Free The Forbidden Library by David Alastair Hayden

Turesobei, say goodbye to your friends.”
    He kissed Enashoma and told her all would be well. She nodded, trying to be brave and confident. He faced Motekeru.
    “You will surrender if I am defeated. That’s an order.”
    Motekeru had only the one facial expression Chonda Lu had given him. But Turesobei knew, perhaps through their bond, that Motekeru understood him perfectly well. If Turesobei fell, Motekeru should fight and do his best to save the others.
    Iniru kissed him. “Good luck.” She said nothing else. What more could be said?

Chapter 10
     
     
    War Chief Sudorga and Lady Umora faced each other in the center of the circle and bowed.
    Lady Umora folded her hands together and kissed them. “I swear by the ghosts of my ancestors that I will honor this bargain.”
    War Chief Sudorga gazed into the sky and held his arms out. “I swear by the Crimson Sun that we will see to it that you honor this bargain.”
    Lady Umora looked to Turesobei. “Who do you swear to, boy? Who will be dishonored if you should not fight fairly?”
    “I swear to no gods. I swear by my own honor.”
    War Chief Sudorga frowned. “You must honor some god in your land?”
    “My people respect and honor many lesser deities and the greater deities of the earth, the sun, and the moons. But we do not swear by them.”
    “That’s not good enough,” Umora said. “You must swear by more than your own honor.”
    He gritted his teeth and flared his eyes. His friends were freezing and their lives hung in the balance. This was ridiculous. “Fine. I swear by myself, the Storm Dragon, who was a god for centuries in my land.”
    Lady Umora furrowed her brow. “I do not think —”
    “I don’t care what you think! If I wanted to, I’d become a god right now and smite you all into nothing but ashes. Let’s get on with it.”
    War Chief Sudorga shrugged, though fear flickered in his eyes. Lady Umora stared at Turesobei several moments then sneered and said, “So be it. We fight hand-to-hand, but you may select a weapon if you wish. It won’t matter.”
    Narbenu brought him a spear. Turesobei did a few practice jabs to test the weight and balance. He wouldn’t have much chance with it. He’d only done basic training using a spear, and those were a foot shorter than this one.
    “Remember, lad, the touch of a wraith will only take a smidgen of warmth from you,” Narbenu said. “They must lock a hand on you and focus to really draw it out. Their claws are sharp and have a mild toxin that causes pain. It doesn’t do anything more than that, so don’t be alarmed.” He patted him on both shoulders. “If you should fall, my people will see that your sister is taken care of for all her days and we will never forget you.” 
    He was pretty sure Narbenu actually meant when you fall since no one thought he stood a chance.
    A tall reitsu with corded muscles stepped into the circle. He moved gracefully but languidly, as if wandering through a dream. He took one look at Turesobei and said, frowning, “Sister, you have woken me to face this … alien boy? Surely you could’ve dealt with him on your own?”
    She pointed toward the charred corpses and nodded toward Motekeru. “The boy claims to be a god, brother. He is fighting to free his friends. But we did not wake you up for this. We woke you to fight the machine man. This is better. If you beat the boy, the machine surrenders to us.”
    The reitsu took a pale-bladed knife from a sheathe on his hip and handed it to Umora. White-steel, so they had the ability to injure Motekeru after all. Not that taking on Motekeru with a knife would’ve been pleasant.
    The reitsu champion bowed before Turesobei who returned the bow then asked: “Do we have any rules?”
    “No one may interfere to aid either combatant,” said Lady Umora, “and you fight to the death. There are no other rules.”
    Enashoma rushed forward and gave Turesobei a hug. He kissed her and shoved her toward Iniru who had followed