I guess we’ll try to kill each other another time.
I slap my hand into hers, roll across the platform, and pick up the parma she kicks toward me. Slipping my arm into the strap, I take a deep breath, leaning down to swipe a crossbow someone has dropped. The stock of the crossbow is wet with blood.
This platform is positioned dead center in the middle of the arena. Behind us and to our left, our boat floats drunkenly, sails ripped and torn. The other boat is slowly circling around our platform, less than twenty feet away, targeting the other gladians behind us.
From here, I can see each of their faces. Hester lets a bolt fly, and it slams into the stern of their boat. They immediately return fire, and we’re forced to flatten ourselves on the wooden platform, the water pouring over the sides and into our faces as it rocks unsteadily.
“Seriously?” I snap.
“We need to kill them.”
“So let’s come up with an actual plan.”
Hester sneers at me, getting to her feet. I haul myself up, just in time to lift my shield. An arrow thunks into the wood.
I peer around my shield, meeting the eyes of a huge man.
From the bright beads braided into his long blond hair and the three scars slashed into each of his biceps, he’s from Torvellen. And something tells me he doesn’t appreciate being forced to reenact the battle that likely led to his capture. I can’t exactly blame him.
He roars something to the small, dark-haired woman with defensive wounds along her forearms. They’re close enough that I can see the stitches have been removed, the skin angry and red. She must have only been allowed to see a mundane healer, who has sewed her flesh like it’s a piece of cloth.
The woman nods at whatever the man says, letting her arrow loose. Screams sound from the boat behind us. We need to get these shields to them.
“Tell them to get closer,” I say.
Hester nods, but we both know they can only get so close without coming under heavier fire from the other boat.
A head pops up from the water. Maeva’s eyes are wide, her face pale. “Get me out.”
I lunge for her, holding out my hand. Within a moment, she’s on the platform next to me, coughing up water.
“Did you see?” She gasps. “Fucking kelpies.”
I almost laugh. It’s the first time I’ve heard her curse.
“You could have stayed in the boat.”
She coughs some more. “Couldn’t let you have all the fun.”
“If you can cover me, I’ll throw the shields into our boat,” I say.
The emperor snaps something to a gold-crowned sigilmarked who holds up his hand. I follow his gaze to the galley drifting toward us. It moves unnaturally through the water, ensuring the other gladians will be forced to engage directly with the criminals.
The emperor wants more blood.
Sisenna’s voice is a high-pitched shriek behind us, but the emperor must be feeling charitable, because our boat comes within feet of the platform. Of course this means we’re suddenly under even heavier fire.
Brenin jumps from the boat with a splash, and my palms dampen at the thought of the kelpies below. But he cuts through the water with three strokes, hauling himself onto the platform.
“Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve come to save you.”
Maeva, Hester, and I let out identical snarls.
Brenin laughs, muscles bulging as he easily lifts several shields, throwing them to the boat behind us. I’m suddenly exceedingly grateful that I didn’t have to face him in the arena.
Maeva and I fire back at the other boat while Hester shoves the remaining shields into the water, ensuring the criminals won’t be able to use them.
We’re under heavy fire, but Hester’s next bolt takes the huge Torvellen man in the head. He stumbles back, collapsing onto the boat. I’ve mostly managed to block out the crowd, but their victorious screams turn my stomach.
