Ascendants of Ancients Sovereign - By Phillip Jones Page 0,190

that he won’t let me use my magic on him. I can’t stand watching him get more stitches. His ribs look terrible.”

The younger sorceress grimaced and changed the subject. “Let’s pass on finding Amar for now. I’m sure I can think of something to challenge myself until the moment is right. All we have to do is think of something absurd and then try it.” She slapped her hands together. “Bam, we have another lesson.”

“I suppose your logic makes sense, Child. Perhaps you can try raining down fire or manipulating some other outlandish control over the elements. Who knows what you’re capable of?”

Shalee agreed. “I might need to do something like that to get the king to listen to Sam. Maybe you and I can figure out something clever to speed things up.” Shalee smiled, “Give up a high-five.”

Unbeknownst to the women, they were being watched from the shadows. The stare of the being within his hiding spot was filled with disturbed thoughts.

The sorceresses stayed by the fireside through the night talking about girl stuff. When morning arrived, the moment had come to go back into town and eat breakfast with the boys. The swine meat, greggled hash and eggs were delicious, and the conversation was pleasant. Afterward, everyone prepared to go to the arena for Sam’s final fight.

Now, fellow soul ... I need to tell you something about Empire. This town was considered to be the jailhouse for the whole of Southern Grayham. The headmaster of this arena lived in forced service to the King of Brandor, and acted as a sheriff of sorts.

The headmaster was not human, and he lived in humiliation. Farogwain was a serpent noble, a relative of the Serpent King, Seth. His noble blood was what spared him from being transported to Dragonia, but this immunity did not exonerate him from being punished for the crime he committed against an officer in Brandor’s army.

Thirteen seasons ago, Farogwain devoured this man’s son while traveling to the Temple of the Gods. Because the serpent’s murderous actions happened during a time of peace, Farogwain was forced to live in shame. He was ordered by the senate of Brandor to spend the rest of his life disposing of Grayham’s unwanted. The Serpent King, Seth, was left with no choice. He did not want to go to war with Brandor, therefore, he was forced to surrender his slithering cousin.

Farogwain was sadistic. As a result, Empire’s large, oval arena was the most barbaric setting throughout the worlds. The stage on which the fights were hosted was like no other. The faces chiseled into the stone walls surrounding the sandy surface of the arena looked tortured.

The faith of the people living in Empire made the town’s arena unique. Their faith was different from the rest of Southern Grayham. The people of Empire prayed to a god no other populace worshiped, and they cherished Jervaise’s eternal fire.

The town was one of the few places where the Goddess of Fire made a seasonal appearance. While in her ghostly form, she seduced the people into worshipping her. The town sculpted a statue to honor the goddess over 6,000 seasons ago, and this likeness was placed at the center of the arena.

The Goddess of Fire’s statue was surrounded by a circular pool of flame, 16 paces in diameter. Seven other, smaller pools, all square, and nearly seven paces across were also burning. They were scattered across the arena floor and positioned to serve as obstacles to keep the combatants separated after they entered the arena at opposite ends of this high temperature battleground.

As if this was not bad enough, whenever the fights came to Empire, there was one fight filled with convicted felons. These criminals were awaiting transport to Dragonia. They were positioned by each pool. Some were in pairs, while others were in groups of four, but each felon was harnessed and held a key to one of his fellow combatant’s shackles inside his stomach. Generally, the most ruthless of these criminals were placed around the circumference of Jervaise’s pool while the weaker criminals were chained to the outskirts of the smaller pools.

All of these convicted beings were used to heighten the hostility of the fighting environment during the Man vs. Beast battle. They were chained by a single wrist, leg, or tail, if necessary, and given weapons. Their metal leashes were heavy, and they all knew the key to their lock was in the belly of one of the other convicts who had been