Only Raylik stood there, arms crossed.
When the world is hard and fast, you can be slow and calculated.I took in a deep, cleansing breath, feeling my body and calming my mind. I set my stance, holding my arms up firmly, digging a big toe into the hard stone for balance. I thought of the large oak tree I climbed as a girl in front of Granger House. Rooted and sturdy.
Draveen lunged in my direction. I gasped, stepping back, my foot nearly slipping from the ring. This drew a putrid laugh from the beast.
“Puny girl, I’m going to eat you for dinner.” Draveen picked at his teeth disinterestedly.This was all a game to him.
My eyes flickered to Morvyn in the stands, who now stood tall above the crowd. His eyes softened for me as our eyes met above the spectators’heads. Lumina stood beside him, pressed into his arm for comfort and unable to tear her eyes away from the impending disaster.
“Or maybe I’ll have you for dessert,” Draveen cackled.
Disgusting. His confidence was overbearing.
In fact …Too overbearing.
The thought slammed into me. Arrogant men littered history and fairy tales alike. The loudest and most self-assured always seemed to hide something. Their certitude always masked an insecurity.
That was it. At least, it bloody well had to be.
“What did you say, fish breath?” I spat, trying to hide the shaking in my voice.
A nervous chuckle slipped from someone in the crowed.
Draveen turned around to mark whoever dared laugh at him. Then returned his soulless black eyes upon me.
“What did you call me, littlegirl?” he seethed, the words rattling my bones. But I mastered myself.
“Fish. Breath,” I enunciated. “And I’m twenty-fucking-five years old,clearly a woman. Not sure if you’ve ever been this close to one before though.”
Another laugh flew from the crowd, unmistakably Morvyn’s.
“Or are your eyes justfuckedfrom that dark hole you slithered up from?”
More laughter clanged, cutting deeper into Draveen’s pride.
I kept at it. “Is every disgusting beast from the depths you dwell in as ugly as you? Or are you just particularly hideous? Because you look like the bottom of the ocean shit you out.”
More laughter ensued. Draveen darted his head around, greasy black hair whipping with the movement, each one of his muscles tensed under his oleaginous skin as he growled again, deeper and more guttural.
Keeping my stance firm and my eyes locked onto his, I inched back as close as I could to the rim of the circle, readying for my impending doom.
“What’s the matter, you don’t like when they laugh at you?”
He bared his teeth and shook with anger. It was working.
“Stupid human, this is why your people die so young.”
“Better than walking around looking already dead.”
I let out the best laugh I could muster.
My heart faltered. That was it.
“You. Shall.Die!” he roared, charging at me full speed, his large legs slamming into the ground with each step, Elspeth’s music speeding in tempo as Draveen’s hard footfalls shook through the ground.
I held fast, despite every nerve in my body screaming to run. Silence fell over the crowd as vile noises gurgled out of Draveen as he charged me. Closer and closer he came, eyes wild. Pure predator. I the prey. Nearly in his grip.
Then, just like Raylik told me in this very armory, I followed his advice.
