The room shifted under Ty’s feet before Rosana could answer.
The floor moved like a plate settling into a groove. Lines of light slid away from the center and stopped at the contestants’ boots, drawing a rough boundary between the injured and the people still ready to hurt them.
Alexander noticed first and lifted one hand as the line finished drawing.
"Stay behind the line until the room proves what it wants."
Rosana looked at the glowing mark near her heel. "I hate when buildings give orders."
"Then hate it from the correct side of the line."
That was enough to keep her back for the next breath.
Ty stayed near Aldric because Aldric looked one bad breath away from folding sideways. The prince saw the attention and managed to look insulted through the blood on his mouth.
"I can stand without your concern, demon, while bleeding."
"I am concerned about you falling on my foot."
"Then move your foot before I improve my aim."
"Then stop swaying like expensive laundry in wind."
Aldric’s glare sharpened, which Ty counted as a medical improvement.
Across the room, the Black Bulls spread with care. The red-collared man raised two fingers and sent a woman with a doll-shaped charm toward the left wall. Xuan Wei moved right, dark shapes tightening around his shoulders like trained hounds waiting for a hand sign. Two others placed themselves between the contestants and the rear door.
Gears stayed near the middle, close enough to answer either side.
He was listening more than watching. Ty could tell from the angle of his head and the way his hand kept flexing around the cloth charm. The crystal had thrown them here, and Gears hated surprises that came from someone else’s machinery.
Aldric leaned closer without taking his eyes off the Bulls. "The man in red is giving orders, but the crystal left my ears useless."
"I can hear enough to know he wants lanes."
"That means he expects something dangerous to enter next."
Yagrid, still braced against Gisorn, dragged in a rough breath. "We are already half dead, and now they bring professionals."
John looked from Ty to the Black Bulls. "Ty, are we attacking before they finish spreading out?"
Ty wanted an answer that sounded like command. He had none. His body still remembered the board, the coin slot, the cold sheet of light passing through his ribs.
"We wait until we know who the room wants dead."
Rosana gave him a flat look. "The room wants all of us dead eventually."
Fernando shifted near the boundary line. "They have clean footing, and they are watching our injuries."
"Then show them the injuries they should worry about," Alexander said.
The line above the room opened into a white crack.
At first, the ceiling seam only showed a white crack. It widened and let a hard bolt of light fall to the floor. The light struck the center boundary and climbed back upward around a man’s body.
King Threxian stepped out with a tournament coin rolling across his fingers.
Dozens of drones dropped through the opened seam behind him. They formed a ring above the chamber, lenses facing every direction. The medical staff came through the rear door at the same time, but they stopped behind a second mark in the floor and waited.
Nobody on the staff side moved like they were surprised.
That told Ty more than the speech had started to.
The Black Bulls saw it too. Their formation tightened. The red-collared man lowered his hand. Gears looked at the coin before he looked at the king.
Aldric’s jaw set when he saw the man arrive.
Threxian looked over the contestants first. He took his time. Burned clothes, bad knees, blood on faces, broken weapons, empty hands. He inspected them like a commander counting losses after a battle he had chosen to let happen.
Only after that did he look at the Black Bulls.
"Contestants, stay behind the marked line. Medical staff will collect you after I finish separating criminals from witnesses."
Rosana muttered, "That sounds comforting in the way knives sound clean."
Alexander kept his voice low. "Do what he says until the next lie shows."
Threxian heard him anyway. His eyes moved to Alexander, then past him to Ty.
"Ty. Still breathing, despite several expensive attempts from both sides."
Ty pushed himself straighter. "This sat inside the tournament plan from the start, correct?"
"Most traps look rude from the bait’s side."
"I am getting tired of being called bait."
"Then become useful enough to earn a different word."
Aldric took one step forward and nearly paid for it with his balance. "You used the match chamber while I was inside it."
"You were already inside it when the Bulls came for him."
"That changes nothing about the choice you made here."
"It changes who gets blamed first when people watch."
The answer landed badly. Ty saw it in Aldric’s face, and this time the prince had no polished response ready.
The red-collared Black Bull spoke, but the room still swallowed part of his voice. Gears answered him with a sharp hand sign and began snapping the black swords to catches along his back.
Compact plates unfolded from the bracelets at his wrists. They slid over his hands, locked across his knuckles, and formed heavy gauntlets with vents along the sides.
Ty remembered those hands cutting Aldric apart with tools and smoke. Seeing them become blunt weapons made the room feel smaller.
Threxian turned toward the drones. "Citizens watching from the authorized feed, this tournament has been breached by the Black Bulls. You will now see the difference between a kingdom that hides rot and a kingdom that cuts it out in public."
Waddell, still leaning on the wall, spoke under his breath. "That man rehearses while threatening people."
"He does most things while threatening people," Aldric said.
A Black Bull near the left side broke formation.
Fire gathered around his forearm, red and tight. The woman with the doll charm grabbed for his sleeve, but he ripped free and charged the king before Gears finished turning.
"Arven, hold formation until we know the coin’s limit."
Arven ignored him and crossed the line at a run.
His fist drove toward Threxian’s face with enough heat to make the boundary line flicker. Three inches short, the coin flashed between Threxian’s fingers.
The fire turned back through the arm that made it.
It went back through Arven’s wrist, up his arm, and across his shoulder in a bright line that made him scream through clenched teeth. The force threw him onto his back at the edge of the Black Bulls’ formation.
The medical staff flinched behind their waiting line.
The drones moved closer and lowered their lenses.
Threxian looked down at Arven. "That one had courage and poor arithmetic together."
The woman with the doll charm dropped beside Arven and pressed one palm to his burned arm. "Get him back before the king uses him twice."
Gears kept his eyes on Threxian. "Nobody rushes. He wants isolated volunteers for the feed."
Xuan Wei’s shadows moved tighter around him. "Buying time works only if time has a door."
"Then find the door while I keep him talking."
"You talk best while hitting things that deserve it."
"That is why people remember the lesson after bruises."
Threxian rolled the coin over his fingers again. "Gerald of the Black Bulls. You look eager for a man who just wasted a rescue attempt."
Gears flexed the gauntlets once. The vents opened and let out a short breath of heat. "You built a room where everyone has to watch you feel tall."
"You built a career attacking people from side doors."
"Side doors usually have better company than royal stages."
Threxian’s mouth tightened. The reaction was small, but Ty caught it. So did Gears.
Aldric leaned toward Ty. "He is baiting my father."
"Your father started the evening by calling everyone bait."
"Yes, but Gerald might be better at making it personal."
The red-collared man behind Gears touched two fingers to his chest, then pointed at the rear wall. The doll woman nodded once. Xuan Wei looked away from the king long enough to study the ceiling seam.
Gears had bought them all one task and a little room.
Threxian saw the exchange and let it happen.
That was the part Ty disliked most about the exchange.
"Show me," Threxian said. "If the Bulls came this far for my stage, bring something worth the breach."
Gears stepped past the fallen Arven and squared his shoulders.
His shoulder still bled from Aldric’s lance. One gauntlet sat crooked from the rush to lock it. He rolled his neck once and looked back at Ty.
"Watch carefully, demon. Kings hate when the trick works twice."
Ty had no idea which trick he meant.
Gears launched forward before the king could choose another volunteer.
His first strike came straight for Threxian’s center, and the gauntlets fired hard enough to crack stone under both men.