Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“Because we just didn’t talk about our fights after they were over. It was like… an unspoken rule. You won, you were alive, and now you just thought about the future.”
It makes sense, I guess. To keep the kids focused on something they could control instead of all the horrible things behind them that they couldn’t. “The Ring of Fire…” I almost sigh just thinking about it. “It’s… just…” I want to say ‘special,’ but then again, I really don’t want to say ‘special.’ It’s so gross. “It’s just… a show, ya know? The whole thing is a production.”
“Isn’t it like the others? I mean, I’ve been in my share of fights in the kid ring.”
“It’s not. They treat you so differently. Like a celebrity, almost. Or, more accurately, like a prize racehorse or something like that. A rooster in the cock fights might be a better analogy.”
“What kind of prizes did you get? Besides money, I mean.”
“What did Cort get?”
“Nothing.”
“What?” I laugh. “That’s impossible.”
“Well, I think there were prizes. But he never took them. He took the cash and then he gave it right back to Udulf.”
“Why the hell would he do that?”
“Oh.” She blinks at me. “You don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?”
“He was buying his freedom. His, Maart’s, Rainer’s, and Evard’s—that’s his son. Evard was sent to the camp for Cort to train. Every bit of what Cort earned from the fights was used to buy food for us kids or give back to Udulf to pay for their freedom.”
It takes me several seconds of blank staring before I fully unravel what she’s saying. “That’s why that was his last fight?”
“Yeah. The debt had been paid. They were out. But then…” She sucks in a long breath and exhales slowly. “Then… Ainsey happened.”
“Who the hell is Ainsey?”
“His daughter. She was… I don’t know, three or four when she was sent to our camp.”
“For him to train? In the death fights?”
Irina nods. “Yep. I think that, even if I live to be a hundred, learning about how Udulf was making Cort train his own children to fight to the death might be the most disturbing thing about that world.”
“Where was the mother?”
Irina shrugs. “Probably dead. Paulo, one of the boys in my training group, he used to tell us that the fighters always win a girl at the end of the night. Is that true?”
“Yeah. They used us like… like stallions, I guess. Studs. To make more fighters. So those were the children Cort was training?”
“Well, not all of us, I guess. I don’t think Cort is my father. I don’t look anything like him, at least. And I’m not quite sure the dates and ages line up. But I guess anything is possible. It was easy with the others. Both Ainsey and Evard have Cort’s eyes. Gray, like clouds. So it was hard to miss.” She makes a face at me. “Why are you looking at me that way?”
“What way?”
“Like you’re confused.”
I push off the counter and walk out into the living room, pacing back and forth the length of it as I run my hands down my face.
Irina has followed me, but she’s hanging back. “What’s wrong?”
I stop pacing when I get to the terrace. I look out at the sea and wonder if anything was ever true. Or has it all just been lies? One long string of lies.
When I turn to face Irina again, I don’t know what to say.
She doesn’t say anything either. But she’s making a face like she’s thinking very hard about something. Whatever she works out, it doesn’t take long, because her next question is direct. “Why am I here, Eason?”
Of course, there’s an answer for this. She’s here to train. She’s already been told that. But she’s seen the lies too. She’s lived in their web and the conversation we just had was filled with so many clues, if she hasn’t already guessed at least half of it, she’d have to be stupid or willfully ignorant.
“I was supposed to fight him.”
“Who? Cort?” Her voice is higher in pitch, she’s genuinely surprised.
“I was set up to fight him next. It was my fight.”
“In the Ring?”
I nod.
“They told you… well… what did they tell you?”
“I know the odds were not in his favor, but I was told that he was gonna win, Irina. And he did. I was told I could have him next. He was getting old, ya know. That’s a lot of fights. It’s a lot of injuries.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I was there.”
“Right. So they were talking me up. Telling me I’d be the one.”
“To take him down?” Irina scoffs. “Do you think they told Pavo the same thing? Do you think Pavo was still believing the lie when Cort and Anya pushed him off the platform and he rolled into the dark sea? I know that’s how that fight ended. Anya didn’t know the unspoken rules of the village and she told me how it ended.”