The Hunter on Arena by Rose Estes Read Free Book Online Page A

center, directly opposite them,
     the stone on the first tier had been carved into graceful arches and pleasant pavilions which trailed gossamer cloth in pale,
     pastel colors. Plump cushions could beseen piled atop the hard, stone risers; clearly this was where the royalty would be seated.
    The floor of the arena was composed of crushed, red stone and sand, the sand shifting perilously underfoot, offering little
     purchase. Braldt scanned the arena as he and his companions slowly stepped onto the playing field. Circling the arena below
     the first level of seats were a number of arched doorways, closed off and tightly barred with no hint of what might lie behind
     them. As they made their way into the center of the arena, they heard a smooth rumble and the doors to the chamber where they
     had wakened slid shut behind them, sealing them onto the playing field.
    They turned to face one another for the first time, studying each other, taking each other’s measure, for if the anonymous
     voice had spoken truly, their very lives would depend upon each other.
    Randi stood at Braldt’s side, defiant and proud, and from what little he had seen of her, he knew that she was resourceful
     and quick, a steady ally. The being named Allo stood to Randi’s left, taller than Braldt by at least two heads. He was broad
     in the chest and shoulders and his long arms hung nearly to his knees, ending in two curved digits tipped with sickle-like
     claws as long as the digits themselves and thicker than any claws Braldt had ever seen. They would be fearsome weapons. Allo’s
     feet were similarly constructed with an additional spur rising off the heel.
    The fourth member of their party was a manthing, the one called Marin who had challenged the voice, who was built like a boulder.
     His skin was black as night andrippled and shone as though it were polished rock or oiled metal; the muscles stood out in strange relief in unfamiliar patterns.
     Although he had a man-like form, with the appropriate number of appendages, there was something about him that was not right.
     His eyes were small and bright and burned with a dark rage. His head was smooth and devoid of hair and eyebrows which gave
     him a cold, threatening look. The bright, silver disc, positioned directly between his eyes made him appear even less than
     human. “What the fuck you lookin’ at?” snarled Marin, his mouth stretching into an unpleasant grimace revealing black, metallic
     teeth serrated along the edges.
    “Come, Marin, we are not the enemy,” Allo said gently. “We must take care not to set upon each other for surely our only chance
     for survival lies with one another.”
    Marin’s eyes seemed to glow for a moment, and then without even replying he swept his arm outward as though throwing a disc,
     and slammed it into Allo’s unprotected abdomen before any of them realized what he was going to do. Allo crumpled with the
     force of the blow and fell to the ground, groaning.
    Braldt would have flung himself on Marin, but Randi placed herself before him and put both of her hands on his chest. “No,”
     she said quietly, but with force. “There is no percentage in fighting among ourselves. It is what they would want. What chance
     will we have if the two of you kill or disable each other? Think about it.”
    The fifth and final member of their group, unnoticed until now, bustled forward, and Braldt saw with a shock that he was quite
     small and possibly deformed, built likea man but shortened and condensed, with all of his features squeezed into a fourth the space he should have taken. He was
     smaller than a child of five summers, but squat and compact as though four others had been squeezed into the same amount of
     space with him.
    He bustled across the arena with an odd, jerky swagger as though his various limbs were not accustomed to working with one
     another; he winked broadly at Randi and stroked her thigh as he passed. Taken aback by the unexpected