Seablood by Cameron Bolling

Author:Cameron Bolling [Bolling, Cameron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Realmwrite Publishing
Published: 2020-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Cheers rose in waves from the crowd; so at least they weren’t plotting her betrayal and murder.

Wil and Brashen moved to hasten off down a side street before they reached the crowd, as walking into the middle of an enormous gathering, angry or not, certainly ranked among the least wise decisions they could make at the moment. Oleja paused, casting a sidelong glance at the people. If not planning the trade of her life for their own gain, what were they doing there?

Tall, multi-tiered benches rose up in blocks. Through the ranks of people, she caught a glimpse of two figures in the center of a great ring. Each wore armor and carried a spear as they sparred there. One wielded an odd spear with a short handle and long blade.

Helis.

Helis’s armor gleamed in the sunlight. His opponent—some other soldier, she presumed—staved off his attacks with a typical spear, their body clad in leather armor. How strange that they did not use the training pit for this fight. Perhaps these two were in some kind of quarrel, a brawl that broke out between rivals in the street, and all others gathered around to view the spectacle. But what, then, was the explanation for the tall rows of benches? They certainly weren’t set up there for casual seating. In fact, if her memory served her correctly—and it was still hazy on such matters—she thought the square looked to be the same one that housed the tent and counter and tables during the festival on Aukai’s Night. The odd structures hadn’t been there at the time, that she could remember clearly enough.

And then she saw the king, seated atop a tall chair on a stilt-raised platform. He watched the fight with intense focus.

Why did he allow the fighting to happen in the middle of the street? Didn’t he want to quell the tensions in the city? Oleja turned back to Wil and Brashen, who kept walking a short ways down the side street. She hurried to catch up.

“Hey, wait. What’s going on back there?” asked Oleja, falling in step beside them.

Brashen cast a look back at the street they’d come from. “Oh, today is the beginning of the trials. That’s the first one—beating the king or his chosen competitor in combat.”

“The trials?” asked Oleja.

“Yeah. You haven’t heard about them? They’re basically all anyone talks about at this time of year. Everyone always hopes we will finally have a champion again, a new hero to follow in Aukai’s footsteps, but it’s been hundreds of years. No one can beat them all.”

Oleja stopped in her tracks. Her heart rate picked up.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

Brashen looked to Wil and then back to Oleja. “How have you not heard about it?”

“I don’t know, but I haven’t,” said Oleja, crossing her arms. “But you really didn’t think—in all our time talking about ways I can win over the people of Ahwan—that you should have mentioned the fated hero trials?”

“They’re impossible,” said Wil. “Well, most of them aren’t.

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