Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1) (4 page)

BOOK: Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1)
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The Governor raised his hands and the crowd began to scream and cheer. Reena’s heart sank all the way down into her stomach as she heard the chant being taken up, “Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Nemia nudged her. So, the other girl knew that she had the knife. Reena’s palms were slicked with sweat and her heart was beating so rapidly she was afraid she was going to faint. How could such a lovely day — a day so beautiful, with such a blue sky and wonderfully beaming sun — bring such misery?

He was going to order that they all die. She knew it. She lifted her hand just as the Governor lifted his and a knife blade glittered momentarily in the sun, causing the Governor to blink, but his thumb was already moving in the crowd screamed again assist him pointed toward that sunny sky.

Reena quickly lowered her hand. The Governor stepped closer, and Nemia crowded next to her. Nemia took the knife so quickly that nobody saw it happening. With this free hand the Governor reached out and grabbed Reena’s hand just as the knife left it. The touch of his fingers on her wrist made her shutter, and she reacted instinctively, her other hand coming up balling into a fist and careening wildly toward his face.

Her father grabbed her arm just in time. She could feel the heat of the Governor’s cheek on her knuckles. The crowd went silent. The silence was so profound that Reena could hear the distant scream of a hawk riding high on the currents in the air above the arena.

“Well, you are a fighter aren’t you?” The governor looked toward the crowd. Reena could see their shocked faces: pale with wide-open mouth and a few hands pressed to eyes as if they could not bear to see what had almost transpired. “Behold, you are witnessing a momentous occasion! Here, today, we the population of this mighty city have seen something that we have never seen before! So today, I bring to you, my people, a wondrous thing. I give you your very first female gladiator!”

What was he talking about? Who was he talking about? Reena stared about her dazedly. Her father’s hands were warm and solid on her shoulders and Nemea’s shoulder brushed against hers. The crowd began to cheer again, their fists and feet pumping and stomping, louder than any before it. Reena was confused and unsure of what was happening but it did not take her long to figure it out. The Governor smiled at her, a cold and vicious little smile that did not reach his eyes.

“Let’s see how much of a fighter you really are.” To the soldiers ranged around him he said, “Take the rest of these convicts back to the cells. Take her to the training field.”

What was happening? The soldiers surrounded her and began to force her to march in the opposite direction of her father. Reena panicked; she began to fight kicking and screaming, but the soldiers wore heavy armor and her blows did not faze them.

“Let my father go!” Her cries lifted across the echoing silence in the arena. “I am going to kill you if it is the last thing I do!”

One of the soldiers grabbed her arm and dragged her along. Her feet stirred up the sand, making little eddies in the wind The man holding her arm had a stoic expression on his face, but when he spoke, his voice was far from stoic. “You should have killed him when you had the chance, you will never have another one.”

“Are you saying that because you feel sorry for me or because you’re happy for him?” Reena heard the venom in her voice. If the soldier she was speaking to heard it, he pretended not to.

They took her to a tall building located on the other side of the city. Reena stood in front of it staring up, her entire body trembling with fear and rage. The building was unlike any she had ever seen before. The high walls were made of solid white marble and there were long columns running from the tall arched roof all the way to the ground. Behind those columns and between them and the actual structure stood fountains. Reena had never seen anything like those fountains before either. The water splashed and danced and sang, like a creek trapped within a basin.

Women lounged on silk and satin covered things that looked like a cross between a chair and a bed. Many of them were dressed in the thinnest and most transparent of togas.

Reena could see their bodies below those togas and she blushed and looked away. What kind of woman would lie about in the open like that with most of her body on display? A few of the soldiers glanced at the women and the women giggled and waved. Heat filled Reena’s face once more as she realized exactly who those women were and why they were there.

The huge doors that led inside the building opened and a draft of cool air came out, causing Reena to shiver. She was dragged along her feet and toes scraping the cold stone floor. Inside there were more columns, all of them carved with fantastical figures; statues of the gods and goddesses peered out from a tiny niche carved into the walls and smaller doors – most of them closed – sat in small recesses between the statues.

At the end of a hallway they turned right. They entered into a large and mostly open chamber with a huge altar at one end. There was a woman in front of that altar, and Reena gaped at her as she was led to where the woman stood. She was taller than any woman Reena had ever seen and her skin was almost as white as the stone around her. Her red hair hung unbound, festooned with small stones and glittering threads all the way to her waist. She wore a simple red toga bound with a gold girdle. On her wrists and upper arms were beaten gold bracelets and armlets, all of them bearing the same shape: that of a snake.

“Why do you bring me this girl?”

One of the soldiers shuffled his feet and looked at the other soldiers. “She is to go to the training fields.”

“So I heard.” A long finger came out and touched Reena’s cheek. Reena shuddered; that finger was as cold as the grave. “Perhaps you misheard your ruler. I do not believe that this was the training field that he had in mind, not if what I heard happened at the arena earlier is to be believed.” The smile on the woman’s face was predatory, almost unpleasant. One of the soldiers took a step forward and said, “You heard correctly Orleanians.”

Orleanians said, “I repeat, then why is she here?”

“You know that the men in the training field must conserve their strength and energy.”

“And what has that to do with me? They don’t come here, that is for sure. That is until they already win a few fights and are allowed to ask for something that they enjoy.”

“She must be housed.”

“Then take her where you were told to take her.” Orleanians waved her hand at the soldiers. “Do not bring me your problems, because that is all you are doing. You are attempting to bring me your problem rather than solve it yourselves, gentlemen. Let us be honest; if you leave her here I could be killed for your insubordination. I refuse to allow her entry here. I bid you to take her where you were ordered to take her. Now leave this place.”

Reena was stunned: this woman, she had power! Reena did not understand it, or how it was possible, yet she did. In a city where women had no authority, this woman was giving orders to soldiers! And they were listening to her!

The soldiers turned around and Reena was shoved and spun until she was also turned around. They began to march her out again, and she could feel their discontent in anger. They wanted to lash out but they were afraid to. How was that possible, who was this woman? She was determined to find out.

The soldiers walked her down the bustling crowded streets. People stared and Reena was glad that she was in the center of the soldiers because they hid her somewhat from those wide – eyed gazes and hard scrutiny.

Murmurs rose up and she knew that people were talking about her. By the time they breached the gladiator’s training fields Reena was exhausted, her limbs trembling from a combination of leftover adrenaline and fear. All she wanted to do was to find a place to sit down, maybe get a drink of water and close her eyes for a few minutes.

Instead she was shoved through the gates of the high gray stone structure and then into a tiny room with a barred window and a barred door. The door clanged shut behind the soldier who would shelter within the room and Reena stared about.

There was not much to see. The bed was a meager pallet laid on the floor. There was a wooden hook hanging from the wall probably to dangle clothes from, not that she had any to dangle. There was a small shelf; presumably it would hold someone’s prayer relics and small personal items. She had none of those things, so she ignored the shelf and seated herself on her pallet.

Reena drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around it resting her chin on her knee. Tears came to her eyes, filling them. Where was her father? Would he be forced to go back into the arena again tomorrow, or even sometime later on today? How could she have been named as a gladiator? What did that even mean for her? The Governor had known that she was going to kill him; he had seen a knife even if he’d not been able to catch her with it. He had named her as a gladiator for a reason, and that reason was probably incredibly simple: he wanted to watch her die.

He was not inclined to be merciful about it either.

Her tears flowed, wetting her knees, but she made no sound as they spilled from her eyes. The room was chilled, almost dank and she was starved and tired but eventually her natural and young spirit revived itself. She stood and placed her hands on the bars that would prevent her from escaping through the window and stared out at Aretula below her. She could place her hands outside the bars and did, allowing the sun to warm her skin. She rested her head on the bars and closed her eyes, concentrating hard.

She could imagine it, the woods – her home. Deep shadows, the songs of birds, the smell of moss and wild mushroom. The feel of the uneven ground below her feet, and the sound of water running in a small babbling brook. She could even taste that water if she wanted to; she could kneel beside that brook and slide her hand into the cool clear blue waters, cup her palm and bring it to her mouth.

The water touched her lips, slid between, then ran down her tongue, and her parched throat opened to receive that gift.

“You. Girl.”

The words sent her spinning around, her fantasy forgotten. The man standing on the other side of the door was huge, scarred, and wearing nothing more than a simple cloth belted around his waist and sandals that extended halfway up his legs.

“My name is Reena.”

“I do not care what your name is. Here you are nobody, you are nothing. Do you understand me?”

Rebellion surfaced and refused to be tamped down. She took a few steps closer to the door. Her voice shook as she replied, “My name is Reena and I do not have to prove anything.”

For a fleeting second she was almost certain that she saw approval on his scarred face. “As I said until you prove yourself you are nothing and nobody. Your training will begin in the morning. I suggest you get a good night sleep.”

Reena laughed, a jagged little thing that left her already aching throat feeling rawer than ever. “Get a good night sleep? Are you out of your mind? I have been dragged out of my home and into this city; I’ve been forced to go into an arena and I killed a tiger.

“My father has been ripped away from me and I do not know where he is or if he is safe and yet you come here and stand outside that door and tell me to get a good night’s sleep. Are you insane? Have the gods robbed you of your senses as revenge for something?”

“I know it seems impossible. I know all of these things seem impossible to you. You seem impossible to me, a girl! I am supposed to train a girl to be a gladiator! If you fail, if you die I will be the laughing stock of all who have ever trained to gladiator.”

“I am sorry to put you in such a bad position.” Reena did not even bother trying to disguise the sarcasm in her words.

“You should have used the knife you know. Either way, you’re going to die. If you had simply killed the Governor and allowed yourself to be punished for that treason, life would’ve been so much easier for so many people.”

“As I said I am sorry to inconvenience you so.” Reena refused to look away, this man wore all his scars proudly. That he was a veteran of many battles was visible and she knew that if anybody could help her survive it would be him. She also knew that to back away right now or to back down would be to guarantee that he would not help her.

She had no idea how she knew that, she only knew that she did.

“I will have a meal brought to you. Make sure you eat it all, and drink well. If you need to relieve yourself there is a bowl in the corner.” Reena refused to follow his finger toward the corner at which he pointed but she was secretly glad to have that knowledge.

“My name is Reena.”

His eyes met hers in a steady gaze. “If you are lucky, one day that will mean something. If you are unlucky, or unable to fight then your name will be forever lost. You will simply be the girl who foolishly pulled a knife on the Governor and died in her first battle as a gladiator.”

“What is your name?”

“I am Hector. I am head gladiator here on the training fields.”

“Were you a gladiator in the arena?”

Hector’s teeth showed between his lips and what may have been a smile, “of course, there are ways for gladiators to survive the arena.”

“What ways? Tell me!” Reena demanded, her hands gripping the bars to the door. As she drew even closer she pressed her face against the bars almost pulling the skin from her cheeks as she said, “what do you mean by that? Tell me!”

BOOK: Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1)
6.1Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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