Page 149 of Trial of Bronze and Blood
“You don’t want them, Ambitus,” he calls out. “You want me.”
“Cato, don’t,” Marcus mumbles under his breath.
Dru doesn’t understand what’s happening. “What the fuck is he doing?”
“Something he shouldn’t. Something that was meant to be a last resort not a bargaining chip.”
Marcus must be talking about the plan Cato alluded to earlier, but she’s smart enough not to ask about the details right now.
“How do we stop him?” she asks.
“We can’t,” Marcus states tightly.
Cato continues, “I offer myself in place of these men and women—my people—in exchange for their freedom.”
Ambitus considers this for a moment. “And what form do you wish your sacrifice to take?”
Fucking snake.Where’s the honor in that?
“Trial by single combat, with a combatant of your choosing,” Cato says, and Dru gasps. Cato’s decent with a sword, but not enough to challenge a skilled fighter. “If I win, you will leave these shores and never return.”
“And if you lose?”
Cato’s expression doesn’t change. “I have drafted a document with a plan in place to transfer power peacefully.”
“No,” Dru breathes. “He can’t do this.”
She looks over at Marcus, whose jaw pops from clenching it so hard. “He already has.”
Ambitus nods. “I accept these terms.”
“And who will be your challenger?” Cato calls out. “Given most of your great warriors are dead.”
“I will be the challenger.”
Dru stops breathing at the sound of the voice behind her.It can’t be.
Slowly turning, she watches the bard enter the arena, a Gladius sword in each hand.
No sound comes out of her mouth, despite a hundred nasty words for him flying around in her head.Bastard, traitor, fucking spy.
He approaches the two of them, regarding Marcus specifically.
“I knew you were a rat,” Marcussays, seething.
The bard watches him, his features relaxed. “And yet you did nothing about it.”
“A mistake I won’t make again.”
The bard maintains his composure. “You won’t get the chance. You sealed your own fate and the fate of your king by not checking in with the Faithless more often.”
“Faithless?” Dru wonders, ears ringing. “You’re not Faithless—you can’t be. Where’s your tattoo?”
He doesn’t do her the decency of looking at her. “Hidden, where it should be.”
“Even if you are Faithless, the Three would never allow this,” Marcus argues.
“Yes, well, if you’d bothered to write any time in the last year, then you would’ve known the old leaders were ousted, and a new one rose to power. He sent me here to make sure you followed through on your orders to kill King Cato.”
