Page 48 of Claiming Sarah

“Is that the intent of them?” I asked, hating the twisting in my gut but needing to know exactly what I was about to face. “We fight to the death?”

She blinked at me guilelessly. “How else would you win a fight?”

My head tipped back, smacking into the stone wall behind me.This is why they’re all so quiet. No one wants to get to know the guy they might have to kill.

She crouched between my feet, reaching beneath the bench under me, and produced a fresh bottle of banwine. “Here. You could use something stronger to drink. With an attitude like yours, you might as well have a taste of something good before you die.”

“Thanks,” I said flatly, before I chugged some of the bottle down. “That is quite good. Thank you…?”

“Call me Grace.”

“I appreciate your kindness, Grace.”

She smiled at me. “If the moon takes pity on you, the battle will be fast and swift. Pray for her pity, and for not fighting Demophon.” She nodded toward the biggest Ladrian in any room, before she walked to the next fighter, reserving the good bottle for those who seemed to be in need of an extra boost of courage.

Of all those in the tunnel, the big guy worried me the most. At well over eight feet tall, he would have made Deacon look small and that was saying something. But it wasn’t his size that worried me. He had the grizzled look of a man who had murdered for fun many times. Scars and tattoos marked his boulder-like muscles in equal measure. I imagined the ground shook when he stepped.

Jason strolled into the middle of the tunnel, his golden cape swishing behind his shoulders. Short, nasally, and instantly annoying, he said, “Alright, fighters. Attention. The drums will stop playing when Rex drops the black flag from his tower box. When that happens, the first group of eight will go, and when they are down to the last member, he will be collected and the next group of eight will go. Once that cycle has completed, our five champions will be presented to Rex Terian—be grateful he has deigned to meet you lowly scum—and if he is impressed with your performance, he may select one of you to bed. All champions will be given a champion’s purse, as well. I—”

Grace whispered something to Jason, getting his attention as she gestured to me.

Shit. That’s not good.

“Forty-one?” he groused. “Who approved this?”

No one answered.

He stepped in front of me and barked, “Who allowed you to join this rabble?”

“Helios Vestig,” I replied.

Anger simmered on his face, before he could stop himself. His voice seethed with contempt, and I wasn’t sure if it was for me or for his brother. “Fine.You’llgo first.”

After that news, I didn’t hear much else. Then I realized the drums had stopped.

“Line up, when I point to you,” Jason announced. “Find your preferred weapons. When the black flag drops from the tower, begin the slaughter. If any of you begin before the black flag starts to fall, you will be executed on the spot. You don’t want to know how we do that.”

I was the first he pointed to, so I walked to the door, preparing to face the inevitable battle. Eight others lined up behind me—a woman, three men, two Gorrks, and the two Doxude, making me the underdog of the group.Fantastic. I was not a faithful man, but I found myself thinking the moon’s prayer as the door opened.

Suns’ light blinded me when I stepped through. The roar of the crowd filled the arena, deafening me. I needed a moment to make my senses work again, but the eight behind me were eager to get on with things and pushed past me.

The hulk of a woman teased me, “Look alive, before I kill you. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I had it easy in here.”

“Don’t worry, they won’t,” a Doxude said as he grabbed a spear from the wall.

The others made their selections from the nearby weapons, not paying attention to any that were farther away on the walls of the fighting pit. I spotted my target and ran toward it. The crowd thought I was running away, and started to chant, “Coward!”

Seeing me draw the executioner’s axe, some laughed. A heckler shouted, “You’re too short!”

I’ve heard that all my fucking life.

The axe was nearly my own height, so I understood his doubt. Most my height could not wield it effectively. But theyhadn’t spent a childhood lifting weights until they needed their uniforms altered for their shoulders and thighs. They hadn’t volunteered for every suicide mission just to prove a point.

Tucking it under my arm, I turned to face the other fighters. The group was far away, save for one of the Doxude. He slithered toward me, spear in hand. I looked to the tall gray tower, waiting for the pinned black flag to drop. The Doxude did not.

He came at me, full speed, reared back, and threw the spear toward my chest. I side-stepped it and did not retaliate, for fear of Jason’s warning. The Doxude barreled toward me for another beat, before a skentha charged into the fighting pit. It scooped him up in its massive jaw, tipping its head back to make more of his body fall in. After the skentha swallowed all of him, the beast ran back to the large gate to be praised by its trainer.

That was…bracing. One down. Seven to go.

---