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She’s pretty, for a human at least. It’s a little hard to tell given how dirty and unkempt she is, but every once and a while, her face or body will hit a pose and I’ll see it. She has short black hair, cut unevenly, probably with a dagger. Her body is muscular, and there are several scars on it, but they’re the kind that happen from accidents rather than torture. Most of all, her sharp eyes give her a look of startling confidence.
That’s what really makes her stand out. She’s not scared right now, not like all of the other humans around her. She’s furious.
This whole country seems almost entirely dedicated to robbing humans of any sense of dignity. This woman has managed to hold on to it, despite everything. That interests me. It especially interests me now, because it makes me wonder if she’s going to do something about the women screaming for their lives on the stage.
She’s one woman, unarmed against several naga soldiers with swords. Yet she doesn’t look like she’s lost hope.
She’s shoved onto the stage as the soldiers have now formed a near-solid ring around it. There are several other humans on the stage with her, but my eyes stay locked on her. The other humans are terrified. I’m sure she’s planning something.
Whatever she’s planning, it’s interesting to me. I push past the gathering naga, deciding that I’d better get a closer glimpse of this. If something is about to happen, there’s no way that I’m not going to be right in the thick of it.
5
LORELAI
Iwas trapped in it before I had a chance to get out of it. I was walking down the streets of the village, doing my best to keep my head down and not get the attention of anyone, when suddenly, a young woman carrying a baby stumbled into me. She had come from one of the houses, and it took me a second to realize what was going on.
That was when I saw the naga soldier, sword drawn, standing in the doorway of the house she’d just been pushed out of. Immediately, I became aware that there were other soldiers and other humans everywhere around me. And worse, people were gathering to watch.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” the soldier said, stepping forward. “We’ve got a show to put on.”
The woman stepped back, and I put myself in between her and the soldier, then followed her into the market square. More soldiers and more humans were being forced in from other streets, all towards the great stage at the center.
I caught the eyes of the woman. She was looking at me for reassurance, but there wasn’t much that I could offer her. We were caught in a round-up. The only way out was going to be through.
There are no formal rules for a round-up. That isn’t really the point. The point is that soldiers can do it, and they want to remind humans that they can. Even a human who was owned by someone else can get swept up into a round-up. If they get killed, sometimes the owner will demand financial compensation, but usually, the fear it creates among the rest of the humans is payment enough.
All I know for certain is that the soldiers are going to force all of the humans onto the stage, and then they won’t let them go until we have entertained them. Usually, that means a fight to the death. The soldiers will let one human leave once there is only one human left.
Usually, at least. If they don’t think it will be more fun to kill them, too.
I glance around the various humans being corralled into climbing onto the stage. There are about twenty of them. None are armed with any real weapons. Only a few of them move like fighters – a man over by the opposite corner of the stage, a teen boy who is already on the stage, and a woman who is about three or four people away from me.
Of course, there is the possibility that any of them can use magic. Then again, they’d have to be very subtle about it if they did try using magic in the battle. Letting a crowd of angry nagas know that you are a human magic user is just asking to be killed.
There is no way for me to use fire or elemental magic in this battle. Even if I escape, which isn’t guaranteed, the news will make its way up the military chain. I’d lose any chance to approach the King with the element of surprise.
So what am I supposed to do? How am I going to make it out?
I climb up onto the stage as a basic plan starts to form in my head. Yes, I decide. I’ll fight my way through this and win. But I’ll do it without letting them see that I’m fighting. I’ll be the last one standing, but as far as anyone will be able to tell, that will only be by pure chance.
That will mean they’ll be pretty likely to let me go once it’s all over. If it looks like I won by skill, they’ll want to humiliate me more and knock me down a peg. If it looks like chance, they’ll laugh it off. Even a weak little woman like me can kill a bunch of humans.
“Well, then,” the leader of the soldiers announces, stepping forward. His armor has a golden sheen to it, which indicates someone who bought their way up the ranks. “You all know what to do. Show me which of you wants to live!”
There’s a moment of silence as the humans on the stage look at each other, wondering whether they’re actually going to attack each other or not.
And then, chaos breaks out. It turns out, it only takes one to start it all off.
The first thing I do is wrap my arm around the throat of the woman who had the baby. With a single jerk, I’m able to pull her off my feet and to the ground. If my arm had been just a little lower, I would have been able to snap her neck like that. I think if anyone is watching, they’ll think that’s what happens. But I’m also counting on the idea that no one will be. There’s too much movement for anyone to focus on me and what I’m doing.
“Stay down on the ground and play dead,” I whisper to her, then pull my arm off and back away, trying to get to a place where no one will attack me. She remains there, quiet. As long as she doesn’t make any noise, she should be safe.
I might not have the chance to save anyone else, but at least I hope she’ll be okay.
The mass of people charging into each other is terrifying and overwhelming. There’s so much blood and violence, and it’s all so senseless. None of these people are fighters. They’re all just desperate and scared. Watching it, I can feel myself shutting my emotions away, pushing them down until I can survive this.
A large man sees me standing alone and charges at me. He’s already got blood on his fists, and I don’t want to think about how he got it there.
