His grip loosened just enough to relieve the pain. “I've only sparred before.”
“Stay close to me.”
Rosnar shushed the crowd for the final introductions. “Now, for your great pleasure, for the reason you have come here on this most delightful day—I give you not only the half-Fae abomination, but the human-loving whore that spawned it. Blood crimes are not tolerated in the Faelands, and this whore not only committed one, but allowed the creature she birthed to live and mature. She brought it from the Jade Realm into our great country, and we will not tolerate either transgressor to live. Let their pathetic existences and pitiful deaths be a lesson to any who might be tempted to step outside our bounds, who might be tempted into an unthinkable union with an outsider, who might consider allowing the monstrous product of that forbidden union to live. Your crimes will be dealt with swiftly and in the same manner as this. My friends, I present you with the abomination Ragan Vale and its mother, Rosalia Dannis.”
The crowd released a collective gasp as Rose and Ragan were deposited next to the platform. I'd expected their tails and heads to be held low, but instead they were straight-backed and defiant. They stared directly at the Fae King, nearly identical smirks on their lips. They chose to greet their deaths not with shame and cowardice, but instead with fearless pride. Their postures made it clear that any shame lied not with them, but instead with those who called for their deaths.
Rosnar's shoulders slumped as he witnessed the silent temerity of his daughter and grandson. He lowered the speaking stone from his throat and addressed them directly. “If only you'd listened, Rosie. You brought this upon yourself.”
Rose bared her teeth and smiled at him. “My son is a blazing star who you are too weak to look upon. I regret nothing, save any part I may have had in the unfortunate events that brought us here. You will fall to your malice, Father. I only wish I could be here to watch.” She held Ragan's hand and leaned toward him. “Sweetheart, you will not let them win. Your story isn't over.”
Rosnar cleared his throat and stiffened his drooping shoulders. He raised the speaking stone and bowed to the Fae King. “Your Majesty, I present today's gladiators. May their time be short and their blood create beauty.”
The Fae King stood and swept his heavy arms outward. “Thank you, Lord Chancellor Dannis. Retire to the podium and present your champions.”
Four Horsefae dashed from a gate near the podium and carried away Rosnar's podium. He followed close after, trailed by the Dogfae guards. The heavy gate slammed shut.
Seconds later, Rosnar stood next to the King. He glared down at us, his ears tilted downward and his eyes narrowed. He licked his teeth, then held the speaking stone to his throat. “Glorious King Mirabreln, honored guests, and people of Parandor, it is my great pleasure to reintroduce you to my champions. Guards, raise the gates and allow the Nameless Horde to claim their glory!”
Three deep notes burst from a massive fanfare trumpet. Bronda and Lenna replied with three strident screams.
A rhythmic clank echoed through the arena as the massive gate to my left slowly rose.
Calm. Stay calm. No matter what.
We drew closer together at the oval center. Ragan, Rose, Iefyr and I stood with weapons drawn and shoulders touching while Nador and the elves pressed against our backs.
Ruby eyes glowed from the shadows. Guttural grunts accompanied the pounding of drums.
“Oh shit,” Iefyr said, taking a step backward. “Those aren't Fae.”
“Oh, piss off, Grandad.” Ragan unclipped his hatchet from his belt. “Iefyr, get me a couple of those arrows. Mom . . . I love you and I want you to know I was never resentful.”
“I know,” Rose whispered.
Iefyr pulled a handful of arrows from his Owlfae quiver and held them out so Ragan could strike them simultaneously. Within two hits, the arrows were too big for Iefyr to hold. He planted their nocks in the silt. Ragan crouched and continued to strike them, creating a spiked barrier between us and the gate.
Even with my spectacles on, it took some time for my eyes to adjust to the darkness beneath the gate. I couldn't make out what the red eyes belonged to, but the two forms on either side were tall and broad. Shadows squirmed and several pairs of yellow eyes joined the ruby ones.
“Let the execution commence!” Rosnar cried.
Above the cage, the silver dragons screamed and flapped their wings. The spectators in the upper tiers threw fruit at them. It splattered against the bars and a sugared rain fell upon our heads.
A great roar shook the arena. The crowd jumped to their feet and cheered.
Breathe. Stay calm and breathe.
Behind me, Kemi shrieked, “What is it?”
Iefyr's shoulders trembled as he placed another spike. “Two mountain trolls, a six-headed cadra, a steppe boar, and a–”
“Gods-damned wyvern,” Rose finished. She was breathless as her eyes darted between the shadows and the podium where her father stood. Rosnar was too busy offering his family members chocolates to watch the events below. Rose turned her head back toward the gate and drew a slender silver rope from her belt. She held it above her head and screamed, “I invoke the light in the shadows to drive you back into darkness.”
The rope ignited in a burst of violet light. It crackled and sparked as Rose swung it to the side. I knew this spell. I'd watched her teach Shan how to create a shadowwhip not two weeks prior.
Another roar and the trolls charged forward. They were gray and asymmetrical, with bulging muscles and great jagged tusks sprouting from scarred jaws. They wore nothing but spiked pauldrons and loincloths over their battle-scarred bodies, and their two-toed feet terminated in sharpened talons. Their gnarled hands clutched massive war hammers.
Behind the trolls ran a black boar clad in spike-studded armor. The cadra and wyvern emerged together, snapping at each other and growling. They stayed near the gate, more interested in their own squabble than in us.
Breathe. Breathe and focus. Just another fight, just another fight, just another–
The trolls roared and swung their hammers as they plowed into Iefyr's arrow traps. The shafts snapped under their weight, but only a few managed to pierce the thick hide of the trolls' skin.
We backed up, but the boar circled in from behind.
Kemi swung her sword, clipping the boar's shoulder. The beast grunted but continued its gallop. It was building momentum, swinging its curved tusks side to side in preparation for a strike.
“Heads up!” Nador yelled. A yellow-green blob flew over my head. It ignited as it hit the nearest troll's knee.
The troll roared, spittle spraying from his twisted mouth. He stomped his feet and kicked aside the arrows.
He was coming for me.
“Tessen! Iefyr! Take him!” Rose cracked her shadowwhip at the second troll. A darkness gathered around her shoulders and fluttered like a gale-agitated cloak. Her golden eyes smoldered. “Ragan, we've got this one.”
Too much. Too much chaos. Boar and trolls and the cheering bloodlust. Stop. Focus. You can do this.
The boar charged.
Nador and Kemi dove out of the way, but there was no time for Kai. He dropped to the ground and slid beneath the boar.
Kai's dagger lacerated the boar's fore flank, but the injury was minor. The boar reached the arena wall. It huffed and stomped as it turned around. Blood dripped upon the stained gravel.
Iefyr's arrows whizzed past me as I raised my sword to counter the charging troll. The war hammer was bigger than I was, and I didn't think I'd be able to survive a well-placed hit. I'd have to rely on my relatively small size rather than my melee skills.
The troll raised his hammer and swung it toward me.
I bent my knees and tumbled forward. The wind trail dragged by the hammer prickled the small hairs on my neck. My heart pounded in my ears, thundering and merciless.
I bounced upright next to the troll's left foot. A stench of blood and rot rose from his mottled flesh. He flipped
the hammer and swung it toward me again.
Pain exploded in my back as the hammer threw me into the arena wall.
It wasn't a full-strength hit, but it was enough to steal my breath and leave me unable to move. I was frozen on my back in the gravel. Above me, the crowd clapped and whistled.
The troll lurched toward me, hammer raised.
Can't breathe, can't move, can't survive. He's coming for me.
“Hey, ugly bastard! Swing at this!” Nador yelled.
The troll continued toward me, but he turned his head in her direction. His uneven eyes were narrow with fury.
In quick succession, three flaming arrows pierced the scarred hide just beneath the troll's pauldrons. The troll wailed as the gray tufts of hair on his back caught fire, but did not waver from his intended path.
Can't breathe. Can't breathe. Can't move. Breathe now or it all ends here.
Shit. I'm about to die. I'm sorry, Serida. I failed you.
“Tessen! Move!”
I gasped as air rushed back into my lungs. The troll was nearly upon me.
Not yet, asshole.
I clutched my sword and rolled beneath the troll's stinking foot. Once behind him, I rose to my knees. I swung upward and opened his leg from ankle to knee.
Dark blood spurted from the wound, but the troll barely flinched. He turned around and readied his hammer for the kill.
I wasn't going to be fast enough to avoid this.
“Fall back!” Kai screamed as he ran behind me.
I dropped onto my shoulder blades just in time to slip beneath the charging boar.
The troll's hammer swing struck the animal's spine. Its agonized squeal was echoed by the cries of the silver dragons directly above.
The boar's legs gave way and it slid across the gravel. The air burst from my lungs again as I was dragged along with it.
Silver flashed in the sunlight as Kemi sprang onto the boar's back. She grunted and thrust her sword into the beast's nape.
Still breathless, I rolled to the side. The boar groaned and collapsed. An orange-tinted dust cloud rose from the bloodied gravel.
“Look out!”
The hammer swung again, this time taking aim at Kemi. Before she could react, Kai was on top of the boar. He shoved her out of the way.
The hammer struck Kai in the chest. A sickening pop sounded as his sternum cracked. The force of the blow threw him into the nearby wall. He fell to the ground and landed in a heap, unmoving.
“No!” Kemi screamed. She scrambled over the boar and yanked the sword from its neck.
Can't breathe. Invisible knives in my back and gray in my vision. Can't help anyone if I can't breathe. Can't live if I can't breathe. Breathe, gods-dammit.
The crack of Rose's shadowwhip accompanied the sizzle of Iefyr's flaming arrows and the ecstatic roar of the crowd.
And there were my lungs, deciding to work again. I rose again to my knees, ignoring the screaming crackles within my back. My instinct told me to go to Kai, but I couldn't. The troll needed to be dealt with first.
One breath. Two. Three. My vision cleared.
I jumped to my feet and ran the few short steps to the boar. “Kemi! My shoulders to his!”
Kemi nodded and rocked on her heels to steady her balance.
I leaned forward and braced myself against splintering bones and agony as she leapt from the boar onto my back onto the troll. She scaled the arrows Iefyr had planted in the troll's hide until she was straddling the creature's pauldrons.
The troll bellowed and roared as it tried to bat Kemi away.
“Take him down! Take him down!” I tumbled forward and planted my sword in his foot. I drew back my weapon. Dark blood oozed from the wound to mingle with the blood already flowing from his leg.
Above me, Kemi screamed something unintelligible and jammed her dagger into the troll's eye.
The troll roared and stomped on his heels. Another dodge from me, another sword strike to the back of his knee.
The crowd groaned in dismay as Iefyr's greenfire arrow sailed into the troll's remaining eye.
Kemi jumped from the behemoth's shoulder as he fell forward. I dropped my sword to catch her, then quickly retrieved it as we found our balance.
Above us, Bronda let out a despondent shriek, then snapped her jaws at Lenna. Her talons scratched at the cage bars in frantic desperation.
“Kai . . .” Kemi whispered, her eyes ablaze with fury and fear.
I glanced at the second troll, then locked eyes with Kemi. “We can't help him right now. Three more.”
Sorry, sorry, sorry. Can't help him. Need to keep surviving.
Kemi swallowed, then nodded.
The deep resonance of a gong strike reverberated through the arena.
What now?
Kemi's eyes widened. I didn't need to turn around to see why. I could see the wyvern reflected in her eyes.
“Fire drake, fire drake, fire drake!” Kemi whimpered.
I drew a strident breath. I had the fur collar. This fight needed to be mine. “Run.”
Don't fear. Trust the collar, trust the magic.
The cadra advanced toward Iefyr and Nador while Kemi ran along the perimeter of the arena. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rose's shadowwhip crack, but I couldn't see Ragan. The second ogre needed to come down fast because I couldn't handle this wyvern on my own.
Still, I'd try.
I didn't have time to turn around before the wyvern's fire embraced me. I felt nothing as the boar next to me blistered and burned, throwing the smell of seared flesh into the dusty orange air. I was in the brightest glow of the fire, but I felt nothing.
I felt nothing. The collar worked.
I spun toward the wyvern and charged, my sword held parallel with the ground. The fire ceased as the beast coiled its neck and reared back. Confusion was apparent on its scaly face. It snapped its jaws and barreled toward me.
What had Mom told me about wyverns? Soft behind the ears and between the wings, armored underneath. She'd had a wyvern experience or two of her own, but not with anything this large. I had to trust her story and find a way to get onto the animal's back.
The wyvern hissed another fireball at me. It didn't learn the first time that I was fireproof.
To my right, Iefyr shouted, “Nador!”
I couldn't see either of them through the flames, just the wings and tails of a great raging cadra.
Another gong strike, and thunder shook the arena.
“Back to the darkness!” Rose yelled. Her shadowwhip cracked twice and the troll bellowed.
High to my left, Bronda descended upon the upper levels of spectators. They screamed as she thrashed them into the cage bars. Lenna looked on from a safe distance, her head hung low and her eyes half closed. I knew what this meant, what the berserking dragon signified.
We'd lost Kai.
There was no time to think about it.
The wyvern's jaws snapped shut. It tilted its head and pondered my apparent inability to burn.
Kemi was behind the beast, sprinting toward me. I needed to use the wyvern's confusion to our advantage.
“Behind ears, above wings,” I yelled.
Kemi nodded. Sword ready, she scaled the beast's back.
The wyvern swung its long neck toward her.
“Here, kitty, kitty!” I yelled. I palmed my boot knife and launched it at the wyvern's head. I'd never expected Daelis's knife throwing lessons to be of use beyond tavern games, but there I was, throwing blades at a full-grown wyvern.
I was terrible at it.
The dagger bounced off the wyvern's temple. It shook its head, then hissed at me. Good, stay distracted.
“Come and get me, asshole!” I picked a rock out of the gravel and threw it, striking the wyvern above the eye. My shoulder blade crackled and groaned.
Ignore the pain, ignore the pain, let the adrenaline take control and ignore the pain.
More flames, and the crowd booed. The commotion from Bronda's tier
continued as she tore the throat from a squirming Wolverfae.
“Nador!” Iefyr again, accompanied by cadra shrieks. “No! Drop it and run!”
Boom! A strangled wail rose above an agonized howl.
Crack! No more wail, only howls.
“Die! Die! Die!” Kemi screamed as she stabbed the wyvern. Over and over, her bloodied sword planted between the beast's tattered wings. Her face splattered with blood, she yelled at me over the din. “I've got this! Help Iefyr!”
The wyvern hissed and moaned as I turned away from it and ran toward the cadra.
The cadra's back was to me and all six of its heads faced Iefyr. Beyond the beast, Ragan stood upon the second troll's supine chest, ready to deliver a killing strike.
I couldn't see Iefyr, but I heard the twang of his bow. Over and over he shot at the cadra, but the beast was unrelenting.
Where was Nador? Couldn't see her, needed to help Iefyr.
How could I help him? The cadra stood tall with all six tails raised and lashing so I couldn't scale its back like Kemi had with the wyvern. From the side would put me at risk of being struck by a wing or seen by one of the heads. I'd have to attack from beneath.
Ignore the pain. Forget the pain and save Iefyr.
I ran full speed at the cadra's backside. As soon as I cleared the six whipping tails, I jammed my sword upward into the silken fur of the beast's belly. I held fast against both the hide's resistance and my protesting back as I continued to run toward its necks. Blood and entrails spilled behind me as all four remaining heads cried out in anguish.
Iefyr yanked me forward between two of the necks as the cadra's heaving, arrow-studded chest collapsed. He held me for a moment, then released me.
“You nearly got yourself crushed,” he said, panting.
“Wasn't thinking about that,” I replied. I turned to the left to watch Ragan yank his axe from the troll's heart. Rose stood by the troll's shoulder, shadowwhip still in hand. “We got them all. We won.”
Three gong crashes and the ground beneath us trembled.
“No, we just made them mad.” Iefyr's watery eyes darted to the side. I followed his gaze to Nador's bloodied body. Iefyr cringed and looked away. “Cadra got her.”
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