The Shimmering Sands (The Affinity Saga Book 4) by Joe Andreucci

Author:Joe Andreucci [Andreucci, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-09-29T22:00:00+00:00

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Josyf can hear the roar of the crowd as he is led to the fighting grounds within the heart of the Coliseum. A bright light shines at the end of the dark, hallway that Eighteen and Aran are accompanying Josyf down.

The closer they draw nearer to the light, the crowd becomes deafening.

As the trio comes to the end of the hall, Aran stops and puts his arm out to block Josyf. “In the tradition of the tournament the Zultans have to make their opening speech, then you shall be announced, and only then shall you enter the fighting grounds”, Aran instructs Josyf.

“It begins”, Eighteen says as he points high into the sky, to the Zultans’ Suite that overlooks the entire fighting grounds from the highest levels of the Coliseum, far above the capacity crowd.

Three figures stand in unison, two men and one woman, to raucous cheers from the crowd. They each walk to the balcony that surrounds the Zultans Suite. Each of their garb is luxurious, even for a place such as Halcyon City. The man in the middle raises his hands in an attempt to silence the crowd, but it seems to only cause the audience to raise their noise to deafening levels.

Suddenly, a booming voice shakes the walls as it roars out, more than likely enhanced by Zephyr Affinity, a tactic Josyf himself has used more than once.

”Silence! The Grand Tournament must begin, but you all must hear my words first, so I beg of you…silence!”, the man in the middle shouts and quickly the crowd quiets down and awaits further talk.

”On behalf of myself, Zultan Oro, my sister the Zultana Brillara, and our Uncle, the Zultan Malvo, we would like to welcome you all to this year’s Grand Tournament!”, Zultan Oro’s voice becomes loud and more impassioned with every word and before he can even finish his sentence, the crowd erupts again with wild cheers, dwarfing even the cheers of the Laochan people during a cathbola game.

Zultan Oro raises his hands once again, and the crowd quiets down slowly. “This year the tournament will be a little bit different. Due to our neighbours to the east being at each other’s throats, we do not have as many combatants as we’d normally have, so we’ve shortened the tournament a bit…”, before the Zultan can finish, the crowd boos, and moans about the shorter fights, but Oro raises his voice and continues to talk through the crowd, “…the tournament itself will be shorter, but this year we’ve decided to bring back one of your favourite parts, The Scorpion’s Labyrinth! The winners will venture deep into the depths of the Shimmering Sands and attempt the Scorpion’s Labyrinth, and if they succeed they must defeat our greatest champion, the Topaz Scorpion, before they can claim victory”.

The crowd erupts at the news, even louder than before. Josyf peeks his head out and sees members of the audience high-fiving, hugging and jumping up and down in place, Josyf doesn’t understand how a maze can be so exciting to people.

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