Page 46 of Rise of a Fallen Man

He lurched forward, clawing at the air, as if fighting something visible only to him.

A guard raised her crossbow, aiming it at his head this time.

“Don’t.” I grabbed her arm. “Please, he knows not what he’s doing.”

“Don’t move!” The guard behind me shoved her crossbow in my back, the bolt’s tip jabbing painfully against my spine. “Or I swear I’ll shoot you.”

Snarling and foaming at his mouth like a cornered rabid animal, Das made an unsteady step forward, then crashed to the ground face first. He rasped and hissed something incomprehensible, then stilled finally, succumbing to the effects of the sleeping potion. His eyes closed, and his mouth slacked.

The leader of the guards ordered one of her women, “Get two wagons, one for the lady and another one for the criminal.” She then turned to me, sliding an assessing look down my body. “You’ll have to come with us, too, boy. I’ll need to ask you a few questions.”

With the crossbow bolt still jammed between my shoulder blades, I slowly raised the hood over my head again.

“I have to get back to the gladiators’ quarters before nightfall.”

The fewer questions I answered, the better off I was. Also, Regit needed the pain powder and the magical tea before going to sleep. Otherwise, he’d get no rest.

She paused her gaze on the ring on my hand. “Are you a gladiator?”

“Yes, madam.”

“You must be the Mountain Bear!” the guard behind me exclaimed, shifting her crossbow from my back to my arm in her excitement. “Sorry,” she apologized as I winced. Then she put the crossbow away. “There is no one else quite this size.”

I nodded, rubbing my arm.

“Well.” The leader’s voice softened considerably and her posture relaxed. She produced a pad of paper and a lead pencil from a satchel on her hip. “Let me just jolt down a few notes while the event is still fresh in your mind, sir. Then you can go. If I need anything else, I’ll drop by the gladiators’ quarters later.”

The wagons arrived. The guards helped the woman into one of them, while several others loaded the unconscious Das into the second one.

“What is going to happen to him now?” I asked the leader.

“It’s up to the judge to decide.” She shrugged.

The guard, whom I’d stopped from shooting Das, shook her head.

“You should’ve just let me kill him,” she said. “It would’ve been faster for him that way.”

Chapter 12

Ari

Would this day ever end?

I wished for and dreaded the approach of the night.

A royal wedding never was a simple affair. But this one had been organized in a record time simply because no one wished to wait any longer for the crown princess to marry and finally start working on providing the queendom with an heiress.

Almost two weeks of intense preparations had been tiring enough, but the day of the wedding seemed to stretch beyond physical possibilities.

After the ceremony, came the dinner that required thousands of tables placed in several rooms with all doors throughout the main floor of the palace wide open.

The ball came next. Thankfully, after the mandatory first dance with my new husband, I didn’t need to get back on the dance floor. However, that meant I had to talk incessantly to every guest and courtier who came up to congratulate the prince and me on our nuptials.

A couple of hours after midnight, I caught Leafar hiding a yawn behind his handkerchief.

“Tired?” I asked, feeling exhausted myself.

He gave me an apologetic smile. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

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