Page 43 of Rune

Mention of the Champion Games put a knot in my stomach, but I didn’t want him to see. “I’ll go, only for the chance at a rematch with you.”

He picked up my dagger and tossed it to me. I caught it by the hilt. “Looks like Delight is coming out of retirement,” he joked.

I sheathed it with a sharp clang. “When do the Champion Games start?”

“In two days,” he said. “The mortals will be here soon.”

FiFtEEn

I PICKED A lighter axe from the array of weapons in the arena. The sun beat down, glittering against the gold head of my weapon, and I wiped sweat from my brow. It may have been cold in Danmark, but Asgard had ignored the natural phases of the seasons and offered only warm days and brisk nights.

Beside me, the girl I trained with picked a similarly sized axe. “I’ll match you,” she said. “Want a shield too? That’s what you grew up fighting with, right?”

“Usually,” I said.

Ve had four friends, one being his brother, Leif. Then there was a Bjorn who, true to his name, was the same build as a bear and just as dark. He’d strike me down in two seconds if we fought. Bjorn had a kind laugh though, which he shared freely. Ingra was another friend, a girl with raven black hair, blue eyes, and a partiality toward the spear shethrew with deadly accuracy. I stayed away from her as well. She also kept a sharp eye on Ve and after what happened with Trig and Tova, I was wary.

She could have him though. He wasn’t mine.

Then there was Liv, who proved fun to spar with. She was pulling her hits, I could tell, but she let me have a good fight and occasionally get a win before she beat me. She paused to gather her thick mass of golden hair into a knot on the top of her head, wrapping a strand of leather around it to hold it in place. Some strands fell loose, but the whole chaotic-warrior thing worked for her. With exception for Svana, who I’d yet to see again since that first night in Asgard, Liv was easily the most beautiful girl I’d met. Full cheeks that dimpled with her smile, a strong body, and a wicked swing with the axe.

“Want to hear a secret?” Liv tossed me a shield. “The shields are a trick. We know mortals go for the shields because it’s what they are used to, but they make the matches boring. We like the mortals on offense, not defense. So we rigged the shields to break easily.”

I shuddered at the thought. Going into a match with a shield gave you some sort of protection. Losing protection so quickly when all you have left is an axe would be terrifying.

How many mortals had died that way because the gods wanted a good show?

The arena was every bit as glorious as I’d pictured it, and just as frightening. It’d been constructed at the top of a mountain with a killer view the mortals would never get to see. Ve told me they had cells inside the mountain itself, with an entrance to the arena from below. The walls were thick wood, with iron casing on the outside for good measure. They stretched fifteen feet high. Above that stood the stands where gods would gather to watch. They didn’t create a fence between them and thefighting, but they didn’t need to. I’d seen the size of them. Even if a mortal threw a spear upward, the gods would catch it like a floating leaf and hurl it back with deadly accuracy.

I trembled thinking about it.

So far, everything in Asgard was serene. The crystal waters, the marble homes, the still nights, and the plentiful vegetable garden that grew outside Hitta Haven. Even when Erik struck me, I hadn’t felt great fear because I knew I was safe here. But standing in this arena, the one designed for combat to the death…

I remembered the wrath of gods could be a dangerous thing.

The idea behind the Champion Games was for mortals to glorify the gods through combat, and offer ourselves as sacrifices to them. It only occurred once a decade, but the clans spoke about it so often, it lived on through the rest of the years. It was a great honor to be chosen to go.

If they could see this, they might not think it such an honor.

And the weapons were rigged. I tucked that bit of knowledge away, and set down the shield.

“Let’s fight without them then. Keep it interesting.”

Liv flashed a toothy grin. “I like you. Let’s go.”

Her first attack was ruthless, dragging the heavy axe in an upward swing. I had to bend backward to let the blade slice through the air above me. It missed my nose by a hair.

I glanced to the side where Ve stood with the other three, watching us. It comforted me to have a healer in the group, but I doubted Ve could heal a severed head.

When Ve said it was tradition for him and his friends to sneak inside to practice, he meant they snuck in here andrisked their lives.I wasn’t sure what that meant to an immortal, but I bled easier than they did.

Liv hesitated to be certain I had my footing. I dug my heels into the dry dirt, tightened my grip on the handle, and swung. Her eyes lit up when she realized I wasn’t frightened. She raised her axe above her head and met mine with a clang that reverberated through my shoulder.

I countered quickly, releasing with one hand when the blade was behind my head, twisting it upward, regrabbing, and swinging with an outer-strike. Thanks to having two hands on the blade, I could swing with more force than if I were holding a shield, but so could Liv.

She backstepped from the swing, then cut upwards from inside.

I swallowed a yelp and leapt to my left, letting my axe block my vulnerable side.

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