Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1) (11 page)

“Well, you’re still alive I see little Outlaw.”

“No thanks to you. Where’s my father?”

“I don’t know. They’re moving them around a lot, the ones you’re battling for a meeting. The Governor is afraid that someone might tell you the location — I don’t know what he is afraid of. It’s not like you’re going to escape from that tower.”

“Is he okay?” Her whole heart was in the words, she had to know.

Praxis took a long step towards her. “He’s all you have in this world, isn’t he?”

“Yes, my mother’s been dead since I was a child. My father is all I have and I will do anything to get him back.”

“I see you used the gift I sent you.”

Praxis? Praxis had sent her the amulet? But why? He was a soldier with everything to lose. Hector had said that the Governor had made it very clear that she was to have no Protectors. Why would he risk of that? All of her questions must have showed on her face because he said, “we have a lot to talk about I know.”

“No, we don’t. All I want you to tell me is where my father is.”

“I’ve already told you, I don’t know.”

“I think you’re lying.”

“You may think what you like, but it won’t change things.”

“Then why are you even here? If you can’t help me and won’t tell me where my father is or if he’s okay, why are you even here?”

“He is okay. He’s being fed and cared for. He’s not being beaten nor is he being made to labor. I don’t know if that eases your mind any but that’s the best I can offer you.”

It did ease her mind, quite a bit. “You still have not told me why you’re here.”

“Because this is the only place we can talk and be safe.”

What could he possibly have to talk to her about? There was a small table set in the room and on it were dishes covered with high domed silver lids. Praxis indicated the table with a wave of his hand, “Would you like something to eat?”

She hesitated. After nearly being poisoned to death by food she had been very careful about what she ate, and with good reason. Her stomach was born angrily and she looked away, blushing.

Praxis stepped closer to her and his finger tilted her chin back so that she was looking him and his eyes. “Are they not feeding you?”

“I don’t dare eat it now that I know somebody is trying to poison me.”

The expression on his face was too funny not to be genuine. His fingers slid down her neck and around it and he hugged her to his chest. Reena had never had a boy touch her like this before and Praxis was at least twenty! He was not a boy anymore, he was a grown man!

She rested her head on his broad, strong chest. She could feel his heart beating below and she closed her eyes, listening to that comforting sound. “Reena, you must eat. Tell me how they poison the food.”

“I don’t know.” Tears sprang to her eyes and her voice quivered. “I would’ve died afraid. I would have eaten it but I didn’t, instead Ri… A rat got to it. I watched it die, it was horrible.”

“I see, someone paid to have you removed from the games then. It’s not unheard of, and people can lose a fortune out there on the arena stages.”

“Do you mean somebody would kill me simply because they had placed a bet against me?” Indignation made her push away from him, but as soon as she was away from him she missed him. His body heat still clung to her skin, as did the fragrance of his body: warm, masculine and clean.

“Yes, they do it all the time. Nobody likes to talk about it but we all know it happens. We will have to make sure that that does not happen to you again, who are your guards?”

“I don’t know. They don’t talk to me, they’ve never told me their names.”

“Could you describe them?”

“I don’t really pay very much attention to them. Usually they’re in full armor anyway, including facemasks. I guess they’re afraid that I’ll kill them.”

Praxis sat at the table and began taking the silver covers off the dishes. “Sit down Reena, you need to eat.”

What if it was poisonous? It was a risk she had to take, she was literally starving. Besides she would rather die out here far away from her prison than inside it trapped like a rat.

Praxis deliberately tasted everything on the plates and drank straight from the pitcher. Reena knew he did that to prove to her that none of it was poisonous and as soon as she understood that, she grabbed at the food and began to stuff it into her mouth as fast as possible. Praxis said, not unkindly, “Slow down. You don’t want to make yourself sick.”

Reena stopped eating immediately, aware of her rudeness and her lack of manners. She set the huge hunk of bread that she had in her hand down carefully next to her plate and looked up at him — keeping her gaze level.

“I still don’t understand why you’re here.”

“Of course you don’t, they don’t teach you anything really in the woods do they?”

“What the hell does that mean?” She bristled at the very tone of his voice, it sounded like he might be making fun of her..

“Reena, when you are riding on my horse with me, when you were talking to me, I was falling for you. I know you think that’s crazy perhaps or even foolish. Perhaps you even think that I am making that up but I’m not. You are the most unusual girl I have ever met and I want to spend some time with you.”

Bitterness fluttered her heart. Oh great, she was finally getting to meet somebody that liked her: a boy — a man — who wanted to be with her and take up time with her. Not just any man either, a handsome and sophisticated soldier and she was about to be murdered in the arena. Wasn’t that just perfect?

Reena said, “well, look at this way. If you did start courting me you would have to worry about it being a lifetime commitment.”

“I’m hoping that it will be.”

Reena’s bread crumbled to bits in her fingers and she scattered crumbs all across the tablecloth. “Praxis, are you a fool or have you just suffered one too many blows to the head? I’m a gladiator, did you not see the size of that thing I had to fight yesterday? It was huge! I don’t even think it was human!”

Praxis actually laughed at that, “A whole lot of people don’t think he’s human. Or that he wasn’t rather. Do you know what he definitely was though?”

“No, what?”

“A crowd pleaser. He knew how to make the crowd respond to him and to love him. If he had chosen to rise up against the Governor, the crowd would have followed him Reena. He would’ve been the people’s champion.”

Reena knew that this was getting more to the point of the reason she been brought here to his Temple. She could sense something in the air; having grown up in the camps she knew what alliances were and the way that people would work with each other to make something happen. Hector, Nemia, and Praxis were all working together, but to what end?

“You don’t have to tell me that you like me Praxis to get me to listen to you. Either way, I’m going to die, so asking me to commit some kind of act of treason is not really going to freak me out.”

“You could survive every match.”

“And even if I did I don’t think that the Governor would let me go. You don’t think so either. Say that you believe that he will.”

Praxis didn’t answer, he didn’t have to. Both of them knew that the Governor’s promise was false. Reena toyed with a piece of meat, shredding it into bits, her appetite entirely gone. “Do you think he will honor his promise to my father?”

“No,” Praxis said gently. “I believe he’s honoring his promise to all the ones whose coming before because he has no choice. But the day you and your father stand together in the arena, I do believe he will have a little surprise for you but I’m not sure what it is.”

“That’s the same thing I think. But I think it’s going to be spears from the soldiers.”

“I would never lift a weapon against you Reena, you have to know that.”

“You brought me here to the city, how can you expect me to believe you?”

“Granted, I did. But at the time I did not know you and I thought you were just another Outlaw.”

“Are you happy being a soldier Praxis? Do you believe in what you do? Has it ever occurred to you that the only thing that the Governor wants is to push the boundaries and own everything and everyone around him?”

“I know that. The answer to your first question is yes, or it was yes. Before this Governor I was happy being a soldier.”

“He’s an evil man.”

“I think most of the people of the city would agree with you on that one.”

“What about you, would you agree with me?”

“If I didn’t I would never have sent you the amulet.”

“Why would you agree to be a soldier?” Reena wanted to know, she didn’t know why she wanted to know but she did.

“Yes. My father is a soldier and my father’s father was a soldier. I grew up in the city with the expectation that I would become a soldier and that was all I ever wanted.”

“Maybe you just wanted it because you didn’t know anything else.”

Praxis smiled at her, his full lips split apart to reveal his even white teeth, and Reena wondered what his lips would be like on hers. He must be a good kisser. Had he kissed a lot of other girls before? She was willing to bet that he had; he was just too cute to not have girls like him.

“I suppose you could be right. So tell me, what is it like to grow up in the woods?”

“It’s beautiful. It’s also scary, especially on nights when they are Culling. You have to be very careful; you can’t have fire, and you can’t sleep very often either. Even the safest places aren’t safe then.”

“It seems like the Outlaws move around a lot.”

“Are you trying to get information from me?”

“Yes, but not about the Outlaws. Have you ever seen the great desert?”

“I’ve seen the boundary of it. It’s at least five days walk from the section of woods that I know best.”

Praxis leaned forward, his elbows on the table and his food forgotten. “What is it like, the desert I mean. Is it really as big as they say? Is it really dry and barren? Is it really completely made of sand like what is in the arena floor?”

“I don’t know how big it is. I don’t think anyone knows; you would have to go into it to really see it and they say once you go in, you never come out. I do know that they send soldiers there to get sand to bring back here. But they usually go through the old Post Road instead of the woods because it is faster.”

“Yes, it is faster but it only takes you to one edge of it and even that edge pleats off into the woods. Most soldiers are afraid of that section of woods, not only because of the risk of being murdered by Outlaws but because of the stories of the mythological beast that lives within those woods.”

Reena almost asked him what beasts he was referring to but she shut her mouth over that just in time. That might be something that she could use later, something that would help her to stay safe if she ever got out of this city and back into her woods.

Slyly she said, “There are beasts about.”

There was a knock on the door and they both stiffened. Praxis put his hand to his sword and Reena reached for the first weapon she could find, a heavy wind cup. Praxis lifted an eyebrow at her when he saw her choice and she shrugged, “beggars can’t be choosers.”

Praxis went to the door and leaned against it,  there was a small hole in the door's center had been made for peering out and he used it before saying. “It’s Nemia. Our time is up.”

As soon as he said that, Reena was sorry that she had to go. She wanted him to hug her again, to take her in his arms and press her against his warm body and maybe… maybe even kiss her.

Before he opened the door, he reached into a fold of his robe and pulled out a small packet. “You will need this at your next battle. I think you know what it is and how to use it. Hide it well. Also, take the sword.”

She stared at them, confused “What sword?”

“You’ll know when you see it.”

He reached for the door and Reena’s heart sank. He was about to show her out. He paused though, and his hand moved from the door to her shoulder. He drew her in, holding her close and she snuggled against his chest, her own heart beating in a rapid rhythm that matched his.

“I want to kiss you.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Reena barely got the words out of her mouth before he was lifting her face up to his. Their mouths met; his lips were firm yet soft and his tongue parted hers, snaking inside her mouth and licking her teeth and her tongue.

The kiss was fleeting and over far too soon. Praxis stepped back from her with his chest heaving and he said, “You must go now.”

He opened the door and ushered her outside.

**

The packet was werebane. Reena carefully hid it where she knew that nobody would search for it. She used several strands of her own hair to braid a slender rope. Once she had that, she put the packet of werebane on the outside of one of the bars that covered her window. It would not be seen from so far below and it could not be seen from inside the room.

She had never had her cell searched before, but she had a feeling that things were about to change. She figured hiding the werebane was probably just a precaution but if there was anything that being an Outlaw had taught her, it was to listen to her gut. And her gut said after her visit to the Temple she was going to come under a lot of scrutiny.