A Nightingale's Tale

Chapter Two

Arabella gasped along with the rest of the crowd when Coen swung his praecant from behind his back and down onto Ethan’s arm. It fell to the ground with a sickening, slick smack. Ethan fell to the floor near his arm soon after. Arabella was sure he would die from shock before they could get him healed. No one was in the Sanitatem to tend to the wounded, they were all here. The losers of this tournament weren’t even worth it to the community. She looked around for her fellow workers from the Sanitatem, but the arena was huge, and she couldn’t see past the rows near her. She fanned herself with a feather fan she had made. The hot summer air was thick and made her worry worse. She shook her knee compulsively as Coen raised is praecant toward the sky and was greeted at the winner's table. Lydia was next, there were no more contenders, she was next.

“The girl’s last, she probably ran away,” a large woman in the row in front of Arabella said to the three women sitting with her.

Arabella didn’t recognize the woman, but she assumed she was one of the wives of an Elder Brother considering her double in size of her companions. Probably, the first wife, Arabella snickered to herself.

“Good, they shouldn’t have let her even train with the boys, how embarrassing. My son had to duel her once!” the smallest of the four women said while fanning herself with a handmade fan, made from someone she would have considered beneath her. Her son had one in one of the first rounds and the women bellowed and fell into one another when he was awarded his seat at the table.

“Let’s go, I don’t want to see a girl die in the arena,” the woman with a yellow shell in her hair said.

“You know, I knew her mother,” the large woman started again, “Yes, we had class together before the move. She was always so strange. It’s no surprise, really, that this is what would become of her daughter. I said, when her mother died, nothing productive would become of her and just now look.”

Arabella’s hands began to ache as she grabbed the bench harder to suppress her growing anger. She heard plenty of the gossip amongst the women, and men, of the coven but it never got any easier to hear. Lydia had more talent and grace, considering her position, than anyone in the entire arena. Arabella slipped her rhythmic knee shaking into the back of the large woman. She jerked forward with an astonished face and Arabella simply smiled.

Rex stood from his seat and announced the final fight. Arabella lurched forward and screamed for Lydia when her name was called.