Aradella gave a sound like a squeak. “My cousin and Icannot—” Mekos put his hand over hers and squeezed. With a sigh, she stopped talking. Personal feelings weren’t going to be considered in this.
17
At breakfast the next morning it seemed that the pretty little house vibrated with the grumbling of the two women. The couples left the three bedrooms and started down the hall, the women with their heads held high. The men trailed behind them.
“Bad night?” Tam asked Mekos.
He rolled his eyes. “How can a person complain so much?”
“The same here,” Tam said. “I left her room just hours ago. There is so much anger that I worry for the safety of the two of them together.”
“I agree,” Mekos said.
Breakfast was set out for them and they ate in silence. The men had their heads propped on their hands but the women were fueled by a lifetime of anger so they moved about quickly. “Ian is going with you,” Mekos said. “If anything goes wrong, he’ll tell us, and Tam and I will come.”
“But...” Aradella started but Mekos’s look made her stop talking.
It wasn’t until midmorning that Qip showed up. Darr lifted him onto the big wagon and he drove the silent women to the arena. It was a huge half circle of stone seats facing an open area.In the midst of it was a long building that had three rooms with curtains front and back, then a closed-in area on each end.
Aradella was looking at the barren area around the building. “Are the battles held here too?”
“Yes.” Qip nodded to the long stage. “Go through there, use whatever feminine wiles you have, and persuade someone to give you the rose.” He looked at Ian as he sat on Aradella’s shoulder. “You should stay out of sight. Even here, you’re too much of a curiosity. You might not be safe as someone might want to put you in a cage.”
Ian rubbed his leg above the carved, wooden prosthetic. He knew not to take chances.
Aradella got down from the wagon, then looked at Bree to see if she needed help. With a defiant look, Bree jumped out of the back, landing firmly on the ground. “Please don’t break any body parts,” Aradella said. “We don’t have time to nurse you.”
Bree grit her teeth, said nothing, and the two of them walked to the end of the long building. When they turned the corner, they heard voices. At the far end, they saw people and activity, all accompanied by a lot of yelling.
“No! No! You stupid girl,” a man shouted. “You’re supposed to be a princess. Act like one! Where is she going? What do you mean she quit? And where the farken-el is that Never puppet?”
At that, Aradella and Bree halted and looked at Ian. “You must hide.”
There were two more of what they assumed were stages that had curtains drawn across them. One of the men at the end glanced down at them and seemed startled by their appearance.
Bree tossed back a corner of a curtain. “Get in here!”
Quickly, Aradella ran onto the stage, with Bree behind her. They tried to look around but it was too dark to see much. Ian flew up, hovered, then made his entire body light up.
“You are a very useful man,” Aradella said.
“Wish Arit thought so,” Ian mumbled.
As they looked around, Aradella and Bree saw it at the same time. On the mantel of the fake fireplace was a purple rose in a plain white vase. As Qip had said, it didn’t look like much.
“We could just take it and go,” Aradella said as she extended her hand.
Ian blocked her. “If this thing is magic, I better test it first.” There were other ornaments on the mantel and they were dusty. Ian ran his hands over them until he had a ball of dust, then he tossed it at the rose. It went up in a sizzle. “I guess it won’t let us steal it.”
“We should—” Aradella began but suddenly the heavy curtain was thrown back and light filled the room.
Standing there was a tall, bearded man wearing lots of makeup and a red dress. He glared at them. “You two don’t know where you’re supposed to be? You didn’t have a clue when you saw all of us at the other end?”
Aradella looked like she was about to make a retort, but Bree stepped forward.
“We’re so sorry,” she said in her sweetest voice. “We’re new here and we don’t know how things work.”
“It works, sweetie, by you two getting into costume. They’re ready to open the gates and the ravenous hoard will soon be filling the seats. Can’t you hear them?”
