her father had said in his mildest voice, “That is not how it was said. The quote was ‘a distant utopia is of no use to a hungry man’s belly.’ But you are right—and wrong too. Some are willing to fight for a better future, even if they are not going to be in it.”
“You stubborn fool!”
The memory broke and snapped, leaving her more tired and saddened than she could bear. Her heart ached and she was terrified. The little amulet weighed heavy against her heart when she put it on, it swung across her shirt and she tucked it in carefully.
Her hair swung around her face as she sat on her pallet and she gathered the long black strands up, pressing them to her face, hoping for a last dim smell of the forest in the strands.
She looked up and whispered, “Please help me to be strong. That is all I ask. Let me be strong enough to save the ones I love.”
Chapter 4
The sun rose, sending long rose and gold fingers into her cell, banishing the pearly fog that had rolled in a few hours earlier.
To her surprise she had slept, and well. She was aching from all the training and hungry but clear-headed and awake. The fear was still there, she could feel it coiled up inside of her belly like a snake.
It would attack her if she let it, she could not let that happen. Too much was at stake. The amulet lay on her breast and she looked down at it, tears pricking her eyes. She would die if she had to but she would not go down without a fight. She would make her father proud of her, even if she failed to save him.
That was all she could do, that was all he would have expected from her and she knew it.
That did not mean she was not going to try to save him though.
Hector did not come for her, two large guards did. She stared at them through the bars and they stared back at her, their faces impassive. Reena wondered what they saw when they looked at her: a young and too-thin girl with hair the color of the raven’s wings? An enemy of the Governor? Nothing at all?
The lock parted with a heavy snap and her heart took an instant dive into her belly. Her breath came in a hard and ragged pant that she could not control and panic began to set in as they took her by the arms and led her down the hallways of the building in which she had been kept.
The sun dazzled her eyes and her feet froze to the street surface. People were thronged around and they began to cheer at the sight of her. She was an oddity, entertainment. The only girl to have ever been a gladiator. They wanted to look at her, to see her and touch her.
Reena knew that but she still recoiled from their hands and their shouts and the things they tossed at her. A tiny silk ribbon drifted across her face, almost blinding her and she yanked it away. It clung to her finger for a moment before it fluttered away on the breeze.
On the ground level the stench was even worse. The incense from the temples mingled with the open gutters and the smell of fresh meat hanging from the
wooden posts in the open air marketplace.
Unwashed people and ones who wore far too many oils on their bodies pressed against her. The colors were too bright, the sounds almost deafening. Reena’s heart hammered and her body was weak. Would she shame her father by not being able to walk to the arena, much less into it?
No dammit she would not!
That was the longest walk of her life. The crowd was screaming and chanting. Some were cheering for her but others were laughing at her.”Kill, kill, kill, kill!” The word became a mindless, numb roar that echoed in her ears as she was led down a long stone stairway and into a cool and dim underground chamber.
A man met her there at the door to what would be her holding cell. He said, “Hands open,” and she stared at him, not understanding what he wanted.
It became clear very quickly as he patted her down, checking her for hidden weapons. “Declare your weapons.” His voice was bored as his hands patted at her breasts and legs.
Reena’s face burned at his intrusive touch. How was this allowed? Why was this allowed? “I have my blade…” she knew better than to mention the amulet. She sensed it would be taken if she did. The god’s fire was illegal.
His fingers reached for it and she said, “I am allowed two weapons.”
“Is this a weapon?”
“It carries my god.” Okay, that was a lie but who cared? It was close enough to the truth for her to be able to say it with a straight face.
“Fine. You’re ready. You’re next to battle.”
He left her there alone. The silence spun out and time stretched like warm and stringy goat cheese held over a low fire. That had been one of her favorite treats; would she ever taste that again?
Now was not the time for such questions. She studied the amulet to keep her mind off things, her fingers memorizing its clever little clasp and her thoughts closing off until only one remained. Survival.
The barred door to her cell clanked open and her guard appeared. He led her down darker passageways and she had to squint to see. It was bright outside and she knew it. She also knew that if her opponent decided to attack her as she walked from the tunnels she would have no chance against him, she would be blinded by the light.
Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1) Page 6