Liege Marext swallowed the last mouthful and rose from the table. He picked up a small bell and rang it. His most recent manslave entered. He was a clever man - he had served for two years and was still alive.

"My Liege?" he bowed.

"Have there been any reports this morning of Gretch the Hunter returning?"

"No, my Liege."

"Hmm. He is due to return within the next few days. I am to be informed when he arrives, even should it be in the middle of the night."

"Yes, my Liege."

"That is all," he waved the slave away.

"Forgive me sire, but your cousin Emerek has arrived. He asks to pay his respects to you."

"Has he?" Marext frowned. "What do you think he really wants?"

"I think he seeks to worm his way into your good graces and eventually succeed you as Lord of Morcham."

"That, my slave, is precisely the conclusion I have come to. What a pity he is so useful. Bring him in so we can see his simpering, lying smile."

***

Alam woke early. He was cold from having given Tajar his shirt in the night. The room was still dark with just a hint of dawn. His body was stiff from more than just being cold - his abdomen was covered with brown and purple bruises. It hurt with every breath and his wrists were raw from where the rope had bound him.

Tajar was right. We must prepare for our foes.

"Tajar," he whispered. "Wake up. It's time to train."

"You train. I'm sleeping."

"Get up," Alam hissed. "This was your idea in the first place."

"It was a stupid idea," Tajar said as he rolled away.

"Get up Tajar. I need your help."

His friend didn't move.

Alam went through the drills that Serik had taught them. It felt strange to do them without weapons in his hands. It was also strange to be doing them by himself. He hoped that by carrying on his friend would join in, but Tajar stayed rolled up on the pile of straw, sleeping.

Two cages away the woman with the white hair and foreign clothes had risen and was watching Alam dispassionately. It was like she was studying a worm. Something in what Alam was doing seemed to inspire her, for she started mirroring him. She had a fluidity and grace to her movements. It was like she was doing a dance.

"What are you doing?" Alam asked her after a couple of minutes.

"Learning." Although it was just one word Alam picked up a heavy accent - from where he did not know. He shrugged and continued. She picked up the movements quickly. Her arms and legs were quick and graceful.

She has done this before, or something like it.

Throughout the morning Alam became more and more worried about Tajar. He was refusing to do anything: to talk, to train, to eat - Alam did not blame him for that. Memory of the previous day's breakfast being punched out of him made him suspicious when the big nosed guard pushed a bowl through to him at noon. It was milk tea with cheese curds again. No beef this time. Alam ate only enough to take the edge off his hunger. Tajar simply pushed it away. Prall wolfed his down; no fear of poisoning today. The white-haired woman, that Alam had started thinking of as Frost, finished her bowl quickly as well. Danat was treated to finer fare. He was given a bowl of milk tea just as the others, but he was also given meat - strips of pork by the look of it - and a few apricots to put in his bowl.

Once Bignose was gone, Danat took the strips of pork and whispered to Alam.

"Give these to your friend."

Alam offered them to Tajar but he did not respond at all. He lay curled on his side on top of the pile of straw despite Alam's repeated offers.

"I will take it," Frost said in her strange accent.

Alam looked to Danat who replied coolly "I think not." He turned his gaze to Alam. "Your need is greater. You have them."

"Thank you," Alam replied, not bothering to pretend he did not want them, as would be the polite thing to do. He nibbled one of them and hid the remains in the pile of straw. The last thing he wanted was to lose such a prize by being punched in the stomach again. This way he could have a little at a time throughout the day. He approached the bars that separated him and Danat. He looked at the bed and the small bowl with the new apricots inside it.

"Why do you get special treatment?" Alam asked quietly so that others would not overhear him. He was not sure if he was being rude.

"Because they are ashamed and afraid to have put me here."

"I don't understand."

"Perhaps I don't want you to," Danat smiled before continuing. "The simple truth is that I live in these cages because others feel I am a threat. They fear that if I die from anything other than old age my friends would cause trouble."

"Why? Who are you?"

"I am nobody, just a prisoner."

"Have you been in here long?" asked Alam.

"Long enough to realise that this is my only life now."

"But you are someone of authority I think. Isn't there anyone who can get you out of here?"

"No. I am simply a prisoner. What I used to be, and whether I deserve to be here, make no difference. They do not change the fact that I am here today, I will be here tomorrow, and I will die here in time. I must find peace in thoughts other than freedom. Perhaps you would be wise to do the same."

Alam regarded the man. He couldn't tell whether his face was calm through genuine contentment, or through defeat.

"No," said Alam. "I can't think that way. I would rather die, and go meet my ancestors, than live here forever."

"Yes. Death would be better. Especially in the winter. It is miserable here when the northern winds come. But I can't accept death yet."

"But surely it is better than having no life and no future with only cold, darkness, and being tormented."

"They do not torment me," he smiled sadly.

"Still, why accept this life that is not a life?"

"I made someone a promise many years ago."

"Surely whatever it was it means nothing now?" insisted Alam.

"It will always mean something." Danat turned to walk away and end the conversation.

"Wait!" said Alam. "I am sorry for prying. Please answer me one more question."

"Yes?"

Alam dropped his voice to a whisper and pressed his face to the bars.

"What do you know about the woman over there?"

Danat did not return Alam's conspiratorial whispering. Instead he looked straight over Alam's shoulder towards Frost and replied in a clear, carrying voice.

"Stay away from her. She is trouble. "

Alam looked back over his shoulder. Frost was watching them with the same emotionless expression.

I think you're right. Best to avoid that one.

***

Mid-afternoon Tolegan came to the cage room with guards carrying buckets of water. Prall shrunk back in his cage like an animal used to being whipped. Alam noticed that Tajar's eyes stayed on the buckets of water as if wondering what new torture was in store for him.

"Listen up!" Tolegan shouted. "We're taking you four," he pointed to everyone except Danat, "to see King Kirill. You all need to be clean to enter his presence. At the moment it stinks like a cesspit in here. You will have one hour to wash yourselves and change clothes."

One by one the cages were opened and the prisoners were each given a bucket of water and fresh clothes.

"Where do I get changed?" asked Frost.

"Anywhere you like as long as it's in your cage," laughed Tolegan. The guards laughed with him.

"My clothes are fine," said Frost. "I don't need to change them."

"No arguing. Get changed. I will be back soon to make sure you are all ready."

Tolegan and the guards left the room. Alam was only too happy to change clothes and have an opportunity to wash the remnants of urine and sick off of himself. He quickly stripped off his shirt, dunked his head in the water, and started scrubbing his arms. To his side Tajar was motionless.

What's wrong with him?

Tajar had always been so vital. So full of life. It was deeply worrying to see him listless and despondent.

On the other side of the room Prall approached his bucket skeptically. Frost showed no such caution and dipped her head in as Alam had.

"Come on Tajar," Alam said in a cheerful voice hoping to lift his friend's spirits. "Fresh clothes will feel nice."

He stayed still and silent.

"You'll feel better with warmer clothes on."

Tajar merely grunted in reply.

Frost looked side to side and then took her bucket towards the back of her cage. She grumpily muttered something in a language that Alam did not know.

"Hey you!" she addressed the guard that was lounging against a wall. "Give me a room to change in! I will not strip off in front of these barbarians and have them staring at me."

"I can't help you even if I wanted to," he replied.

She spat an unfamiliar word at him that had to be a curse before turning her back on him and starting to remove her clothes.

"Here!" said Danat. "Take this. It will give you a little privacy." He was holding out a blanket through the bars into Alam's cage. He was looking at Frost. Alam passed it through to Tajar's bars. Tajar sighed and tossed it toward her. She gathered it up and looked puzzled at Danat.

"I thought you despised me," she said in her strange accent.

"Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, no matter what they are."

Frost draped it over her shoulders and the bucket. Alam frowned at her. She had done nothing to acknowledge or thank Danat.

True to his word, Tolegan returned shortly. He opened the cages of Prall and Frost and bound their hands.

"Get up!" he shouted at Tajar, who slowly obeyed.

"You smell like a latrine, you Empa pig!" he added when he got close to Tajar. "Wash him," he ordered two of the guards. They were not gentle. His clothes were roughly stripped from him, multiple buckets of water were dumped on him, and he was dressed as if he were an infant. Throughout it all Tajar remained listless and downcast. In the end he was dressed in the fresh clothes with wet shoulders and back as the water dripped from his half a head of long hair. He was a truly miserable sight.

The prisoners were led through the building and into Kirill's audience chamber. A scattering of torches around the room, and the smoke hole in the ceiling, provided scant light to an otherwise dim and hazy room. Kirill and his wife were seated, as before, in the centre on wooden chairs. She seemed to take no notice of them; her attention was absorbed on needlework. Kirill fidgeted with the black box as the prisoners were brought in. Tolegan pushed on the prisoner's heads, forcing them to their knees. Kirill leaned forward.

"Empa dogs," he addressed Alam and Tajar. "Have you decided to tell me what is in the box, and how to open it?"

"We honestly don't know," answered Alam.

"I find that hard to believe," he shook his head. "Tell me why you were trespassing on my land and I might be lenient with you."

"It is simply a matter of honour. I gave my word to someone. I don't think I can tell people about it without compromising my pledge, but rest assured that it does not affect, or threaten, Khashbal at all."

"You will tell me nothing?" Kirill asked.

Alam simply remained silent.

"If that is the way it is going to be, Tolegan, you may untie all of their hands," Kirill gestured to the four prisoners. "As of today they are my guests!"

"My lord?" asked Tolegan in surprise.

Alam, Tajar, Frost, and Prall looked at each other in bewilderment.

"You heard me. Untie them."

"As you wish," he said. He and the other guards began working at the ropes around their hands.

Kirill addressed the four captives. "Today is a good day for you!" He was smiling, but the smile had a touch of malice in it. "I have decided to give you an opportunity to be free!"

All four of the captives had his complete attention.

"I love my people. They are generous to me and I am generous to them." He paused and rose from his chair. He took a few steps towards the captives. Alam could see that his people had indeed been generous to him. He was the widest man Alam had ever seen. The Endless Plains was a tough and merciless land. In the Empa Clan there was never enough food for anyone to be so luxuriously proportioned.

"Not only am I going to give you a chance at freedom, but will also provide a chance for my people to be entertained! It is like having two swords in one sheath! It will long be said that Kirill is a generous and fair ruler of his people!" He opened his arms expansively.

"Clan Meet is approaching in only a half of a moon," he continued. "At the Meet there will be the usual tests of strength and skill, but this year I have prepared something much more exciting - a grand climax! A breathtaking display of martial skill! A spectacle that will make this Meet the most memorable one ever witnessed! And you four will be at the centre of it."

He stopped and gazed on them. Alam could not help but fill the silence.

"What is the nature of this spectacle?"

"Oh, I can't give away too much at this stage. I wouldn't like you to miss out on the surprise."

"If you expect us to kill each other for sport then you will be disappointed. My friend and I would never harm each other and I have no intention of fighting these two either," Alam pointed to Frost and Prall.

"Boldly said!" Kirill replied. "No. That is not what I have in mind at all. The opposite in fact! You will be working together. So if you are not friends yet, I suggest you become friends quickly! As you are now my guests, your cages will be made more comfortable. You will be given good food and you will be allowed two hours a day to train together outside. By the time the Clan Meet comes to a close I want you to be at the peak of strength and health so that you put on the best show possible."

"You still have not said exactly how we can gain our freedom," remarked Frost.

Kirill's face split into a wide, wolf-like grin.

"Simple. Those that survive are free."

"Survive what?"

Kirill wagged his finger at Alam as if he were a cheeky little boy. "What is the point of a surprise if it isn't a surprise?"

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Please comment and vote. Your feedback is really appreciated.

-Y. V. Qualls