Chapter 8
Even the brightest fire becomes ash. Even the deepest shadow awaits the dawn. There is light in every darkness because hope is eternal.
I replayed Edith’s voice like a lullaby, attempting to drown out the sound of my teeth chattering. My breath heaved out in short, labored gasps in the cold air.
The colossal Arena loomed above us, stone walls jutting into the gray winter sky.
We stood beneath a wide gatehouse, lined with polished stone and bronze, extending into an interior corridor that ringed the entire Arena.
The sheer size of it all left me gaping, the massive sand pit at its center seemingly endless and foreboding.
“Use that heat glyph you pilfered. No sense freezing,” Blake said gruffly.
The Ambush Master had brought me himself to be thrown to the tygers.
You’ll have to trust that I know what I’m doing.
My stomach churned. I didn’t trust him one bit. I was quite confident in my ability to die quickly today—though I did use the glyph.
Beyond the open metal gate ahead of us, I could see the rows of stone seats surrounding the pit and rising up toward the open sky.
Already, almost every seat was filled with nobility and commoners alike, all eager to see the viciousness of the Bonding.
I, too, had been a spectator here, high in the stands where the commoners sat.
I’d never imagined that I would be the one in the pit.
Hopeful candidates streamed past us to step onto the sand.
The pulse of ambition and fear permeated the air, making my heart race.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“The Hell Gate,” Blake answered grimly. “It’s where the corpses are carried out.”
There were benches and stretchers in the archway, no doubt to lay out the bodies.
My mouth felt dry, my tongue like sandpaper as I tried to swallow. There were guards stationed at every archway, bristling with blades and round shields, their intimidating presence making one thing very clear: There would be no turning back once I entered the pit.
The ground reeked of blood and wet fur. My boots slipped in the churned dirt, and I swore I could hear breathing. Heavy. Animal. I began to tremble.
“I guess most candidates are hoping to Bond with Flame,” I said, forcing the words out. My voice sounded too high, too light. I needed to say something—anything—to stop the panic from climbing up my throat.
“No.” Blake didn’t look at me, his voice tight with restraint. “She is kept away.”
I turned to stare at his profile, since he didn’t deign to look at me.
“She’s not Bonding?”
“Tygresses don’t Bond.”
My brow dipped. “Never?”
Blake took a breath, then paused before he answered, “There is legend of one ancient tygress who Bonded with a female warrior. But in known history, they never have. They are a force unto themselves. Most candidates are hoping to Bond with her future tyger Mate so they would be the leader of all the Tyger Warriors.”
“They would take your place as Ambush Master.”
He nodded, seeming unconcerned by this possibility. “Unless Kingsolver Mates with Flame. But that is their choice.”
A guard appeared before us and addressed Blake. “All entrants are to enter the pit, sir.”
“You will give that glyph back to me later.” He looked at me meaningfully. Like he was sure I would survive. Irrationally, I wanted to cling to him.
You’ll have to trust that I know what I’m doing.
I kept my eyes on the Ambush Master as the soldier led me off, his hand an unyielding clamp around my bicep. A muscle ticked in Blake’s jaw, but he held my eyes as they carted me backward.
“You’re not dead yet, Rubi,” he said, before turning swiftly on his heel and walking away.
There is light in every darkness.
Once amid the crowd of candidates, the guard shoved me hard enough that I sprawled on the sand, gritty and cold against my cheek and palms.
I squinted against the late-afternoon light to see the guards slam the metal gate shut with a loud clang, trapping us in the Arena.
“An Azure!”
“What by the god of war is a woman doing here?!”
The finely dressed male yang Bonding candidates were shouting around me.
I scrambled to my feet, trying to ignore the fingers pointed at me.
I swiftly tucked my long braid down the back of my dress so it couldn’t be grabbed.
The crowd of faces in the stands became a blur, their features indistinguishable as they merged into one mass of people.
The dull roar of their excitement became the white noise of this waking nightmare.
The air was thick with the scent of damp sandy slush and sweat, mixed with the faint aroma of blood and fear.
My mouth filled with the taste of metal, the tang of adrenaline and anticipation.
There was a loud snicker. “The tygers can feast on her instead of us. A fed tyger is a happy one.” A muscled giant towered over me, his frame dwarfing the men around him.
Beneath his steely hair, his face was twisted into a sneer, eyes cold and calculating.
Both the arrogance in his expression and the lavishness of his garments told me he was from one of the wealthier clans.
He leaned in and pushed me with a massive hand, making me stumble backward on the shifting sand. “This is no place for weaklings, Azure yin. You insult us all by your presence.”
The brass-haired man next to him said, “Ire, she’s not worth it.” Then he shifted on his feet, almost bouncing with joy. “I’ve been waiting for this day for so long.”
Ire glared at him. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
At that moment, the trumpets blared. A male voice boomed through the coliseum, “Welcome to the Bonding ceremony of the great tygers!”
The candidates and crowd roared in response.
I tilted my head up toward the royal booth, marked by a seal and flags with their sigil hanging proudly.
It was raised high on painted pillars, draped in banners emblazoned with the roaring silver tyger that symbolized this dominion’s power.
At its center, King Uzar sat upon a black-lacquered throne, his presence as imposing as the steel that shaped his rule.
Beside him was his only child, Princess Malissa.
I had heard of her beauty. Her platinum hair was pulled into a long braid like molten light, and her light green eyes narrowed with disgust as they swept over the crowd.
People said she had a face that could stop an army.
Radiant skin, sharp cheekbones, full lips.
She was also a yin, and the only female tyger rider. But she was not the heir. In the Silver Dominion, they refused to pass power to yins, following only the male line.
Armed guards flanked the royal family, hands resting on the hilts of their curved blades. Around them, nobles draped in embroidered silk and glittering with jewels clustered in a careful semicircle, whispering behind gilded fans.
“Which five mighty yangs shall join the ranks of His Majesty King Uzar’s Tyger Warriors?” the announcer’s voice rang out.
Five. There were only five tygers who were un-Bonded. My head whipped around. There were more than two hundred men standing in the Arena with me.
A deafening roar erupted from the crowd, and the ground trembled. They had released the tygers.
My heart pounded in my ears, and my adrenaline spiked with the urge to run.
But I stood my ground, unsure of the best move.
I saw a few men wet themselves. But there were also those whose faces were filled with ecstasy, like that of the brass-haired man, as if they were in the presence of something divine, arms outstretched to be chosen.
There were many more tygers than five. At least thirty, most of them wearing tack in the king’s black and silver. Those must have been already Bonded by Tyger Warriors.
My throat closed up.
Had they loosed the entire ambush of tygers upon us?
Of course the bloodthirsty crowd must have their spectacle.
The first tyger pounced. It fell upon an older man and dragged him away, screams echoing through the coliseum.
Chaos ignited. Men started yelling, scattering in panic.
They were tripping and stumbling, running for the gate, which was now barred.
Blake’s voice from the evening before came to me: Don’t run.
As I observed the chaos, I saw that those who fled were the quickest to be taken down.
The tygers loved the chase. I watched as a tyger knocked a young man over and walked over him unheeding, its claws leaving gashes in the man’s tender flesh as he screamed.
My hands were shaking, my legs stiff with fear, unable to move from the spot I stood frozen in. I kept my eyes wide, taking in the violence around me, even as terror pounded through me. All around, there were screams and roars, the sound of claws and teeth tearing through flesh.
The air around me shifted, and I realized with rising panic that a few of the tygers were beginning to surround me, snarling and growling. I stood alone.
You’ll have to trust that I know what I’m doing.
Blake Axefire was a brute and a liar. This wasn’t a Bonding ceremony. It was a slaughter. And there was no way I was making it out alive.