by Zara Starr
“You have to go back to your quarters,” he finally said to her.
Tanya frowned and shook her head. “I can’t let them catch me. You said I could stay here.”
Mal nodded. “I did. But if you stay here and they find you now, you’re going to die. We are both in very serious danger. The best option would be for you to get back to your room.”
Tanya thought about it for a moment and nodded.
“I understand,” she said. “How do I get back to my quarters? You know the way?”
Mal nodded. “I do, but it’s not so easy to get to them. The prize quarters are close by, both our quarters are underneath the dome, but there is no direct path from here to your quarters. We have to leave the gladiators’ quarters, go into the arena, and then take another tunnel.”
Tanya shook her head. “I guess they never planned for prizes and gladiators to be able to visit.” She offered him a rueful smile.
Mal shook his head too. “The good thing is that I am allowed to leave my quarters. I am allowed to train whenever I need to. They won’t think it’s strange if I leave.”
“Just if I am with you.”
Mal nodded. “Which is why they can’t see you. We are going to have to hide you away.”
Tanya started. “And how exactly are we going to do that? Let me crouch underneath your cloak or something?”
Mal frowned. He didn’t understand the expression on her face, the way she spoke and the tone she used. It seemed almost like she was joking, but her face was serious. Surely, she knew that the gladiators did not have cloaks – they were reserved for noblemen. He didn’t have time to analyze it though.
“There are carts here for weapons,” he said. “Sometimes, I take weapons with me to the arena. I think we can make that work.”
Tanya frowned. “Explain,” she demanded.
“I’ll just pack more weapons than I usually do, so I need to use a cart to get to the arena. If someone spots us, they won’t know you’re in the cart with the weapons.”
“You want me to hide in a cart like a stowaway?”
Mal raised his eyebrows. “You were willing to hide in my room like a stowaway.”
Tanya nodded slowly. “You’re right.”
It seems like she wanted to add something, but she didn’t say anything more. Mal walked to his pants that lay on the floor in a pile and pulled them on again. Now that they were both dressed, everything seemed normal again. Mal was a little sad about that – he would have loved to explore Tanya’s body more, to try out different things.
But right now, he had to make sure that they both stayed alive.
“I’ll be back,” he announced.
“Where are you going?” Tanya asked and he could hear the panic in her voice.
“I’m going to prepare a cart. Once I’m ready, I’ll take you to it and you can hide.”
Before she could argue, Mal left his room. He walked to the storage room at the end of the passage and let himself in. He chose a couple of different weapons, choosing them according to their size rather than whether or not he used them. He needed a couple of bulky things that would create a space in between for Tanya to tuck herself away in.
It was lucky that she was so small – it would be easier to hide her.
Finally, after setting up all the weapons in the cart, he grabbed an old towel and put it on the cart too. He pushed the cart down the passageway and stopped at his room, pushing the door open.
Tanya looked worried for a moment, but when she saw that it was just him, she hurried to the cart. He showed her where he had left a space for her to hide, and without complaining, she crawled into it. When Mal put the old towel over her, it was almost impossible to tell that someone was hiding between the weapons unless you were specifically looking.
He hoped that it would work.
Mal pushed his cart down the passage, out the door that led into the gladiators’ quarters, and down the passage that led to the arena.
He made it almost all the way and felt like he could start breathing easier when the Saithin guard came around the corner.
“Halt!” the guard said loudly. “Announce yourself, warrior.”
Mal went through the motions, stating who he was and what business he had in the arena. The guard glanced at the cart.
“That’s a lot of weapons to train with today,” he said.
Mal nodded. He didn’t usually have as many weapons with him, and the guards knew him well, but he had thought it through while he had been loading the cart.
“This won’t be an ordinary training,” he said. “I am going to the semi-finals, don’t you remember? I need to be on top of my game.”
The guard nodded.
“While I have you here,” Mal said, putting his hand on the smaller guard’s shoulder and turning him toward the arena. “I want to point out a few things that need attention.”
He let the guard away from the cart and pointed out things so that the guard would stand with his back to the cart. “Do you see this crack? Can you imagine my foot hooked in this while I am in the middle of a battle and my opponent gets the upper hand? It should be filled before the match.”
The guard nodded, agreeing with Mal, saying that he would get someone to look at the arena again. He was on Mal’s side, rooting for him, and it made Mal feel like at least he would be able to keep the guard busy long enough so that Tanya could sneak out of the cart and headed back to her quarters.
Mal started talking shop with the guard, discussing different fighting techniques and the guard enthusiastically joined in. Every now and then, Mal glanced at the cart. He never told Tanya his plan – after all, the guard had come out of nowhere. But as he kept the guard busy, it seemed like she was catching on.
When he glanced back another time, the old towel lay in a pile at the bottom of the cart and Tanya was gone. He glanced in the direction of the prize quarters and saw her running toward it.
Thank goodness she had made it out. She would be safe now. At least, he hoped. He had done everything he could.
Was it enough? And would he ever see her again?
Chapter Twelve
Tanya
At first, when Mal had stopped the cart, Tanya had frozen, her heart beating in her throat. She had heard the guard demand to know who Mal was and what business he had in the arena. If the gladiator, who had every business being there, would be stopped, who was to say that she would not be found and dragged away?
She had heard her blood rushing in her ears. The guard would inspect the cart, he had mentioned that there were too many weapons.
But somehow, Mal had managed to distract the guard and led him away from the cart.
For a while, Tanya had listened to the way Mal spoke, how demanding he was yet still respectful. Then, she had realized what he was doing. That he was stalling for time so that she could get away. How stupid! She should have thought about that sooner. She should have thought on her feet.
Better late than never. Mal and the guard were on the other side of the arena, discussing something about sand, when she carefully pulled the towel off, popped her head over the edge of the cart, and slipped away without being noticed.
She should have said goodbye to Mal in the room. She hadn’t thought about that when he had come with the cart to collect her.
Now, she was running away from him without even being able to look back.
She was grateful that he had made such an effort to get her back to her room. After he had explained to her that they could die for what they had done, Tanya had a fresh wave of panic – everything in this godforsaken place was dangerous and she hated it all. She just wanted to go home, she just wanted to go back to her life.
Back home, she knew who she was. She knew where she belonged. Here, she was nothing more than an object that was to be owned by one person or another. She hated it. The worst was that even if Mal won his battles, she would never belong to him, the only person she would not mind so much to belong to. Although, the co
ncept of belonging to anyone at all was absurd.
Tanya finally reached the hallway to the prize quarters and let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. Something had felt wrong when she had run across the arena and she had wondered if she would be spotted and caught before she could reach her room. But she was almost in the clear. Soon, she would be back in her room and the guards would be none the wiser.
When she turned down the passage that led to the prize quarters, she froze. At the end of the passageway was a screen and the door was locked.
Slowly, she crept closer. What was she supposed to do now?
But as soon as she was in range, her face was scanned and the door swung open.
Of course! She belonged here; this was the one place she was allowed to enter.
Relieved, she stepped through the door.
Her room was only a short distance away and she hurried toward it. Before she reached her door, she spotted Amelia, who came down the passageway from the other side.
“Tanya?” Amelia asked. “They’re looking for you! Where the hell have you been?”
Tanya was about to answer, but she didn’t have a chance.
Almost immediately, a swarm of guards appeared and surrounded Tanya. Her heart beat fast in her chest and panic threatened to choke her but she swallowed it down and stayed calm. She was where she was supposed to be, she wasn’t trespassing. Yeah, maybe she had gotten here the wrong way, but they couldn’t tell her that she was supposed to be somewhere else.
Amelia backed away a little, but she didn’t disappear. She was curious, she wanted to see what was going to happen.
Tanya looked at the guards. One of them looked more official than the rest, wearing a belt filled with weapons. None of the other guards had weapons, not that she could see. The guard that had been escorting her hadn’t had anything visible on him either. Did any of them have weapons? Or was this a special occasion? Maybe they didn’t often have escapes as serious as hers.
“Where have you been?” the official-looking guard demanded.
“I got lost,” Tanya lied. “When I left the lab, I realized the error of my ways and I wanted to come back to my quarters. But I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t know how to find my room.”
The guard looked at her with its insect eyes and Tanya shivered. It looked so emotionless, so cold. It was so different from how things had been with Mal. It was impossible to imagine that they were both aliens and that they worked so well together.
Tanya didn’t think she would ever be able to work well with the mantis-like creatures.
“That’s enough,” the guard finally snapped when Tanya tried to add to her story. “We will find out the truth soon enough.” He lifted a handheld scanner and Tanya’s stomach turned. The truth? What if the scanner could tell them things?
The scanner shone a green light on her face for a second before it beeped, and the guard looked at the screen.
As he looked at the screen, he scowled.
“You are fortunate we need you alive and well,” he grumbled. “Human females may be more trouble than they are worth.”
One of the other guards grabbed Tanya by the arms and yanked her around. She tried to fight him, but they were much stronger than her. She was pushed against a wall, her head pushed aside, and another guard stepped closer with some kind of machine. Tanya tried to fight, but again, it didn’t work.
“Hold still, it will make everything easier,” the official-looking guard said.
Tanya had no choice but to stop fighting. Begrudgingly she allowed the guard to do whatever he was doing back there.
“We are adding location tracking to your bio-enhancer,” the guard said.
Dammit. This was exactly what Tanya had hoped wouldn’t happen. She wouldn’t be able to do anything now.
“That’s not all,” the guard said. Tanya frowned. She was finally released and she spun around again, facing the guards. She wasn’t strong enough to take them on, but she felt more vulnerable with her back to them.
“What then? Are you going to ration my food?”
The guard laughed, even though his insect face barely moved. It was eerie, hearing the sound of laughter and not seeing the expression that went with it.
“Do you think this is a joke?” he asked. “No, you won’t be punished with no food. We need you healthy and attractive. You will be accompanied by two guards at all times.”
Tanya’s blood drained from her face. Two guards? At all times?
“They will remain with you and work in shifts until you are no longer in our care.
Tanya didn’t have to ask to know that it would be until she was given as the grand prize to the tournament winner. Then, she would be handed over to whoever won. Or, rather, whoever’s Master won.
She had never gotten a chance to ask Mal why it worked that way.
When she thought about Mal, her heart constricted. She wished she could be with him again. She wished that neither one of them were slaves, that they could choose to see each other again. Because when she had been with him, it had been so much more than just sex.
Even though it had been the best sex she had ever had.
Tanya glanced at Amelia. She was still hovering close by to see what was happening. When she made eye contact with the other human female, Amelia merely pulled up her shoulders. She wasn’t nearly as determined to escape as Tanya was, she seemed set on accepting her fate.
That was something Tanya would never be able to do. Even now, with all the guards, she would keep fighting until she won back her freedom. What else was there to do? She couldn’t just lay down and accept what was happening. She refused to be someone’s sex slave.
Finally, the guards were dismissed. All but two. They accompanied her back to her room.
It was awful.
It was still a short while before bedtime and Tanya hadn’t eaten supper yet. She was escorted to the dining hall. While she ate, the two guards flanked her, making sure that she wouldn’t try to run away again.
Where Tanya had sometimes joined other females to dine, they all stayed away from her now. She didn’t blame them.
She didn’t like the mantis creatures any more than the others did.
After supper, it was time to bathe. Where the girls had privacy before, with guards not hanging around at the pool, it was different this time. The two guards were in the room at all times, making all the women uncomfortable.
Tanya felt bad for putting her friends in such a predicament. After all, they hadn’t asked to be here any more than she had. Even though they didn’t have the two guards following them around, Tanya’s situation was making things difficult for them too.
After braving it all, Tanya went back to her room. The lights would go out soon and she needed to be in her bed so that she could see what she was doing.
Finally, when the lights went out, Tanya hoped that it would help. Maybe she wouldn’t feel the mantis-like guard’s eyes on her.
But it didn’t help at all. She knew that he was there in the corner of her room, staring at her while she tried to sleep. Even though she couldn’t see his expression, she knew that he was there to make sure that she stayed where she was supposed to. She didn’t feel safe.
Another guard was stationed outside the door. She wondered when they would change shifts. She was just glad that the second one wasn’t also in the room, staring at her. It would have been absolutely awful.
Finally, Tanya managed to distract herself from thinking about the guards. Her mind traveled to Mal. He would be in his room now. She knew what his room looked like, what it was like to be in his cot, and she wished she was there with him.
But it was being there with him in the first place that had gotten her into this kind of trouble, that had earned her two guards that wouldn’t let her out of their sight.
What did they know? Had the scanner told them what she had done? Did that mean that Mal would be punished? Or was it only her? Maybe they didn’t know who she had don
e it with? She hoped for the latter. Mal had been nothing but wonderful toward her and she would hate it if he was punished for something she had brought on him.
After all, if she hadn’t escaped from the lab, if she hadn’t arrived at his quarters, they would never have slept together. She blamed herself.
The next morning, Tanya opened her eyes to an insect face that was staring at her.
“God, don’t you have anything better to do with your time?” she snapped at the mantis creature. But she knew that they didn’t, she knew that it was guarding her that really made their worlds go around.
For a moment, she wondered if the guards were slaves in a way too. Maybe they didn’t have their own lives either. Honestly, she didn’t care about that. She didn’t care about what they went through or what this meant for them. They were the creatures that had taken her, the same race as the creature that would end up owning her. She felt nothing for them.
She was given a skimpy outfit to get dressed in again and knew that she would be taken to the stage.
They were in the semi-finals. The gladiators were close to declaring a winner.
After getting dressed, Tanya was escorted by her two guards to where the other females waited. Amelia glanced at her and Tanya couldn’t read her expression. Amelia looked away, clearly not wanting to start a conversation.
The women were all transported in a pod to the stage and shuffled out one by one. As Tanya stepped out, the crowd went wild. They all clearly liked the human female that was to be the grand prize, and clearly, they enjoyed skimpy outfits.
Where the outfits had bothered her before, Tanya was completely irritated with it now. She didn’t like being paraded like that, showed off as an object that was solely for everyone else’s pleasure. She wondered if it had something to do with Mal and what they had shared, if he would care that she was being paraded around like this.
But it didn’t matter either, did it? Nothing mattered.
Once the parade was over and the crowd had died down a little, the gladiators who would fight in the semi-final were brought into the arena. They were paraded in a similar way for the crowd to look at and applause before the first fight started.
