A ripple of laughter went through the crowd of cursii, until finally one of them bellowed back, “Get the champion a drink!”
Then more laughter, and slowly the rumble of noisy cursii began to reassert itself. Vega sighed, wondering how long he could hold himself up in the entryway when he saw a familiar pair of half-broken antlers working its way through the cluster of people towards him. Bathari emerged, swinging around one of the long tables, his face contorted by worry as he got close.
“You’re barely on your feet,” he muttered.
“But I am on my feet,” Vega muttered back. He glanced over his shoulder to Nyssa, who lingered, eavesdropping. “Girl, you can go.”
Nyssa nodded and went scurrying back down the corridor towards the stairs to the servants quarter. Vega would get himself back to his room later, somehow.
Another Errai cursu approached holding a cup out to Vega, eyeballing him dubiously. “Wine for the champion.”
Vega took the cup and lifted it. “To your health.” Then gulped down squarely half of its contents. The cursu moved off and Bathari came closer.
“You need to sit down. You probably need to lie down. Fuck’s sake, Vega.”
“They tried to murder me,” Vega growled. “I won’t have the entire barracks thinking I’m weak and easy to kill. They need to see me standing.”
“Well, they’ve seen it. Now go back upstairs. You should call that slave back to help you.”
“I don’t want to be helped.”
“You’re being a fool.”
Vega snorted, but he didn’t think Bathari was exactly wrong. “I’ll finish my wine and then go. All right? You’ll help me to the stairs.”
Bathari sighed, but nodded. “Fine. At least sit? Here.” He indicated an empty end at one of the tables.
Vega could feel the pain in his side turning into a throbbing ache, which had him nodding to Bathari and reaching for the table’s edge.
A flash of movement caught his eye, though, and he stopped, turning his head to watch the donara as she got up out of her chair and climbed down off the dais in her sheer dress, storming through the baffled cursii who scooted back and out of her way. They were afraid to touch her without permission, so they parted, some stumbling back with surprise, as she came marching across the dining hall and right towards him.
He wobbled, leaning back a little, and Bathari caught his elbow to keep him upright.
Alaina jabbed a finger right into his face. “What are you doing out of bed?”
Vega stared down at her. “Having a drink.”
She reached in and took the cup right out of his hand, and then poured it straight onto the floor. Vega watched the wine splash across the tiles of the floor and then lifted his eyes to look at the donara again, struck by her boldness.
“You finished your drink,” she said curtly. Then she reached over and pushed Bathari’s hand away, taking Vega by the elbow herself, and turned him towards the doorway. “Come on. Back to bed.”
Vega started to argue with her, but then thought better of it. He looked over his shoulder at the gathered cursii, and most of them were sneaking glances in his direction. It was better they thought that he’d been given the donara, he figured. Or that the donara wanted to be given to him. In either case, his status as champion was reaffirmed, and he was being rewarded for his wounds instead of babied and coddled.
He met Bathari’s eyes as the donara pulled him around the corner and into the corridor.
The Jiayi flashed him a tentative grin, and shrugged.
Once they were in the corridor, Vega took the risky liberty of settling his arm across the donara’s shoulders, leaning a little on her once they got to the stairs. She didn’t seem to mind, and slipped an arm around his waist to help him as they climbed.
“You shouldn’t have left your chair,” he murmured eventually.
“Well, you shouldn’t have left your bed.”
“You don’t understand our ways, donara.”
“Alaina.”
“Alaina.” He bit down on a sigh. “You don’t know what it could do to me to have them all think me weak.”
“You are weak.”
“That isn’t the point. My own brothers tried to kill me today. The rest of them can’t think that I’ll be taken down so easily.”
She frowned. “Aren’t you all on the same damn side?”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“Well, explain it to me, don’t just sulk.”
Vega clenched his teeth, wanting to snap at her, but he knew that wouldn’t get him anywhere. Nor would it bring her any closer to understanding the nature of the giant machine she’d found herself in. This wasn’t her world. This wasn’t anything like her primitive little world, and as the true alien among them, it all must have been quite baffling for her.
Nyssa waited at the gate at the top of the stairs.
Vega noticed she looked very unhappy when she saw the donara helping him. But she keyed them through the locked gate and then disappeared deeper into the servants quarters as Alaina helped him down the hall towards his room.
“We are all on our own sides,” he explained finally. “Each of us fights for something different, something personal. Glory, freedom, the peace of our homeworlds. Cutting me down makes a place for the next cursu to rise in the lists. It’s unusual to have a champion like myself attacked by his brothers, but not unheard of. Alliances and enemies are made in the barracks just as they are made in the Arena itself. If my brothers think me weak, they’ll try again.”
“But the ones who attacked you are in the cells or whatever.”
“Yes, but their success could inspire others. I needed them to see that I was not defeated. I must maintain my position or it will take me a long time to get back to where I was.” He looked down at her, at her profile as they walked. “I’m only three games from earning my freedom. I need it.”
She nodded. “I can understand that part well enough. But you were severely hurt. If you actually want to be able to participate in the games again, you have to rest. You have to heal. Your impatience is going to get you killed.”
Vega arched his eyebrows, laughing softly. “It’s impressive that you’ve embraced this place.” He couldn’t help but look her up and down. Noting the shape of the clostrata beneath the gauzy fall of her dress. “And your role here.”
“I told you,” she said, eyes straight ahead. “I’m just trying to survive. Same as anyone.”
“But you’re not just anyone.”
Then she did look up at him. He watched that pink color climb into her cheeks. “What does that mean?”
Vega looked down at the floor as they walked. His steps felt slow and heavy. “You’re acting the part of the slave, but you aren’t one. I do the same. We have to wait for our moments if we’re going to get out of this place alive.”
He didn’t know why he kept saying 'we.'
What did he mean, 'we?'
They weren’t a 'we.' She was herself and he was himself, and he wasn’t sure why he felt so attached to this woman suddenly, but he did. She’d saved his life, maybe it was that. She was beautiful and strong, and he felt some kinship with her, knowing they were both so quietly determined not to let the Arena trap them. He knew that he should not have had room in his heart for her, and it made him feel guilty as well. He needed his focus to be on the sands, on the games. But he couldn’t even close his eyes anymore without seeing her face. Her human, fragile, alien face. This was perilous. And yet, when they got to the door to his little room, he took his arm from her shoulders and grabbed her hand instead, to pull her with him inside.
Chapter Twenty
When Vega took her hand, Alaina went with him into the little room, and closed the door behind them. Her heart started thundering in her chest. She didn’t know what was going to happen in that little room, but she knew what had happened the last time they were alone together.
He le
t go of her hand and turned to face her even as she closed the door, backing her up against it until his body brushed hers. He placed a hand against the wall beside her, and she looked up into his face. When their eyes met, a frisson of anticipation lit like lightning all the way down her spine.
“I said I wouldn’t touch you again unless you wanted me to,” he said softly, violet eyes flashing with desire. “But I truly hope you’ll want me to, Alaina.”
“We can’t.” She shook her head a little, but she did want him to. She knew it was a terrible risk, knew that she needed to be focused on anything else but him. “I can’t. You’re injured, you’re medicated, you’re upset and you’re not thinking straight. And the domina will kill us if you touch me without permission. You know that.”
“I came downstairs because I needed my brothers to see me strong, but I also wanted to see you,” Vega admitted.
“Why?”
He smiled a little. “Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” The smile faded. “And I need to get rid of that distraction, but I can’t. I don’t know how. Nothing works. I’ll just end up lying in this bed thinking of you.”
No man had ever spoken to Alaina like that before. Maybe it was just the human men she’d been with. Men who wanted to know she was more into them than they were into her. Men who wanted to fuck her but were coy about saying so. Men who wanted to love her but were intimidated by her. Vega was so sure of himself, so frank with his desires and direct in his admiration. It made her stomach flutter excitedly, and she’d have been lying if she said the danger of it wasn’t at least a little titillating as well.
After another long moment of gazing up into his violet eyes, she lifted a hand and settled her fingertips lightly on a swirl of black scales winding across his chest. Again she was surprised at how smooth and soft they felt. Not exactly like skin, but not as hard as the metal they seemed to be. Something between a snake’s skin and a crocodile’s.
He stood still beneath her touch, and she flattened her palm against his chest, just feeling his heartbeat and his breath move in his lungs as they looked into each other’s eyes. Apparently she’d had to come across whole galaxies to find the man of her dreams, and still she had no idea what she was doing, only that her body called to his, and her heart sang for his.
“They are called qamalai,” he told her softly. “My scales.”
“They’re beautiful.”
A smile sharpened onto his lips again. “You’re beautiful.”
He eased her back against the door and bent his head until his nose brushed hers. A breath caught in her throat, sticking there as she felt his breath against her lips, his heart beneath her palm, and the press of his desire against her thigh, through the thin fabric of her dress. An ache blossomed between her legs in answer, and when he finally kissed her it wasn’t like the first time. It was slow and sweet, a passion smoldering towards conflagration.
As they kissed, his hand skimmed up her side, cupping her breast through her gown and squeezing gently, and a moan escaped her. Her body arched into his, their hips met, and she felt the clostrata between them, barring pleasure. The moan turned into a frustrated groan and he leaned back, looking down between them in dismay.
“Lennai knows I desire you,” he muttered, frowning. “That’s why she’s locked you up like this.”
“She can’t know.” Alaina’s heart flipped with sudden panic. “I told her I didn’t want you. You’re her favorite. She can’t know or she’ll kill me. This was because they were putting me in the barracks during the revelry.”
Vega seemed to wilt back a little, nodding. “The domina is not a stupid woman, whatever else she may be. With no champion named after the games, many would’ve taken liberties without a deterrent like this. Or one like me.” He smirked faintly.
Alaina felt the fire in her veins start to cool. The clostrata had done its job, to her great disappointment. She let her hands fall away from Vega and he took a step back, running a hand through his hair, and then took more steps back until he could sink to a seat on the edge of his little bed. She stayed with her back to the door, frustrated and confused by everything she felt.
“I don’t know what to do now,” she confessed softly. “But I know that you need to rest if you’re going to heal. Pride and strength aside, you’re going to get yourself killed if you don’t rest. Please, Vega.”
He nodded, broad shoulders hunching a little. “I will. And you go back down to the barracks and get back in your chair before someone tells Gurun or Lennai you left. With me.”
She frowned. “A roomful of crusii saw me leave with you. They’re going to find out.”
He shook his head. “But it won’t matter if you go back quickly enough. You’re in the clostrata and they know you’re a healer. Blame my foolishness.”
Alaina didn’t want to leave him. It felt so strange. She’d wanted to avoid him, to stay away from him, so recently. But now she didn’t want to leave him. She wanted to crawl into that little bed with him and have him hold her in his arms even if they couldn’t make love. She wanted to linger, to be near him, to learn more about him. But he was right. A punishment from Lennai for this would not be something as minor as armored underwear and she knew it. So with a reluctant nod, she turned and opened the door, slipping out into the hallway without looking back at him as she did so.
And then she came up short.
Because there was Lennai, waiting, arms folded, with Nyssa standing behind her.
Nyssa. Again. Alaina swallowed a curse for that stupid girl’s yellow-scaled face. Every time she turned around, the cleaning slave was getting her into more trouble.
“I didn’t believe her at first,” Lennai said, scowling at Alaina now. “I thought, the donara cannot possibly be so stupid as to leave her place during revelry, to go with my wounded champion to his healing room.”
“Domina,” Alaina tried, shaking her head. “I was just bringing him back to make sure he hadn’t hurt himself coming downstairs.”
“I could have done that,” Nyssa said softly. “But they sent me away, domina.”
“You went away,” Alaina snapped. “You liar!”
Nyssa arched her eyebrows. “The cursu sent me away because he favors you, donara.”
“No,” Alaina insisted. “No, he doesn’t.”
Alaina heard the door creak wider at her back and there was Vega in the doorway, leaning against its metal frame, expression grave. “It’s my fault, domina.”
“I think you’re both at fault,” Lennai said flatly. “And I am at fault for not putting a stop to this nonsense with a firmer hand at the start.”
“There’s nothing to put a stop to,” Alaina said.
Lennai’s eyes flashed with anger when she looked at her, and Alaina followed her instincts and just sank down to her knees before the domina.
“Do you think me a complete idiot?” Lennai hissed.
Alaina didn’t say anything, just bowed her head and hoped the display of submission would earn her some mercy.
Lennai made a frustrated little noise. “I have been so generous to both you,” she said, voice clipped with anger. “I have taken such good care of you. And Vega, I have given you every opportunity, I have favored you, I have given you all the luxury I could. And still you betray me.”
“It wasn’t my intention to betray you, domina,” Vega murmured. “I went downstairs to put on a show of strength for my brothers. The donara is a healer and wanted to see me safely back to my bed.”
“To join you in it,” Lennai snapped.
“No,” he said softly. “No, she is not for me and I know that, domina. I swear.”
“You both are disappointments,” Lenna said, furious. “And I wonder if I didn’t waste money on purchasing you.”
Alaina heard the heavy footfall of house guard down the hallway, and sure enough a half dozen red and gold helmets marched into the small corridor outside Vega’s room. Alaina felt her heart d
rop right into her stomach and shrivel there. She wasn’t getting out of this mistake unscathed.
“Domina,” Vega said, his voice soft and plaintive. “Please don’t punish the donara for my mistakes…”
But Lennai’s voice, by comparison, was steel. “I think that is exactly what I shall do,” she said simply. “Guards, put the donara in the cells.”
Alaina’s voice dried up in her throat. She wanted to argue, to shout, to fight, but she knew none of that was going to get her anywhere. Because she had no autonomy here, and Lennai’s word was the beginning and the end. Her plans of escape were evaporating all around her, as the guards pulled her to her feet by the arms and she stumbled as they started hauling her down the corridor, away from Vega.
“Let’s see how she does away from all these kind luxuries I’ve given her,” she heard Lennai call, as the guards dragged her around the corner, past the gate that led down to the barracks, further down the corridor than Alaina had ever been before.
The palace changed around her as she tried to keep up with the guards drawing her along, her bare feet slipping as she tried to keep pace. Every time she fell behind, their grips on her arms just tightened and they all but carried her. At the end of that long hallway there was an elevator. The rest of the aesthetic of the servants quarters was somewhat rustic, more earthy despite the metal walls and ceiling, the automatic lights and occasional sliding door. But the gates, she thought, the locks, all helped her forget she was on a space station. The elevator was marked by foreign symbols and Alaina was starkly aware again that she was surrounded by aliens.
The guard backed her into a corner of the elevator and then it started to move, and Alaina felt her insides lift as the elevator car plummeted down. It felt a little like falling, and she wondered if the elevator would shunt them straight down through space. Eventually, though, it did slow to a stop. The car slowed by degrees, eventually coming to a gentle halt, and the doors slid aside. The corridor the guards walked Alaina into looked, finally, like what Alaina had always thought an alien space ship would look like.
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