The Claimed: A Clash of Copper and Gold

Chapter 32: A Mouse

As everyone registered the change in alliance, the energy in the colosseum crackled and shifted. We were still vastly outnumbered.

But we stood a chance.

A bulky figure cut off from Trebalda's army and dashed toward me — Ruck. The guard beside me whipped around to face him, but Ruck stabbed through the man's throat. While the opponent still clutched his throat and gasped for breath, Ruck snagged the keychain from his pocket. With two succinct clinks, he freed my wrists and ankles and ripped off the gag. Then he thrust the guard's sword into my hands and jerked his head toward the center platform.

"Save him, Toom."

The agonizing helplessness of the last two days channeled into a savage power that coursed through me like liquid fire. Without another glance at Ruck, I shot to my feet and lurched toward Niako.

The seven Claimed still surrounded the platform, as motionless as the statues ringing the colosseum and eerily unaffected by the bloodbath beginning around them. The executioner's eyes tracked Makash, who now scrambled up the stairs to the royal balcony. The two guards on the platform grasped Niako's arms, oggling the approaching army. When they spotted me, one hopped down and charged toward me.

I parried the guard's swinging blade and stabbed through his chest. Then a soldier raised her sword in my peripheral, and I jerked my sword free and lashed out just in time to redirect her blow away from my body.  As I smashed my sword's hilt over her head, the remaining guard on the platform shoved Niako over the wood block. The executioner raised the axe high overhead, and a silent scream shredded my aching throat.

I would not be in time.

Then the executioner's eyes widened and shoulders jerked. A second later, he toppled forward to crash down on the platform, a blade buried in his back. Behind him, Zaria sprung up onto the platform and yanked the blade free. When the guard released Niako and spun to face her, she slashed through his throat in one concise movement.

The guard's blood still spattered Zaria's white-blonde hair as she sliced out again, this time through the ropes binding Niako. For one brief second, she caught my eye, and her head ducked in a barely perceptible nod. Then she wheeled around and bounded off the platform into the fray.

I scooped up the sword from the felled soldier beside me and raced toward Niako. Ahead of me, a soldier stepped up onto the platform, but I jabbed the blade in my right hand up through his back. He flipped back toward me, and I dodged the body and leaped up onto the platform.

Niako drew his gaze up from the discarded rope to meet my eyes. "Toom."

I flipped the sword in my left hand to offer him the hilt. "Is this one alright?"

Niako accepted the sword a split second before movement flashed behind him. Before I could open my mouth to warn him, Niako swung around and sliced through the incoming soldier's chest. The man slipped backward and toppled off the platform.

With a shrug, Niako said, "It will work."

Then soldiers rushed the platform from all sides.

Without another word, we positioned ourselves back-to-back at the center of the platform. The clanging and screaming around the colosseum faded to a tinny ring as my vision and hearing narrowed to my immediate surroundings.

The attackers streamed past the ring of Claimed as though dodging poorly placed furniture. Some of our attackers fell before reaching us, pierced by arrows from Trebalda's archers. When a soldier or guard vaulted the platform, one of us rushed forward to meet the attacker while the other covered from behind. When two or three approached at once, we both responded with a blur of parries and strikes.