“You can end this, Healer! Just tell me where the nin is.”

“As I stated, I don’t know!” I bellowed. He’d kill us all anyway if I told. They just had to survive and prove themselves to be true in front of the council. Both of them.

The lions, ribs protruding, had leapt from their cart and now prowled the perimeter of the Pit in full crouch, hungry rumbles coming from their chests, lips pulled back to expose the sharpest teeth I’d ever seen.

Dagan and Nasu stood back to back in the middle of the Pit. Both of their faces were pale, and I could see Dagan’s hands shaking, even at this distance. At the side of the Pit there was a commotion, as Dagan’s little brothers Marduk and Qishti shoved through the guards to yell to Dagan.

“Brother!” Marduk’s thick torso strained to push past the guardsmen stationed around the Pit. “Kill Nasu so you can be declared the winner!”

The guards roughly pushed the younger brothers against the stands, but they weaseled back through, shouting at Dagan.

“They’re going to fall in.” I grabbed Iltani’s arm. “His brothers are going to fall in, Iltani!”

“Gala, do something!” Iltani commanded him.

“The guardsmen down there have it under control.”

“Gala!” Iltani cried. “If you want to prove yourself a man, and were ever a friend of Dagan’s, get those boys away from the Pit!”

He looked at Marduk and skinny Qishti, who were both shouting to Dagan in a frenzy, dangerously close to the edge of the Pit.

Gala rubbed his lip. “I’d like to stay here with you.”

“Aren’t you a guardsman, supposed to protect Alu’s citizens? Those boys need your protection, Gala, not me. You don’t have to watch me. I’ll stay put. I’ll never betray you again.”

After a moment, his eyes lit up with what looked like hope. He nodded once, and raced down the stairs and around the Pit to do her bidding.

With a horrible growl, the female lion lunged forward and swiped at Nasu with a massive claw. Nasu swung the sicklesword to counter, but missed. The lion lunged again. Nasu swung the mace with his left hand, and caught the lion on the side of the head in a sickening crunch. She growled, blood dripping down onto her face, baring her teeth, and prepared to pounce.

“Fight, Dagan!” I screamed until I felt my throat would bleed as Iltani wrapped her arms around me, tight.

Oh Selu save them!

Dagan drew back and hurled the first of his daggers in one clean move. The lion raised up, about to leap, and Nasu’s blade plunged deeply into her throat to the hilt. The lion writhed and squirmed, rubbing her paws against her neck, trying to dislodge the dagger, but as she struggled, the nerium was taking effect, sending her to sleep. Her movements became thick. Unsteady.

Nasu lunged, reared back his spiked mace, and finished off the beast with a splattering crack. She sank down in the dirt with a massive rumble, blood darkening the dirt around her throat.