Goddess of Flames

by J. A. Armitage

  "What's this?" My father raged, standing up and thumping his fist on the arm of the throne. "I never agreed to this."

  I gulped with fear when I realized I had. Inadvertently, but even so, I'd told Jacob to do what he wanted. I'd not expected him to add a tiger to the mix. It wasn't just one tiger. Behind the first walked a second and a third, and behind that, many more.

  "The men are unarmed!" I whispered as my father stalked past me in a hurry.

  I could only watch on in horror as the men ran screaming away from the giant cats. Fear gripped me to my chair as more of the hungry beasts walked out. I fearfully scanned the men again as the first tiger pounced. A scream of pain followed by the sound of a growling tiger ripping flesh came to my ears. I didn't count, but there must have been more than a hundred tigers brought into the arena. A hundred tigers looking for their next meal. I was going to murder Jacob myself if my father hadn't already done it.

  I wanted to close my eyes, but the horror of what was happening before me left me unable to. People all around me were screaming, some were jeering, and some were actively enjoying the spectacle. Right at the front, the line of judges sat still, seemingly impassive to what was happening to the men in front of them. Jacob must have warned them in advance.

  My whole body trembled as the tigers attacked. Chaos abounded below me, but some of the men were escaping through the original tunnel. Many more skirted the edge of the arena doing the best they could to get out before the tigers got them. A hundred tigers, a thousand men. They all had a good chance to escape if they were quick enough. Not even the hungriest tiger could eat ten men. Many of the men tried to pull themselves up over the barrier into the crowd. Some succeeded, but many failed simply because they were not tall enough to reach. Caspian was well over six feet four and could grab the edge and haul himself over, but no matter how hard I looked I couldn't see him in the melee. Andrew, Dahlia's son ran for the tunnel and disappeared down it without getting hurt. At least, Dahlia would be happy with that. Not all the men were so lucky. My eyes drifted to one of the tigers near the tunnel entrance. Its prey was in its sight, but the man chose not to run, not to escape the way Andrew had. My breath caught in my throat when I recognized the curls.

  "Milo!" I screamed, my voice being lost to the noise of the crowd.

  Hundreds of men ran past him down the tunnel, but he held his ground, watching the tiger intently.

  My body trembled as I willed him to run as hundreds of others had. He was standing right next to the tunnel. Why didn't he go? Tears ran down my face as I realized he was doing this for me.

  "Please run!" I whispered, barely able to get the words out. I wanted Milo to win, but not like this. I never expected him to put his life on the line for me.

  As the men thinned out, I was able to see more clearly. The crowd had gotten over their shock, and now they jeered and booed with as much enthusiasm as they had before. Below me, I saw my father gesturing to Jacob to follow him. Jacob's face held a stern expression as he filed past the seated people to my father. I couldn't hear what my father was saying, but it was clear by his expression that Jacob was getting balled out. I took my eyes from them. What did I care what happened to Jacob? With any luck, my father would have his men throw him over the side so he could taste a little of his own medicine.

  With every man that ran past Milo into the tunnel, and with every man that clamored over the side, the ratio of men to tigers lowered. Most of the tigers were now busy shredding their catches, chewing down to the flesh and bones of the men who had dared to enter this stupid competition. Nothing was worth losing one's life over and especially not some silly competition to marry a princess. A princess that never wanted to get married in the first place.

  "Get out," I shouted, but Milo couldn't hear me. How could he with the screams and shouts of twenty thousand others all shouting at the same time?

  I held my breath as the tiger walked closer to him. His eyes fixed on it, but he didn't move.

  "Run, you beautiful idiot," I cried, wringing my hands together in terror. Men kept running past him, but the tiger paid them no mind. He was as fixated on Milo as Milo was on him.

  "That tiger's a bit close to Milo, don't you think?" Ash said.

  I didn't answer. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, I'd either scream or throw up. My stomach churned as I itched to do something, but what could I do? Not even my father could stop this madness now. As though he'd known I was thinking about him, he passed me and sat down in his throne.

  "I didn't know this was going to happen," he said gruffly to me.

  "Can't you stop it?" I cried. Jacob was already walking back to his seat.

  My father shook his head. I can't. The tigers are trained to leave the arena at the sound of a whistle. That whistle will only be used when there are about a hundred men left standing in the arena. Those hundred will go on to the next part of the competition."

  "But you're the king!" I exclaimed. "Make them sound the whistle!"

  He shook his head. "I've spoken to Jacob. He kept this from me, but he had good reason. He says that there has been news on the grapevine that the people are ready to revolt. They are upset with the way I've been running the kingdom over the past few weeks. They are upset that my men have been out searching for spindles, they are upset that I built a wall to keep people off the fire mountains but did nothing to keep the dragons from coming down the mountains."

  "They are dragons. They can fly. How are you supposed to keep them from coming down? Anyway, you already knew about this. Jacob is the one who planned the revolt."

  " Jacob set up meetings with the ringleaders in the revolt. He promised them this in exchange for keeping their peace. There is nothing more I can do. It's out of my hands. If we do what you wanted to do and have the men answer quiz questions and make statues, we will be overthrown. If that happens, Draconis will be without a royal family to lead it, and we will not have the money needed to keep bringing doctors up here."

  "We don't need doctors!" I screamed at him. "She is under a curse. No doctor will be able to save her. Why are you letting Jacob blackmail you? Milo is out there... Your friend Caspian is out there. "

  He looked me dead in the eye, sadness clouding his expression. "I know that, but they can keep her alive until we find someone who can break this curse. I can't lose her, Azia."

  My heart broke at his words, but he was putting my mother's life up in exchange for everyone's out there, including Milo's and Caspian's.

  "You are sacrificing other lives for her. She would never want you to do that."

  "We'll never know, will we. Not unless she wakes up." He stood from his throne and walked back down the rows of people. This time when he walked down the stairs, he never came back.

  My heart pounded wildly as I turned back to the arena. Milo was gone. I stood up to get a better view as tears poured down my face. I found him. He was still in the arena, but he'd moved. Unfortunately, the tiger had moved too. It stalked around him, moving from side to side, hemming Milo in against the fence separating him from the crowd.

  "Jump over the fence," I murmured, but I knew he wouldn't. He kept his back to it as the tiger drew ever closer.

  It reared itself, readying to pounce, and still, Milo didn't move. There was only one way for him to go, and that was up the fence behind him, but he didn't make to turn; he just stood there.

  Bile rose in my throat as I saw the one person I could ever love inches from death. I cried out again, but my voice was lost in the shrill sounding out of a whistle.

  I began to breathe again as the tigers, including the one ready to pounce at Milo, turned and prowled out of the tunnel, leaving those still standing to fight another day.

  "Thank you," I mouthed to whatever god was listening. I'd never been religious, but as I was putting all my trust in the fact that Morpheus existed, it stood to reason I could do the same about the other gods too. I'd pray to anyone who would listen to keep Milo safe, and now he was. The first part of
the competition was over, and Milo had escaped unscathed.

  As I was getting my breath back, the doors to the tunnel opened again, and a number of people with stretchers came out to pick up the injured and the dead.

  "I wonder if they are disqualified if they are injured," Ash said.

  I turned to him. "For their sake, I really hope they are."

  This was only day one. I couldn't keep to the hope that tomorrow would bring a day of figuring out a puzzle. If Jacob had anything to do with it, things were only going to get worse.

  As though my mind was being read, the tunnel doors opened again, and the men with stretchers ran from the arena as the contestants who had exited ran back in. I 'd thought that was it, that the madness was over. I couldn't have been more wrong.

  I almost fainted when I saw what came out next. Where the tigers had been, now, a hundred lions took their place. They looked no less hungry and mean than the tigers, but now, there were fewer men to each lion. To make matters worse, the doors through which the men had been able to escape earlier had now closed behind them.

  The screams and cheers intensified as the world spun around me.

  I pulled in a huge breath and steadied myself as dizziness raged within me. If my father wouldn't deal with this, I would.

  "Where are you going?" Hollis asked as I edged past him and Remy.

  "I'm going to put a stop to this," I replied through gritted teeth.

  Running back through the curtain, I took three steps at a time and almost barrelled into Jacob, who stood up when he saw me coming.

  "Stop this. Stop it now!" I screamed at him.

  "I'm afraid I can't do that, but don't worry. The crowd is loving it. It's the event of the century. People will be talking about this for years."

  "I don't give a shit about the crowd," I said, eliciting a gasp from one of the other judges, a young woman in her mid-twenties who probably was the head-teacher Caspian had mentioned.

  "What?" I snapped at them. "You are happy to watch innocent men being torn apart, but you get offended when a princess says shit?"

  She turned berry red and moved her eyes back to the nightmare in the arena.

  "There's no use talking to the judges like that," Jacob grunted. "They aren't to blame. If I remember, this whole debacle was your idea in the first place."

  "Not like this, though. I was going to have them make a sculpture, and you know it."

  "Now look here," he said, pushing his ugly face into mine. "No one wants to come out and watch thousands of men make a sculpture of a narcissistic princess. They are here because of this." he swept his hand out behind him. "And if they are here watching this, it means they are not planning to overthrow your father. Now, if you'd prefer, I can call the lions off, but it would mean the people will leave early and get restless. Maybe they'll go home and organize a revolution. All twenty thousand of them."

  He grinned at me, knowing he'd backed me into the same corner, he'd backed my father into. But there was one difference between me and my father. I wasn't scared about being overthrown. My only fear was for Milo, who was locked in an arena with lions who wanted nothing more than to feast on his body.

  "Do it!" I commanded. "Call them off. I don't care about your threats. Just put an end to this."

  The smug grin left his face, but I stood tall, my hands on my hips. I wasn't going to back down.

  He stamped his feet on the ground, his fists clenched by his side, but he didn't move. I ripped the whistle from around his neck, breaking the chain holding it and putting it to my lips. Before I'd had the chance to blow, another whistle sounded. Someone else had finished the competition. I turned my head to see why. There were only a hundred men left standing. A hundred men and a hundred well-fed lions. The tunnel gates opened for the last time, and the lions trooped out. I scanned the men, terror filling my very soul that I'd not find Milo, but there he was, mercifully, unscathed. Seconds later, the second wave of people with stretchers came out to mop up the mess left behind. Blood splattered the sand-covered floor, making me feel sick to my stomach. I flung Jacob's necklace back at him and hurled myself over the fence, much to the excitement of the already over-excited crowd.

  Milo was much easier to see now that the men had thinned out so much. I raced across the arena to him, not caring who was watching, but before I was halfway across, someone grabbed me. It didn't matter who it was, they were stopping me from getting to Milo, and I needed to speak to him. I needed to tell him that I was wrong. I needed to tell him that I loved him.

  The man holding me back turned out to be one of my father's guards. As he was much bigger than me and armed with a sword, I had no choice but to watch as Milo and the others were ushered out of the arena.

  "Milo!" I screamed in frustration. I thought he saw me and turned his head to me, but just like that, he was gone. He disappeared into the tunnel with the other ninety-nine men who would have to go through this nightmare again tomorrow. As the last of the men left the arena, I caught sight of the back of Caspian's head. So he'd made it through to the next round too. I knew he would. Still, I felt a moment of unexpended relief that he was alive. Despite everything, I'd actually grown fond of the jerk.

  That night, I headed straight for bed. There was no point in going to see my father, nor was there any point going to the castle's admin office. I didn't even want to know what tomorrow would bring, because nothing I could say or do would stop it. Like everything else in my life recently, I was powerless to make any change. In my room, I looked out of the window to the pasture. To the right of the arena was the huge tent where Milo would be spending the night. I wondered what was going through his mind and whether he was as scared as I was at what tomorrow would bring.

  26th January

  I was in no mood for company, but I'd not eaten anything since breakfast the previous day, and my stomach was threatening to implode if I didn't eat soon. I walked wearily down to the dining room to find only Charlotte there, eating her breakfast.

  "You've just missed everyone," she exclaimed. "Well, your brothers. Your father didn't come for breakfast at all."

  "I bet he didn't," I said, pulling a plate toward myself and heaping it with pastries and cold meats.

  "I saw that Milo got through," she said. "Caspian, too," she added.

  "Yes, but how many didn't get through? How many died just for the chance to marry me? The whole thing is a crock." I slammed the butter onto the bread, spreading it so violently it made a hole in the bread.

  "They knew what they were getting into," Charlotte pointed out.

  "No, they didn't," I argued, though I don't know why. Charlotte had nothing to do with this. I needed to take my frustration out on someone, and she was the only one there. I pulled the Sentinel towards me and held it up so she could see. A photo of one of the men staring down a tiger filled the front page. "They printed the competition I gave them. These men thought they were going to be making a small statue." I threw the paper back down on the table where it landed on the papers from the other kingdoms. I pulled out the paper below it. The Atlantice Conch. I was on the front cover of that one. Someone had taken a photo of me being held back by the guard when I'd jumped over the fence.

  I sighed and threw that one down too. I didn't even want to go through the other kingdoms' papers. The whole thing was embarrassing enough as it was. I didn't need to read about it.

  "I don't suppose you know what today's competition is going to be, do you?" I asked. There wasn't a chance that my fantastic puzzle was going to be used.

  "I don't know," Charlotte said, shrugging her shoulders. "I only hope it's not as brutal as yesterday. I almost had a heart attack when one of the lions ran over to Caspian. He would have gotten him too if he'd not performed a spell."

  I raised my eyebrows as Charlotte brought her hand up to her mouth.

  "I wasn't supposed to say that. Please don't be mad."

  So Caspian was using magic. It figured. I'd put a blanket ban on all magic, but since when
did Caspian listen to a word I said and followed my rules? Precisely never, that's when, and I guessed I couldn't hope for him to start now.

  "Don't worry about it," I reassured her. "I don't even care anymore. I just want Milo to come out of this alive, I don't care who wins now, not even if it's Caspian. I should have married him right at the start and avoided all this."

  Charlotte nodded, but I could see in her eyes that she didn't agree with me. Of course, she didn't. She wanted to marry Caspian herself. I sighed and bit into my soggy bread.

  After breakfast, I waited for my father to walk me outside to the arena, but he was nowhere to be seen.

  "Dahlia, do you know where my father is?" I asked impatiently.

  "Actually, I do. He's asked me to walk out with you. He says he's not feeling well and not up to watching more of what happened yesterday. Not that I can blame the man. It made me sick to my stomach too."

  My heart leapt into my throat. "He's not well?"

  Dahlia took my hand as the doors to the castle opened. "I think he doesn't want to watch his subjects being killed. I know his situation. He's letting the competition continue because he doesn't want the kingdom to go to wrack and ruin. The competitors are collateral damage in this whole thing."

  She tsked and shook her head.

  "I forgot to ask you yesterday. How is Andrew?" Andrew was Dahlia's son and the light of her life.

  "He's fine. Nearly wet himself yesterday when the tigers came out, though. The kid couldn't get away fast enough. I told him not to enter, but would he listen to me? Oh, no. At least, he's out of harm's way from whatever monstrosity Jacob's planned for today's entertainment. He's at home licking his wounded pride and probably eating all my homemade pies. Come on. we can't put this off any longer."

  The pair of us walked out to another trumpet fanfare. As long as I lived, I'd associate the sound of trumpets with the stench of death, and I had a feeling that today was only going to cement that connection.