She clucked her tongue at me, “Naughty, naughty, greeny. Didn’t they teach you how to not give yourself away in assassin swimming… wait, I meant assassin stalking… wait, scratch that? Assassin school. Yes, school. That’s where they teach you things, right?”
When I didn’t answer her, she just smiled wider. “Okay, my yummy green gumdrop. Let’s get to the dessert of the conversation.”
Zayden just couldn’t help himself as he took a step forward and whispered, “Don’t you mean the meat and potatoes of a conversation?”
She did a double take, like she forgot he was even there as she flicked her hand at him like he was some peasant, “Why would I look forward to the meat and potatoes of a meal when what I’m really waiting for is the dessert?” When Zayden’s face pinched in thought, she rolled her eyes at him and patted his head like a simpleton.
“You’re so pretty.” She cooed, but then she cupped her hand as she whispered loudly to me like we were the best of friends, “Men are so dumb. They just don’t know anything, am I right?”
Zayden looked at me like he was going to fight that comment, but I jerked my head for him not to say anything, not wanting to make the crazy lady mad. He crossed his arms, giving me his best impression of Ajax as Rykon and Ajax were fighting off laughing at him.
“Well, come on lean green… machete. What’s the deal?” She leaned against the table in front of me. I looked over my shoulder at her crew, especially the sour faced girl. She saw where I was looking and waved them off. “Oh, don’t worry about that. They’re my crew and follow me… but I like to get their input on things from time to time. So, shoot me with the info.” She made a move with her arms to pretend she was shooting me with an arrow as she winked at me.
With the situation I’m currently in, I feel like the truth would serve me better with this group than being vague or coming up with lies. They seem like the grudge holding types. “We are looking for a librarian.” Her eyes go wide as she whistles.
“Wow, oh wow.” She looked back at her crew and whistled as they all looked like I lost my marbles. “That is one hell of a trip.” She kicked up straight, passing in front of me as she started to mumble to herself.
“No, Hem. This whole thing seems stupid and not for us to get in the middle of. Let them go and get gobbled up by the cannibals by themselves.” The sour girl said in a nasally voice full of jealousy, which I didn’t understand.
The tiny high-pitched voice girl hummed, “We were already thinking of sending a small group there to scout out weak points…” She looked at me like she was looking into my soul, “This one is strong, stronger than any I have come across and could be useful to ensure all our people make it back alive.”
“We hadn’t even decided on that yet, Kisha!” Sour girl said, but Kisha flicked her gaze to her like she was nothing and didn’t respond.
Hemlock suddenly stopped as she snapped her fingers. “I got it!” She ran up to me like we were far apart, but she was only steps away from me, so she was nose to nose with me as she said, “You and I are going to fight. Winner takes all!” She lifted her hands and turned around like she was waiting for a crowd of people to start chanting. No one did, but something in my mind said that she heard it anyway.
I was confused at what the stakes were. “What are we fighting for?”
She turned around, blood lust flooded her eyes as she smiled. “If you win, I will lead a group with you and your companions into the cannibals’ land and take you to the librarian and bring you back. If I win, you have to work for me,” she started to tap her chin, looking at the ceiling like she was trying to figure out something, “carry the two, divide the three… well for the rest of your existence.”
I could feel the guys behind me start to move to my back. “Emerald.” Rykon called in a tone that said he did not want me to agree to this, but we really didn’t have a choice. Even if we got out of here and went to the mountain man, it didn’t ensure that they would help us go into the cannibal lands, which sounded like they were very dangerous.
“Deal.”
Chapter 20
Thisbitchwascrazyif she thought I would let Emerald work for her in this wasteland forever. I was about to tell her to let me fight in her stead, but then Emerald said ‘deal’ and they immediately ushered us into a room they called the fighting pit. It was just a large room with a dirt floor, and a circle in the middle of the room to indicate where you were fighting.
I was getting pretty good at shoving down all my feelings. Keeping them locked up, so that I didn’t do something stupid, but the situation we are in now was testing me. I found that the box I had on my emotions was waning thin. The hinges were busting and if something, even a small something, went wrong, I was going to do something very stupid.
As soon as we were in the room, Hemlock’s crew was the first to line up around the circle. Rykon, Zayden and I moved up next in order to get a front-row seat of what was going down. Then, out of nowhere, a whole bunch more people filtered in, filling all the gaps and overfilling the room. The room was so busy. I think I even heard someone taking bets in the back.
Emerald stood between Zayden and Rykon, not saying a word, but I could tell that she was trying to get in the zone. She was the best fighter I’d ever seen, but this Hemlock chick looked and acted psycho. Sometimes those kinds of people pull out some tricks from their sleeves.
The little bloodthirsty blonde one stepped into the middle, pointing fingers at each opponent and waving them forward.
“Good luck.” I called out to Emerald, hoping she heard me over the roar of the room. She turned to me and smiled, telling me everything was going to be fine with just one look.
“Alright. The only rule is that you can’t kill each other.” One of their lackeys handed a short sword to Hemlock and dropped one at Emerald’s feet. I growled at the disrespect, but Emerald cut me a look and bent over to get her weapon. Suddenly the room full of people started complaining until the little one screamed from the top of her lungs, “It’s part of the bet you morons! Just shut the fuck up or you will be told to leave this room and you won’t see entertainment like this for another ten years!”
That got everyone to shut up as she talked. “Where was I? Oh yes, no killing each other. That’s it. On the count of three, you fight.”
“One,” the small woman backed away from the two of them with a crooked smile.
“Two.” Emerald was already on the balls of her feet, ready to make this a real challenge.
“Three!”
Both women flew at each other with speed that was hard to follow to see who moved first. All you heard were clanks, seeing the occasional sparks fly.
