‘No. You cannot fight. I will go and tell them this instant.’ He clenched his fists and started back up the corridor to find Pigface.

‘Stop. Stop. You don’t understand.’

‘I understand that you are just a boy, a child. If they want someone to fight, they can pick me.’ Stanislav seemed more than ready to start there and then.

‘They have a dragon.’

That stopped him. He put his hand on the door and leant against it. ‘They have a what?’

‘A dragon. They call it a wyvern – snake’s body, bat’s wings, two legs like a bird. We’re stuck halfway up a mountain and it’ll eat anything that goes beyond the wall. I managed to get out, tried to make a run for it. There’s literally nowhere to run to.’

‘We walked here. We can walk out again.’

‘Not with that thing flying around.’

Stanislav came back again. ‘You saw this wyvern, this draco?’

Dalip nodded sourly. ‘We’re in some sort of castle. Buildings surrounded by an outer wall, where there are two gates, at least. They don’t even bother to close or guard the gates, but I guess they don’t need to.’

‘You still do not have to fight. That is barbaric.’

‘I don’t think they care. They’re going to drag me here and give me a weapon, then set … things on me, whether I want them to or not. Either I fight back or I die.’ Dalip looked up at Stanislav. ‘I don’t want to die.’

‘Have they told you how many opponents you will face? What kind? Men? Beasts?’

‘They used a dog for the first time. A fighting dog of some sort. I have to assume it gets harder.’

Stanislav sat down next to him, and rested the back of his head against the same wall as Dalip.

‘This is how you win your freedom?’ he asked.

‘I don’t think it works like that.’

‘To the death?’

‘I’m here to fight. Apparently.’

‘This is, this is …’ Stanislav raised his hands, then let them drop uselessly in his lap. ‘Evil.’

‘I didn’t know what to do. I thought this might buy me some time.’ Dalip shrugged. ‘Something might come up. An opportunity, a rescue. I know I can’t keep going forever, but it’s better than being dead now.’

‘Is it? There are worse things than dying.’

‘I don’t know how to fight. Pigface said one of the guards would train me. I didn’t want that. So I asked for you.’

‘And you think I do?’ Stanislav pressed his chin into his chest. ‘You should not have picked me. Anyone else but me.’

‘I’m sorry. I wanted someone on my side, someone who’ll care enough to give me a chance.’