Chapter 10 #4
Titus overcorrected and lifted his shield in the wrong direction, his stance thrown off—
And Thanor dropped.
He slid through the sand in a controlled rush, swinging both axes in a brutal arc. The steel bit deep into the backs of Titus’s heels as the tendons parted in a spray of blood.
The Aurexium champion screamed as his legs gave way beneath him. He collapsed, crashing to his knees as his hands clawed uselessly at the sand.
My mouth turned dry, and I looked away. A hand closed around mine. Jorius’s grip was warm and steady. He didn’t speak, only held on until my breath evened, until the surge inside me eased enough to bear.
I dared to look again, though I feared the bloody spectacle would turn my stomach.
Thanor stood before Titus. The Aurexium champion’s nose was crooked and broken, blood streaking down his face where teeth had been shattered. His heels bled freely. With trembling legs beneath him, he lowered his head in shame.
Thanor lifted his gaze—not to his fallen opponent, but upward. Toward the Imperator. There was no plea in the look. No request. Only disgust.
The Imperator rose halfway from his throne and spread his arms wide. His voice carried easily now that everyone was holding their breath in expectation of death.
“People of Valystria,” he called, stirring the crowd. “Do you call for mercy—or death?”
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
The demand for blood shook the Maw, and the Imperator’s mouth curved. He lifted his hand, then brought it down.
Caelora’s champion didn’t hesitate. He reached down, seized Titus by the ring in his nose, and ripped it free in one sharp motion. The fallen champion’s eyes turned lifeless at once. I understood then why they called Thanor the Ringbreaker of Caelora.
He stepped back and crossed both axes at Titus’s neck—
And ended it. The blades flashed once, clean and final. Titus’s head rolled across the sand.
The Maw erupted yet again. My throat went tight. The man was already dead, having his piercing ripped out. But even that wasn’t enough; his body had to be broken as well. Elion had shielded me from all of this, but that also meant I’d been painfully ignorant.
Thanor stood frozen. His arms hung loosely at his sides, his weapons lowered as blood dripped steadily into the pale sand. His gaze fixed on the body at his feet. He didn’t seem triumphant or relieved. Only empty. As if whatever the crowd and the Imperator had demanded had failed to reach him.
A roar tore me away.
Kharos was swiping his claws at Syrath with ferocious efficiency.
He drove Syrath down and clamped his jaws around the saber’s neck, shaking him violently.
Syrath retaliated by biting his paw, and Kharos’s answering growl made my skin erupt in goosebumps.
Then he threw him to the ground before pounding on him and biting his throat, ending the struggle in a single decisive motion.
Syrath gave a final cry before his body stilled beneath the violence.
When Kharos finally released him, he prowled back, his chest heaving.
A shallow gash marked his front paw, and blood oozed from it.
I inhaled sharply. A saber’s saliva was poisonous.
Every passing heartbeat gave it more time to spread.
If Cassius didn’t begin treatment immediately, even Kharos might not survive it.
He lifted his head toward Thanor and their eyes met. No emotion seemed to pass between them. They turned in unison, calm as if the fight were already forgotten, and walked toward the inner gates of the Maw without a backward glance.
The guards moved quickly and the mechanisms groaned as the gates opened to receive them, swallowing both warrior and injured saber into the Maw’s depths.
My breath shuddered out, but my gaze remained fixed on the gates long after they closed. Kharos’s wounded paw refused to leave my mind. Before I could move, Marcus appeared at my side.
“Bondward Valentina,” he said briskly, urgency replacing his usual composure. “You are needed. Cassius is below in the waiting cells. Kharos is in need of your help. Come now.”
I rose, my pulse kicking, and fell into step beside him as we moved toward the stairs.
He spoke, slightly out of breath. “It was a fine showing! Exceptional performance from Vayren and Kharos. The Imperator was impressed—I could see it plainly. It seems I have done well for Caelora. I have forged a god among the Saber Warriors. The ultimate weapon for the Empire.”
My hand gripped the stone wall as we moved through the corridor, the rough surface biting into my palm as I held my tongue.
What I’d seen in Thanor wasn’t obedience or devotion.
He’d stood over his opponent as if victory meant nothing, a man holding something back by sheer will. And will, I knew, could snap .
Marcus stopped at a fork in the tunnels and gestured to the right.
“That way—the waiting cells. Cassius will be there.”
I nodded and ran down the indicated passage, the roar of the crowd fading behind me as the stone swallowed both sound and light.