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A day later I heard report of a terrible fire on the Street of Nails A house burned to ash with not a single survivor Even today the site lies vacant, with nobody willing to build there again

The walls of the Blood Holes were blessedly free of any decoration save perhaps the scratched names of temporary lovers here and there where a buttress provided shelter for such work I cursed h the doors

The Terrif brothers who ran the Blood Holes had sent a wagon to collect Snorri from the Marsail keep earlier in the day I’d been particular in thethe assurances of a thousand in crown gold if they failed to ensure his attendance in the Crimson Pit for the first bout

Flanked by e I strode into the Blood Holes, enveloped immediately in the sweat and smoke and stink and din of the place Damn, but I loved it there Silk-clad nobles strolled around the fight floor, each an island of colour and sophistication, close pressed by coers-on, hawkers, beer-men, poppy-men and brazens, and at the periphery, urchins ready to scurry between one gentlees by mouth or hand The bet-takers, each sanctioned and approved by the Terrifs, stood at their stalls around the edge of the hall, odds listed in chalk, boys ready to collect or deliver at the run

The four reat diamond, red-tiled into the floor Scarlet, Umber, Ochre, and Crimson All of a likeness, twenty foot deep, twenty foot across, but with Crist equals The nobility wound their way between these and the lesser pits, peering down, discussing the fighters on display, the odds on offer A sturdy wooden rail surrounded each pit, set into a ti a yard down into the depression I led the way to Criainst lowered up at me

“Freshdown at my meal ticket “Who’ll take a cut?”

Two small olive hands slid out over the rail beside me “I believe I will I feel you owe me a cut, or two, Prince Jalan”

Aw hell “Maeres, how good to see you” To my credit I kept the blind terror from my reply and didn’t soil myself Maeres Allus had the calm and reasonable voice that a scribe or tutor should have The fact that he liked to watch when his collectors cut the lips off a man turned that reasonable tone from a comfort to a horror

“He’s a big fellow,” Maeres said

“Yes” I glanced around wildly for my friends All of them, even the two old veterans picked specially by uard me, had slunk off towards Umber without a word and let Maeres Allus slide up beside uilty

“Hoould he fare against Lord Gren’s man, Norras, do you think?” Maeres asked

Norras was a skilled pugilist, but I thought Snorri would pound thebehind the barred gate opposite the one that Snorri had coh

“Shouldn’t we call the fight? Get the odds set?” I shot Barras Jon a look and called out to hiainst my fresh meat? What numbers there?”

Maeres set a soft hand towhen the man’s been tested, no?”

“B-but he ood coin here, Maeres, pay you back with interest” My finger ached The one Maeres had broken when I came up short two months back

“Indulge me,” he said “That will be my interest I’ll cover any losses A ht be worth three hundred crowns”

I saw his game then Three hundred was just half what I owed him The bastard meant to see Snorri die and keep a royal prince on his leash There didn’t seeue with Maeres Allus, certainly not in his cousins’ fight hall and owing hiold Maeres kne far he could pushor not He’d seen past anization like Maeres’s without being a good judge of men

“Three hundred if he’s not fit to fight wagered bouts tonight?” I could slip back after Father’s ridiculous opera and buy into the serious fights This afternoon’s exercise had only ever been intended to whet appetites and stir up interest

Maeres didn’t answer, only clapped his soft hands and had the pit guards raise the opposite gate At the sound of iron grating on stone and chains ratcheting through their housings, the crowds came to the rail, drawn by the pull of the pit