“Nothing,” I say, strangely calm, and she jerks around to look at me. “I’m not going to do anything. My sister made her wishes clear.”
“No,” Sadi snaps, and I do something I never have—I shove through her mental walls, screaming, -Let it go.-
She flinches, and I turn to the Ja. “Will she fight soon?”
Henri shrugs. “Two days from now.”
I nod and take Sadi’s arm. “Come on.”
Tin and Brando follow us as I do the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I walk away and leave my sister behind.
Chapter 31
Juhan’tr
“I don’t understand,” Sadi says. Again.
I twist to stare at her. “I need to talk to Chosi. Without her owner listening.”
“Then do it. There is no reason for me to go to an arena display.”
“I can’t,” I growl. I’ve been trying to reach my twin since that ridiculous lunch, but Chosi has her mental walls shoved so high I can’t touch her without forcing myself on her mind, and I’m not willing to do that. “Can you do this for me? Just once?” I demand, and Sadi softens.
“Fine. We’ll go.”
“No. Absolutely not,” Brando says. “It’s not safe.”
“It’s no more dangerous than Renlarte,” she points out. I wonder if she’s told him about the attack, but his mind stays light and I assume she hasn’t.
“Go with us. I don’t care. But I won’t be responsible for anyone’s safety but Sadi’s.”
She looks at me sharply, and I feel the questions rolling off her. I ignore them and give her a cocky grin. “Get dressed, Sadi. We have somewhere to be.”
Brando watches me as I adjust my black boots, and I finally straighten, staring at him. “What?”
-If anything happens to her, Eleyi.-
-Save your threats,- I cut him off. –I’m more than capable of protecting the lady.-
I stride past him, and hope that I’m right.
Chosi’le
“You realize how important today is, don’t you?”
“Yes, Prator. You’ve drilled it into my head.”
He gives me a sharp look and I smile. He can’t touch me—not until this is over and the Senator has been impressed. I want to push him, but I let it go and ask, “I heard the Ja was buying more draken.”
Prator looks at me, and I arch an eyebrow. It’s a blatant dig for information, and I think he’ll refuse for a moment. Then he shrugs. “He’s impressed with your success. It’s time to add to the stable, see our profits increase.”
I nod and a mind sweeps through the arena, searching. I feel the moment he finds me, feel the determination filling him. I glare up at Prator. “Why didn’t you tell me Juhan was still here?”
Prator shrugged. “Because you are just a slave. Maybe if you warmed my bed, I’d feel differently.”
I give him a withering glare, but my focus is on my brother. “He’s coming down here,” I say, panicked.
Prator frowns, but Meinia shifts. -It is your brother. He won’t hurt you.-
-He wants to take me from you. To take me home.-
The draken is silent for a heartbeat, and then, -Staying for us is not something any of us would ask of you, Chosi’le.-
I shiver. That name—it belongs to a girl who was free and impulsive and had a brother who thought about her before anything else. A girl who is gone. I’ve fought it for so long, but the dirty truth is that I like the arena. I enjoy dancing on the sands, chasing the high of the crowds. I love my draken, and the quiet of their caves. I even like my small rooms in the back of the jakta.
And I can’t forget the image of my brother protecting his consort—his owner—on a planet of whores while I mourned the death of a man killed for loving me.
Juhan steps around the corner into my sight, and I wonder why he wears black. Do we both have blood on our hands, now?
He stops abruptly, eyeing the draken at my back, Prator at my side, and then focuses on me. For a split-second, staring at my brother, it is like being home again.
Sadiene Renult steps up beside him, her hand tucked into the crook of his elbow, deftly maneuvering around his wings—a position she is comfortable in. Disgust and anger flare through me, and I don’t bother to keep it contained. I let it slam into Juhan, and enjoy watching him falter. He glances down at Sadi and then back to me.
“Go to our box,” he says, stepping away from her, and I laugh.
“You have a box?” I ask, my voice dripping disbelief. “Stars, you really have changed.”
He flinches, but doesn’t dispute it. “I’m still your brother, Chosi.”
“My brother would have come for me,” I spit, furious. “Not spent six months fucking a Senator’s daughter and becoming this.”
-It’s a lie. A lie I told to get to you. Sadi means nothing to me.-
“No, see, brother, I know better. I’m your twin, your other half, and I can see what you won’t admit to yourself—you love her.”
The little bitch makes a small noise of surprise and Juhan’s face closes off. I smile, and turn away.
“Go find your seats, brother. The match will start soon.”
-You don’t want this.- His voice is desperate in my mind and I shrug. Prator is watching me, openly curious, and I take a deep breath.
“You aren’t the only one who has changed, Juhan. You kept your vow—you came for me. Go home. I don’t need rescuing.”
Juhan’tr
Sadi drags me away, and the last I see of Chosi is her wings folded at her back as she strokes the nose of the draken. He eyes me with sympathetic understanding that I can’t stomach.
Somehow, Sadi gets us to our box. I keep hearing my sister’s voice, melodic and full of scorn as she tells me to go home.
“What the hell did he do to her?” I ask, numbly.
Sadi crouches in front of me. “We have to stay focused. If she won’t come with us, what do we do?”
“He’s brainwashed her, Sadi.”
-It doesn’t change that she wants to stay.-
The match below is wrapping up, and I want to scream at Sadi. “I should have been here months ago.”
“She wasn’t for sale months ago either.” The man from earlier who listened to our conversation in the draken pit stands in the doorway of our box.
“Excuse me, but who the fuck are you?” I demand.
-The Ja’s brother,- Sadi whispers in my mind.
“Prator Argot. I am Henri’s second in the jakta, and have been overseeing Brielle’s training.”
“How much is it going to take to purchase her?”
“My Ja already told you—she isn’t for sale. And she doesn’t want to go.” He pauses. “I’ve never seen an Eleyi take the arena as naturally as your sister.”
He nods at the arena and I look out.
Chosi is standing on the sands, in a sheer white dress. Her posture is cocky, lazily indifferent. The crowd is quiet, breathlessly waiting. A gate opens, and I see the draken chained there. She twists to look at him and a pack of five premtha swarm the arena. The draken screams, and Chosi jerks around, a whip slithering out of nowhere. The crowd shrieks and the cats fall back, hissing. Faster than I can follow, she whips out a dagger and throws it.
Prator laughs. “She’s still learning the best tricks to play to the crowd—it’s why she’s given a limit of weapons. Drags the match out.”
I stare at her, at the draken fighting its chain to reach her. “I’m taking my sister from this,” I whisper.
Prator shrugs, “What can one Eleyi do against all of this?”
He watches me for a moment, before turning back to the spectacle in the arena. I smile, a feeling of blissful release sweeping through me. Finally, finally, I loose my psyche, reach for the minds in the arena. There are draken—vast, wild minds that stir when I touch them, psyches as powerful as my own. There is a sense of recognition and kinship in the big black draken in the arena with Chosi.
-She speaks of you, Eleyi,- h
e says, his mind like thunder around mine. I shift, exerting my own will, and he falters. The crowds scream as he stills in his chains, briefly. Sorrow wells in his voice, and hope. –You will take her from us.-
–I’ll try. I need her,- I say.
An image flashes in his mind—black diamonds, and the necklace Chosi wears. –It’s a bomb.-
Rage crystalizes in me, icy cold, washing away the hesitance and doubt. I brush past the draken, find the gladiators. They will be pathetically easy to manipulate, so used to following orders. I wrap my mind around theirs, lightly, and skim out, avoiding Chosi—she doesn’t need to know what I am doing. There are other beasts, alien and primitive and fierce. The premthas are snarling, and I focus on them—on what it will take to keep them from attacking Chosi. Their minds are simple, fueled by hunger and the hunt. There is only one other thing I need, and I throw my mind out, searching until I find heat. I feel the flames of the candles, the heat of fires and the draken.
There is no coming back from this.
There is no going back at all. I’ve changed too much—my people will never accept me now. And I don’t care. I look over at Prator, watching my sister fighting for her life, and I almost choke on the lust coming off him. I want to kill him. Want to break his neck and throw him to the premthas fighting to get to Chosi.
But I need him alive. I force the anger down and give him a cold smile.
“You see me, and you see an Eleyi—a psychic pacifist who won’t fight you. Maybe the other Eleyi you own have encouraged that thought. But you need to remember something, Argot.” I murmur, ignoring my guilt, my hesitation, everything but my anger. I tighten my psyche, where it wraps around the draken and the fire, the premethas and gladiators. I smile coldly at Argot.
“I’m not your slave. And I am not a pacifist.”
I loose my psychic grip and fire explodes through the areana and the stands, through the draken pens, and the chains that holds the big black draken away from my sister, catching in everything, and I give it a nudge, laughing, swaying under the power rushing through me as I push it where I want it to go. With a light touch, I wrap around the glittering black diamonds, the one on Chosi’s neck. There’s a muffled scream as the neuropulse denonates, light flashing before it’s smothered, harmless, under my mental air bubble. Prator stumbles back as the table between us catches fire with a searing blast of heat. Distantly, I can hear the screams of the spectators, hear the gladiators flooding the arena sands. Smoke stings my eyes, and I feel Sadi, coughing, next to me. I nudge the fire and it licks away from us, leaving me standing with Sadi at my side, in a circle devoid of fire and smoke.
“What did you do?” Prator shouts.
A pang goes through me at the question, the fear in his voice. I ignore it and him, and refocus on the arena. Two draken are in the arena now, the big black hunched protectively near Chosi as gladiators flood the sands. The other draken, a small gray, snakes its head down, hissing at the gladiators. I tug a little on the psychic leash, grinning when the glads freeze, standing too still, weapons raised but not attacking. The black draken twists, looking at me and I yank hard on its mind. Snarling, he snaps down, biting one of the gladiators in half. Behind me, Argot gags, heaving. The scent of vomit fills the air, twisting my already churning stomach. I want to stop—want to back down. No matter what I tell Sadi and the bastard who owns Chosi, this isn’t me. I want to go home.
I can’t.
Stiffening my spine, I tighten my grip on the draken, twisting the link viciously, and it pauses, swiveling to look at us again, admiration and amusement in his giant eyes. The gladiators attack in unison and the smaller draken screams, releasing a gout of fire that engulfs the streaming awning over the arena seating. The black shrieks, drawing attention as the spectators scramble from their seats, racing for the hover pods. Thousands of people, spilling toward the exits as fire explodes in the sands, catching on the linen awnings and setting the whole damn thing ablaze. The little gray screams, lauches himself into the air. He soars up, up, screeching and raining fire. The black draken is still on the sands, and I reach out for his mind. –The shield is down. You’re free.-
His mind spreads, and I can feel her—the one mind I’ve blocked out. Chosi is furious, terrified, confused. The fires are darting around her, the glads and draken ignoring her as the premthas screech behind a wave of fire. The draken’s mind surrounds her. –I won’t leave the little Le.-
-She’s leaving you,- I snap, and Chosi sucks in a breath. All the other emotions in her vanish—the only thing I can feel is disgust. Then her mental walls shove up—a deliberate move to shut me out. Stung, I fall back.
“What are they doing?” Prator asks, shrilly.
I look at him, reeling from my sister’s actions, loving the fear in his voice. “They’re doing exactly what I tell them,” I answer and he pauses before swinging around to look at me. “This is how a single Eleyi—slave or not—will destroy you. I’ll burn the arena to the ground and everyone in it. Your draken, your beasts, your gladiators—you’ll lose them all—and thousands will die in the stands. Who will come to your spectacle, knowing they will die? Who will allow you to fight your gladiators, when they learn that doing so will make them lose everything?” I demand, my fury finally breaking free.
His eyes narrow and he glances at Chosi’le, who stands defiantly in a fire-free sphere, the black draken wrapped around her. She looks tragic and fierce—she breaks my heart. “You would do that for her?” he asks, clearly surprised.
I laugh, hysterically. Twist my mind around the gladiators, so easily manipulated. We watch them attack each other, mindlessly hacking away until only one is standing, bleeding from so many cuts it’s hard to find a place on his body that is not bleeding. He looks around, slowly, his eyes wide and disbelieving. My stomach turns, guilt rushing through me, stronger than the intoxicating tide of power. I have to finish it. I nudge him, so gently. He palms a knife, hesitates, and then pulls it across his own throat. Blood gushes in a frothing fountain and he falls to his knees. The black draken spits another plume of flames and all the gladiators light up, human torches. The gray screeches once more, and spirals away, fleeing. Across the arena, fires rage, people screaming as they fight to get free. The stink of blood and smoke cover the stench of fear. On the sands, the premtha pack has settled, curling around each other like lazy cats.
My sister stands there, her white dress covered in soot and blood, framed by her draken.
“There is nothing I won’t do for her,” I say softly, exhaustion tugging at me. Guilt and anger war in me, and for a heartbeat, I almost forget that I need Prator alive. Killing him would be so easy. I look back at the arena, at Chosi. She’s fingering the necklace that held her charm, her eyes on my box. Without thinking, I reach for her. I shudder at the touch of her mind, the fury and fear and disgust sweeping through me.
She didn’t want this. She doesn’t want me. Bile burns in my throat, and I look away. I would do anything, but what can I do when she doesn’t want it? I shudder, revulsion sweeping through me. All around me is panic and fear and it’s my fault—all of it is because of me. My control falters, and I drop them: the cats, the beasts, the fire. The chaos stutters briefly, but I’m already turning away. Desperate to escape. Chosi’s voice, harsh and accusing, rings in my head, mixing with my own thoughts, until for a moment, there is no separating the two. There is only loathing and fear and the unrelenting question.
What have I done?
Chapter 32
Juhan’tr
The streets are in chaos behind us when we board the Leen. Far above us and fading into the distance, the draken are flying for the mountains. Sadi wants to talk—wants to push me for an explanation—but I ignore her as I make a beeline for my room, and strip out of my dirty clothes.
I turn on the shower, desperate to rinse away the stink of smoke and death. I told Argot I would do anything to get Chosi’le back and I meant it. But as the enormity of what I’ve done, who I’ve killed
, crashes over me, I spin and retch, throwing up in the toilet. I heave until the muscles in my belly ache, until there is nothing left to throw up, until I collapse, crying, on the floor. Tears for the dead and my sister and myself. Tears for betraying the biggest secret my people have ever had. Sadi crouches next to me, and I lean into her, curling around her as she strokes my hair and allows me to grieve. It occurs to me, briefly, to wonder who is doing damage control. But the worry is easily washed away by grief and, eventually, with Sadi humming in my ear, even grief gives way to sleep.
I wake to arguing. Sadi’s fingers are sifting softly through my hair, at odds with the fierceness in her psyche and voice. “I don’t give a fuck what he’s done; the government isn’t touching him. They can’t prove a damn thing.”
“Sadi, he admitted it to Prator,” Tin says, desperately.
She swears, and her voice drops. “Don’t you dare repeat that, Tinex. Don’t you ever repeat that, not even to yourself, not even alone. You will tell them exactly what we agreed: we met for lunch to look into patronage. We attended a match. The draken escaped. We know nothing.”
There is a moment of silence, and I can feel her anger and fear battering me. “Sadi, I know you want to protect him. But what if he does it again? You saw—” He cuts off, and sighs. “Of course I’ll back him. Just be careful. He’s dangerous.”
“He’s used his strength to protect me, Tin.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t turn on you.”
It hurts something deep inside me, something very Eleyi, hearing that. But a larger part is pleased to be seen as such a threat that Tin would worry about Sadi’s safety with me. I open my eyes, staring at him, and the bodyguard startles.
Gentle Chains (The Eleyi Saga Book 1) Page 27
