Free Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1) by Lara Lee Hunter Page A

to take with her into the arena.
    Hector turned to leave and she said, “Thank you Hector.”
    His voice was gruff and he did not turn back around, “Do not thank me. I was not the one who provided it for you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You have a Protector, one that must remain nameless for many reasons. Chief among them is the fact that the Governor has ordered that none shall offer Protection to you. It is a move that is already causing some anger among the spectators.”
    He left before she could ask anything else. She did not really need to ask anyway, she had seen the procession the day before — people coming bearing gifts for those that they had chosen as victors in the arena. Somebody had chosen to favor her! But who?
    Hector was not allowed to tell her who she was fighting. It could mean his death and it probably would mean his death. He had known that and come to help her anyway. He had brought her something that could get him killed for treason, and not just him but the person who had sent it.
    People all around her were taking high risks for her and she had no idea why. In a way it made her happy but in a way it worried her deeply. Reena knew damn well that there was nothing free in this world…
    “A distant heaven is useless to a hungry man.”
    Where had she heard that before? She closed her eyes, trying to think and she managed to summon up a vague memory of her father’s beloved face highlighted by the flickering yellow-orange flames of a small fire, the gray outcroppings of rock behind his head and…
    There had been another man there, but she could not remember who he had been—only that her father had said in his mildest voice, “That is not how it was said. The quote was ‘a distant utopia is of no use to a hungry man’s belly.’ But you are right—and wrong too. Some are willing to fight for a better future, even if they are not going to be in it.”
    “You stubborn fool!”
    The memory broke and snapped, leaving her more tired and saddened than she could bear. Her heart ached and she was terrified. The little amulet weighed heavy against her heart when she put it on, it swung across her shirt and she tucked it in carefully.
    Her hair swung around her face as she sat on her pallet and she gathered the long black strands up, pressing them to her face, hoping for a last dim smell of the forest in the strands.
    She looked up and whispered, “Please help me to be strong. That is all I ask. Let me be strong enough to save the ones I love.”

Chapter 4
     
    The sun rose, sending long rose and gold fingers into her cell, banishing the pearly fog that had rolled in a few hours earlier.
    To her surprise she had slept, and well. She was aching from all the training and hungry but clear-headed and awake. The fear was still there, she could feel it coiled up inside of her belly like a snake.
    It would attack her if she let it, she could not let that happen. Too much was at stake. The amulet lay on her breast and she looked down at it, tears pricking her eyes. She would die if she had to but she would not go down without a fight. She would make her father proud of her, even if she failed to save him.
    That was all she could do, that was all he would have expected from her and she knew it.
    That did not mean she was not going to try to save him though.
    Hector did not come for her, two large guards did. She stared at them through the bars and they stared back at her, their faces impassive. Reena wondered what they saw when they looked at her: a young and too-thin girl with hair the color of the raven’s wings? An enemy of the Governor? Nothing at all?
    The lock parted with a heavy snap and her heart took an instant dive into her belly. Her breath came in a hard and ragged pant that she could not control and panic began to set in as they took her by the arms and led her down the hallways of the building in which she had been kept.
    The sun dazzled her eyes and her feet froze to the street surface.