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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Four - The Bun in the Arena

  “Thank you!” I said to the old shopkeep. The man gri me and pocketed the few coppers I’d left on his ter with a swipe.

  They were coppers well spent. I tossed one of the little sacks full of tea leaves I’d bought into the air and then caught it before turning to my friends.

  “Okay, so this is my pn,” I said.

  All four of us--the girls and Booksie... who was also a girl but not yet ‘one of the girls’-- were a block away from the square where the tour would take pce. Even from as far as we were, I could hear the excited babble in the air as hundreds of people gathered for the show.

  “I’m gonna make some tea,” I said. “Lots of tea. And you three sell that tea to the people watg the show for a few coppers each. I’ll betcha we’ll make tons of money in no time.”

  “You think that, huh?” Amaryllis asked.

  I was sensing some doubt. Lots of doubt.

  “It’s a dumb idea,” Amaryllis said.

  I slumped.

  “Not only will you only raise, at most, a few dozen sil, you’re also putting yourself at risk. Do you know how many grabby men will be in those stands? I don’t want to see Awen carried off to a cell because she pced a bolt into some young fool whose hands wandered further than his eyes.”

  Awen nodded. “That would be bad. Um. Not that I’d kill someone... in public like that.”

  I slumped. “Darn,” I said.

  Amaryllis rolled her eyes and patted my shoulder. “It’s not that big a deal. It’s not even that bad an idea. . We get some tickets in one of the boxes and you sell some tea to the people there, at least.”

  “Really?!” I asked. I felt my ears perking up on my head and rubbing against the two holes I had Awen drill into the top of my hat.

  I kept idly juggling my tea bag as I followed Amaryllis out of the general goods store and towards the tre of the town. There didn’t seem to be tickets or anything like that. Instead, a row of guards were blog off the entrao the square and demanding payment up front to allow people in.

  A fsh of gold on Amaryllis’ part and we were let in and even escorted through the rougher parts of the crowd by a friendly young guardsman.

  There were so many people trying to fit into the square that moving was a bit of a chore, but as we arrived at the back of part of the stadium and were guided towards a wooden staircase, the crowds lessened a little.

  “Ohh,” I said as I stepped onto the top of a viewing ptform. There were three rows of benches with enough room for maybe fifty or so people, though there were only half as many attendees in the box when we arrived. The bad sides had waist-high walls to keep people from falling, but the front only had a little rail across it.

  I could see the arena below, a ten by teer square of what looked like granite raised out of the middle of the town’s square, with rails all around it and, a few meters back, huge boxes built in tiers where people were standing and milling about.

  Uhe stadiums bae, there wasn’t aing down below. Chairs, apparently, were for the people able to afford the nicer boxed seats.

  “Awa, there has to be a thousand people here,” Awen said as she stared across the throng of people.

  I caught sight of harpies, cervids and sylphs, even a few grenoil standing tall to see the stage. And, of course, there were lots of humans.

  Amaryllis was quite smug as she sat down in the front row, and soon Awen and I joined her. Booksie paused for a moment before sitting down too. I was a little worried that she would feel bad, but she was smiling. Maybe she would be swept away in the fun and would fet her worries for a bit.

  I set down my pack halfway under my bit of the bench, pulled out my tea kettle, and started to warm up a few cupfulls of water.

  “Are you still doing that?” Amaryllis asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Might as well grind the skill,” I said.

  I was just passing my friends some steaming hot mugs of their own when a shadow paused before me. When I looked up, it was to meet the wide eyes of the portly town mayor. He was standio a tall, skinny man who was all bones and who had a big bushy mustache riding his upper lip. “Um, hi?” I said.

  “Ah, yes, hello,” the mayor said as he doffed his hat. He looked to my friends, then bae. “Are you... ah, but you didn’t have the ears. But... perhaps disguise magic?”

  “I’m sorry, but, what?”

  The mayor shook his head and plopped his hat ba. “Five me dear, but, ah, could you perhaps tell me.” He paused and licked his lips. “Did you happen to, um, verse with a dragon, say, yesterday afternoon.”

  “Oh, yeah, that was me,” I said with a nod.

  “Ah, yes, you... seemed familiar, but you weren’t wearing the same thing,” he said.

  “A girl ultiple sets of clothing,” I said. Though... I wasn’t currently one of those girls.

  The mayor nodded along. “Of course, of course,” he said before looking at my head.

  I realized he was looking at my ears. “Oh. Yeah, those are new.”

  “Ah,” he said.

  “Noe’re hardly being polite, now are we,” said the mao the mayor. “Hello my dearest and my dearest’s friends. I am Zac John Honenheim, but everyone calls me Zac.” He took my hand and gave the back of it a smooth kiss. “A pleasure to meet you!”

  “Hi!” I said. “I’m Broccoli Bunch, this is Awen, and that’s Amaryllis, and this is Booksie!”

  “Geous, all of you,” Zac said with a huge grin. “Why if I could parade you in front of these crowds I wouldn’t o put on a show at all!”

  “Thanks? I think?”

  “Iell me miss Bunch, are you a fighter? A bit of a daringdoer?” He asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.

  “A bit, I guess.”

  “My! Did you hear that, James my old pal! She’s got some fight in her yet!” Zac said to the mayor before turning bae. “Tell me miss Bunch, how would you like to make a quick copper?”

  I blinked. “Um. That would be nice, but we’re looking for ways to make quick ght now, not copper.”

  “Hah!” Zac barked. “Aren’t we all? Tell you what. You seem to be the subject of a lot of gossip right now. Lots of chit and chat and so on. Now, that’s an opportunity we ’t miss out on! I just so happen to be missing one of the ds that’s supposed to fight this m. Fellow ienth level, ate something disagreeable. That means I have a slot in my tour line up, a Bunch-shaped slot.”

  “Oh, I see,” I said. I was already shaking my head. “I’m not really int people, I’m afraid.”

  “No os hurt in a Hoheour my dear; it injures me to even hear you say as muo no, we have the very best healers from the Slyphfree mountains and our very stage is ented to prevent mortal wounds. You’ll be as safe as a rabbit in its burrow.”

  I looked at my friends. Booksie looked amused, and Aide-eyed iher shock or awe at Zac’s presence. But it was Amaryllis’ rea that I really wao know. She was smart, smarter than I was at least, and I trusted her judgment.

  “If you want to,” Amaryllis siad. “But not before discussing price.”

  “Oh, a shrewd one!” Zac said. “Five sil a fight. And of course the entire prize if you win your bracket.”

  “Single eliminations?” Amaryllis asked.

  “Indeed.”

  “Then that’s chump ge. Two gold per fight.”

  “Tw-- my dear dy,” Zac said as he spped his hands over his heart. “As beautiful and blessed as Miss Bunch may be, is she truly worth so much gold?”

  “Ask the dragon she scared off.”

  Zasidered that for a moment. “One gold.”

  “One and five pure silver.”

  “One gold, and then five pures atop every fight she wins. So one gold in the first, then one and five, then one and ten and so on,” Zac said.

  Amaryllis hummed. “How many rounds?”

  “Four my dear,” was the quick reply.

  Amaryllis nodded. “If she wants it. Swindle us and we’re telling our dragon friend. You pay whether or not she wins. And if she’s injured after your precious little healers are done fixing up her bruises, I will copy any wounds onto your flesh.” She smiled even as her feathers puffed out and little snaps of electricity sparked in the air.

  Zac blinked, his smile growing a little faint, and the mayor looked a little pale. “P-pardon?” he mumbled.

  “Cool!” I said. “I never fought in an exhibition match, but I’m sure my experience will help,” I said.

  “Your experieh exhibiting yourself?” Amaryllis asked.

  I huffed at her. But when Zac extended a hand at me, I shook. That much gold could help Booksie a lot, and it did sound like a lot of fun. That, and if the fights were so civilised, then I was sure I could tap out if things became a little too hairy.

  I downed my cup of tea, then hopped to my feet. “Where to?” I asked.

  “Ah-hah, we have a room for our brave batants to wait in! Follow me!”

  I waved goodbye to my friends and followed Zac as he rushed dowairs two at a time. The mayor was left wringing his hands behind us, but Amaryllis was soon grilling him. “This year’s group is very exg! Some real crowd pleasers. I think we’ll have ourselves a rousing success!”

  “That sounds great,” I said. I got to the bottom of the steps and straightened my skirts. I had to at least make an effort to look good. “Ah, I didn’t bring my shovel!” I said.

  “Your shovel?” Zac asked as he led me towards out of the area around the square and towards a rge brick house set to the side of the square, the very ohat had had a bell tower the day before.

  “My on,” I said.

  “No worries dear! The only ons we allow our batants to use are those ented to be quite harmless. Ah, I hope you’ll give the hters the same courtesy. We’re here to put on a show, not spill--too much--blood.”

  “I get it,” I said. “Kind of like boxing bae, I guess.”

  Zaodded to two people standing by the doors to the building, then barged in without so much as a knock. “I return!” he cheered.

  The room was filled with people, nearly all of them--with the exception of three straight-back sylphs in one er--were wearing armour of one sort or ahe men were bare chested, showing off oiled muscles, and the women were all huge amazons that looked like they could puneohrough a wall.

  There were a few mages, and one or two shifty looking folks wearing lots of loose clothes while they stalked the darker ers of the room.

  “Everyohis is miss Bunch! She’s going to repce Jimmy today!”

  A lot of very unfriendly eyes turned my way.

  Part of me wao back off and . But that part of me khat I’d never make friends with that kind of attitude. I took a deep breath, made sure I was wearing my best smile, then stepped up. “Hello! I’m Broccoli!” I said. “Let’s have lots of fun!”