Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1) (14 page)

Reena stared at the objects in Octavia’s hand. They looked almost like the shoes that she wore in the woods. They covered her entire foot instead of being sandals, or rather they would when she put them on. But they had tall leather uppers that would stretch all the way up to her thigh, and heavy dark leather soles.

“Octavia, what are they?”

Octavia replied, “They’re boots. They will help protect your legs and what is more they will make you look different from everyone else out there, every eye will be on you. And you want that today.”

“Every eye is always on me Octavia,” Reena pointed out

“Octavia knelt on the floor and began pulling the boots onto Reena’s feet, buckling them with the silver buckles before saying, “today they are going to see you as what you are. They’re not going to see you as a gladiator today, they’re going to see you as a young and innocent girl. They’re going to see you as a sacrifice.”

Reena’s throat went dry and she reached out one hand, setting her trembling fingers on Octavia’s hair. “Do you think I’m going to die today Octavia?”

Octavia looked up at her, her blue eyes meeting Reena’s eyes squarely. “No. But you need the crowd to know what it would be like to have to mourn you if you did.”

“What makes you think that?”

Octavia stood and began to fuss with the chain mail over Reena’s white leather top. In a monotone she whispered, “as soon as I came here I was asked to help you in any way possible. You have many friends, don’t ever think you’re alone.”

She put a finger to Reena’s lips to tell her to say nothing else and Reena knew why. The guards were coming to take her away, to take her to the arena and if they overheard anything that the two of them were saying, Octavia would be subject to death and she would be alone again.

Octavia pinned the veil to her braids in such a way that part of it trailed down her back, and the other part of it fell over her face, masking her from casual view. When the guards stopped in front of her door and unlocked it, Reena heard one of them gasp, “She should be a bride, not a gladiator. Does anyone else not see this?”

Octavia gave her a smile and a broad wink. Reena wanting to smile and wink back, but she knew the guards would see that movement so she stayed still and silent. However, inside she was doing a dance. Octavia was a genius, and so was whoever had ordered her to do this.

**

As soon as Reena made her appearance on the street that day she sensed the difference in the way that people were looking at her. They still stared at her but there was a difference in those gazes.

She heard the whispers, “it’s true, she is favored by Isis herself,” and so on. She wanted to ask Octavia what those whispers meant, but she was afraid to. She had a feeling that whatever was going on had to do with the clothes that she wore and the other part of it had something to do with the city itself.

When she was ushered into her small holding room at the arena, she turned to Octavia and whispered, “Tell me what is going on.”

“You will know soon enough.”

“Don’t give me that, give me the truth.”

Hector came in, his face carefully impassive. “You look beautiful today Reena. Of course, not as beautiful as you Octavia. He even managed to give Octavia a little leer with a wiggle of his eyebrows that was decidedly gross, but for some reason Octavia seemed to like it because she giggled and waved her hands at him saying, “Oh go on you old fool.”

Hector said, “you will not be the last to battle today Reena. He will be the first. Today is the day of worship, and nobody can believe that the Governor ordered battles today. It is against all rules of the arena. And many of us are sure that his arrogance is going to anger the gods.”

“Gee thanks! So now not only do I have to go fight for my life, but I have to worry about angering a god too?”

Reena was actually angry. That anger was good though; it was cleansing in a way. She had spent far too much time with her emotions submerged lately. Before anybody could say anything to her that would make her feel any better she was summoned to the arena.

Octavia walked beside her, and Hector walked in front of them. It was usual for him to do that but she was not used to Octavia’s presence just yet. As soon as the gate opened and they walked out into the arena, the crowd went crazy but then all of a sudden their cheers and screams and shouts died. Reena was beginning to get used to their stillness and their uproars, but she had a feeling that this was her chance; she just didn’t know what it was a chance for.

From the stands came a cry, “It is as if Isis herself has come to the games!”

It was Nemia! What was she doing? It didn’t take long to figure it out. Hector had said that this was a holy day and that many were angry because the arena was open. Reena had already discovered that many of the people who came to the games came simply because it was the Law, not for personal enjoyment. So they had been stripped of their holy day and forced to come here to watch somebody die.

It all became very clear to her very quickly. Nemia and Hector had to be working together; Praxis had probably introduced the two of them. Now that Reena had Octavia to pass messages through and to aid them they had come up, with a plan to dress her like a goddess, and to bring home to the people in the stands that this was a holy day.

It was clever; it was beyond clever it was sheer genius at work. The people in the stands were all horrified by the sight of her, but not in a bad way. The screams and cries began, “Victor, victor!”

She had not even battled yet, or seen her opponent and if the people in the stands had anything to say about it, she wouldn’t. The favors raining down into the sand were twice what they had been during her last battle and she was astounded by that and the cries from the crowd.

They were demanding that she be let out of this battle! Reena looked up at the Governor’s box. He was sitting in his throne and his face wore a mask of hatred so venomous that it sent a shiver down her spine. What could he have against her? Why did he hate her so? She was just a girl, nothing more and yet he wanted her dead.

Not only that he wanted her dead so badly that he was willing to go through all of this — even going so far as to risk the wrath of the gods!

The gate swung open to reveal the person that she would save today: a young boy that she recognized as the son of an Outlaw. She did not know him or his father well, but she had spotted him in the cart and she knew that her father had hidden him behind his own back during that first, fateful battle.

He was young but he was proud and he looked at her before nodding his head solemnly. She nodded back and came to stand next to her. “May the gods be with us today,” he said in a voice that cracked and crackled, but not from fear, from adolescence.

“I think they may be.”

The gates swung open again and her heart lurched in her chest. The man walking toward her was Kale! Any hope that she had had that the gods might favor her today died immediately. She knew how good he was; he had helped train her. He was impossible to beat and she knew it.

Everything was lost, there was no way she could fight him and win. Hector had to have known that she was coming to battle Kale today. That must be why they had put her in this outfit and tried to convince the crowd to call off the battle.

The Governor stood and raised his hands calling for silence. Immediate silence  usually fell at his command but today it took long minutes for the crowd to subside. Even when they  did begin to quieten they still didn’t fall completely silent. Grumbles and shouts echoed throughout the arena stands.

“Today we bring you not only an up and coming gladiator, but her mentor and teacher.” The Governor’s words had barely ended before the crowd was on its feet again calling for the battle to be called off, calling for her to be named Victor.

Kale walked towards her and Reena put an arm out to move the young boy behind her, “you must get out of the way. You must flee or get badly hurt.”

“Your father protected me and now it is up to me to help protect you. I’m going nowhere.”

His courage made tears form in her eyes and a lump form in her throat. He was a child, maybe ten or eleven years old. He did not belong here, this was all wrong!

Kale stopped several feet from her and then, unbelievably, he knelt on the ground. And he was not kneeling with his face pointed toward the Governor, he was kneeling in her direction! The cries of the crowd were so loud that Reena couldn’t even hear a single thought in her own head. What was he doing? What was going on here?

Kale stood and turned to face the Governor, pulling his sword from his belt. Before the battle horn sounded, he raised his sword in the air and the blade toward the Governor. The crowd fell silent, and he lifted his other hand and he gave the Governor that same one middle finger salute that Reena had been using in the arena.

Reena saw the sword come down, the sun sending sparks flying off of it — sparks that were almost blinding in their brilliance. She heard an odd meaty thump and tearing, a sound that was reminiscent of her father’s blade cutting through rabbit gristle.

The crowd screamed and cheered. The Governor got to his feet, his face white with fury, and his own screams could be heard over the screams of the crowd, “Get that traitor off my field! Get that coward off my field!”

Reena was grateful for the veil; it hid her tears. Kale had killed himself rather than battle her. He had given her a victory and he had given the Governor his middle finger. The crowd was on its feet, their clapping and stomping and screaming and chanting and shouting rising toward the very vault of the heavens above.

Soldiers burst onto the field, but so did Hector and more of the gladiators. They met halfway, and Hector shouted, “we claim this man. He is one of us and we will take care of his body. We will see to it that he is buried with all the honor that he deserved!”

The Governor screamed at the soldiers. To Reena he looked like nothing more than a spoiled, selfish child who had a favorite toy snatched away from him. The soldiers looked up at him, confused and obviously wanting to follow orders, but yet unwilling to strip away the man’s honor. He’d earned that honor, and they all knew it.

The gigantic bolt of lightning that cracked from the sky at that moment decided it all. It hit disturbingly close to the center of the arena and the Governor fell back into his chair, his eyes wide and his skin turning gray.

It was obvious that the entire crowd, including the Governor, saw that lightning as a sign from the gods. Reena looked upward at the young boy beside her said, “The gods are angry. They are making themselves known.”

The Governor stood again and yelled out an order, “The games shall commence again tomorrow!”

With that dismissal everyone began to flee the arena. The Governor was no fool, he fled as well, but not before he gave Reena a last long look that sent her heart into overdrive and turned her blood to ice water in her veins.

**

They were in the underground room, waiting for the soldiers to come and take her back to her cell. The boy whose life she had saved stood, uncertain and frightened, in a corner. “Can you make it back to the woods?” Reena asked.

“I think so.” The boy sounded doubtful but hopeful at the same time.

Hector said, “Octavia, give him some of the things that they threw into the arena today. Make sure they are things that he can barter with along his way.”

Octavia began to sort things out for him and Hector went to the small ledge where food was kept in case Reno was famished after a match. He put the dark moist loaf of bread, two boiled eggs and a hunk of cheese into a thin piece of fabric which he then folded and tied to the young boy’s belt loop. The small things that Octavia gave to him were folded into another square and tucked carefully up into a hidden pocket in his shirt.

“May the gods favor you on your journey home.” It was the only thing Reena could think of to say to him.

He shocked her by enveloping her in a hot, sweaty hug that seemed to last forever. All the emotion that she had been holding back since her last battle broke through her and she began to weep uncontrollably, her tears soaking through her veil and sliding down her cheeks.

“They will tell tales of you for many lifetimes Reena.” The boy pulled away “don’t ever think that your name will be lost.”

“What’s your name?”

“They call me Deal.”

Hector said, “Boy, run while you have the chance. The Governor is going to be in no mood to spare anybody and your life won’t be worth its weight in water if you are within the city walls by the time he recovers his tongue enough to order your death.”

Deal ran. His bare feet kicked up puffs of dust as he raced past the passageways and toward the door that would lead him out into the city and then beyond it. Reena asked, “Hector, do you think he will make it?”

“If he’s swift. And he does look to be swift.”

“What’s going to happen now Hector?”

“I don’t know. We’re walking in uncharted territory now Reena. Whatever happens, it is in the hands of the gods. They will decide our fate.”

“I think the Governor will decide our fate. That is unless we choose to change it.”

Hector said, “Now you’re beginning to see things the way that most of us do.”