The crowd pitched meat and fruit at the frillbacks, booing and hissing, and guards deployed along the wall leveled crossbows and shouted threats at the creatures, who continued their song.
“At least they haven’t said anything,” Rajana said.
The frillbacks brandished their swords at the crowd.
One of the guards along the bank shouted a command, and a crossbow bolt thudded into the thigh of the male frillback. He shouted and threw his sword almost to the top of the fourteen-foot wall.
There was a trumpet blast and the disgruntled crowd shifted its attention to the harried-looking announcer. “You wanted killer lizards? Well, I’ll give you one! A thunder lizard from the savage, beating heart of the Mwangi Expanse!”
The large gate directly beneath the speaker’s stand ground open and a yellow-and-green-striped lizard twice the height of a man stalked out, upright on huge clawed feet. Its great head swiveled to examine the arena and the crowd. Its maw opened to reveal sword-length teeth.
And then it caught scent of the frillbacks, roaring a low, deafening challenge, and trotted forward, its clawed front arms twitching.
“This will be the end of them,” Sylena said. Below, the male frillback limped for the wall where his sword lay. The thunder lizard hooted and dashed at him.
The female dove, waving her own sword, but the beast paid no heed. Just as the male frillback turned, sword raised, the monster’s great maw swept down over his head and chest. The frillback’s rib cage disintegrated in a single pulverizing blow. The beast lifted him into the air and blood sprayed into the stands. Women screamed.
The female frillback roared defiance. She ran forward and slashed the front of the monster’s leg.
It let out a choking roar, dropping the half of the frillback body it hadn’t swallowed, and swept its tail at the female, who threw herself aside.
“Yes, yes,” the spokesman cried from his platform. “We try to find you only the bravest here at the Crown’s End Arena. It seems the first frillback was a lover, not a fighter. Too bad for him, eh? But we have more surprises in store for you today. Much better surprises. Feast your eyes on this!”
The female dived to the left before one huge foot could stomp her to paste. The great head snapped at her, missed.
“Don’t think we just mean to have you watch the creature eat! No! For you see, we have another frillback. A killer among killers! A man-eater! Think what he’ll do when confronted by the beast who slew his nestmate!”
And the third lizard man stumbled into the arena—the problematic one they’d called Jekka. They’d given him the strange axe the female had carried. He held it in his left hand. In his right he bore the frillback staff, a scythe-like blade attached.
Jekka’s tongue snaked out and his mouth widened to reveal sharp teeth. His skin color darkened and spots of red appeared among dark green scales as his frill rose. He let out a low growl.
The thunder lizard snorted at the sound and turned. Its tale whipped into Kalina and sent her flying into a wall. She struggled to rise.
Jekka trotted forward as if he meant to meet the monster head-on.
“Look at his daring!” the speaker cried. “This one’s no coward!”
The thunder lizard’s attention was distracted by the crowd’s cheers, and it raised its head to snuffle along the arena rim. By straining, its small eyes could just see over the top, presumably finding the noisemakers of great interest. Sylena knew a tingle of fear as it stepped within ten feet.
Jekka ran on, lifting one of the weapons. Sylena was a little startled to see it had changed from a scythe to a spear. How had that happened?
The frillback was looking at her.
No. Surely it studied the thunder lizard, which had finally turned to face him with a roar that shook the stands. The crowd shouted approval.
Jekka released the spear, but the cast flew wide of the monster’s head. It was a terrible throw, arcing up over the stands, up—
“Atok!” she screamed. It was pure reflex, because she knew Atok was dead. It was just that he had been there for so many years to shield her.
Rajana’s black-clad bodyguard put his hand to her shoulder and leapt onto the railing, knocking the spear aside with a sheathed sword. The spear clattered harmlessly along the stony bench.
Sylena gasped in horror and shoved her sister’s bodyguard aside, peering over the rim. Unfortunately, the monster completely blocked her line of sight.
“Sister,” Rajana hissed. “Get down! Get back! You’ll call attention to yourself!”
“I want to see him die!” Sylena leaned out and to the left, far enough that she could just see the frillback sprinting. The thunder lizard pursued, its footfalls shaking the walls, head thrust forward to snap Jekka in half.
Suddenly a huge, white-furred ape thing with four arms climbed out of an open cage door. It reared back and beat its great chest with two of its fists.
The thunder lizard growled and halted to consider the new development. Jekka bolted clear.
The crowd murmured in puzzlement, and Sylena glanced at the speaker, who was in frantic consultation with a red-robed official. Clearly the events weren’t going according to plan for anyone.
Two rhinos charged onto the field, the sun gleaming from scythe blades fitted over their horns, and the crowd shouted in joy. It looked like things were shaping up for a bloodbath.
Sylena leaned down and picked up the lizard man’s spear, ignoring her sister’s demands that she stop making a spectacle. Jekka was in plain view. If he got close enough, she wouldn’t even have to wait for something else to kill him.
And then she heard her name, shouted from below. She looked down.
Impossibly, Mirian Raas stood directly beneath, alive and well and pointing a wand. As the glowing emerald bolt streamed for Sylena, she almost managed a scream.
But then the bolt struck her face. Wailing through her ruined mouth, she lost her balance and plummeted to the arena floor.