Page 14 of Thief of Hearts

It was a place of chaos and destruction and death.

I urged my horse forward. She hesitated slightly, as if she were as wary as I was, but she followed my command and began to walk.

In addition to whatever monsters and trick sand might be out there, I had to pay attention and not let my mind wander because there might be four men lying in wait for me. I needed to keep my guard up.

Which made the trip mind-numbingly boring. I traveled, stopped at a waystation so I could feed and water my horse, and then continued on. Over and over. With a landscape that was sometimes broken up by piles of giant rocks and thorny brush. I listened and scanned the area but didn’t see or hear any potential attackers.

As night fell I went off the path and made camp behind some rocks so that I wasn’t visible. I didn’t sleep. How could I? But it would have been foolish to keep traveling because predators tended to hunt at night. It didn’t surprise me that the men at the inn had lied to me. Sagaris was farther than a single day’s travel.

As soon as the sun rose, I set out again, not knowing how far I still had to go. Hours passed by and I realized that the path was leading to the edge of a cliff. I trotted over to the cliff’s edge and gasped.

How could this be?

The cliffs created a bowl, and at the bottom of it was a beautiful city set in the midst of a green paradise. Paths surrounded the valley, running up through the cliffs and looking like the spokes of a wheel. I saw other travelers on those paths, descending down to the city. No wonder I’d never heard of Sagaris. Even if I told people about this, they wouldn’t believe me.

I returned to the closest path and turned my horse sideways so that we could descend safely. It was steep but manageable. Half an hour later I reached the wall surrounding the city, where a guard waited for me.

“What is it you want?” he asked.

“I have come to compete in the tournament.”

His face lit up with surprise, but he told me to seek out Gamemaster Antioch’s tent to check in. He gave me directions, and ten minutes later, I was dismounting and handing my horse to a waiting stable hand.

A vast tent had been set up and people milled around inside, talking and laughing. I asked a man standing near the doorway where I should go to register. He pointed at a row of tables.

“The registrars are over there. You will recognize them by the golden pins they wear on their tunics.”

I thanked him and went over to the tables. I asked the man seated in front of me, “Is this where I check in?”

The man had his face pointed down at the papyrus in front of him.

“The buy-in is three gold staters and . . .” His voice trailed off when he lifted his head and looked at me. “You’re a woman.”

“I’m aware.”

“Women aren’t allowed to compete in the tournament. Whores can find other ways to spend their time.”

A rush of anger made me see red. I had started to reach for my sword when a deep voice sounded from behind me, to my right. “That hardly seems fair. Her gold is as good as any other’s.”

The registrar didn’t seem to care. Instead he smiled broadly. “Her gold doesn’t matter. She can’t compete. There is no place for creatures like her in the tournament.”

I wouldn’t be competing in the tournament because I was going to kill this registrar, and that most likely was against their precious rules.

The man who had spoken up for me stepped forward, and I sucked in a deep breath when I saw his profile.

He wore a deep red tunic. He had a ring on every one of his fingers, and his earlobe was lined with rings.

Pirate. He looked like a pirate.

When I was fifteen I had spent months convinced that someday I would run away with a pirate. Thrax had teased me relentlessly about it.

And now here one was, defending me.

“Unfortunately for you,” he said to the registrar, “I read the rule book before coming. It only mentions ‘competitors’ and says nothing about men or women. There is no rule that excludes her.”

The registrar reached for a rule book farther down the table and began to scan the pages. His face got redder and redder the further he went. He slammed the book closed.

“So the rules don’t specifically exclude women, but this is an invitation-only event. We wouldn’t invite a woman.”