No, he wanted natural killers. Those with a knack for wielding death. It’s impossible to know who has that knack until their back is up against a wall and they’re forced to fight for their lives.
And so the Sands were formed. Most champions leapt at the chance to join the emperor’s Praesidium Guard. Because when you’ve trained for a decade to fight against your neighbors, why wouldn’t you put those skills to good use?
My mother’s sister Tancia was ten years younger than her, and oneof the first who had to fight in the Sands. In the beginning, no one fought to the death. It was to first blood only.
Tancia’s death was accidental. A blade to her inner thigh, straight through her femoral artery. Back then, healers weren’t standing by, ready to jump in. My aunt died within minutes while my mother screamed for her sister.
But today isn’t about the Sands.
My eyes are gritty and dry after a night of tossing and turning. Sliding down from my bunk, I clutch the mirror. Hopefully my brothers will be awake. It’s still dark, the dim aether lamp on the wall providing just enough of a glow for me to slip past the women sleeping nearby and out the door.
The corridor is eerily quiet this early. But I make my way to the common room. Thankfully, it’s empty, and I position myself in a corner, holding the mirror as I think of my brothers.
“Velle.” Gerith grins at me, but there’s something fractured in his smile. I study his face. Is he struggling to deal with everything that has happened over the past few days … or is something seriously wrong?
“Where’s Ev?”
“He’s fine. He’s still sleeping. The healer likes him, and she gave him something to help him rest.”
“Feather or stone?”
He angles his head.
“Feather.”
I used to ask him this when I got home from training for the Sands. When he’d been with our mother all day. “Feather” was equivalent to a light day. Or a happy day. A mother who didn’t disappear at noon and go missing for hours.
Stone was bad news.
The relief is dizzying. “I’m glad you slept well,” I say, in case anyone is listening on his end. He gives me a stiff nod. So someoneislistening.
“How’s Evren?”
“The healers said they can help him. But only …”
Only if I do what I’m told. “I know. It will be fine.”
Someone raises their voice outside the common room. For the past ten minutes, people have been filing toward the dining hall. But now, they’re all walking back in the other direction.
Maeva leans her head around the door and gestures at me.
“I need to go, Ger. I’ll talk to you soon.”
He nods.
“Tell Ev …”
“I will. We love you too, Velle.”
Maeva’s expression is uneasy. “We’ve all been called to the training hall. I don’t know what this is about.” For the first time, she seems nervous. “I hope no one else has died.”
“What do you mean?”
She bites her lip. “I forgot, you wouldn’t know. The rest of us have been here for a couple of weeks now. In that time, two gladians and a guardant have been killed outside of the arena. Their bodies were found a few days after they went missing.”
I wince at the visual. “Did they call a meeting like this last time?”
“No. If anything, we’ve been discouraged from speaking of it.”
