Chapter 54 - Pitted

I headed back to the pits, moving toward the cheers to the east with the patch in my pocket. I began to sense the four of knaves before I even turned the corner to the square and sent a sliver of my will toward it. The link reestablished, invisible thread stretching taut between my mind and the card in Barthran’s pocket.

“I’m back,” I murmured to myself. A lady walking past me glanced my way and promptly crossed the street. Whether it was the chatting to myself or the lingering smell of the orc hovel I can’t properly say.

“Did you find my brother?”

I stopped and took a deep breath. “He’s dead. The mongrels butchered him.” I took out the bloody patch and focused on it, trying to send an impression of the stitching.”

“Those bastards! Why? Why would they do that? I’m helping them, aren’t I?!”

“Honestly, they probably plan to kill you, too.”

“Obviously. Can you get me out of Kindledown?” I could feel his anger and desperation radiating through the link.

“Our deal, first. Annalisa of Dunnemarsh has to win. Then, we get you out.”

I came in sight of the pit, or at least the crowded stands and ground-level watchers. I saw a blue blur streak across the field, smashing into something with a cloud of rising ash. Annalisa was already fighting—though whether she’d just tackled the Teeth fighter or been tossed across the arena, I could not yet tell. Whatever it had been, the crowd loved it.

I tried to push my way back into the crowd, but one of the Teeth grabbed me. “Two cunnings,” he demanded.

“It was one earlier,” I said.

“That was earlier,” he grinned. “This is now.”

I looked around. The dragons raged in my deck, but the last thing I needed was a scene to draw attention. Burying my anger, I pulled out a handful of stolen clips and pushed them at the mongrel. He didn’t even pretend to count out change. It all went straight to his pocket.

“Now, fuck off,” he said, wrinkling his nose and jerking his thumb toward the pit. “You smell like piss.”

I moved past him. It took me a few minutes to work my way through the standing crowd and get eyes on the mender, Barthran. He hadn’t moved, though he watched this fight with greater intensity. His retinue was all on their feet, cheering their brother on in the ring. Three more orcs to fight. Just what I needed. Where was Foe? Nevermind her. I had to focus on Annalisa, first.

I made it to the ring just in time to see my devilborn partner land a flying knee in the mongrel’s midsection. She was covered in black marks and bleeding from her nose, right cheek, and lips. But, typical of Annalisa, that had only spurred her on harder.

Yet, even as I watched, the flow from her cuts began to staunch. Her opponent’s eyes widened. He tossed a glance back at the mender in confusion that earned him a right cross to the chest from my partner. His guard came back up in time to deflect the follow-up, and he slipped left before sinking his own low hook into Anna’s right side. His fist dug in, hard, and the blow lifted her entirely off her feet. As she came down, she locked eyes with me at the edge of the pit and grinned, backing off to spit the blood from her mouth. The precipice card blazed on her forehead. The two clashed for another minute before the brass drum sounded.

Her opponent twisted, raising his hands to the crowd and roaring. Annalisa did the same, and the big bastard put his foot in the small of her back. She slid through the ash, caught completely off-guard by the cheap shot, but rolled to her feet in time to deflect a jab and counter low on the mongrel’s ribs. Only then did the mongrel back off and return to his corner.

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Even without the mender tilting the fight in his favor, the Teeth fighter was monstrously strong. Annalisa needed the dragon buff. I dug in my pocket for my deck. Just as my fingers brushed it, something hit me from behind, and over the edge of the pit I tumbled. My cards went flying, and I dropped flat into the ash with the wind knocked out of me. I looked up at the grin of the orc who had charged me double to get back in.

What the fuck?

Both Annalisa and her opponent stared at me for a moment. My partner jumped to her feet, ready to run to my aid. But a heavy thump hit the ash between us, kicking up yet another cloud.

Foe Skull Crusher Bite straightened from her landing, heavy axe in one hand. With the other, she plucked one of the drifting cards out of the air and looked at it with contempt.

“Thought so,” she murmured, tossing it down to the ash. She walked over and picked me up by the vest. She put her face to the crook of my neck. I thought she was about to tear out my throat. Instead, she inhaled deep and then tossed me toward the center of the ring. Annalisa darted over and pulled me upright.

Foe leveled her axe at me. “Vanish for an hour and come back smelling like piss and blood? That’s Dragonmaw. Come back smelling like orc piss and orc blood?” Her face curdled. “Stupid. You should have stayed in your little whorehouse, little morsel. After I finish you off, I’m going to burn that pretty place of yours to the ground.”

I got to my feet and called my cards back, fanning them out around me. Anna came to stand at my side. The dragon’s raged in my deck. I was scared shitless, but we had a crowd. Whispers circled the ring. I read Barrow Knave on their lips. As Jeedle put it, I had an image to cultivate. “Barrowdown is mine, bitch. Don’t chip those fangs of yours biting off more than you can handle.”

Foe Skull twirled her axe and spat in the ash. “You didn’t even earn Barrowdown. You fell into it when Kridick and Zarry split.”

She was right. They hadn’t run from me. Their abrupt departure had left a drork-shaped hole in the power structure of the downs, and I’d been a convenient, if ill-fitting, plug.

“Hells, that gives me an idea,” she said. She tilted her head up to the waiting crowd and raised her voice. “You all remember Kridick and Zarry. Now that was a pair of fighters who could carve their place.” that got a cheer from the crowd. “Got a treat for you tonight, people! How about a team match, two orcs, just like old times. Be like one of those posh upper city fights? Eh?”

Obviously, the crowd approved. They could smell the blood about to be spilled for their entertainment, and they hadn’t even had to pay extra. Two foes for the price of one. Foe Skull circled the middle of the ring, hooting and pump up her arm to rile up the crowd. Annalisa’s original opponent pushed up and stood next to his boss, fangs bared.

A sense of alarm came through my link with the four of knaves, but when I looked for the mender in the stands, he was gone—as were his three guards. I cursed. They must have pulled him out on Foe’s orders after the ticket-taker made me. I needed that mender almost as much as I needed Annalisa to win this fight. With Childes planning on charging us double, we were going to be hurt for healing without Barthan. I‘d just waded through hell to win that mage over. Foe would not take him back from me.

Maybe she was right that I had done nothing to earn Barrowdown. I certainly hadn’t wanted it before Kridick scarped. But now that it was mine? I keep what’s mine. And no mongrel she-orc had a say in the matter—so long as she didn’t bury that axe in my skull and slurp my brains through the crack. Unfortunately, an all-too-possible outcome of this battle to be. Orc gangs respect strength above all else, and now we had a prize-fighter and a chieftess to contend with on equal footing.

“Darcent, what happened?” asked Annalisa. “What are you doing in the pit?”

I looked up at the crowd. I’d never expected to find myself on this side of the rope. “This is more than just a prize fight, Annalisa. Foe Skull is a killer, and this is her play for Barrowdown.”

Annalisa pulled my face back to look at her. The precipice flickered above her head. Its light had grown dim, as though uncertain of the outcome.

That doubt, however, didn’t extend to the Devilborn. “Hey. We got this. Lovers, remember? How many times we fought together? This is no different.”

“Anna, we can’t just make a hole in the floor for them to fall through. There’s no running away from this one.”

She grinned. “Then we’ll just have to beat them the old-fashioned way. Just how I like it.”

Foe Skull whistled from across the pit. “If you two are done with your last will and testament, I think these fine people came to see a show!”