Chains Made of Stars- ON HOLD

Chapter 13: Keeper of the Beasts

Mith's eyes were so wide that they occupied nearly the whole of her face: Underneath a dome of starry sky, a fierce battle raged, cheered on by hordes of bloodthirsty spectators. The noise pulsed through her bones, rattling her ribcage and making her heart pound like a drum. 

They were standing in the lower level of the amphitheatre, too close to the arena; the nauseating metallic tang of blood crept into her nose and churned her insides. 

The people, Gods, there were so many people. Mith craned her head upwards, taking in the thousands of faces marred by macabre excitement and bloodlust. It was a stadium filled to the brim: people above, people below, their faces blurring into a sea of colour. There was something off about the spectators, she realised, struggling for a moment to put her finger on it. Their faces were too pale, and their bodies seemed to be made of semi-solid mist.

Mith was suddenly distracted by the frenetic roars and cheers. All at once, the spectators stood and began to stamp their feet, chanting something in unison. She winced as she tried to make out what they were saying. Her ears adjusted to the deafening noise, and she heard.

"Kill him!" The people screamed, their cries reverberating off the colosseum walls.

"Kill him!" They continued, creating echoes of screams that merged to form a hellish cacophony.

Will remained unperturbed, surveying the arena with an almost academic curiosity. The screams and howls seemed to roll right off him. 

Mith lowered her eyes to the arena, her entire frame trembling, Laila clutching her hand. 

 Barely ten feet below , a boy ran between the walls of the low stone maze, a wicked looking knife strapped to his shoulder.  His blond hair glinted in the starlight, a stark contrast to his bloodied, ragged clothes. He was fleeing from something.

Mith heard the monster before she saw it. There was a high, keening shriek, and she had time only to cover her ears before the largest eagle she had ever seen swooped low over the arena. It was easily the size of a bus, and its plumage was a pure white that dazzled under the stars. 

Aquila. It had to be. The celestial eagle, Ark inmate, kidnapper of Ganymede, torturer of Prometheus.

Mith cringed and ducked as Aquila took what looked like a lap of victory around the colosseum. The cheers became even louder, and as they reached a crescendo, the eagle dove. Cruel, curved talons closed around the boy's middle, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream as Aquila lifted him high up into the air.

Mith squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't look. She knew by the satisfied glint in the eagle's intelligent, sapphire-chip eyes that it was going to hurl the boy against the rocks of the maze; make him dash his brains out for the crowd to enjoy.

The eagle began to soar along the perimeter of the colosseum, boy writhing in its talons. Its snow-white body glowed eerily in the starlight, making it look like a fireball hurtling around the dark arena. The spectators roared their approval. Evidently, Mith and Laila were the only ones there who had some kind of soul or conscience.

Mith's eyes flew open just in time to see Will narrow his own, the maniacal gleam back in full force. Things began to happen.

As the eagle passed their section of the colosseum, Will pulled out the wicked little knife that had been pressed against Mith's throat only hours ago, and with a quick wrist-flick that went unnoticed by most, sent the knife spinning towards Aquila's feathery throat. The knife lodged deep in, and silver blood spurted out, coating the eagle's feathers.

Aquila ignored the knife. It barely even made a dent. Mith's heart was in her mouth as it completed its lap, cawing and shrieking its victory. Seconds went by, a blur of roars and shrieks and the thunder of a thousand feet.

Quite suddenly, the eagle began to twitch. Its wings stopped beating, as if paralysed, and its claws unclenched suddenly, releasing the boy. 

The boy fell, screaming all the while. His shoulder hit a slab of rock with a sick crunch, and the screams changed to howls as he landed on the grass of the arena. Mercifully, he was otherwise unhurt.

Mith turned her attention to the eagle, which was now in the throes of a particularly vicious spasm. Its beak opened, tongue lolling out, and its icy eyes rolled back into its snowy head.

Then Aquila fell, like a stone dropped from a building.

The boy screeched and dragged himself behind a rock just as the mighty white eagle crashed onto the ground, wings in a splintered heap and eyes shut.

People dressed in green robes immediately hurried out into the arena like a swarm of green ants. They were armed with Aquila-size strips of linen and splints. The beast mediks, presumably. The scene was a very strange one, the oddity accentuated by the silvery haze that seemed to surround everything: a sheen made as a result of darkness and starlight.

Mith tapped Will's shoulder. "That knife really was poisoned, wasn't it?" She asked, her voice nearly drowning in the boos and hisses produced by the spectators, who seemed to have realised that their favourite beast was now totally out of it.

"You guessed it," he replied happily. "It'll keep the eagle out of action for a while, at least. Longer if it broke its wings, which I sincerely hope it did."

Laila relaxed next to Mith, but she still looked at the unconscious eagle with pity in her guileless eyes.

Mith's eyes widened. "You saved that boy's life," she whispered in an awed voice.

Will snorted. "I don't give a rat's ass about the boy. It's the Keeper of the Beasts that I'm really interested in. He's not going to make a profit if his most vicious beast can't fight."

Mith raised an eyebrow. "And I'm guessing that a Keeper of the Beasts worried about his profit is a situation that you can take advantage of, yes?"

"Smart girl," Will said, and quietened down as a portly man started bellowing something into an amplifier at the other end of the colosseum.

Hello, another chapter out! Vote and comment if you're enjoying the story!