Treasures of Fantasy - Margaret Weis [120]
Skylan put his hand to the amulet he wore on his neck. He felt a slight twinge of conscience for making what the gods might view as a frivolous request, but his honor and the honor of the Vindrasi was at stake.
“Torval, I have asked that you find a way for us to gain our freedom. I still ask for that, of course,” Skylan added hastily, “but now I ask something else. First, help us win the Para Dix!”
CHAPTER
2
* * *
BOOK THREE
The teams to fight in the afternoon were the unblooded teams. Most sponsors had a champion team, a second-rank team, and an unblooded team. The sponsors used the unblooded teams as a way to train players. The good ones were promoted to the second-rank team. Players advanced to champion team only if they were considered outstanding.
Unblooded teams fought each other. The victors of these games advanced to play against the second-rank teams. The people who came to the afternoon games involving unblooded teams were those who took the sport seriously, coming to watch the new players in order to discover the next rising star or to study the competition.
Skylan and his team members marched into the arena and onto the playing field. He stared about in wonder. This was the first time he had been inside the arena when it was set up for the game. Naively, he had assumed it would be like the practice field Acronis had built on his villa. The famous Para Dix arena of Sinaria was as far removed from his practice field as the palace was removed from a hovel.
The builders of the arena had chosen to place it in a small, shallow valley located a short distance from the city. The floor of the valley had been smoothed and grated to form the playing field. The common folk sat on tiers of wooden benches that had been cut into the valley’s rim and encircled the playing field.
The nobility occupied grandstands built along one side of the arena. The Empress and the Priest-General and other notables were sheltered from the elements by a wooden roof. They sat in the best position for viewing the game, directly across from the fire pit in the middle of the field.
All the teams stood on the playing field while priests performed the ceremony of lighting the sacred fire and dedicating the games to Aelon. The ceremony was long and few people were paying attention. They were filing into their seats, talking to their neighbors, opening baskets of food, and getting themselves settled. Skylan had never seen so many people gathered in one place at one time, not even when he was fighting in the Vutmana and all the chiefs and many hundreds of the Vindrasi had come to watch.
He and Sigurd and the others looked at each other and grimly shook their heads. He and the others had talked excitedly about trying to make a bid for freedom. All were thinking the same thought. The Torgun were not going to escape this day.
Skylan fought down his bitter disappointment and took the opportunity to study the other teams, trying to guess which players were the best, which team they would go up against.
Only a few members of the nobility had arrived. Most would not venture out to see the afternoon games. They would wait until the champion teams staged their matches in the evening. Those who were here, like Acronis, would be managing their teams. Skylan, squinting against the bright sun, tried to find where Chloe was sitting. He had promised he would wave to her.
When the religious ceremony finally ended, people cheered. A ripple of excitement ran through the crowd, for the Para Dix was about to begin. Keeper and the captains of the unblooded teams came forward to draw lots to see which team they would fight. The lots were clay disks marked with the team colors and placed in a bowl. Each captain averted his eyes, reached in, and plucked out a disk.
The teams left the field and lined up on the edges. Most watched the drawing with keen interest. Skylan was worried about