Excerpt Tuesday with Annie Lima
Bensin’s first opportunity to show he wasn’t going to be the kind of glad the arena expected came in the clinic an hour later, as he lay on his back on the examining table, strapped down and gasping in pain.
“Thank you,” he managed, his voice an agonized whisper.
Doc, Morden, and the guard in attendance all gave him funny looks. “‘Thank you’?” Doc echoed. “For what?”
“For —” Bensin licked his lips and took a deep breath, trying to focus around the pain. “For fixing my arm.”
Doc raised his eyebrows. “That’s the first time anyone’s ever thanked me for setting a broken bone without anesthesia.”
“Well, it — it’s better than having it stay broken.”
“True. You’re welcome. Now, you’ll need to watch what you do with that arm for the next couple of months while the cast is on, and try not to get it wet. I’ll make sure someone brings you a plastic sheath to put on over it before you get in the shower every night. And you’ll have to take it easy anyway till that bump on your head heals. Doesn’t look like a concussion, but we don’t want to take any chances. I’ll talk to Ian later about that.”
Doc backed away to a safe distance before nodding to the guard to unfasten the clasps. “Sit up slowly before you try to stand, and lean on the railing if you need to as you go out. Let me know if you start experiencing any other symptoms.” He turned to Morden. “I’m going to go grab another cup of coffee before the next dire emergency staggers in. Do me a favor and call someone to get that body bag out of here, all right?” He headed for the door. “Have I ever mentioned how much I hate weekends?”
Blurb
Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is just one victory away from freedom. But after he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he is condemned to the violent life and early death of a gladiator. While his loved ones seek desperately for a way to rescue him, Bensin struggles to stay alive and forge an identity in an environment designed to strip it from him. When he infuriates the authorities with his choices, he knows he is running out of time. Can he stand against the cruelty of the arena system and seize his freedom before that system crushes him?
You can get a copy of The Gladiator and the Guardian here.
Annie Douglass Lima spent most of her childhood in Kenya and later graduated from Biola University in Southern California. She and her husband Floyd currently live in Taiwan, where she teaches fifth grade at Morrison Academy. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and novels since her childhood, and to date has published ten books (one YA action and adventure novel, four fantasies, a puppet script, and four anthologies of her students’ poetry). Besides writing, her hobbies include reading (especially fantasy and science fiction), scrapbooking, and international travel.
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