Free 1 The Dream Rider by Ernest Dempsey

studied the
screen for a moment. “Looks like you’ve got the interest of the emperor,” the
man stated in a deep baritone.
    “I’m sorry. Did you say emperor? What did I do?” I shook
my head in disbelief.
    The guard holding the device shrugged. “It doesn’t say,
frag. It just says by order of the game master and the emperor, you’re to be
prepped for a battle against Darwinius.”  
    Both guards looked at each other with raised eyebrows. “I
know who I’ll be betting on in that one,” my guard
burst with laughter in his thick accent. The other guy joined in with a bellow.
    I started to raise my hand to ask what they were talking
about but my sudden movement must have appeared threatening and because they
responded with raising their weapons immediately.
    I froze in place, showing them I had no ill intentions. “I
just want to know what I’m doing here. That’s all.”  
    The guard with the accent lowered his gun slightly. He jerked
his head to the side as he barked out an order. “The emperor wants us to take
him to Jonas. The old man just lost one last week. Looks like he’s about to
lose another.”   Then he turned his
attention to me. “I’ll let Jonas explain everything to you, frag.” He looked
back at the other guards, “Let’s get him on the floor before we move the others
in for the day.”
    I wondered who this mysterious Jonas was. But the comment
about losing one in battle was more concerning. Before I could protest, the two
men spun me around and lashed my hands behind my back with a device that
automatically tightened around my wrists. Then they shoved me towards the gate
leaving my neighbor across the hall to stare on curiously.
    The guards pulled me along, like a dog, through the
training facility. As they dragged me through it, I noticed a few other things
I hadn’t seen before:   weights,
ropes, racks full of swords and armor. We approached a corner of the giant room
where the old man from the night before was sitting alone at a rickety wooden
table. I recognized him from the night before. He was the one that had been
watching a few of the others sparring. His long, graying hair had been pulled
back in a ponytail; his face was hidden, hovering over a bowl of whatever it
was people seemed to be eating around here. The thought of food caused my
stomach to grumble slightly. Up above, I could see several guards watching me
from the balcony areas, their weapons following me as I moved. The men
escorting me seemed to not notice. I guess they were used to being in the kill
box. It was slightly more disconcerting to me.
    We stopped at the table and the man with the accent kicked
the chair the older guy was sitting in. “Jonas, we have another recruit for ya.
This one is from the emperor himself. We figured since you lost one the other
day, you had room on your roster for a new frag.”  
    They shoved me forward and stepped away. “Enjoy your last
day of life, boy. Darwinius will make quick work of you.”   Both guards laughed heartily as they
turned and headed back towards the gate.
    Anger and fear mixed inside my head. I had so many
questions. Why
was I here? Where was here? I had so many questions. I looked back to the
old man who was still staring into his bowl of yellowish liquid. He’d stopped eating,
if he ever had been.
    “Now is not the time, Finn,” he said, unmoving.
    My eyebrows lowered. He knew my name? “I’m sorry, Sir. How do you
know my name? What is this place?”   Part of me was terrified, the other part was relieved at the possibility
that I could talk with someone and get some answers.
    Slowly, Jonas lifted his head towards me. His green eyes
were sad, but kind, wrapped in a face full of wrinkles and concern. Somehow,
though, when his gaze fell upon me, it was as if something about him lightened,
just slightly.
    “You may call me Jonas,” he replied kindly. “And I know
who you are because I have been looking for you for a long time.”   He extended a