The Sword Unbroken - SAMPLE CHAPTERS

Chapter Five Part II

Rerdas sat in a chair with his head tilted back, a clean cloth pressed to his lip. He could still taste a little blood in the back of his throat. Heckly, Etiana and Hammond were all arranged around the table, watching him.

"He did a pretty good job of it, didn't he?" Hammond said.

Rerdas shrugged. "I'm glad," he said. "Glad to see he can still fight back. I'd be worried if he tried to do some damage and failed."

It wasn't what he was really thinking, but it sounded good. Rerdas did not want to unravel his feelings about what had just happened. He had never seen someone move like that, with such perfect, deadly speed. It was terrifying. He did not want to think about what kind of life produced such ferocity.

"How did it go at Iffroa?" Heckly asked.

I think it went quite well. Although we did have to settle for a less than ideal day for the fight," Etiana said.

"When?" asked Hammond.

Etiana brushed a few loose curls back from her forehead. "Red King's Eve," she admitted.

The butler gaped at her, and Heckly let out a weak laugh. "I suppose it's a good thing you don't go in much for superstitions, Etiana. Although I'm surprised that Ori was willing to stage a fight."

"The curse doesn't apply to the battlebox house." Etiana sighed. "It's only supposed to be for the fighters. And besides, it's not real anyway. It'll be a good thing for us. There won't be any other high profile fights going on, so interest will be high for ours. And when Imalroc wins, the doors of all the other battlebox houses will open again. We'll be on our way."

"And...if he loses?" Heckly asked.

"He won't," Etiana said. She stood up and swept toward her mother's room without another word. Rerdas chuckled bleakly to himself.

"You're going to have to show him where the power lies. Can't let him hit you and get away with it," Heckly said, nodding at Rerdas.

"I can't fight him my damned self. I'd lose in the blink of an eye."

"Just tie him up and give him a good beating. Hang him from the ceiling like the practice bag. Or better yet, get a whip. Although you might want to save that for after the fight. Not a good idea to send him into the box with open wounds."

"I...that doesn't seem very fair," Rerdas blurted before he could shove the words back in his mouth. Hammond snorted and Heckly's eyebrows rose.

"It's not supposed to be fair," Heckly said gently. "You must always remember that battleboxers are not like real people. They only respond to violence. It's all they know."

"I see," Rerdas said quietly. But even as he said it, he was not quite sure he could make himself believe it. Imalroc seemed very much like a real person to him. A deranged and very dangerous one, to be sure, but a person nonetheless. He did not go back to the cellar that night.

With the inauspicious date set, time seemed to speed up. Rerdas did everything he could to get Imalroc back into peak condition, but the fighter remained thin and lifeless in practice. Imalroc did not try to strike him again, but for a while it seemed as though they were both constantly circling each other, watching and wary. The days grew shorter and night swallowed up more and more of the evenings. A cold wind blew into Kirinoll from the east, and green vitality was slowly sapped from the leaves that quivered in its grasp.

Dried leaves crunched under Rerdas' boots as he walked home, leading Hastings by a long-line. He had spent most of the day avoiding being caught alone in the woods with the Duke of Umber on yet another hunting trip. The man was damnably persistent.