by Kate Rudolph
A wave of hunger washed over Quinn and she realized that she couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten. Had it been on the ship? She and Kayde certainly hadn’t stopped for food while they were in the market. She sat down at the small table and lifted the cover over her dinner. It didn’t look like anything she recognized, but it smelled good and her stomach clenched, rippling almost painfully at the thought of eating it. She picked up a spoon and before she knew it the food was gone. She couldn’t have described the taste, she’d eaten so fast. It was good. She thought. She really wasn’t sure. She really didn’t care.
Meal completed, her body decided to shut down. She stumbled over to the bed and barely pushed back the covers before falling in and surrendering to sleep.
It took her a little while to realize she was dreaming. All of a sudden she was back on the ship hurtling through space to destinations unknown. The ride wasn’t nearly as smooth as usual and her steps faltered, sending her crashing into one of the walls. She righted herself, leaving two arms out for balance. The hallway was longer than it should’ve been. Whether she was going towards the cockpit or towards the sleeping quarters, she should have gotten there by now. But the gray walls stretched and stretched and stretched as far as she could see, only vaguely flickering lights giving her a sense of distance. A smudge in the distance resolved into Kayde and he ran towards her, his expression almost comically easy-to-read.
Worried.
Worried? Kayde didn’t get worried. He kept himself frighteningly contained. Even if some space dragon were about to bathe them in fire before swallowing them whole, there wouldn’t be a flicker of concern. So what was the problem now?
He was saying something. She could see his lips moving and even heard a garbled noise, like she was underwater and the sound was all distorted. But she couldn’t make sense of the syllables he was trying to push out.
When she tried to ask him to repeat himself, his face scrunched up in confusion, as if he were having the same problem. Quinn tried to speak again, louder this time, but it didn’t help. What was going on? Where were they? This wasn’t the ship. She reached for Kayde and tugged on the lapel of his jacket, relieved to find that she could touch him just fine. She didn’t want to be stuck in this hallway for long. She didn’t know what was coming, and she didn’t like it.
But no matter how far they walked, and after a few minutes ran, they didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. The hallway just went on and on and on, gray walls suffocating them. Quinn stopped running. She stopped walking. It wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t helping. She turned back to Kayde, almost afraid that he would have disappeared or turned into some kind of monster while she wasn’t looking. But he was the same old Kayde, at least the dream version of him, the expressive one. His worry had deepened and he tried to speak again, but it was just like earlier and she couldn’t hear anything.
She let go of his jacket and reached for his hand, but as her fingers brushed his flesh something jolted through her, knocking her out of the dream and waking her up.
Quinn opened her eyes and practically jumped out of the bed. She wasn’t in the hotel anymore. What the fuck was going on?
THE LAST THING HE REMEMBERED before everything went wrong was standing in the lobby of the inn and watching Quinn be escorted to her room. Kayde’s reflexes must have been getting dulled, or the sense of anxiety that had dogged Quinn, and therefore him, all day had put him too on edge to recognize the threat when it came for him. Something bit at his neck, a nuisance nick like some kind of bug, and before he could swat it away, he was falling to the floor, the world going gray around him.
Kayde woke up groggy, his mouth full of cotton, with the nagging sense that he had forgotten something important. The first thing he noticed was the smell. Death, decay, pain, and something like bleach trying to mask it all. It didn’t work at all. He kept his breathing even and his eyes closed, not wanting to give away that he was awake if some enemy or guard were looming over him. But this wasn’t his first time being held captive, nor his second, and Kayde soon realized that he was alone. And unbound, even better.
Still, he moved slowly, cautiously. Anything could have been done to him while he slept. He took stock of himself and found no injuries other than a few bruises that had probably happened while he was being transported to wherever he was. The room he was being held in was dark and small, but there had to be light coming in from somewhere. He couldn’t see well, but he could see enough. If he stretched out both arms he could touch either end of his cell, and when he tested the handle on the door, it was unsurprisingly locked. The cell was absolutely bare. No cot, no chains hanging off the wall, not even a blanket to ward off the damp chill in the room. He was wearing the same clothes that he’d been wearing all day, though a check of his pockets turned up empty. They’d removed his communicator and anything else they could find.
A more paranoid Detyen would have sewn something into his clothes, some hidden tool that could be used to mount an escape or an attack on whoever lay in wait. But Kayde had expected no threat on Beznifa. Nothing in the published information about the place suggested anything dangerous. He would have never taken Quinn to any place dangerous if it could be avoided.
Where was Quinn? Now that he assessed the immediate threat level, his mind was able to expand to the other important things. Had Quinn been imprisoned as well? Was she in a similarly dark room, scared and alone and remembering every horrible thing that had been done to her on Fenryr 1? Something dark rattled within Kayde’s chest. He would kill anyone who touched her. No one on this planet had the right.
Besides him, that dark voice inside whispered. She was his to protect, his to cherish, his...
He lost the thought as something clanged in the distance, perhaps a door opening. Something dragged outside, heavy and slow. A body? Supplies? No way to know. He listened as the dragging sound faded, trying to draw a mental map of what it looked like outside of his cell. After a minute it was silent again and Kayde was fairly certain that he was sitting somewhere in the middle of a long hallway. If he got the door opened and turned left, that loud clanging door would be several meters away. If there was a door to the right, he hadn’t heard it open or close. There could just as easily be a turn in the hallway that muffled the dragging noise. It occurred to him that his captors could have been deliberately making the noise as a way to trick him. If they had a camera watching him, they knew he was awake. But he doubted the noise was a trick. It was too subtle. Anyone without training on how to deal with a situation like this wouldn’t have been able to map the hall outside with so little information.
But he would keep the thought in mind and keep listening, waiting for his moment.
His stomach growled and he realized that he hadn’t eaten all day. He wasn’t at any risk of starving, not yet, but the longer he went without food the less effective a warrior he would be. He’d already failed to stop himself from being captured, and it would be difficult to rescue Quinn, wherever she was, if he was delirious from hunger and thirst.
Where was she? He couldn’t hear any sounds of feminine screams, but he took that as a good sign. He hoped that it meant that if Quinn were in a cell near him she wasn’t being tortured. He decided not to dwell on the possibility that there could be some level of soundproofing that would make it impossible to hear her.
The door down the hall clanged but this time it wasn’t followed by any dragging. Kayde listen closely and when a sound scraped outside his own cell, he stepped far enough back from the door to give himself a little room to maneuver. It wouldn’t have mattered. A bright light flashed, temporarily blinding him, and before he could get his bearings a net was thrown over him, clamping his arms close to his sides and tripping up his feet. He struggled, but he couldn’t get his bearings about him to give a good fight, and the bite in the material of the net told him that his claws would be useless in freeing himself.
The hallway outside was almost as dark as his cell, and the flash of light had comp
letely obliterated his night vision. No matter how much Kayde tried to look around, he couldn’t tell how long the hallway was or how to get out. He didn’t know where they were taking him. Was he about to face some sort of judgment? Execution? Release? The last one at least was highly doubtful.
If he had his soul, he might have been panicking, but Kayde had little concern for himself. He needed to survive to rescue Quinn and to complete his mission, and he could realize that at some point his priorities had become skewed. His duty to his people was supposed to come first, it was supposed to be the only thing that mattered. But he knew that if he were given the choice, Quinn’s safety would come before the mission without the slightest bit of hesitation.
His own life didn’t matter, but Quinn’s did. She had continued this mission for her own reasons, ones he didn’t quite understand, and it was his responsibility to see that she made it home.
They went through the door. As it clanged shut behind them another one opened, and the scent of death and despair grew even worse. He stepped forward and the ground felt softer under him, like he was laying on dirt rather than concrete. His captors grasped the net around him and picked him up, pitching him forward onto the hard, dirt covered ground.
Near him, too close to escape, something roared, ruffling his hair under the confines of the net. Kayde’s heartbeat picked up as the song of battle called to him. His eyes began to adjust and he rolled to one side, taking in the small arena-like room he’d been thrown into. The walls were too tall for him to climb, at least twice his height, and even if he managed to make it, a strong but delicate cage climbed all the way up to the ceiling, keeping whatever spectators were watching safe from the monsters in the arena.
No, arena wasn’t the right word for this kind of place. It was too small, too dingy. This was a fighting pit.
Kayde struggled against the net, trying to free himself while looking for the source of the roars that seemed to be getting closer. The wall opposite him opened up, the door appearing solid stone, and from the black hole that had to lead to another darkened hallway came a beast that belonged in a monster’s nightmares. Kayde worked faster to get free of his bonds. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that this was a fight to the death. He said he would kill anyone who put Quinn in danger, this was only the first step.
One of the monster’s tentacles hit the ground and something oozed out of it, sizzling against the dirt. Kayde finally freed himself from the net and rolled away with barely a second to spare before another tentacle hit right where he’d been lying. It grabbed hold of the net and that sturdy material seemed to dissolve in a matter of seconds.
Kayde tried to center himself, focusing on his opponent and letting all thoughts, all the rest of his concerns float away. He had to win, there was no other choice.
Chapter Eight
QUINN WAS OUT OF BED like a shot, tangling in the covers and stumbling when her feet hit the softly carpeted floor. This wasn’t the room at the inn. That place had been quaint, just a bed, a table, and a bathroom. She looked around now agog, and briefly wondered if she and some princess from an ancient fairy tale had switched lives. A quick glance down showed she was no longer wearing the clothes she’d slept in. They’d been replaced with a frilly light blue sleeping gown with bright green cuffs and delicately embroidered silver stitching in a pattern she couldn’t quite make out.
Bile rose in her throat as she realized that someone had undressed her while she slept, had touched her without her consent. Her hands trembled, and she had to clench her jaw to keep it from quivering. She wanted to dive back into that bed—even if it was the wrong one—and close her eyes on the faint hope that she’d wake up shortly and find out that this was all one bad dream. But she didn’t need to pinch herself to know that wasn’t the case. She’d already filled her weird dream quota for the night.
Quinn closed her eyes where she stood and took a deep breath, quelling the quickly rising panic. She counted down slowly from ten, keeping in mind all the ways that she was still okay. It was easier to do here than it had been back with the slavers. She wasn’t injured and she didn’t hurt, she was fully clothed, she wasn’t hungry, she was clean. That was more than she’d had for a long time, until the past few months.
She let her eyes open slowly and took a look around. The room hadn’t changed. It was bright and big enough that a hundred people could stand inside with room to spare. If she spoke, she wouldn’t be shocked if her voice echoed, but her throat felt like it was clamped in a vise and she didn’t think she could speak right then to save her life. If that was the only way the panic manifested, she’d be lucky.
The walls were the same pale blue as the outfit she’d been dressed in, and the dark wood ceiling seemed strange, unlike any design trend on Earth. But Quinn was a long way from home. The bed was proportional to the room, huge and soft, with a pale green quilt that could cover a dozen people if they squeezed in tight. There was only one other person she might be willing to share that monstrosity of a bed with, though.
Where was Kayde?
Why hadn’t she protested when the proprietor of the inn had separated them?
There was no use dwelling on that now. Quinn needed to find Kayde and see what the hell was going on. Maybe there was some innocent explanation for this. Maybe this was just how things worked on Beznifa. After all, the only aliens she’d ever willingly spent time around were the Detyens, so while she’d learned some of their customs, she knew nothing about how the Beznens operated.
No, none of those excuses were ringing true. Something fishy was going on, something that she didn’t want to get mixed up in. She and Kayde needed to get away from this place before something terrible happened. She could feel it coming, she just wasn’t sure what it was and she didn’t want to find out.
First things first, Quinn needed real clothes. She wasn’t about to run around in a borrowed nightie, especially when there could be lots of running involved. How far away was she from the ship? Had the Beznens done anything to damage it? She really hoped not. She wasn’t a mechanic, and though she trusted Kayde’s flying skills, he’d never said anything about being able to fix the ship.
That was a problem for later and they’d deal with it if it they needed to.
Quinn tried to find a closet or a wardrobe, any place that might hold a convenient pair of pants and some sturdy shoes, preferably the ones that belonged to her. She spun around, trying to take the whole room in, and her sense of unease grew, pounding insistently at her consciousness. The place was huge and brightly lit, but though the light seemed natural, like the sun was shining down on her, she didn’t see any windows, and there were no bulbs hanging from the ceiling. She couldn’t tell where the light was coming from.
And there wasn’t a closet. Or a bathroom, or any door at all.
That panic from earlier tried to claw its way out of her gut again, but Quinn tamped it down, taking a tight grip on her emotions and burying them deep. She could freak out later, and it wouldn’t be pretty, but right now she had to stay in the moment, had to figure out what was going on.
No doors. Not good. That took the situation from funny misunderstanding territory and transformed it into prison. Cold sweat covered her arms, making the pretty outfit she’d been dressed in stick to her in clammy clumps. No, no, no panicking, not yet. The sweat didn’t stop, but a few deep breaths helped to pull her back from the edge.
Just because Quinn couldn’t see a door didn’t mean that one wasn’t there, she reasoned. After all, she’d been placed inside of the room, somehow, and that meant there had to be a way in. And if there was a way in, that meant there was a way out. Right?
She crossed the floor, almost angry at how soft the carpet was against her feet. Prison shouldn’t be comfortable. It shouldn’t make a person forget to dream of freedom. But between the bed, the plushness underfoot, and the fancy clothes, she could almost imagine thoughts of Earth, thoughts of her life before drifting away if they kept her in here for long enough. Give
her an entertainment system and this place would be a hundred times fancier than any place she’d ever lived. A girl could get used to it.
And that was why she needed to escape.
KAYDE SANK INTO MEMORIES of blood and death, of defeat and triumph. The monster came at him, all claws and tentacles, and it was no secret that if the beast touched him it would all be over. His skin was thick, but it could not sustain contact with whatever acid the creature was secreting for long. It was taller than Kayde by half and had too many tentacles to count. That should have given Kayde an advantage of movement, but the being seemed adapted for life on dry land. It used its limbs deftly, a dance Kayde might have been able to respect if he hadn’t been about to die.
There were no weapons in the pit, nothing but the sand on the ground and the high walls. Even the net used to bind him was gone, dissolved in a sizzling pile of goo that Kayde was careful to keep his distance from. This was unlike any battle he’d ever fought. The simulators at HQ training offered nothing in the way of pit fighting and he had no idea where the alien trying to kill him had come from, let alone its strengths and weaknesses. But now it was time to learn.
Perhaps the smart move would be to wait until the creature tired itself out. The tentacles looked heavy and it was heaving them with abandon. However, Kayde couldn’t count on the fact that the being could be worn out. He couldn’t stake his life on it. The thing came for him again, and when Kayde went to roll out of the way he misjudged by a few centimeters and fire flared along the side of his ankle where a bit of venom had landed on him. He kept moving while the crowd went wild and let his claws flash out.
