Flagro and his sister quickened their pace as if to make a point. “Not while you’re dragging that anchor, you won’t,” Galla added with a snicker, mirroring her brother’s malicious mirth.
Ziana felt her anger flare. She wasn’t about to take that. Not from that bitch.
“I’m not an anchor!”
“Sure you aren’t,” the woman called back with a laugh as the siblings showed off their skills. “Don’t fall, anchor. You’ll sink right to the bottom.”
She had been so focused on Dorrin’s back that she hadn’t really paid attention to what was below them. They were a good five meters up, give or take, and as she looked down at the murky water now below them as they crossed over a swampymarsh area, she realized they had been slowly traveling upward, increasing their height so subtly she hadn’t really noticed.
An abrupt yank on her wrist yanked her back to reality just as it sent her flying, the cable between them snapping tight. Dorrin fought to keep his balance, but the full weight of the falling woman pulled him right off his feet, the two of them tumbling down into the muck with a mighty splash.
Flagro and Galla actually stopped to watch, as did the others training nearby. Just as bad, if not worse, the spectators watching the training session were pointing and laughing as well. It was about as humiliating as it could possibly have been.
Dorrin popped up from the muck with an angry glare in his eyes. “What the hell are you doing?”
Ziana wiped the mud from her face, spitting out the brackish water as best she could. “You pulled me off, that’s what.”
“No, you pulledmeoff. I lead, you follow.”
“Iwasfollowing.”
“You were not paying attention. If your stride is not in sync with mine, if you do not match the swing of your arms,” he gave the cable a tug, dragging her off her feet to prove his point. “This is ateamevent. You workwithme. Anything less is not acceptable.”
With that he turned and began wading toward the shoreline, Ziana trudging after him, trying her best to tune out the laughter carrying across the muddy water.
Dorrin was much less forgiving after that, pushing her hard and forcing her to perform until her body screamed with soreness. Then he did it again. Harder. Faster. Making her focus on not only agility and speed training, but also finesse and even a little tactics, though that mostly consisted of choosing which route would be the least difficult as they moved through the wooded and rocky sections of the course.
Then it was lunch, hydration, a little rest, and back to it all over again, followed by dinner, a shower, and a healthy slathering of healing salve, Ziana’s poor body needing every drop of it after the ordeal. And come morning? They’d do it all again.
It went on like that for nearly two weeks, longer than she’d thought she’d have, frankly. It was the same thing every day, Dorrin gruffly pushing her through her paces, Ziana struggling to keep up, and the two of them constantly taunted by not only Flagro and his sister but the other elites as well. Apparently, Dorrin had a longstanding grudge withallof them, stemming from something in their shared past. What it was, however, he wouldn’t say. All she knew was this was no mere game. It was personal, and she was stuck in the middle of it, and once the games started for real, it would only get worse.
CHAPTER TEN
The opening ceremony was almost a letdown after so many days with the constant stream of lookie-loos observing their training. In addition to being watched just about everywhere they went with the exception of their housing area, the competitors were also trotted out to the main arena on several occasions to partake in some group practice sessions for the public’s amusement.
Dorrin had explained that those inconvenient little events were simply another way for the five families to pull in more profit, both with the sale of deeply discounted access passes for the commoners who could not afford the main events, as well as the gambling that was a core part of the games’ culture. The competitors weren’t allowed to bet on the games, which made perfect sense, but there was no such restriction on family members, and this was an elephant-sized loophole the elites had not only created, but also exploited with great success.
By the time the actual games began, so many people were either in the hole and desperately trying to win back their losses, or far enough ahead that they felt comfortable in their odds of further victory, that the gambling rose to epic proportions. Itwas one of the main things that drew gamblers from across the planet once every three years, and plenty of side hustles were engaged in between events.
If you wanted to party, drink, and gamble, the games were the place to be.
As for the contestants, their experience was an entirely different sort of story.
“Where are we going?” Ziana asked as she and her partner, along with all the other competitors, were ushered out the long tunnel to the arena proper.
“The opening ceremony is always held in the arena,” Dorrin replied, strangely at ease even as they walked among dozens of fellow competitors.
Ziana saw Maria and her partner at the far end of the group and waved, but she was too far away for conversation. She settled with a nod and mouthing the wordsgood luck. It was something they both would be needing if they hoped to progress to the next round. The roar of the crowd was thunderous as they stepped out into the open, the future victors and losers all marching to a single raised stage large enough to hold all of them.
Dorrin’s attitude shifted. It was subtle, but Ziana had spent enough time with him in the last week to sense it without having to really look. He was a little more tense as his eyes darted across the distant part of the arena. She squinted to better see what he was looking at, but they were quickly ushered up onto the stage, the taller competitors blocking her view.
“What is it?” she asked. “What did you see?”
“Our first event.”
He’d told her in the course of their training that the events, as well as the order in which they were to face them, were always decided at random, and of the dozens of possible outcomes, only fate would ever be the decider. Even the five families didn’t dareopenly meddle with that aspect of the games. It was something that was heavily bet on, and as a result the scrutiny was intense. Anyone cheating would risk being found out, and even the elites did not want that sort of trouble.
Gambling and losing was one thing. People would be upset but deal with it. Being cheated by the wealthy, however, could lead to an uprising, and that was simply not acceptable.
