Belvedor and the Four Corners (Belvedor Saga Book 1) (4 page)

As she walked away from the rooms and towards the barred gate on the far side of the arena, she passed many people in group training sessions. Masters yelled commands at the top of their lungs, and she could hear the battle cries and grunts of those dueling. Some slaves conducted drills and ran laps around the grounds; others battled with a myriad of weapons. They wielded swords, axes, flails, daggers, and bows, some using only their fists. Slaves of all ages littered the arena. They lay wounded, dead or fighting, just another day in the district. 

Arianna pushed open the tall gate. Her skin shivered as her fingers touched the cool steel, so she pulled on her leather gloves and slipped out. The Warrior’s District wound like a giant serpent that coiled into itself, the path to the right leading to the Square. She turned towards the left.

Walking towards the west side of the city, Arianna passed the Well Center, which looked like a warped sphere pressed into the ground. She saw caretakers, like Cyn, running in and out of the graying-lilac building, caring for the injured. Further up the road she passed the Dining Hall, a long, rectangular structure made of a dull stone. The food they served there replicated the same lifeless color as its exterior, and Arianna scrunched up her nose as the scent of mush filled the air.

She strode past more rundown buildings towards the edge of the city, and she walked by the underpass of the mountains. As they loomed above her, she lifted her eyes to their snow-topped peaks. Rumors declared it a dead man’s journey to try and trek over Blancoren, so people always went under.

Each district within the Four Corners had access to an underpass, so the districts could receive provisions from other cities. Hundreds of paths under the mountains created the maze of the Vanishing Tunnels. She knew the story well. With only one way in or out of the labyrinth, elders held the only maps. No slave ever tried to escape… not unless the rumors were true about the one-year anniversary of the Four Corners at least.

Arianna passed the guards who blocked the tunnels, day and night, and walked along the mountainside. If she continued in a circular path along Blancoren, she would eventually end up back where she started. She passed some of the barracks where she and the other slaves slept. Hundreds of them stood against the wall of the mountains. Mounted on wooden stilts high above the ground, they seemed to sway in the wind.

She circled the quiet street. Feeling a little anxious as she always did when she snuck away, she ducked under the barracks and out of sight. Everyone was still busying about in the center of town, so she felt safe enough from prying eyes. After about fifteen minutes of walking underneath the houses, the smell of rotting wood began to sting her nose. Her fingers traced the frozen mountainside until they found a particular stone, the size of a small child, which wobbled under her touch.

Pushing her fingers on the stone, it fell inward, landing with a thud. Her mind lurched backwards as she placed her hand in the center of the cold rock, remembering the moment which had led her there so long ago.

“I’m trying, really I am,” she said, breathless.

“Not hard enough!” screeched her trainer. “Pick up your damn sword, you lazy excuse for a girl!”

Another swing came at her head, but she lifted the heavy, wooden blade. She moved quick enough to block the strike, but the weight of the blow left her back on the ground, sweating in panic. Mud covered every inch of her, and a large gash bled above her elbow.

“Come on, get up!” said her opponent, a boy in her ninth-year group. Everyone always praised his skill. “Practice makes perfect.”

His sword pointed at her face, waiting for her next feeble attack. He looked like a real warrior standing over her then, a scar across his chest.

“I swear on the High King, if you don’t get back on your damn feet, I’ll have you thrown in the Pit, twenty-two,” said the trainer. The man stayed faceless in her memory, but his voice sounded cold and rigid.

 Nothing scared her more than the Pit. No slave could survive that punishment. Even with the fear of that fate weighing on her, she knew she couldn’t win this battle.

 “I can’t… I can’t fight anymore. I’m not strong enough,” said young Arianna. “I yield.”

Her sword dropped to the ground. The other slaves in her group laughed, all except one, a flaxen-haired boy who just stared in the other direction. Liam.

“You’re pathetic. Absolutely not worth a single second more of my time,” said the trainer. “In this world, you earn your freedom! You’ll be lucky if you ever even see a glimpse.” She prayed for that luck.

He turned and walked out of the arena with the others at his heels, leaving her alone with the boy who mocked her with his smile. As beautiful as he was, she hated him then. “Next time at least make it a fight. You’ll be dead and buried in the tombs before you reach your next ceremony,” he said with a smug smirk.

The boy slung his wooden sword to his side and then spat at her feet. He left her there alone, whistling the tune of the Free Bird as he went.

A few weeks later, he died

“This is the destiny you choose if you forget your place here,” said General Ivo. “Look upon the child that was destined for greatness. Now he’s nothing more than a rotting corpse. May freedom find you in death,” he said with a sinister smile as he dropped a single white rose into the Pit.

Arianna had never before seen such a beautiful flower outside of books and scrolls. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the darkness as it swallowed up the rose. She wondered at that moment if the general spoke the truth.

Would his soul be set free even though he died a slave? She hoped not. She hated that boy even in death.

“Mark my words,” said the general. The entire crowd silenced in order to hear. “You are nothing more than a number here, and I’ll not hesitate to snuff out the slightest hint of defiance inside of these walls. Dismissed.”

The crowd dispersed to get back to their duties, and Arianna found the motivation to train harder. 

As Arianna climbed through the hole in the mountainside, she reflected on the emotions of that day in her past. The embarrassment she felt, and the humiliation that had led her to hide under the barracks all came back to haunt her now.

Desperately wishing for a way to escape the little boy and the taunts of her ninth-year peers, something had answered her prayers all those years ago. When she had leaned her small body against the loose rock, she revealed a secret like none other. Now, at seventeen, she had traveled there countless times.

Replacing the stone in its rightful stance, she became blinded in momentary darkness. After a few moments, the ceiling of the hidden cave began to glow like sparkling red and gold lanterns hung just for her special arrival. Millions of firebugs hummed a few feet above her head, guiding the way to her destination. The light they surrendered swirled all around her, buzzing with electricity.

As she traveled down the long, narrow passage, the air grew warmer. She removed her heavy cloak and clothes, stripping down to her undergarments. Here she was simply Arianna.

After a few minutes, the tunnel grew wide. A large opening spread out before her, lit even brighter than the entrance. “My paradise,” she said as she took in the brilliant backdrop.

Standing at the mouth of the cave, the area opened into a huge dome bigger even than the Dueling Arena, and firebugs covered the walls and ceiling. The top of the cave jutted down like inwardly built crowns, sparkling with dripping water, and massive, glittering, green stones projected from the walls and sat in the large lake that submerged the center of the floor.

As she moved further in, she saw a small cliff protruding from the side of the cave where foot holdings led up to the top. Arianna circled the cavern, climbing to the top of the cliff as usual. From up here she could see other twisting tunnels on the far side of the cave, but she had never found the guts to venture down any of them.

Her eyes transfixed on the water pouring from an unrevealed source high above her head. As it crashed to the pools below like thunder, she let it flow between her fingers. Then, turning around to face the edge of the cliff, she pushed her heel down with all her strength and sprinted forward.

The ground disappeared, and her body reveled in the rush, in the adrenaline, as she fell through the air. Nothing else mattered until her feet collided with the pool of water below. Waves splashed all around her body, engulfing her in a sweet sensation as she plunged down through the water.

Making her way back up for air, she reached the surface, willing her body to float around the giant pool. The temperature grew much hotter in the middle, and her tense muscles started to relax with the heat. The waterfall thundered down the cliffside behind her, creating more waves that rippled under her skin. She closed her eyes, imagining that the world outside the Four Corners must be this peaceful and serene. This utopia had birthed a fighter. It gave her motivation for a future such as this.

As she floated there, her mind at ease and dancing with thoughts of battle, she heard a subtle splash at the opposite end of the springs.

With swift reflexes, she let her body be immersed into the water. All but her nose and eyes melted into the pool as she tried to blend into the shadows, her curly locks drifting in a dark train behind her like a lethal creature lurking in the depths. 

She stilled as she heard more splashing noises begin in the distance. Trying to see what caused the disturbance without getting too close, Arianna stayed stone-still for fear a monster roamed the surface. Even though the law forbade that kind of imagination, stories still got around the district through whispers and gossip. Every slave heard their fair share from the older years, and at bedtime they had exchanged the tales with the regulators out of earshot.

Now, as she waited, she recalled these childhood nightmares. The stories of scaly creatures that prowled dark waters and ripped apart the bones of careless wanderers burned in her mind. Her fear grew palpable, thinking of Solomon as these fables clawed their way into her thoughts.
Of course… he’s always right.

If she was truly honest with herself, which came on odd occasions, Arianna could not form a true picture of what the real world might be like. Surely not filled with the creatures of her imagination? No way to be sure of what she might face, she held her breath, careful not to make any sound.

Determined for answers, she waded closer.

Impossible
. Her eyes widened for only a moment before the rest of her body slipped underwater.

CHAPTER FOUR

Deeper and deeper Arianna drifted under the dark waters. She hoped her movement wouldn’t stir any attention from the surface, but she needed a closer look to be sure that what she saw was no illusion. In her district, the regulators rationed water for drinking and bathing purposes only, but swimming came naturally to her. Many years she had practiced moving herself through these hot springs.