Page 33 of Court of Talons
“You! Get off the stage, you have no right?—”
Fortiss’s raised hand freezes everyone. This close, the head warrior of the First House looks impossibly perfect, chiseled from stone. His steady golden eyes take me in.
“Warrior Merritt of the Tenth House,” he says, clear curiosity in his voice.
I nod hurriedly, and he smiles. An entirely different and unwelcome emotion punches through me. No one has ever smiled at me with such focus. I don’t know what to do, how to act. It’s all I can manage to keep my expression fixed and stolid.
“Warrior Merritt of the Tenth House, we’re honored to have you fight in the Tournament of Gold,” Fortiss says, bowing slightly to me. “You and your company shall join us tomorrow night in the great hall of the First House, to present yourself to Lord Rihad and partake of the warrior’s banquet. Prepare your men.”
Desperate not to betray myself, I stare gravely back, then bow my head as well. I can feel the outrage spilling off Hantor and Jank like spoiled wine, but they’re the least of my problems.
Somewhere on this stage might be the man who killed Merritt. Who even now seeks to kill me, believing I’m my brother. And that murderer has me at a grave disadvantage, given how little I know about fighting and Divhs and…well, everything about this world of warrior knights.What am I doing up here? What was I thinking?
Then Fortiss turns to the crowd, and all my fears, my worries and denials are suddenly too late.
“To all you soldiers who would join these men,” he cries, “I present you the warrior knights of the Protectorate. In the coming days, they will fight with their mighty Divhs to win your respect!”
A resounding bellow sweeps through the throng, practically lifting us off the stage. It’s a cry of battle lust and excitement, and the band around my left arm spasms, a living thing.
As one, the warriors on stage lift their left arms high above their heads, their right hands crossed to their chests, fists to heart. We turn toward the mountain stronghold of the First House of the Protectorate and join our voices to the roar.
I have entered the Tournament of Gold.
Chapter 13
“This is going to be a tournament for the ages. You’re going to show everyone, it’ll be epic!”
Caleb hasn’t stopped talking since I jumped down from the stage, the two of us disappearing into the crowd before Hantor can hunt me down. Despite my brave show, I don’t want to fight the Second House knight again, or his friend Jank, the lunkheaded banded soldier.
They’re not the only men I fear back on that stage, though. I try to remember who stared at me the longest and the hardest, in those few brief moments I stood among them. In truth, it was Jank who’d glared at me the most, once I’d declared myself. Hantor had, too—but Hantor was barely more than a boy. He’d never have been sent on a killing mission. But had Jank or one of the other warriors of the Second been given that charge? Had any of them been the one to shoot the arrow that cleaved through my brother’s heart?
What was I thinking, to imagine I could enter the tournament without any real training? I’m as much of an idiot as Merritt.
“Caleb—” I try to interrupt.
He waves me off, pausing only long enough to give directions. “Turn here, back under the stands. We can breathe again.”
I follow his lead, and soon we are in the cool half-darkness of a wide stone corridor, a distant light beckoning us onward, and more sunshine filtering down through long open slats in the ceiling. We move deeper into the stillness another twenty paces before Caleb stops and pivots to me. The smile on his face reaches all the way to his eyes, and he bounces up on his toes.
“Look, I know you don’t think you’re ready for this,” he begins.
“I’mnotready for it.”
“—And I know you’re probably worried about the Seventh House’s death worm?—”
Death worm?
Caleb keeps going. “But we have time. There’s another full week before the tournament proper begins, and maybe longer if they think they can get more warriors to show up.”
I frown at him, my guts twisting. “What do you mean, more?”
“After today’s announcement, you can bet that bards will be sent to all the houses not reporting in so far. That’ll take a while. But at least now they won’t have to go to the Tenth House and back—you’re accounted for. That’ll cut a good four days off the wait.”
“Oh. Right.”
He blows out a long breath then fixes me with a hard look. “Still, we’ll have a lot to do in a short time no matter how you look at it. What with you being a girl and all.”
My stomach drops so fast and so far, I’m surprised it doesn’t fall out my feet. I can’t do anything but stare back at Caleb in utter shock at his bold declaration, all my carefully constructed denials dying in my throat for one harrowing moment before I can recover.