by Anya Nowlan
“Senator! Are you sure you wish for this slave? She is inexperienced and I am certain I could find someone more… hmm, pleasing, for you.”
The Senator waved him off and just as quickly as hope had blossomed, it was squashed again.
“No, she will do fine. I have a hunger for young flesh tonight, I feel.”
Curiously enough, this time she felt no tears brimming. She could stand up tall. The worst had passed. Erden was alive. She could withstand anything now.
The lanista began to peel off when the Senator stopped him.
“Bring me the gladiator, though.”
“The bear?” Julius Augustinus asked in confusion.
“Yes, the bear.”
With that, the lanista left, nodding in understanding. The Senator pulled Kiya into the smaller room and the doors closed behind them. He yanked the jug of wine from her hands as she stood dumbly, not knowing what to do next. There was little more in the room than a raised sleeping area, made luxurious with pillows and soft sheets. A few reclining chairs were scattered around the room, as if to view the activities on the bed.
The Senator poured himself another cup and when he spoke, his words began to slur.
“So we meet again at last, my gem,” he said, letting the jug fall on one of the cushions.
He walked closer to her and put his fingers on her neck, slowly dragging a line upward and making her tilt her head back. He examined her and Kiya stubbornly kept her eyes away from him, staring at the ceiling.
“Are you not happy to see me, my gem? I knew you would be mine, you know. When I saw you with Aelia Fausta, I could smell that you were still pure. I always liked the Egyptian princesses. Shame they stopped bringing them over. All the more fortuitous that I have found you, my sweet,” he said, chuckling. “Well, do you not have a tongue, woman? Speak!”
“What do you require me to say, lord?” she asked, forcing the words out of her throat.
In the back of her head, one thought rattled. Erden would be here soon. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew she did not want him to see what the Senator was going to do to her. But she imagined that it was the exact reason he was being brought up there. Kiya cursed herself for her weakness, for allowing herself to react so obviously when Erden was fighting. Now, the Senator had just the right weapon to wound them both.
“Your name is Kiya, yes?” he asked.
“It is.”
“It means ‘light’ in your tongue, doesn’t it?” he pressed, grinning at his show of knowledge.
“Yes.”
“So tell me, Kiya,” he started, pausing to take a big gulp from his drink. “Whose life have you lit up lately? Anyone special? Maybe a big bear who is reaching the end of his reign on the sands? Hmm?” he taunted, chuckling to himself.
Kiya bit her lower lip. She wanted to stand stoic and proud, but she couldn’t stop herself from shaking a little. Each second that he spoke seemed to be a year and every moment that passed could not go by fast enough. If he wanted to use and humiliate her, she wished he would simply do it already. She couldn’t answer his question. She wouldn’t. When he stepped closer to pry again, the door swung open behind her and Kiya stumbled forward, looking behind her.
Her heart leapt as she saw the hulking form of Erden walking in. He stood tall and hunched over a little as she was used to seeing him, but this time, it wasn’t because of a low ceiling. He was dead tired. His body language could not hide it any more than the dimness in his eyes could. Still, when their eyes met, a spark ignited behind those calm brown eyes of his.
“Ah, the Bear of the North! How nice of you to join us,” Aurelius Clavius announced, cheerfully raising his cup to the gladiator.
The guards closed the door, but both of the heavily armed men stayed in the room this time. Even a Senator’s command wouldn’t have made them leave a gladiator alone in a room.
Kiya’s eyes pleaded with Erden’s, urging him to understand that this would be nothing, that they could come back from this. Erden’s face was unreadable, but blood still oozed from his cuts and wounds. He had taken a serious beating and Kiya was sure that had he been alone in his room, he would have been teetering between passing out and holding onto his consciousness.
The Senator filled his cup again, this time to the brim. Some of the crimson liquid sloshed over the rim. The guards stood at a respectful distance and there were about ten feet between Kiya and Erden. The Senator approached her from the back and when his hand fell on her hip and moved up her side, she closed her eyes to avoid facing the reality of the situation. Kiya winced as she felt the Senator’s hot breath on her neck and then his lips on her skin.
Erden emitted a low growl from the back of his throat and Kiya’s eyes flew open just in time to see him being kicked behind the knees by both of the guards and brought down to kneel on the ground.
“Aw, you don’t like my paws on your honey?” Aurelius Clavius taunted, licking Kiya’s neck.
Her nose scrunched involuntarily and goose bumps erupted over her skin. The only thing that kept her from screaming out in disgust was the look on Erden’s face. He looked like she needed to say just one word, and he would kill the Senator and both of the guards before anyone could do anything about it. But then what? They’d get savagely murdered before they even made it out of the room, Kiya guessed.
No, you have to stay strong, she told herself, the Senator’s lips feeling like red-hot pokers on her neck.
He licked her again and she felt bile want to come up. Her body had only been touched by Erden in an intimate way and the shock between having him touch her and the slimy, powerful Senator was so great that it left her reeling.
“No, I do not,” Erden said, his voice deathly calm.
Kiya looked at him again. This couldn’t be good.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Erden
Erden’s whole world was focused into this one scene unfurling before him. Like the tigers in the arena, this speck of a man was going to be his downfall. Every time he laid a finger on Kiya, another piece of rope and chain within Erden broke, bringing the moment closer when he could no longer control the beast within.
His body was beaten and tired, but his mind was still keen. He scanned the room and threw glances over his shoulders. The guards behind him looked to be enjoying the view of Kiya getting heartlessly touched and groped, like she was a common whore. Erden could barely make himself look at the Senator, but he knew that if he didn’t, things would only get worse for both himself and Kiya.
“You do not? That is brave of you to say, gladiator,” the Senator said with a grin.
He must have enjoyed having an audience, because when Erden moved to stand up as the Senator touched Kiya’s stomach and then slid his hands over her breasts, a gleam of enjoyment sparked in his eyes. The guards struck Erden from the back again and he tumbled down, his hand against the cool stone now.
“Erden, don’t,” Kiya begged him as he looked up into her beautiful face.
He saw a tear fall and that made his heart break again. When he had lived in captivity, being made to train for fights he did not wish to win, it had been tolerable. He had lived only for the next day and it seemed that the four walls and occasional fighting sands would be a life he could deal with. Like a caged animal, he trotted back and forth, but did as his masters told him to.
But now, things were different. It wasn’t just him who was suffering. It was Kiya too. A part of him felt guilty for bringing this on Kiya. Perhaps had it not been his fight they came to see that day, the Senator would have never laid eyes on her? And, if Erden had not shown her that there was a better life, she would not be so horrified now of losing a chance at it.
“I simply speak the truth,” Erden spat from between gritted teeth.
And that he did. He glanced across the room again and tested his body with small motions, seemingly just moving a tiny bit as if changing his position on the floor. He hurt like hell, but he could still control his body as he wanted to. That was a small relief.
Even death must be better than that, he thought, gazing into Kiya’s eyes.
“So, I assume my untouched flower is not so untouched after all, hmm?” the Senator asked, laughter still in his voice. “Very well. I can still enjoy a nice tight Egyptian pussy, even if a bit spoiled. And I think it will be all the more fun with the Bear of the North observing and enjoying the sight of his little bitch being fucked by a real Roman.”
He gulped down the last of his wine and tossed the cup aside. It clattered to the floor, rolling across the polished stone slowly. The Senator’s hand moved down again, across Kiya’s stomach, until it reached the apex between her legs. Erden couldn’t help the growl building in his throat again, and when the Senator pulled up the hem of her dress and slipped his hand underneath, that was all Erden could take.
“Do not fear when the time comes,” Erden said, that low, raspy voice of his dropping several degrees below freezing.
The Senator’s eyes went wide with surprise and he stopped, looking at the werebear in confusion. Erden bared his teeth in a snarl and let the bear take him completely. The sound of the music in the other room drowned out the way the guards screamed as he whipped around and ripped them to shreds with his claws, leaving nothing but bloody corpses leaning against the door. He turned around to face the Senator, finding him dragging Kiya back toward the bed and the other exit in a hurried stumble.
“Get back or I will break her neck!” he screamed, so loud that his voice broke.
Erden growled, stalking forward. He left bloody pawprints in his wake. Kiya was trying to slow down the Senator by struggling against him, but he had his hands wrapped around her throat tightly. Erden was so large he seemed to fill the room, and as the hairs on his back bristled, he seemed even larger than before. If he’d been terrifying on the sands, he was damn horrifying now.
His eyes were black, the softness and humanity drained from them. All that counted was to get Kiya away from him. Now. The Senator screamed again and Erden heard the door being rattled behind him. The bodies of the guards were blocking the entrance, but that just gave him a couple of extra seconds. The bear looked at Kiya and she nodded, her face red with exertion. At the very moment he jumped, she slammed her elbow into the Senator’s abdomen and twisted away from him with all her meager force. It just put a couple of inches between her and the Senator, but it was enough for the fearsome bear.
Erden tackled the Senator, who screamed like hell. Erden cut off the screams by closing his jaws around his head and crunching down, just like he had on the arena on the day that maggot of a man had laid his eyes on Kiya. He wanted to rip the man to shreds. He wanted to peel his hands off of his body for daring to touch Kiya. He wanted to take all his anger out, but he couldn’t. His death would have to be enough.
Guards broke through the door and he knew they had to run. Erden roared, facing the guards. He plowed forward, going straight through them like a knife through butter. He slammed into the main banquet hall, where the esteemed guests were already getting up and staring at the commotion in horror. Erden bared his teeth and snapped at one of the guards who had stumbled after him, ripping his arm clean off.
That sight was enough to drive the guests into a frenzy. They started jostling against one another, trying to get as far away from the crazed bear as they could. Erden attacked anyone who dared come at him, and not many did. He knew it was a desperate act, but it was all he had. But just as the guards started to form a line against him, salvation came. The gladiators, who had stood in the middle of the room, forgotten, split away from one another and joined in the fight.
Some grabbed swords from wounded guards, or simply broke the necks of the confused and disheveled men. The shifters shifted and it was only a second later that the scene of the lavish party turned into a slaughterhouse. The slaves who had been repressed for so long and made to indulge the whims of the nobility took their vengeance, slashing through fat, rich men like it was all they were ever built for. Women screamed and cried, but none of them were harmed.
Erden’s eyes met the golden yellows of Davida across the room, just as Davida was pouncing on a guard whose back was turned to him. For a moment, Erden thought the large wolf would make the bear his next target, but nothing but understanding shone in those golden pools of his. Davida growled, ripping into the guard, before going for his next victim. The guards were no match against the gladiators, who were finally given a chance to retaliate against the years of mistreatment. Some had spent their whole lives in the ludus. Erden figured most of them wouldn’t even mind if they were cut down in a fight for their freedom, as long as they could exact their vengeance.
Erden broke through the guards, now beginning to scatter, and his dark eyes looked for one particular man. Julius Augustinus. He spotted the lanista trying to flee through a side-exit. Checking that Kiya was safe behind the backs of some of his brother warriors, Erden pursued him. It took no more than a few quickened steps of sprinting until he caught up with the damnable man, and he backed him into a corner.
Erden roared, his maw inches from the lanista’s soft belly.
“You cannot do this!” Julius Augustinus hissed, his face a mask of righteous indignation. “You are a slave! You must submit to me!” he yelled, his eyes ablaze with anger.
Erden enjoyed the way his expression fell and slouched as Erden’s claws ripped into his stomach, spilling his intestines.
“May the Gods strike you down,” the lanista whispered, staring down at himself as he slouched to his knees and then stayed there, by the wall, bleeding out onto his polished stone floors.
It was like a weight had lifted from Erden’s back. He turned around and stalked back toward the main hall, where the screams had lessened into occasional moans and whimpers. The gladiators had rounded the women into one corner and kept them there, not touching nor harming them. Kiya stood separately at the entrance into the room which Aurelius Clavius had taken her to, shuddering. Her face was pale. Erden’s fury lifted from him completely and he let the man take the place of the bear, with each step that he took toward his beloved changing him from the beast to the man that Kiya knew best.
When he reached her, the shift was complete and only the soul of the bear remained deep within him. He pulled her against his chest and she collapsed into his arms, sobbing.
“You’re safe now,” he told her, pressing his lips against her scented hair.
He breathed her in and thanked the Gods for being able to do so. It had seemed so clear that she would be taken from him forever and all that they would share were stolen moments, unknown to anyone but themselves. She shook with tears and Erden quieted her, rocking her gently. The gladiators stood back, giving Erden and Kiya a moment, as some of them walked through the bloodied bodies of the nobles and guards. There were at least five dead Senators in the room, not to mention the local gentry. One thing was certain – the gladiators would have plenty of men wishing them death as soon as word got out.
“Erden, what now?” Davida asked, being the first to dare interrupt his moment with his mate.
Erden wished he could stay in that bubble with her for a moment longer, but that could not happen. If he did not act now, he might be leading all of them to death once more.
“I did not mean you to join me. I did not wish that you take this burden upon yourselves,” Erden spoke, his deep voice rumbling over the room like thunder.
“Burden? Freedom is no burden,” one of the men called, joined by agreeing voices.
Erden smiled slightly at that. So be it. If they wished to choose a path harder than that which was allowed to them before, so be it. He could not deny any man their well-earned fate.
“First, gather the valuables and
the weapons. Move through the house, killing any guards you find, and any who may have escaped this slaughter. Leave the women be; simply make sure they cannot go and take word to the town. Even Aelia Fausta. She must live.”
Erden paused for a moment, casting his gaze across the men—his men now—before continuing. “Free the other gladiators. Give them a choice. Come with us, or stay locked in the dormitories. Then, gather food. We will take horses and ride north.”
“To where?” Davida asked.
Erden looked at Kiya, who was wiping her tears away and holding onto him.
“To freedom,” he said with a smile.
EPILOGUE
Kiya
Kiya still couldn’t get used to the cold. She watched with abject horror as some of the women around her wore nothing but their day gowns and leather boots while carrying out the daily chores. She herself was dressed in as many furs as she could fit on her body and Erden assured her things would only get worse. She couldn’t imagine how that could be possible.
Kiya giggled to herself, shaking her head. Cold was a small price to pay for what they had accomplished. It had taken months to reach these lands and they had made many sacrifices. Men had died fighting the squads the Empire sent to stop them. News traveled fast that a group of rogue gladiators had slain their masters and escaped, taking with them gold and bounty meant only for Romans, not for common slaves.
Suffice to say, the Empire had been completely outraged. This could not happen! Beasts and slaves were little more than livestock, yet they chose to act against the hands that fed them? Many bands of men had been sent to take care of the gladiators, but one after the other, they seemed to underestimate the hunger a man had for forging his own fate.
Though they had taken losses, most of them had made it to the northlands. Some had departed from there, on the search for their kin homes, or simply for something different, but just as many had stayed. Erden’s people greeted them all with open arms.
So far, luckily, Kiya only really missed the sun. Though it shined here as well, it was never quite as bright as it had been in her family home, or even in Macavia. Here, it seemed to simply observe the passing of time, without controlling it like it did in the south. Yes, the day began and ended with the sun, but only because there was so little of it. Shaking her head, Kiya grabbed the basket of laundry that she had been scrubbing by the river, and walked back toward their modest little home.
