Scarlett Emberheart's Arc

Chapter 3 of 14

Scarlett walked from the shed to the arena gate with her sleeve number bright against her plate. The king's men followed at a distance and did not hide it. At the marshals' table under the arch of the arena, a clerk in gray took her form and ran a finger down the seals. He stopped at the wax at the bottom. He looked at it, then at her, then at it again. He called the marshal over without a word. The marshal was a heavy man with ink on his knuckles. He bent close to the wax and turned the paper toward the torch. "This is the royal house," he said. "But this is not the king's mark." He set the form flat on the table and put his thumb beside the seal. "Whose seal is on your paper, girl?" Scarlett kept her hands at her sides. "Aldric Thornhaven signed for me," she said. "He is a prince of the royal house. The charter asks for a sponsor of standing. It does not name the king." The marshal read the charter line the clerk pointed to. He read it twice. Behind him the stone tiers of the arena filled with people who had paid to see the first bouts. A horn sounded inside the ring. The marshal wet his thumb and pressed it beside the wax to test the impression. It held. He straightened. "The seal is good," he said. "The charter does not bar it." He wrote a short note in the book beside her number and turned the page. Then he lowered his voice so only she and the clerk could hear. "You understand what you have done. You have put a prince's mark on a woman's form on the day the king watches from that box. If he asks me whose knight you are, I will read him what is written." "Read it plain," Scarlett said. He nodded once and waved her through the gate. One of the king's men at the wall turned and walked fast back toward the castle road. Scarlett stepped onto the sand of the arena with her name in the book, her sponsor named aloud, and a rider already carrying the news to the king.