A Golden Heart Read online

  Cassira pushed open a doorway, pointed to the large group of dark cloaks gathered in the stadium like area, and slipped through the gathered crowd. Hundreds of masked women stood together watching the podium, waiting for further orders. Cassira climbed the podium steps, the whispers from the crowd silencing. Vashti stood in the back to practice her blending in skills.

  Cassira stood proudly with her halberd at her side, yelling out, “Welcome to Baklan on behalf of the Horde! You have all passed through with invitation and spoken rites. Now we go over the rules! The clues we have already given to you in the words you spoke to enter. We have trials of strength, magic, and the arts. The first trial will be strength, beginning tomorrow. You may choose two weapons in the arena only! You will be matched randomly against another woman. If you forfeit, leave the arena, or die you lose.” Cassira stared savagely at the group. “You will only remove the mask and cloak provided to you in your assigned room or the consequences will be severe. The second trial and its rules will be announced after the first is completed. The name of your competitor will be waiting for you in your assigned room. A guardian will escort you. May the trial find the ones we seek!”

  Cassira bowed, leaving the podium. The guardians, all female, moved from their positions against the wall, taking their charges to their assigned rooms. Vashti looked around, wondering where she should go, when Cassira jumped in front of her, smiling eagerly. “It looks like you are my assigned charge. Follow me, Vashti.”

  Vashti was relieved she knew Cassira, and it wasn’t the angry Uruti she had met earlier. The guardian led her down a winding hallway to a room marked with numbered ruins. Cassira unlocked the door and handed the key to Vashti.

  “This is your assigned room. The bathroom is the small room in the back. The kitchen for the women is at the far end of this hallway. If you need anything, there are always guardians in the kitchen that can find me.” Cassira grabbed Vashti's shoulders tightly before she could reply, staring seriously into her eyes, and repeated again, “Don't remove your mask and cloak outside of this room, Vashti.” The worry in Cassira’s eyes was plain to see. Vashti nodded to reassure her. The last thing she wanted to do was remove the mask. It kept her identity secret, but she wasn’t going to tell her that.

  When the guardian turned to leave, Vashti called out, “Cassira!” The guardian turned back around. “Thank you for being kind. It takes a strong person to say a nice word to a stranger.”

  Cassira hesitated, uncertainty filling her. Why would this golden lady come here to risk her life? But it wasn’t her place to ask.

  She whispered, “Baklan be with you, Vashti of Romule.” The Horde would never cheer for such a small curvy creature, knowing her chances at winning were slim to none. She looked to belong in a harem instead of a battle. Vashti would never be accepted by the elders, and would soon join the guardians by her side. Cassira wasn’t sure if Vashti would be angry about her fate like Uruti or content like she was.

  Either way, Cassira knew the trials Vashti were about to face would be the most intense moments of her life.

  Chapter 6

  Why are there two beds?

  The door to Vashti’s room slammed open at that errant thought, distracting her from looking around her room.

  Medorah stood in the doorway, waving off her guardian that was following her rudely.

  Tilting her head to catch a glimpse of the guardian Medorah was trying to dismiss, Vashti noticed Uruti standing behind Medorah. The guardian was staring angrily at the snake lady's back. Medorah shut the door in Uruti's face, cutting off the heated words the guardian was about to shout at her.

  “Hello, Medorah,” Vashti greeted cordially while pulling off her mask and cloak in the privacy of their room with a shaking hand.

  Medorah’s tongue slithered out, tasting the air. “Hello?”

  Cautiously, Medorah pulled off her mask and cloak, while watching for signs of disgust the golden woman might show at her tail. She was used to intense feelings of hate from strangers. It was better to prove herself now before her roommate hurt her feelings later.

  “I entered Baklan right after you and heard your name when the guardians asked. I’m Vashti of Romule.” Vashti held out her hand to Medorah, waiting patiently for her to shake. She was proud she didn’t have a nervous tic. She thought she was doing well with the snake lady being this close to her, having struggled in the past to be near even a tiny worm.

  “Lies,” whispered Medorah, scenting the air again, tongue flicking.

  Vashti’s hand faltered slightly, not expecting that response. “Hello, my name is Vashti.”

  Medorah took her hand to shake it. “Not many of my Pit scent an occasional lie, and the demons do not have the ability. You are safe with me. Unless you mean to do me harm.” The snake’s slitted eyes moved up and down Vashti for hidden threats. Vashti almost broke and shivered, but she stayed strong.

  “No, I only seek safety for myself. That’s why I followed you in here.” There was no point in making a story up if Medorah could scent lies. Vashti had been trained to lie in the past, but she was not a true Incendie anymore.

  She had escaped.

  Bewildered, Medorah shook her head. “It is not safe for anyone here. Do you know what this place is?”

  Vashti shook her head, casting a doubtful gaze around the nice-looking room. I had assumed this was a tournament.

  Medorah informed her, “It is the Trials of Baklan. The trials help find mates for the worthy of the Horde.”

  Vashti stepped away from Medorah, alarm rolling through her. Sitting down hard on the bed, she argued, “I’m not here to be someone’s mate. My sister and I were taken into the Forest of Bijou to be sold in a black-market auction. When I escaped, the men hunted me, and I couldn’t find my sister! I came here to hide until the hunters left the area.”

  Medorah shook her head again, sadly replying, “The demons won’t allow you to leave now. You must compete first. Will you forfeit the match and become a guardian?” Medorah ran an eye over Vashti with skepticism that Vashti could actually win a trial.

  “No. I’ve never lost a battle and I don’t intend to,” Vashti said firmly. “Did you choose to come here to mate with someone?” The snake woman looked to be around Vashti’s age. Her face and body were beautiful, with perfect proportions. Why would she journey here?

  Medorah replied, “The council needed a volunteer to show peace with the Horde. The Pit is full of my close friends. No one has caught my eye that I would wish to share eggs with. It was an easy choice to honor my clan.”

  “Why do they make us wear these cloaks and masks all the time?” Vashti asked, wanting to know more. She felt terrible for asking everything of Medorah, but she really had no idea what was going on around there. The more information she had, the better prepared she could be for when she escaped.

  “The coverings the guardians give us help control the demons lust until the last trial. This is a conquering race. If there was a beautiful man dancing around this room every day, you would be hard to control too, no?”

  Vashti disagreed. She was as controlled as they come. Well, compared to Rainey, she had been. “Why does the Horde want to find mates this way instead of meeting someone and falling in love? Or an arranged marriage?” Vashti had never been in love, but that’s how she thought it would usually go. Her mother had chosen an arranged marriage over the chance of love. And it had caused her mother to lose that love and her life in the end.

  “Because the trials show the female’s strengths. The Horde worships the strong. Protection. Survival. That is the Horde. The Pit maintains the friendship with them to keep the lands safe. Did you not glance down to the guards? The winged ones are the strongest, the most coveted to have young ones with. They have not chosen for many years, waiting patiently to find the one that is their equal.”

  Biting her lip, Vashti worriedly asked, “How often do they have these trials?”

  “When the volcano begins to boil, it is shouting
for more young to be born to replenish the ranks. The volcano is their deity, the goddess Baklan. It is not often the volcano erupts. The last one I remember was over a decade ago.”

  Stunned at what she had gotten herself into, Vashti realized this whole situation was a mess. Going back, she would have had a better chance with the snake-men. She rubbed her head, thoughtfully. “What are they going to do with all these women? Weed them down to one and share her?”

  Medorah laughed at her new friend, her tongue forcing a hissing sound. “No, they weed them down to the best and set them loose in the protected fields behind the volcano.”

  Raising her head, confusion swirling in her gaze, Vashti asked, “Why would they set their mates loose? That doesn’t make sense, Medorah.” Vashti rubbed at her head again, a pain starting in the middle. She needed blood badly. It was the only thing she could take in to nourish herself without becoming severely ill. Once, she had tried to eat a celebratory cake that the kitchen had made. The vomiting the small piece had caused seemed endless.

  Medorah’s smile hardened. “To hunt us. The strongest always wins. Men fight each other for their chosen one, sealing the bond with their swords. Both of them.”

  Vashti laughed out loud, deciding, “Then that’s when I’ll escape! I’ll pass these trials and run into the Forest to escape being mated. No one has ever caught me, except Saphira. Let’s see who our contestants are and get this over with.” If Vashti could win, they would put her outside where there was a chance to escape out of this hellfire. She had her fire, cunning, and training to back her up when she got to that point.

  Vashti hopped up from the bed excitedly, looking for the small notes that Cassira has said would be nearby. Medorah shook her head sadly behind Vashti’s back.

  No one ever escaped the final trial, but she wasn't going to tear Vashti’s hopes away.

  “Ah, here is yours, Medorah.” Vashti held up the paper to read the beautifully scrawled print. “It looks like you are in the 6th round facing a demon named Krena.”

  Medorah waved her hand. “And who do you fight Vashti?”

  “Let me look around here. Oh, here it is.” She held up the paper. “I fight a vampire named Ina in the last round.”

  Why the last round? And another vampire? That should be simple if she stayed away from the teeth. If she bites, I will bite back, but even harder.

  Vashti was half-vampire and would have the same strengths as the other woman. She might be able to spark up some old ice tricks if she tried hard enough. The fire came easy to her now, but since drinking the potion, the ice was harder to wield. She was especially leery since her sister Odesha had almost died because of it.

  “Do you mind if I wash up, Medorah? We should probably get to sleep early to rest for the fights tomorrow. I’m not sure how many rounds we are going to have to face.”

  Medorah slithered up to her bed, giving her tail a shake. Vashti shivered, old scars throbbing with once forgotten pain at the noise from the rattle at the end of the tail.

  Pull it together. You told yourself you would get over this fear.

  Torture was hard to get over, though.

  Chapter 7

  Medorah and Vashti spoke vaguely about their lives while they ate their breakfast together in their room, trying to keep the mood light as their minds were on the coming battle.

  Suddenly serious, Vashti placed her chin in her hand, leaning forward to ask, “Where do you come from? I’ve never seen your species in the halls of Merdi.”

  Medorah swallowed the bite of fruit she just had taken, replying, “The Forest of Bijou. My people stay within the Pit’s borders. We don’t travel much.”

  “And you are Dynast. Is that similar to a ruler?” Vashti took a sip of her chalice full of blood that had been left by a guardian from the kitchen. With a shy smile, she had said her name was Talia when she delivered the tray.

  Nodding her head, Medorah answered, “Yes. The entire Pit has a primary Dynast that is fierce. Then, the houses are divided among families. My family is of Croatia, and I am leader… or Dynast of the people under my house.”

  Vashti smiled sadly. “Your family must be missing you.”

  “No. My family is proud that I took this honor. They will pick a new Dynast soon. Our rulers are female, so maybe my younger sister Irena will take over,” she stated matter-of-factly. “What of you, Vashti of unknown origins? What is your story?”

  Coughing on a sip of blood, Vashti lightly wiped her lips with the tip of a napkin. “My story… is a complicated one.”

  “I have all day.”

  Nodding, Vashti realized she trusted the snake-lady and pulled up her courage. “I am the daughter of King Desmond of Merdi. He sent me to Romule to train to be an Incendie Tanssijja, a fire dancer. I have three siblings, two of which are half. My twin is named Odesha, but she looks nothing like me. When I… left the Incendie, I was planning to visit Antiqua, my sister’s home, to meet her new husband and celebrate their return home. Antiqua is full of salt mines that she oversees, and she recently married this male I have only seen once.” Suddenly sad, Vashti added, “My entire family was going to be together again.”

  “Her return? Did she leave for somewhere?” Medorah asked politely, taking a bite of her salad. It looked delicious, but since her Reawakening, Vashti knew she could only drink blood.

  “No. She was captured by an orik, a giant bird native to the north, and taken across the mountains where she met her husband.” Vashti pulled out the necklace hidden beneath her shirt. “A bloodstone called me to her to help fight a battle against an enemy that had followed them across the ice. She gave me this if I ever needed her.” The speck of blood in the center of the crystal glowed brightly.

  Medorah looked at the crystal, replying, “Your sister is brave.”

  “My sister is kind and brave and so many things. It took her a long time to see her worth. Now, she will stay in Antiqua and assist with Reawakenings for the children.”

  “What is a Reawakening?”

  It was hard to describe the vampire’s sacred ceremony, but Vashti would try her best. “When a child comes of age, they become sick with a hunger for blood. It is a wasting disease that we suffer. If a child isn’t taken to the Reawakening, they die. The giant pool of blood helps cleanse them of human food so that they may drink blood. The sickness leaves them almost instantly. Mine was terrifying, but my sister’s almost ended in her death. Blood is life to us, making our blood coveted by others. The magisters for Romule once became so greedy for it they harvested it in their dungeons from our people without permission.”

  “The Blood War,” Medorah murmured.

  Vashti nodded. They were lucky the War was in the past. She would never have been able to venture outside of Merdi’s walls and would have been sold to Romule just for being half-vampire. “Medorah? If you have the chance to escape with me, will you return home?”

  Medorah sighed. “I cannot return to the Pit in disgrace, Vashti.”

  Vashti hoped that her friend won her match. She didn't want her to feel disgrace or lose their easy conversation. Medorah had a quick wit and a funny sense of humor. The stories she told were amazing, and the Pit where she lived before coming to Baklan sounded dangerous with the wild animals and poisonous plants. Vashti had been lucky to have survived the outskirts. Not many did from what Medorah had said.

  A knock on the door pulled their attention.

  Cassira entered with a bright smile, announcing, “Good morning, my ladies! It seems that I am to be both of your guardians now. I hope that is not inconvenient to you.” Wringing her hands, she worriedly looked in their eyes to see their reaction.

  “Of course not, Cassira! We are honored. Right, Medorah?” Vashti nudged her hard with her elbow, trying to get her quiet friend to respond, wondering if she was embarrassed to look different around the demons. After removing her jewelry that crossed her face last night, Medorah had explained why she had taken it off. She had removed her earrings and chain on
her face to not be used against her in the field of battle.

  Very clever.

  Medorah glanced over to Vashti in admonishment for elbowing her before looking back at Cassira. “Yes. Honored we are.”

  Cassira’s smile became larger, if that was possible. “The Horde has called to begin the first trial. The available men are in place to witness. You are to don your masks and cloaks to follow me. There is supposed to be an announcement before. Oh! Bring the weapons you wish to wield.” Cassira checked off everything they needed on her fingers, trying to be the guardian they would be proud of. This was her first year announcing the Baklan rules, plus overseeing two competitors. It was unheard of. She had been receiving many envious glances from her fellow guardians.

  Medorah and Vashti gathered their items and followed Cassira out to the arena.

  Inside the stadium where they would compete, there were giant waves of black cloaks and masks standing around the same dais used yesterday to give the announcements. Lightly running up the stairs, Cassira hurried to the spot she used to speak. She calmed her racing nerves to be heard clearly to the group.

  “I have a grave announcement to make early this morning. One of the competitors did not listen to my warning. Punishment has now been decided by the Horde.”

  Two of the guardians pulled a weeping demon to her feet, taking her to the center of the dais.

  Cassira took out a scroll, holding it up for the group to see, proclaiming, “Serena from Romule was found to be sneaking in a Horde General’s room to cause seduction and discourse in the ranks. You would have ruined said General’s chance for a true mate ending his chances of having young if you had not been caught per Baklan tradition. The punishment is death! How do you plead?”

  Serena sobbed with her face in her hands, “This isn't fair! I saw the General by himself in the hall! I know he is not mated! He would’ve accepted me if you wouldn't have interfered!” She began to scream vulgar obscenities to the gathered Horde.