He paused as if he expected an answer, but the crowd was cowering too hard to shout back, and eventually my father continued. “I have watched your kind for two thousand years, and yet I am continually amazed by how you never seem to learn. Every time one of you attempts to lift humanity out of its barbarism, ten more fight to drag it back down. Why do you do this to yourselves? You are the masters of magic in this world, the force that creates gods! Why do you insist on rolling in the worst of your own filth?”
He lifted his eyes to the VIP box where I knew the Gameskeeper was watching. “What happens in this arena is not an inescapable truth of the world,” he rumbled. “This place and the horrors it celebrates exist because you allow it. You cheer for this cruelty because it is not happening to you, never even seeing that you are all drowning in blood! But my family will not be part of your self-destructive idiocy. If you want blood, go spill your own, for you deserve none of ours.”
With that, my father dismissed the crowd with a snort and looked down, turning his clawed hand over so that Nik and I could climb on. I clambered up the scales like an old pro, but Nik took some cajoling before he would step into the dragon’s palm. When we were both finally in position, Yong lifted us into the air. We’d barely made it halfway up his body when the crowd recovered its voice.
Even dragon panic couldn’t last forever. The more time that passed without them being devoured, the more the people recovered. As their fear waned, rage rose up to take its place, and they started hurling things at us. Only curses at first, but the harsh language was soon joined by trash and beer bottles.
The anger didn’t surprise me a bit. I also hated when Yong lectured me, and he wasn’t even their dad. Being dressed down by a dragon you weren’t even related to had to be galling to the sort of person who went to a blood sport arena, and the greater their rage grew, the more violent they became.
“Are we going to be okay?” I asked my dad.
“Of course,” he replied as he placed us on his shoulder. “One of the benefits of being a dragon is that you don’t have to care about the opinions of lesser creatures.”
Normally, I took offense when my dad insulted humans, but I understood what he meant this time. These people weren’t “lesser creatures” because they were mortal; they were less because they were here. These were the people who’d chosen to spend their Saturday night watching Nik get slaughtered, whose thrill at the suffering of others had empowered a dark god. I had no sympathy for them at all.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said, clutching Nik tight with one hand while gripping my dad’s mane with the other.
Yong rumbled in reply, dropping his feet back to the sand in preparation to crash through the ceiling to freedom. Just as he was about to jump, though, a new force swept through the arena. It flew over our heads like a giant hand, grabbing the crowd’s fury and transforming it into something that wasn’t impotent. Something deadly. My dad must have felt the change, too, because he crouched back on his haunches. I hunkered down as well, squeezing his crimson mane tight as the gate they’d wheeled Nik’s cage through rolled open again.
Given what was going on, I was expecting an army, but only one figure came marching out of the dark. A single man with a plain face transformed by rage into something much closer to his truth.
The Gameskeeper.
“Where do you think you’re going, dragon?” the god taunted, throwing out his arm toward my father. Magic followed the motion like a whip, wrapping around my father’s body and dragging him into the sand. “Can’t you hear the people? The fight’s not over. No fight can be without blood!”
“Blood!” the crowd roared in delight. “Blood! Blood! Blood!”
The Gameskeeper spread his arms as the chant washed over him. It crashed into us as well, nearly knocking me off my father’s shoulder with its strength. “We have to get rid of the crowd!” I cried as I pulled myself back up. “The Gameskeeper’s not a big god on his own, but there’s no way we can beat him with all those people behind him.”
“We could burn them,” Nik suggested, grabbing my hand to help me. “Aren’t dragons good at that?”
My father turned up his nose. “I’m not a barbarian.”
“We’re not murdering a whole arena full of people,” I said firmly. “Even if they are the worst.”
Nik didn’t look as if he cared what happened to the crowd who’d cheered for his death, but he didn’t argue. “You’d better come up with something else fast, then,” he said, pointing over my shoulder. “Look.”
I turned back to the Gameskeeper, who’d grown noticeably bigger. Not as big as my dad, but several times larger than a normal human, his form pulsing in time with the screams that gave him power.
“Okay, that’s bad,” I said, eyes wide. “We have to stop him!”
“I’m open to suggestion,” my father replied, lowering his shoulder so we could slide off. “You two get to cover. I’ll deal with this.”
“No way,” I said, clinging to his scales. “You’re not facing this alone!”
“I’ve hidden in your shadow long enough,” Yong told me dearly, plucking me off his shoulder with a gentle claw. “Now it’s my turn to take care of you.”
“But he’s a god!”
“And I’m a dragon,” my father replied as he set me down. “Spirits aren’t the only powers in this world, puppy. It’s time someone reminded him of that.”
I didn’t want to let
