Page 21 of Ironhold, Trial One

“I don't think I've ever seen someone bond with these creatures so quickly,” Stephano says. “You really do have a talent there, girl. Maybe I can talk to Lord Darius. Maybe I can get him to assign you to the beast pits.”

That's a comforting thought but I know it's not a realistic one.

“I've already been told I have a bout against one of the high-born gladiators here,” I say. “Vex.”

I see Stefano wince at that. “They've decided to make an example of you?”

I nod, because I can't think of any other way to see it. They're throwing me in against Vex to die, because I know he won't stop short of that. If it were another gladiator, maybe it would be enough for me to just fight them, but Vex doesn't like me anyway. Unless he's stopped, he'll kill me.

Is that to be my fate? Is today to be my last day of life? If so, I’m glad I get to spend some of it with the shadow cat. It purrs with me close to it, and I put my head against its chest, feeling the rumble of its breathing.

This is all happening too quickly. I have been snatched from my home, thrown into this place and now, tomorrow, I’m going to die, unless I somehow pick up my weapons and defeat a trained, skilled, noble gladiator.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Let me help you with your armor,” Naia says, already starting to strap me into it.

Not that there's much of it. It seems deliberately revealing. I get a few scraps of iron scales, a shoulder guard on my left arm, light vambraces, and a helmet in the shape of a fish with its mouth open wide. Naia helps to fix each piece into place, her movements sure and certain.

She looks me in the eye as she completes her work. “You can't hold back in this, Lyra. You must do anything you can to stay alive.”

She straps a dagger to my waist, a curved fishing knife similar to the ones that fisherfolk back in Seatide would have used to gut fish. She hands me my trident and net. I take them reluctantly, although even now I know that I will not be able to bring myself to thrust the trident into Vex's body, will not be able to kill him, even as he tries to kill me.

There is a doorway just a few paces away from me, sealed with an iron gate. There are trainers stunning to either side of it. They do not look confident in my abilities.

“A waste,” one mutters as I step up to the gate. They open it, pushing me so that I stumble through.

This is not the same training pit as before. Ironhold seems to possess a multitude of such training spaces, but this one features high stone walls with wooden stands set over them and a rough stone floor. Chains are strung across the mouth of the pit, like the web of some great beast. Above, I can see the other trainees of Ironhold watching. Rowan is there, looking down with worry. Alaric is sitting in a cluster of wealthier gladiators, each wearing noble robes or dresses since they are not training or fighting right now. He looks my way and nods.

Lord Darius is seated on a platform overlooking the pit, looking down at me without any give in his expression. I hear the creak of a gate opening, and Vex steps into the fighting pit from the opposite side.

He is wearing a sculpted breastplate, iron greaves and skirt of leather strips with iron scales woven into them for protection. He has a belt with what must be a dozen knives stuck into it, he smiles across at me cruelly.

“I'm going to take my time with you,” he promises.

“We are gathered here for a training bout,” Lord Darius says. “But it is a bout with live steel, and it will continue until I decide it is done. The owned gladiator Lyra refused to fight before. If she does not do so now, she will die for it.”

He pauses to let those words sink in, then looks straight at me.

“In the colosseum, not every fight is to the death. The emperor, or in his absence, the master of the games will decide whether a combatant lives or dies. It is possible to lose and still excite the crowd enough that you are permitted to survive. It is the same here. If you show me that you have the willingness to fight, the desire to kill, then I may show mercy if you lose.”

The problem is I don't possess those things. Even with Vex’s taunts, even with the fact that he's going to kill me if he can, I don't feel as though I can try to kill him in return.

“Begin the bout,” Lord Darius says.

I lift my trident and net, starting to circle Vex. I want to at least give him the impression that I'm ready to fight. He starts to draw his daggers, tossing them into the air like a juggler, only they don't come down again. They hang there, suspended in the air, like a glittering shoal of razor-sharp fish. This must be his talent for controlling objects.

He sends a knife darting towards me, and I barely dodge in time. It circles back to him, like a loyal dog waiting for anothercommand. Another knife comes at me, and I bat it aside with my trident, hearing the sound of metal against metal as I do so.

Above me, the others are cheering, or jeering, or calling out suggestions to one or the other of us.

“You need to close the distance, Lyra!” Rowan calls out.

“Kill her slowly!” someone shouts from Vex’s side.

More knives come at me, and I throw myself into a roll, ignoring the impact of the hard ground as I come up to my feet. Already, the knives are swooping around for another pass, and I barely deflect them in time.

I can tell that Vex is toying with me. He has sent only a couple of knives at a time so far, the others hanging back as he probes my defenses. The best I can say about what’s happening is that at least itlooksas though I’m trying to fight. He just isn’t giving me a chance to mount any meaningful offense.

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