“Please refrain from distracting our fighters during the duel.” The Queen was too far away for Amelia to read her facial expression, but she could tell Clarin was looking at her, and she could guess that it wasn’t a pleasant look. “Now boys.” She turned her attention back to her sons who were now a few feet apart in the center of the pit. “You will shake hands, agreeing to the terms I’ve laid out, and the fight will begin.”
Eldan offered his hand first. Lendir appeared to hesitate and Amelia could see his lips moving, but there was no way to know what he said. The older brother then shook his younger brother’s hand and the two turned and walked a few paces from each other.
The Queen was backing up towards the door on Lendir’s side. Just before she disappeared through the door, she spoke once more into the microphone.
“Let the duel commence!”
Please Eldan, surrender before I kill you.
The last words his brother said to him were echoing in Eldan’s head as he waited for Lendir to strike. It wasn’t a threat or an attempt at intimidation. it was an honest plea. Lendir was begging Eldan not to take this thing all the way to the end.
Eldan wished he could oblige his brother’s request. He didn’t want to die. But the thought of living without Amelia, the thought of knowing it was because of his failings that she was killed, or best case scenario, on the run, was too much. He couldn’t live like that.
It had been roughly a minute, according to Eldan’s inner clock, since his mother had announced the start of the duel, and neither brother had made any move or strike. They were circling each other at a distance of about ten feet. If Lendir were to transform, he would easily be able to close that distance before Eldan was in dragon form. The older brother, however, didn’t seem eager to get the fighting started either. His fans, on the other hand, were making it very clear that they did not come here to see two brothers dance around each other like two rookie roosters in their first cock fight.
“C’mon, Lendir!” yelled one man from the crowd. “Kick his ass.”
“Rip him apart!”
“Kill him and his bitch girlfriend!”
A sort of warmth ran down Eldan’s spine. A fiery chill. So hot, it was almost cold. Hearing someone threaten Amelia, it turns out, was the quickest way to get the Prince to shift. Instead of fighting it, like he usually did, Eldan succumbed to the transformation and allowed the anger to pulsate through him. His teeth grew first—his incisors elongating into knife-like shapes. His nose and mouth were shifting as well, growing into a snout in order to have enough room for his wolfy canines.
Lendir was transforming too, but he had gotten a late start. Eldan wasn’t quite sure what happened, but when the man yelled something about Amelia, it seemed like Lendir turned to yell something back at him. By the time he turned back and realized what was happening, Eldan was already half-dragon.
Eldan’s last thought before the dragon took over both his body and mind was a reminder to himself to make sure he didn’t miss any sign of surrender from his brother. When they were transformed, they could only speak through grunts and growls. There was no way Lendir would be able to articulate the word surrender, so Eldan would have to stay keenly aware of what his brother was doing with his hands.
Lendir jumped up, his legs still not fully dragon length and he took to the sky. He was an amazing flyer, and his wings were massive. He was a massive dragon, not build for speed or agility, just sheer force.
Eldan’s wings, on the other hand, were small and he did not have much practice with them. He opted to keep the fight on the ground for as long as possible. Lendir went overhead by about fifteen feet, then nose-dived right at Eldan. Eldan tucked and rolled out of the way and was back on his feet just in time to dodge another attack. The third time Lendir tried this trick, Eldan let him get scooped up in his brother’s powerful arms and then immediately sunk his teeth into the flesh and muscle of Lendir’s shoulder.
His brother growled and dropped him. Eldan spread his wings, not even sure they would be strong enough to carry him after all this time not being used. They served to ease his fall, but he wasn’t strong enough to use them in real flight. Lendir grounded himself and stood for a moment, catching his breath. He was bleeding from his shoulder. Eldan didn’t waste any time. He ran towards his brother, teeth bared, and lifting off the ground at the last second, he brought the giant dragon down and pinned him.
Lendir snapped and slashed on Eldan. One of his claws got Eldan in the back and tore open the flesh along his shoulder blade. Eldan ripped at Lendir’s flesh, making the wound on his shoulder that much bigger. Lendir reached his uninjured arm out to the side, and for a second Eldan thought he was going to use it to slam on the ground and surrender. He took his focus away from the rest of his brother’s body, for a split second, but that was all the time Lendir needed. He slipped his legs out from under Eldan’s body and planted his feet square on Eldan’s chest. They stared at each other for a moment, then Lendir, using what Eldan had to assume was all his strength, kicked his little brother with both feet, launching him up into the air and about twenty feet away.
This time, Eldan couldn’t get his wings open fast enough and he hit the ground full force. The impact sent screaming notes of pain all throughout his arms, one of which he guessed was now broken.
He was back near his side of the arena. As he struggled to get up, he heard fans from his bleachers cheering him on. One voice, her voice, stood out among the rest. She was yelling his name, and he could tell by her tone that she was crying. “Please,” he heard her say. “Get up, get up!” His head was spinning and as Eldan’s consciousness was fighting to take control of his mind back from the dragon, the Prince couldn’t even tell whether or not it was actually Amelia, or if he was just imagining things.
Using his functioning arm, he pushed himself up and tried to look into the crowd. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t where she had been sitting when the fight first started. He squinted at the far left side of the front row. There was a shifter woman sitting there with a sign that he couldn't quite make out, but no Amelia.
Someone touched him on his shoulder and he quickly rolled over onto his back, doing what he could to prepare himself for another blow from Lendir. But it wasn’t his brother. It was Amelia. She was on the ground leaning over him, crying and saying his name.
He couldn’t speak to her, so he just reached out one of his paws and as gently as he could, caressed the side of her face.
“Surrender,” she said. “Please. I can’t bear to watch this. Just surrender.”
He felt himself beginning to transform back.
With Amelia’s help, Eldan was able to push himself up to his knees, then back to his feet. Lendir was on the other side of the arena, the bones of his shoulder now visible through the torn flesh. Eldan cradled his broken arm. He could feel the dragon starting to dissipate as he gained more control over his faculties.
Queen Clarin was in the arena now. She was screaming, there was fury in her eyes, and for a second Eldan feared she was about to transform.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” She grabbed Amelia’s arm and tried to drag her along with her. “This is interference!” She yelled to no one in particular.
“Let her go!” said Eldan. He was back in his human form now, although his teeth were still sharpened slightly, which helped to punctuate his speech. “She isn’t a part of this.”
“Mother, just let her go back and we can finish the fight,” Lendir called as he approached the group. His wound looked even worse now that he was no longer in his dragon form.
The Queen laughed. “Absolutely not. How do I know she didn’t come into the arena to help you cheat? She could have slipped you a weapon, some poison maybe.”
“That’s rich,” said Eldan. “You accusing me of using poison.”
She stared him down, still gripping tight to Amelia’s upper arm. “I am the Queen and I declare this fight over. Because of the interference, it is an automa
tic forfeit on your part, Eldan. Lendir is the winner.”
Clarin pulled Amelia’s arm and dragged her towards Lendir’s door. Amelia tried to dig her heels in but the Queen was far too strong. The people sitting in the bleachers on Eldan’s side started to make some noise. There was a woman screaming for the Queen to let Amelia go. Amelia managed to get her neck in the right position and she clamped her teeth down on the Queen’s hand, getting a little bit of her own skin in the process. The Queen loosened her grip, but instead of letting go of Amelia, she threw the girl to the ground.
“Stop it!” Eldan walked ran after his mother.
Amelia tried to get up but Clarin smacked her hard across the face, sending her again onto her back.
“Enough!”
Eldan lifted one of his feet off the Earth, ready to pounce on his mother. Lendir side-tackled him before he could and the two of them went tumbling to the ground. They grappled with one another for a while, clumsily as each of them had a wounded arm they were trying to protect. Finally, Eldan ended up on top.
He wrapped his hand around Lendir’s throat and squeezed. Lendir was punching him in the face and the sides. Eldan took the blows without letting go and soon his brother’s swings began to get slower and weaker.
He gasped for breath and sputtered something that sounded like a word. “Don’t.” He managed to say. Eldan stopped squeezing for a few seconds, not letting go. “Don’t kill her. Please, don’t kill mom.”
“Surrender,” he said.
Lendir shook his head. “Kill me.”
“Surrender!”
Lendir did not reach his hands out to surrender. He kept them firmly at his side. Eldan heard Amelia scream as his mother neared the door out of the Arena. He pressed down on his brother’s neck and waited for the light to leave his eyes.
12
A Sore Loser
The Queen shoved Amelia into the small preparation room and slammed the door behind her. Still a little dizzy from the blow she’d received earlier, Amelia stumbled and fell to her knees.
“Finally,” said the Queen. “I have you all to myself. I have been waiting for this moment the day I arrived home to find you slithering around my house, destroying my family.”
“You destroyed your family!” Amelia said. “You and your misguided vendetta. And now you are going to lose the only people you have left. Eldan is out there finishing off Lendir and if you kill me he will never speak to you again.”
Clarin laughed. “I don’t care about that,” she said. “I don’t care about any of it. All I care about now is getting rid of you!” She lunged for Amelia, who half jumped half fell out of the way. She rolled on her side and got to her feet as quickly as she could. Clarin was already on her though and had her backed up into a corner.
“You have nowhere to go,” the Queen sneered. “Trapped, like the pathetic little animal you are.” Her nails had grown into short and deadly sharp claws. She took a swing. Amelia jumped back, her back now pressed against the wall. The claws got her shirt and the first layer of skin across her belly.
Clarin raised her arm for a second slash when the door opened behind her.
“Mother, no!” She turned around at the sound of Eldan’s voice. He wasn’t alone. Garcia was next to him along with another shifter man Amelia didn’t recognize. “As your new king, I command you to stop.”
Amelia didn’t wait for the Queen to regain focus. She tilted sideways and rammed her shoulder into Clarin’s stomach. The Queen went down and Amelia hopped over her and ran to Eldan’s side.
The shifter man walked into the room and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket. “As the head of the Meldanian Council, I am charging you with attempted murder of a Meldanian citizen.”
“She isn’t a citizen!” said the Queen. “She’s from the District. Our laws don’t apply when the victim is from the District.”
“According to official Meldanian records,” Garcia pulled out a piece of paper and read from it. “Amelia Cobbles was made a citizen nearly two months ago. This was signed by then King Ernad.”
“This is ridiculous!” said Clarin. “You cannot arrest your Queen. I make the laws, I can change the laws.”
The Council man grabbed Clarin’s arm and brought her to her feet. He pulled that arm and the other behind the Queen’s back and handcuffed her. “You will have your day in court where you will be allowed to make your case. Until then, you will stay in the cells at the Council Building.”
“The cells! You must be joking if you think…” The rest of her rant was cut off as Garcia and the Council man walked her out of the room and the door closed behind them.
Once alone, Amelia threw her arms around Eldan’s neck and hugged him as tightly as she could without putting too much pressure on his arm. He hugged her back with his good arm.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s over now. We are safe.”
She was crying and her legs gave out from under her. She hadn’t let herself feel all of the fear and anxiety that had built up over the course of the day. She’d been pushing it down in order to function, in order to be there for her love, but now that they were free and in the clear, everything bubbled up to the surface and she let it.
Eldan held her as she cried, every once in a while moving some hair from her face, wiping away a tear, and reminding her over and over again that everything was okay.
The doctor was already waiting for Eldan back at the mansion. While the Prince was being treated, Amelia excused herself to go look for the security team. He wanted her to go to Dr. Ivan immediately, to make sure the scratches his mother left on her stomach didn’t need stitches, but she argued her way into getting fifteen minutes to run her errands. Time was of the essence. She wanted to have cars and search crews out to go find all the human families who left before the fight, so the sooner she could find the security team and get things moving the better. Instead, she found Garcia, who was hurrying up the stairs from the basement.
“Garcia,” she said. “Can I talk to you for a second? We need to send people to fetch the humans who were planning to escape to District Seven. Can you arrange for some—”
“Yes, of course, that’s fine,” Garcia did not slow down as he passed Amelia forcing her to run after him. “I will get on it as soon as I have a free moment.”
“Where are you going?” she asked. “What’s the rush?”
“I am heading to the kitchen to look for some alcohol,” he said and turned the corner into the kitchen. “It seems Prince Lendir has woken up from his nice little nap and they need to reset his shoulder. Which is going to hurt, a lot. He says he doesn’t want to be knocked out again so I said I would go see what I could find that might dull the pain.”
Amelia stopped in the doorway of the kitchen and watched, wide-eyed, as Garcia riffled through cupboards. “You mean… Lendir’s still alive? Eldan didn’t kill him?”
Garcia let out a puff of air and stared at her like she had just asked why the sky was red. “Of course he didn’t kill Lendir. It’s Eldan we’re talking about.”
“Lendir surrendered?”
“More or less,” said Garcia. “Eldan was an inch away from squeezing the life out of him, and he held back at the last second. Lendir wasn’t exactly in a position to surrender at that point, so Eldan made the decision for him.”
“And what if Lendir challenges him again?” asked Amelia.
Garcia shrugged. “I don’t know, although I doubt he would do that. With his mother no longer able to pull his strings, I think Lendir might actually realize he never wanted to be King in the first place. It’s a lot of work running a kingdom. Ah ha!” Garcia pulled a large bottle of whiskey from a bottom cupboard. “I’m going to run this downstairs and then I will come find you and we can arrange those search parties.”
He swerved past her through the doorway and was gone.
Amelia went to Eldan’s room where Dr. Ivan was treating him.
“Hello there, Amelia,” said the doctor when she ente
red the room. “It’s nice to see you again. How is your arm feeling?”
Amelia had almost forgotten about her ID tag incident. “Fine,” she said. “It healed perfectly. Only left a tiny scar. These on the other hand.” She looked down at her belly and at the scrapes through her ripped shirt. “Might leave some bigger scars.”
Dr. Ivan bent down and squinted at the cuts. “They seem pretty shallow. I’ll do the cleanest stitches I can and hopefully the scars won’t be too bad.”
“Thanks.” She looked over the doctor’s shoulder at Eldan, who was in his bed with a sling around his arm. His eyes were closed. “Is he asleep?”
“Finally, yes,” said Ivan. “He kept fighting the pain killers, trying to stay awake until you got here, but I gave him a hefty dose and he finally dozed off.”
“Good,” said Amelia. “He needs it.” She folded up the bottom of her shirt and exposed her stomach. The doctor patted the desk and she sat on top of it.
“Lay back if you would,” he instructed her. She did and he pulled a small bottle of some clear liquid out of his bag. “This is going to sting.” He poured it on her belly and she had to clench her teeth to keep from crying out.
“Here,” he said handing her the bottle. “Have a drink if you like. It’s gin.”
Amelia looked at the bottle and thought what the hell. We won, didn’t we? I’ll drink to victory. Halfway sitting up, she threw back a big swig, and laid back down. The stuff tasted terrible, but the warm sensation she felt flow through her body was worth it. She took another sip, spilling some down the side of her face.
“I’m going to give you a little injection,” said Dr. Ivan. “It will numb the area before I sew you up.”
“Whatever you gotta do, doc,” she said. “I trust you.”
She went to take another sip but the doctor grabbed the bottle. “Okay, that’s enough. Alcohol is a blood thinner and I don’t think the Prince—er, rather the King—would take too kindly to me letting you bleed out while he’s snoozing in the corner.”
Sold to the Prince of the Meldanians Page 13
