Torn by Kate Hill Read Free Book Online Page B

the Knight at work.”
    “I have no interest in your perversions,” Honey Wine said.
    Alva giggled, still lost in her own dreaming. “I’m so glad you convinced me not to let The Lady kill him. Watching him fight is ever so much fun. It’s like grasping a lightening bolt out of the sky and containing it in a sorceress’ crystal ball. He’s glistening energy just waiting for the chance to explode into a full-fledged storm! And he will, Honey Wine. Tonight, he will!”
    Honey Wine gritted her teeth in disgust as Alva’s excited fingers bit into her upper arm. Her mind churned with thoughts of the sort of beast who inspired such added pleasure to Alva’s decadence. From what she’d overheard from the guards’ conversations in the holding cells, Torn’s victories had been almost effortless. Even guards from other kingdoms had begun to wager on him over their own beasts, and the royals were becoming frustrated by The Mistress’s champion. They were losing interest in the Entertainment, until the announcement at the last match. Bron had gloated over Master Sparro’s boast that he’d been training a beast for months, one he’d kept from Entertainment to specifically hone his skills to such a vicious state that guards slipped his food beneath a barbed wire cage and had drugged him with a dart so they could bring him to the Entertainment field.
    Though Honey Wine feigned indifference, she feared for Torn. He was skilled, but he was not a beast. At times she wasn’t even certain he’d have made a decent guard. He was strong, a great fighter, and knew how to bury his own fear, but he felt for others. A severe fault in both guards and beasts. She knew that first hand. Her own empathy had cost her everything.
    The carriage stopped, and Alva jerked the hood from Honey Wine’s face.
    She squinted in the dusk. Set in an enormous clearing in a wood, a round rock building stretched toward the treetops. Torches rimmed a cobbled walk from Alva’s carriage to the wooden double doors guarded by ten warriors, two from each of the participating kingdoms. She noticed none were from Warefield, the official city of High King Verick who presided over most of the islands of Travelle. Only the Ruby Order’s official kingdom of Rubyshire and the Opal Hill, owned by the Knights’ female counterparts, the Dames of the Opal Order, were beyond Verick’s control. His absence lent Honey Wine the slightest relief.
    At least the High King was not involved in the Entertainment, not that it helped anyone in The Mistress’s land.
    “Ready, Honey Wine?” The Mistress smiled, a shiver running down her spine, though she was draped in a mink robe dyed the color of blood. “Oh, and before you forget yourself and start preaching against Entertainment, remember that everyone here loves it as much — if not more — than I do. They would be all too pleased to vote to drop you into the ring, and I, being the hostess, would be unable to deny their pleasure.”
    Honey Wine glared at her before guards ushered them both out of the carriage, down the walk, and through the doors to Alva’s private hell.
    Inside, they walked up a narrow stone staircase opening to a balcony that surrounded the vast room. The black, white, and red tiles on the dome-shaped ceiling depicted various methods of execution, the richness of the design a strange contrast to the dirt floor below. There was only one door in the single, enormous room below, and that door was encased by a small square cage of barbed wire. Honey Wine later realized the cage protected the guards from the fighting beasts once they were turned loose.
    Guards lined the back wall of the balcony, and cushioned seats were placed close to the railing so the onlookers had a perfect view of the battles below.
    Nobles, many whom Honey Wine recognized, already filled most of the seats.
    High born respected lords, ladies, and monarchs. If she hadn’t been so worried for Torn, Honey Wine would have laughed aloud at