Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1) by Lara Lee Hunter

something that looked like wine and then dashed away again. When he returned she had two wooden plates, one in each hand, and almost plates were piles of soft scrambled eggs, dense brown bread covered in butter, and some kind of meat.
    Reena was too hungry and too nervous to take her time with the food. She ate quickly, her only thought that she should’ve saved her bread and cheese that morning. When they were finished eating Hector said, “it is time to go to the fields.”
    He stood and she stood as well. Her legs trembled and her mouth was dry despite the amount of water that she had drunk. She followed him out of the hall and out into a large courtyard.
    She stood there, blinking in the sun and was dazed by the sight before her. Men, and some younger boys, fought viciously. They held wooden swords and some held long spiked wooden balls on narrow chains attached to sticks; they swung those things around their heads aiming at straw stuffed figures propped up along the walls.
    Some of the combatants grappled in the dust, their arms and legs flailing as they fought to gain control over their opponent. How was she to survive this? How could she survive this? There was no way, she was going to die long before she ever went to the arena.
    Hector called one of the men over and Reena wanted to shrink backwards as he approached. He was huge! He wore no shirt and his muscles bulged, veins stood up from those muscles pulsing under the skin. Scars marked his chest, his belly, his legs and his face. That he was a gladiator who had survived many battles was obvious, and that he was not happy about being called over to where Reena stood was equally apparent.
    “What is it Hector?”
    “Kale, this is Reena.”
    “And what do you expect me to do?”
    They were talking about her like she was not even there. Or even human! Reena stepped forward, “I do believe he wants you to be my training partner today. Do you know you’re named after a leafy green vegetable?”
    Kale narrowed his eyes, “Are you trying to get me to kill you? It will do you no good, you must know that we’re not allowed to kill you on the training field.”
    “I also know that to even say that to me could get you killed for treason.”
    They faced each other, the untested girl and the battle-weary gladiator. Hector broke the silence, “I told you she had spirit.”
    Kale shrugged. “Spirit alone will not keep her alive in the arena.”
    Reena said, “Then tell me what will. Show me what will. I have got to win twelve battles.”
    “You are never going to win twelve battles.” Kale sounded almost sorry.
    “Not if you don’t help me.”
    “Perhaps not even if I do.”
    “I suppose we won’t know until you try. Would it kill you to try?”
    “No, it would not.”
    Hector asked, “Do you have a weapon that you prefer?”
    “Werebane.”
    Both men laughed. “That would be a neat trick wouldn’t it?” Hector looked at Kale who simply shrugged. “You need to pick a weapon, you need to get good with at least one weapon. You need him to become skilled enough with it that you can take on an opponent and kill them with it.”
    How could she kill somebody? It was different in the woods, and even so she had never killed anybody out there on purpose, not until she killed the soldiers with the werebane. To just walk up, to thrust the blade deep into somebody’s body; she was not sure she could do it. She had not been able to do it in the arena when she placed the Governor, as much as she had wanted to.
    Still, there was no choice. She looked around taking stock of the men who were fighting in the arena. “Which one of these will I have to fight?”
    Hector looked surprised, “what do you mean?”
    Reena asked again, “when I go into the arena, which one of these men will I be fighting?”
    Kale said, “oh, I forgot. She has never been inside the city in her life. She has no idea how the teams work.”
    Reena said, “Well don’t just stand there!