On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Six: Arena

                 No one had told Yuina Mongonai she now lived in a fortress. Jia hadn't stopped the palanquin to show her the stone walls that loomed over every direction but north. She hadn't seen the garrison towers or the soldiers with their swords and halberds, their Kimsura serpent banners. But she could see it all from way up here. 

She could see everything.

She could see the gardens and their ancient shrines. She could see her river. Her home. 

And she could see the grand arena overlooking it all, taking up the entire top floor of the Kimsura palace.

               Capped with a grand phoenix-winged roof and golden spire, the arena boasted walls that were open to welcome in the sunlight. It could easily have been a nice place. A place of joy and relaxation. But this was the shogun's domain- here, there was no such thing.

This room was a temple to the gods of war, death, and hate.

And if the Trial of the Black Claw was its ritual, Daiki and Jia were its sages.

           They waited in the pit below, Daiki consulting men who must have been old warlords or martial arts masters, Jia taunting members the crowd. But they spent the most time together, whispering, frowning at the bleachers and the closed gates below.

Yuina swore she heard growling down there. Screaming too.

Shuddering, she went back to the Kimsuras.

Murder prince and murder princess stretched in their matching black uniforms that weren't cute at all. Snarling red dragons embroidered over the shoulders made sure of that. So did the faces of the shogun and lady who watched from high above.

Lady Kimsura noticed Yuina staring and fanned herself, pursing her lips disapprovingly. Ordering Yuina to look away.

               Like the gentle waves of the Phantom River, her baba's voice came rushing in- warm as the embrace of the spirit it held. She smelled crackling flames, felt fur against her skin. Does the mighty kibazaan bow to those who nip at their heels?

Nii, baba.

Or does she swing its tusks or stomp?

Nii, baba. Not unless she needs to.

Then may your hide be thick, and your gentle heart mighty, Yuaa-miizhair. A king, like their country, must endure.

And so the tide retreated.

Yuina raised her chin to the cold woman and her cruel, brutish husband, and spun around haughtily- only to come face to face with a man she hadn't seen in an age.

Hadn't wanted to, either.

That easy, arrogant smile spread across his handsome face, a white streak of lightning through a starless sky. It lit up the stunning blue eyes that gave him his title. That had inspired Jia to give her cat his name.

"The Blue Prince of Bei," she breathed, and those eyes went dark as his ebony hair.

Oops, thought Yuina, and she grimaced when she noticed what she'd overlooked. That there was something about Osamu Hikawa, her former betrothed, that hadn't been there the last time they'd met;

Shame.

Faint cosmetics lined his vibrant eyes, silvers and greys meant to dull and mute them. Hikarishi's prince, it insisted, not Isutobei's. Not the enemy's child. It was one step down from painting his skin.

"I... I'm sorry," she sighed. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Your Highness?"

"The noble house of the greater serpent must be even worse hosts than they seem," the prince said, frowning at the Kimsura's balcony. "To leave you here alone."