Crush the King (Crown of Shards #3)(92)
Cho shook his head. “Mercer has a nasty habit of severely wounding his opponents, even if the match is only to first blood. You saw what he did to that Floresian this morning. During the last Regalia, Mercer almost killed the other gladiator he was fighting for the title, even though that man was also a Mortan.”
The scent of his worry washed over me, but Cho shook his head again, as if pushing the emotion aside.
“I’ll watch out for Paloma as best I can,” he said. “You two need to get back up to the royal terrace before the final bout. If you don’t, Maximus will be even more suspicious than he probably already is.”
Cho hoisted the knapsack a little higher on his shoulder and headed into the arena. Serilda and I left the archway and stepped out onto the plaza. By this point, I had gotten my breath back, although I wasn’t looking forward to climbing up the bleacher steps to the royal terrace. I started to head in that direction, but Serilda held out her arm, stopping me.
“Wait,” she said. “We need something to explain why we’ve been gone so long. This way.”
She dragged me over to one of the merchant carts and bought several bags of cornucopia. She shoved the bags at me and went over to another cart, this time buying some cinnamon candy apples. Then she changed direction, heading toward a cart that sold winter hats, gloves, and scarves. And then she went to another cart, and then another one.
By the time Serilda finished, several bags bulging with sweet, savory, and fried treats filled my hands, blue crystal pins were stuck in my hair, and a dark blue wool scarf with the word Bellona flowing down it in silver thread was wrapped around my neck.
Despite our rush, I enjoyed seeing all the handcrafted items and the pride shining in the merchants’ faces as they showed off their goods. It was definitely the most fun I’d had at the Regalia so far. I would have loved to stay longer and chat with folks about what inspired them to create their crafts, but Serilda led me back into the arena.
My stomach rumbled, reminding me that it had been hours since breakfast, so I dug my hand into one of the bags, grabbed a couple of clusters of cornucopia, and stuffed them into my mouth.
Rich, buttery popped corn. Dried bits of bloodcrisp apples. Toasted slivers of almonds. Crunchy sunflower seeds. All of it brought together by drizzles of dark chocolate and sticky-sweet salted caramel. I quickly polished off that bag and dug into another one.
“I like this idea,” I mumbled, trying to walk, talk, and chew at the same time.
“I bought the food and everything else to explain why we were gone so long, not for you to actually eat it,” Serilda replied in a snide voice.
“Well, I do need to keep up appearances. Besides, who buys cornucopia and doesn’t eat it?” I grinned and popped another cluster into my mouth.
Serilda rolled her eyes, but she dug her hand into her own bag of cornucopia and started eating the clusters of popped corn, dried fruit, and toasted nuts and seeds.
While we munched on our treats, we made our way up the bleacher steps and back to the royal terrace.
I wasn’t the only one who had left to roam around and sample the best of what the Regalia had to offer. Eon and Ruri were both sipping dark ales, while Cisco was eating fried fruit pies topped with vanilla-bean whipped cream and Heinrich was munching on a bag of cornucopia.
Zariza was examining a box of chocolates, and she studied the entire assortment before finally selecting one and popping it into her mouth. The ogre face on her neck chomped along with her, although its fierce features quickly crinkled with comical disgust. She must have picked a chocolate that her inner ogre didn’t like. A moment later, Zariza’s face crinkled as well. She didn’t like that flavor either.
Maximus was lounging in his chair, sipping a glass of champagne, and it didn’t look like he had moved the entire time I’d been gone. Nox was sitting next to him, also sipping champagne, but Maeven was once again standing near the back of the terrace, closer to the servants than her royal relatives.
Maximus didn’t deign to look at me. Neither did Nox, but Maeven stared at me. I mockingly tipped my head to her, then headed over to where Sullivan was standing with Dominic.
Sullivan broke away from his brother and met me halfway. He smiled, reached out, and waggled the end of my scarf. “Looks like you had fun shopping on the plaza.”
“Oh, I could have stayed down there for hours,” I replied. “But I wanted to come back and see Paloma win.”
A few people had sidled forward to hear our conversation, but apparently the idea that I’d just been shopping bored them, and they sidled away and returned to their previous gossip.
Sullivan dropped the end of my scarf. “How did it go?” he asked in a low voice only I could hear.
“Leonidas was right. Maximus had more than a dozen strixes that he was planning to slaughter.”
Leonidas was slumped in the same seat as before and staring fixedly at the table, as if he were a statue frozen in place. Auster was a few feet away, keeping an eye on the boy while he talked with Xenia.
I glanced over at Maximus, making sure he was still ignoring me, then pitched my voice even softer and lower. “He also had a caladrius in a cage.”
“A caladrius?” Worry filled Sullivan’s face. “They have even more magic than strixes do. Gargoyles too.”
“I know. The caladrius was just a baby, but I think that Maximus was going to cut its throat, drink its blood, and take its magic, just like he did to that strix during the ball.”