Chapter 17
KORMAC
They carried me from my cell again. Every fucking muscle hurt, my mouth a pit of fire. But they dragged me and pumped me full of potions and dunked me into a bath and left me to scrub myself clean.
By the time I dried off and pulled on the brown loincloth and boots provided to me, my body was alive with energy, and the pain nullified. All because of the potions. Once they wore off, I’d crash and hurt again.
This bathroom wasn’t fancy. Gray walls and a mirror and a much smaller pool than the prince’s.
I looked at myself in the mirror. Modesty barely covered by the loin cloth, my body on display. Vulnerable. Almost naked.
Fuck.
The woman from my last bath was back. She carried a sword in a leather sheath in her arms. “Hello, again. You are to fight in the pit today. The champion of the Prince Valance.”
I thought so.
“This is your weapon,” she added. “Chosen by His Royal Highness.”
Great. I didn’t turn from the mirror.
Survive. Fight. Kill the prince. More complications. The royal fucker wasn’t making it easy to end him, was he?
She put the weapon down, leaning it against the wall.
The famous fighting pit of Titheden City.
The only one of its kind left. Everyone in Faerie knew about it, feared it, or wanted to go and take part in a fight.
Be a champion for royalty or for some lord.
Why, I never knew. As many scraps as I’d been in, the last place I’d want to throw down would be in the pit.
What a shit thing to be the entertainment for those hellpissing fuckers.
But here I was, ready to get in there and be Valance’s new champion. Fine. If it was a route to getting at him, I’d take it. You never knew what waited around the corner. The prince trying to seduce me being an expected turn.
His body…
Ren’s body! My fucking body!
“You are leaving soon,” she said. “The guards will come and escort you to the city.”
I nodded, staring ahead. The most important thing now was survival.
She went to walk away, paused. “Stay alive,” she said and left.
Stay alive.
Stay. Alive.
I fixed the leather sheath on me, straps crisscrossing over my chest and back. Examining the sword told me everything. Cheaply made, crude at the edges. Not blunt, but not the best weapon in the world.
Start from the bottom and work my way up to sharper.
I went from the palace to the arena in a carriage with no windows. A bumpy journey with every nerve on edge. I didn’t have a plan. Couldn’t think of one other than kill and don’t be killed. The nature of battle—don’t get run through. Avoid the enemy and their pointy parts.
Eventually, I saw the daylight. When I stepped out of the carriage, manacles on my wrists and ankles, the rays hit me.
My body responded happily, going slightly limp for a few seconds.
Happy to be outside and experiencing it rather than cooped up down in the dark or being locked in a cage above some evil garden.
I heard the crowds, looked up at the building. This was it. Then a hood was pulled over my head, and guards shoved me onward.
Hellpissers!
The hood came off as a heavy door slammed closed behind me. I blinked at it, at the closed viewing slat. Wooden and thick and not the sort of door to be kicked or chopped down with the sword on my back.
If only.
“Kormac…”
I spun around at the familiar voice and ran to him.
Ren. By the gods!
He was huddled in a corner by a closed gate onto the sand of the main arena. There were so many people out there, so much noise. I winced at the thrum.
“Kormac…” My friend was worse for wear. Sweaty and ashen, a bloody bandage over his new stump.
I took his face gently into my hands, smoothing back his damp brown hair.
I’m here, my friend, I said in my head.
And he was here. Which meant… Oh, no.
He smiled. “This is my sentence,” he said. “I’m to be killed here today.”
I won’t let you die!
A horrible ache flared in my chest. Ren wasn’t in any condition for anything other than bed, let alone being in this god-forsaken place.
He groaned as he tried to sit up. “My head… Migraine… The poison is loosening its grip, though. I can do… I can do this…” He touched the side of my head. A buzzing rang in my ears and my mind as if some bees had flown too close.
“Think… Think what you want to say, and we can talk,” he said.
Magic? I thought at him.
“Only a little,” he answered.
Gods! It worked! I can talk to you!
“You can. But I can’t think back at you.” He groaned again, grabbing his head. “Wretched poison. They… They know I’ll be dead before it fully wears off. Doesn’t… Doesn’t matter.”
Don’t try and talk or move.
“Please… I need to talk to you…”
I sat beside him, letting him rest his head against my shoulder.
“That’s nice,” he said.
Ren, I’m so sorry this is happening. I can—
“You need to… You need to stop talking and let me speak.”
I let him.
“Firstly, how are you?”
I’ve been better.
“Change is coming, I promise. Starting… Starting today…” He spoke in a whisper.
But how?
“Let me speak, Kormac. Before it’s too late.”
Sorry.
“Lasair’s army is coming. The end of the prince is coming. I’ll make sure of it. But you have to let me die.”
My breath hitched.
“Kormac? You must not try to save me.”
I—
Ren managed to sit up and turn around. His whole demeanor changed, reminding me of the prince for a second.
Coldness. Ren was never cold, only ever warm and sweet and missing home when we were on the road.
Missing Flora back home. Wanting to marry her if he ever got the courage to ask her.
He already had a ring he’d bought from a wagon trader come to the village one day.
Inexpensive, but special because weddings and rings and things didn’t feature in our lives much.
“Those ten Fomorians were sent to strike fear in the royals. A warning of more to come. They were sacrifices to distract from what is really going on. Kept in the dark, given the same information to share when they were caught.”
Preston had meant to die, to say those things to Valance?
“They’ll never find Lasair because they don’t know where to look.” Ren’s eyes went to the door. “You’ll see. But you have to let me die to see.”
I… How am I supposed to let that happen?
He leaned in closer. “If you really want this change, you will.”
I sagged, drawing my knees up. You’re my friend. I can’t stand by and let you get torn apart.
“Haven’t been listening?”
Of course, I have. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.
“No one said you did. But you must accept that this is the end of the road for me now. I wish it wasn’t. There’s so much…” His coldness thawed, and I dragged him back to rest on me.
Try not to move too much with that bad head.
“The pain… So bad.”
I’m sorry.
“It won’t mean anything soon. I just wish I could give you back your tongue.”
I can’t handle this, Ren.
“I know.”
I reached around to touch the back of his head. I didn’t know what to say.
“That pressure helps,” he said, nuzzling his head back into my palm.
Good. Anything I can do to help.
“Survive this fight,” he said, “and you’ll get your freedom back.”
My mind whirred a million times over. Let him die. Survive. Lasair had a plan.
Change… I whispered down our connection.
“Yes. Change.”
Fuck.
“I know.” He sighed. “I really wanted to see it through. Marry Flora when peace came. I wanted to ask you to be my best man.”
The ache in my chest spread everywhere, drawing tears. Ren…
“Think of the party afterward,” he said. “I can picture you now, drunk on ale, on a table singing your heart out.”
I closed my eyes, conjuring the scenario. What a day it would be.
I can see your face, I said, the stars in your eyes you always have for Flora.
“I really love her.”
And she loves you. You’re a right sappy pair.
His laugh was laced with agony. “She makes my heart melt every time I see her face.”
I caught some tears as they escaped, not wanting him to spot them. You’re so annoying together.
“I planned on being so much worse when married. Lots of kissing in the village, living in a romantic bubble.”
Lovely. Is there a sick bucket in this cell?
He laughed again and fell silent. I let him be still as the noisy arena went on beyond us.
“How did this happen?” he finally broke the silence. “Life is strange, isn’t it?”
Do I really need to do this?
“Yes.”
A horrible thought came over me. You’re not asking me to—
“No, no. I’d never ask you to kill me. Just don’t stop it. And you don’t… You don’t have to watch. Concentrate on saving your own skin.”
This was a nightmare. Soon I’d wake up and be getting ready for his wedding. None of this, none of anything, would be real. He’d have both hands, I’d have my tongue, and we’d all drink too much and dance hard and celebrate love and freedom and a better world.
Buzzing in my head and ears again.
Ren?
“The connection’s gone,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”
I let him rest while I wondered and hurt about what was coming next. Shit. Here I sat again, helpless and without a clue.
Ren, Ren, Ren.
Fuck.
I couldn’t do this.
A deafening roar flooded the cell. The crowd cheered, then went silent. Moments later, I heard a voice that sent dark chills through my body.
Prince Valance.