Sentinels: Forsaken Knight by B.H. Savage Page A

her body and dropped her sword to the ground. Her mouth opened and she gasped for air as she fell to her knees and turned her head to face her fallen foe. Her lungs burned like she hadn't been breathing for ten minutes and her muscles shook rapidly.
    The announcer carefully walked into the arena over to where Tao Long lay motionless on the ground. Anye wasn't sure if he was dead or unconscious, and while she had killed men before she had never done so when lacking self-control. The thought that she was capable of such power both shocked and unnerved her.
    "Tao Long is unconscious!" the announcer yelled. "The victor of this round is Amy Karst!"
    The crowd, after a dumbfounded moment of confused silence, finally resumed their cheering. Anye breathed a sigh of relief that the monk was alive but she was still confused about what exactly had happened. The last time she panicked and pulled a stunt like hoping her sword would magically defend her, she'd found her face half buried in the dirt because her instructor had knocked her clean off her feet and then insulted her that a woman's place was in the kitchen, or weaving tapestries, or making children. Of course the insult wasn't genuine, having only been meant to motivate and train her to not panic, which it did.
    Byron hobbled up to her from his place on the side of the arena and knelt beside her. Anye could tell he was wholly concerned for her well-being at that point. If he had been amazed or excited for her the emotion had already passed and she couldn’t see it.
    "Amy, are you alright?" he asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "You’re shaking as if you've been swimming in ice water."
    "Byron, what was that?" she asked. "What did I do? I didn't feel like I was in control...I don't think I was in control."
    Byron lifted Anye to her feet and supported her as best as he could over his shoulder to help her back towards the entrance of the waiting area. "Let's, uh, let's not think about that right now. The important thing is that you won! You've made it to the final round, which guarantees us at the least a runner up prize! Ha ha!"
    Byron's subject change back to the prize money cheered Anye up slightly. Her muscles stopped shaking and she walked herself the rest of the way towards the waiting room after picking up the sword that had been knocked away from her earlier. The announcer had already called Amadi and Nitram outside, the latter of which bumped his shoulder into Anye rudely as he passed. Amadi on the other hand paused in his stride to say something to her.
    "Don't worry," he told her. "I'll make this quick, and then I can tell you about what that was." His gaze was cold and stiff as he spoke.
    Amadi continued off towards the arena while Anye stared at him suspiciously before continuing back inside. The unsettling feeling of not knowing how he could possibly have any idea of what was going on had returned, but there was nothing she could do about it. He knew her real name, was able to tell just from entering the same area as her that she had some prowess in magical abilities, and now he had told her that he knew exactly what had happened during the fight with Tao Long. Her best bet, and only option, to finding out what he knew and how he knew it, was to trust his words and wait for the small window between the end of his match and the final round.
     
    ______
     
    Amadi was true to his word. Anye had only been sitting on the bench near the entry way for a few minutes before Amadi returned, victorious over his opponent. He spotted her quickly and took a seat next to her, keeping his tall staff upright in hand.
    "Brutish men like him commonly make themselves out to be easy prey for mages of my caliber," he confidently told her.
    Anye didn't even look him in the eye. "How do you know these things about me?" she asked bluntly with a somewhat angry tone, going straight to the point. They didn't have much time before the final round began and she wanted to know what he