by S. E. Green
Sera struts through second, cutting me a sly, conquering look with her one eye. I arch my brow and return the cunning glare more because I know she expects it than I feel it.
There’s much celebration on the way home, but all I can do is stare at the faint lights of distant villas and smaller homes and farms. The galleon is not on the docks tonight. I turn away and glance to the left where Camille sits. Her expression remains guarded as she looks at the back of Razo’s shaved head.
Something beyond her catches my eye and I squint into the darkness. Over to the west where the tall wall is located and the trees beyond, I see a light blink. I squeeze my eyes shut, reopen them, and strain for clarity.
Sure enough. Not just one light, but lots. They’re torches. And they’re moving. All over. Back and forth and up and down. Why would there be moving torches? I’ve seen that wall and the woods beyond several times now, but I thought it was a barrier to keep us from escaping off Saligia. Now I’m not so sure.
~47~
I want to nudge Camille and show her the lights, but I don’t dare. I don’t want to draw attention to myself.
How did I miss them? All these times I’ve been in this cart and I’ve never noticed. I want to ask Razo about those moving lights. He was born here. He would probably know. I want to ask Alexior. Sera. Ignatius. Surely, one of them knows something. But none of them are good options. I don’t want anything getting back to Dominus.
What I need is Hedian and Joseph. They exist in the shadows. Dominus likely speaks freely in front of them. They know more then they probably realize. Joseph stands behind Dominus at the desk. Joseph has probably read more than one paper on that desk.
Our cart pulls through the gate into the training ground. Everyone files out and into their different directions.
The twins, correction, Yana and Willem, go with Alexior to get branded. I linger on the training ground enjoying the ocean breeze that seems more prevalent tonight than usual. Perhaps there’s a storm on the way.
I close my eyes and let the saltiness wash over me. I imagine coming face to face with the man who had Lena. What will I say to him? I don’t think I’ll say anything. I’ll just pick up a spear and end his life.
Before Saligia I would’ve never had that thought. Now it’s my nature.
I think of Vasquez next. I don’t want to end his life with a spear. I want to be right in his face. I want him to know his time of reckoning has come. And then Bareket…
I don’t know how much time passes as I stand here, but this weird sense of peace settles over me that I know has everything to do with the upcoming vengeance for my sister.
“Valoria?”
I turn in the darkness to where Alexior stands at the tunnel. “Dominus has sent Hedian and Joseph for you again.”
“Why? I didn’t even fight tonight. Why am I being rewarded?”
“He says he wants to keep his champion happy.”
Maybe this is lingering guilt over Gem. Or maybe he feels he took too long in bringing me my sister’s killer. Perhaps a thank you for paying for Sera’s upkeep, which has now paid off. Or maybe an apology for his wife throwing me out of the office.
Who the hell knows why, but I don’t question it any further as I follow Alexior down the tunnel, through the locked door, past all the weapons, and come to a stop at the room where Hedian and Joseph wait.
Alexior doesn’t open the door and instead turns to me. “I don’t know what it is you do in there with them, but after hearing yours and Hedian’s exchange at the party, I suspect it’s not what Dominus thinks you do.”
I’m pleased he doesn’t think me some sexual deviant, but I still shrug. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Alexior sighs. “You will get both of them disciplined, harshly, if Dominus finds out you are doing anything other than what he thinks.”
“Well, he won’t know unless you tell him. Right?”
A muscle in the right side of his jaw ticks and my eyes go straight to it. I stare at it as it ticks a second time. A third. My vision narrows to just that one hard muscle, and warmth flushes through me. The muscle stops ticking and instead locks into tense attention.
I swallow, and my gaze trails down to his throat to see it constrict, too. The puffy vein in his neck draws my attention next and I watch as it thumps. Thumps. Thumps.
He moves a fraction closer and I draw in his unique Alexior scent. He shifts, and I realize he’s opening the door.
I don’t bring my eyes back to his. I don’t want him to see whatever it is that is going on inside of me right now. I don’t want to face the possibility there is nothing going on inside of him.
He grabs my upper arm and squeezes almost too tightly and then roughly trails his hand down the length of my arm and around to my lower back. So low he’s touching the top of my ass. He turns me and presses me forward into the room.
Finally, I look, glancing over my shoulder, but I only catch the side of his face as he closes the door. I reach back and touch the warmth still lingering on my lower back.
“Valoria?” Joseph tentatively speaks and I blink out of whatever trance Alexior just had me in.
I look to Joseph first, who hesitantly smiles, and then Hedian. My eyes trace over her bowed head, her submissive posture, and my heart breaks.
Something’s wrong. She won’t even look at me.
I cross the room to where she sits and crouch at her feet. I take her hands between both of mine and press as much comfort into them as I can.
I wait. But she doesn’t speak.
“Hedian?” I prompt. “You can talk freely. I won’t say anything.”
Still she says nothing and I glance to Joseph for help.
“The night of the party… after what happened to Gem and the warriors left, one of the new elite took her into the gang room, and this is how she’s been ever since.”
I look between them. “The gang room… What—” The realization smacks me and I am shocked completely mute.
I pull her slumped body into my arms and I hold her tightly. I squeeze my eyes against the images of what she must have endured. I am reminded of my sister and the horrors she went through and my skin burns with the injustice of it all.
A few seconds later, I pull back from Hedian and look to Joseph. “Have you ever been in the gang room?”
He shakes his head, and relief flows through me. Thank God.
Gently I reach up and cup her cheeks in my palms. I lift her face to look at me, but there is nothing there. Her green eyes are tearless and void. She’s given up.
“She tried to kill herself,” Joseph says, nodding to her wrists.
I look down at the wide leather bracelets that I assumed were decoration. I untie one and look beneath to the bandage wrapping her delicate wrist.
“Who found her?” I ask.
“I did,” Joseph tells me. “I didn’t tell anyone, though. I cleaned her up and bandaged her. She hadn’t lost much blood.”
“Good. Don’t tell Dominus.” The bastard would probably discipline her for trying to take her life over a gang room his friends made her go into.
Hedian pulls away from me and curls onto her side, facing the wall, not looking at me or Joseph.
I turn to Joseph. “I can trust you, can’t I?”
~48~
Joseph’s brows come down into a level of seriousness, a level of commitment that tells me everything I need to know. He loves Hedian. He knows what goes on around here is wrong. He just doesn’t know a way out. “Yes, you can trust me.”
“Do you remember life before Saligia?” I ask.
He nods.
“I want to get back to that life. I want all of us to get back to it.”
“I remember being hungry and scared. It’s the same here except I have food and I have a bed.” He shrugs. “There’s no difference really.”
I can certainly see his point. It’s a point others will likely have, too. Lena and I went hungry many days. And I had more nights of be
ing scared than not. So, yeah, I get it. Saligia’s the first time I’ve had this level of worth. Though it’s entirely everything I never wanted.
I move over to sit beside him. “Yes, there is a difference. There’s freedom. You would never have to do anything you didn’t want to do ever again. If I’m with you, if we’re all together, you won’t be scared and abused. We’ll be each other’s family.”
I say the words. I hear them. The delivery is confident. But now I wonder. How will we all make it? None of us have anything to go back to. We’ll leave Saligia and return to our homes and then what?
I’ll tell everyone who will listen about this place, as I’m sure others will. Saligia will be brought down, there’s no doubt in my mind of that fact. But I have no clue who on the outside is involved in all of this. Other than Vasquez, I don’t know real names. Who is Dominus really?
It would be impossible for the authorities to catch and prosecute everyone involved. Unless… there’s some sort of master list.
I take Joseph’s hand and show him nothing but the defiance I was named after. “That leather binder on Dominus’ desk. Can you get it?”
He thinks about that for a second. “I think I can probably get a page or two.”
“Good.”
“He also has this small rectangular thing that I know is a computer but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What do you mean?”
“He moves his finger over the screen. There isn’t a keyboard.”
I smile. “It’s called an iPad. That’s right. You wouldn’t have any clue what that is.”
“I’ve also heard him say he only uses it for bank transactions.”
That would makes sense. All the people involved are kept in a ledger for security and the money moving in and out of this place is done electronically. I’m sure through some off-shore account that no one can trace. But… if he has an iPad, then there’s connectivity somewhere on this island. Not that it would matter. With as tightly as Saligia is run, I’m sure his iPad is the one and only device in this place.
I squeeze Joseph’s hand. “When it comes time, I want you and Hedian to go with me.”
“But how? No one has ever escaped and those who try get banished to The Hunts.”
“The Hunts?”
“It’s a nighttime ‘game’ they play behind the wall. They release slaves and then they’re hunted.” Joseph looks over to Hedian’s back. “I hear it’s worse than The Hole.”
The lights I saw. The Hunts. I take in a breath and blow it out slowly. This place just gets worse and worse.
I give his hand another squeeze. “I know you’re scared. But I also know you’re a survivor. Eventually we will have many people on our side and then it will be time for action. Warriors. House slaves. We will outnumber the elite and the soldiers. We will take this place over. Then we will move on to the next villa and the next. Until we dominate Saligia.”
Hedian turns then and looks at me and Joseph. Gone is the empty look that was in her eyes and in its place gleams retaliation and determination. “You tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it.”
I return her look with one equally unwavering. “Good.”
She sits up. “You need to know something.”
I nod. “Okay.”
Pressing her lips together, she looks away. “We are taught to be silent. To never say a word. But I don’t care anymore.”
Hedian brings her eyes back to mine. “Your sister… Bareket sold your sister to Dominus. She was here the whole time. He kept her in a private chamber where he starved, raped, and repeatedly beat her. He is the reason why she is dead.”
Silence drops over the room. I replay the words Hedian just said. The words sink in. Then something builds inside of me, hot and fiery, and erupts from my mouth in a scream that vibrates through every muscle in my entire body and echoes off the walls of the room.
I lurch off the cushion and sling the bowl of strawberries against the wall. I grab the goblets of wine and hurl them at the door. I rip the bolts of colorful fabric from the ceiling and claw them to shreds. I punch and kick and punch and kick the stone wall, striking hard, until my toes burn, my knuckles redden, and heat races through my shoulders.
I clench my jaw to keep from screaming again. Every limb in my body infuses with rigidity, and I raise my clawed shaking hands and scrape hard across my scalp.
I turn a circle, looking for anything else to beat. I open my mouth to take in a breath and instead several wheeze out.
“Valoria?” Joseph hesitantly says.
Whipping around, I stare at both of them as they warily, cautiously stare back. I don’t move and instead just hold their unblinking gazes. Joseph slides over to sit beside Hedian, ready to protect. My God, do they really think I would hurt them?
Neither say anything, and I concentrate on uncurling my fists to alleviate their fear. Seconds pass, and I hold up my hands to show them I won’t hurt them. That I’m done.
I take a step away and turn to look around the upended room. The sight makes me uneasy. No wonder I scared them. I can’t lose control like this. Ever again. My emotions cannot bleed into my actions. They cannot.
Joseph stands and with sure feet begins quickly moving around the room. “We need to put this back together. Nobody can find it like this.”
I hear his words, but they’re garbled. I watch as Hedian stands and hurriedly begins helping. Neither of them look at me. Several minutes pass but I don’t help. I merely stand and watch and breathe.
When all the work is done and the torn fabric is stuffed inside several pillows to hide it, they both go to leave.
“Thank you,” I croak.
Joseph nods. “You have both of us,” he pledges, “any time you’re ready.”
The door opens, surprising all three of us, and a soldier fills the opening. These walls are made of stone and the room is tucked down beneath the villa. Surely no one heard me.
The soldier steps aside and Dominus enters. I automatically put my hands behind my back to hide my raw knuckles. He looks around the room that is now back in order before settling his gaze on me. I hope he doesn’t notice the fabric is missing.
“Are you done with my slaves?” he asks.
“Yes, Dominus.”
He nods his head to Hedian and Joseph and they both leave. “I trust they pleased you?”
I nod my head.
He looks around the room again before tracking his eyes back to mine. Behind my back I dig my short nails into the skin covering my palms so I don’t fly across the room and dig his eyes out.
I will kill you. And I will make it painful.
~49~
Three days have gone by and every day I request an audience with Dominus. Every day he refuses. It’s like he knows I have an ulterior motive. Like he knows I’m ready to kill him.
Finally, I ask Alexior, “Why won’t Dominus see me?”
“Because you are a slave,” he placidly reminds me. “You forget that. He doesn’t do as you ask. You do as he requests.”
This is just Dominus’ passive aggressive way of reminding me of my station. Okay, that’s fine. I promised myself to rein in my emotions. I will wait. I will be smart. And when it’s time, lethal.
Today we are to go to the arena for a special event but we’re not told what that is. We are handpicked. Only me, Sera, and Ignatius go, accompanied by Alexior.
The four of us stand at the gate looking out over the sand and up into the seats.
I crane my neck to the right where Dominus sits. He is there, of course, with his wife. I see Bareket surrounded by the new elite, including the scratchy-voiced woman who ordered Gem’s arm be severed.
Behind them stand their slaves. For the first time ever Joseph and Hedian are in attendance. Why are they here?
But in the center of them all sits Mr. Vasquez. My eyes narrow in on him. It’s the first time he’s ever attended the arena fights.
The gate across from us opens and out stumble tw
o soldiers who have been stripped of their armor. I study them and remember the one from a villa I visited during my tour right after Zebulon’s death. I don’t recognize the other one.
Vasquez stands and addresses the crowd, “Today’s special event is about reminding everyone of their place in Saligia. It is about reminding everyone of the rules. We have our own laws on this island and you will follow them. This is a decadent society. You don’t just come here and do what you want. That is not how Saligia operates. These two men severely beat several incoming slaves to the point that they are now dead. No one beats a slave unless given a direct order from an elite. Now they will die.”
You don’t just come here and do what you want. Yet it seems to me everyone around here can. Again, the irony. You can do what you want as long as you’re one of the rich and elite. Not even a soldier is safe. As evidence by what is about to go down.
Our gate opens and Alexior says, “All yours Sera.”
She grabs two swords, “Gladly,” and charges out into the arena.
Minutes go by and Sera returns covered in blood. The two men are dragged off the sands.
Through the opposing gate next steps two slaves. Two boys. They don’t look any older than Joseph. I glance up to Dominus’ balcony to see both Joseph and Hedian staring down with huge eyes.
Vasquez addresses the crowd again, “Here we have two house slaves who have been in Saligia for years. Yesterday they tried to take the life of their master. Today they will die for all to see.”
Our gate opens, and none of us move. None of us speak. We all know it is Ignatius’ turn and that he should step forward.
Heads in the crowd begin to turn.
“No,” Ignatius says. “I will not. They are just boys.”
“Dominus will discipline you for this,” Alexior says.
Ignatius firms his scarred jaw. “I don’t care.”
The crowd silently stares toward our gate. But Ignatius doesn’t move. Several seconds go by, and Vasquez finally signals two soldiers. They run onto the sand and brutally slaughter the house boys.
