All in all, they had a varied skill set, but Rainev didn’t like that most weren’t employing traditional Andinna techniques. The ones using the nets just pissed him off.
Why would an Andinna learn to kill their own like the Empire kills us? What the fuck is wrong with them?
When dinner was called, he was silently raging at the idea of an Andinna netting their own people. Mat was quiet as well, lost in his own thoughts. When they got their food, Mat led them to the table with Seventy-Two.
“So, you didn’t want to tell us we were owned by the Empress?” Mat asked Seventy-Two immediately.
“I thought it was the Prince who bought you, and I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been. Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three used to be property of the wolf Lord living here in the Capital. My bad. You join the company of the Champion, the whore. Good luck with that.” Seventy-Two’s voice was colder now. Less forthcoming, less open than he had been. His face was harder than it had been at lunch.
And just like that, the sands shift and we’re on the outside. I can’t believe it.
It made him exceedingly uncomfortable. Andinna were community-driven, and now he and Matesh were on their own. Two was better than one, but it was still bad.
Mat continued to talk to the other males, but Rainev watched the empty table where she would sit eventually. She was the other gladiator owned by the Empress.
Rainev looked back at Seventy-Two, then down the table. They were all watching back, listening to Seventy-Two and Mat talk about pecking orders, and how Matesh couldn’t change who they were bought by.
Then a hush fell over the table and the rest of the chow hall. Rainev’s eyes went to the door.
The Champion walked into the room. Rainev wondered if she was really the same girl from the end of the Hundred Year War. He still couldn’t believe it. The silent, blank-faced female didn’t seem like she could be the same girl from those days. He watched her sit down and made his decision when she glanced at him, then looked away. Talking picked back up when nothing else happened.
If Seventy-Two and his boys weren’t going to trust him because of a damn symbol on an ear tag, he was going to the only other person who could relate to that.
Matesh is going to kill me, but I won’t deal with these other males. There’s a lone female on top of that. We’re duty-bound as Andinna to find out why she’s alone. It’s not right, not in any way.
Alone was a death sentence for an Andinna and for it to be a female…
No, he couldn’t resist.
He stood up, grabbing his bowl. He tapped Matesh’s shoulder and pointed, then began to walk to her table, where she ate slowly and stared at nothing.
He touched a chair and that made her sharp eyes dart up at him. They were stunning eyes, like lighter versions of his deep blue wings. Set in the black eyes of the Andinna, they stood out like gemstones, clear sapphires.
“We’re both…owned by the same person, I’m told,” he explained. He sat down cautiously. She watched him, like she was ready to end him if he did anything too quickly. When he was fully seated, her eyes darted to his ear and narrowed before returning to his face. “So is my uncle.”
“Do you know who I am?” she asked quietly. Her voice was smooth, with no emotion in it. She talked like an Elvasi. Detached, withdrawn, too formal for most Andinna.
“I’ve heard rumors, but I’m not sure I really believe them.”
“You should. Most of them, at least.” She looked away from him, back out on to the crowd of the chow hall. There was still quiet talking, but they all watched her. Rainev could cut the tension in the room with a knife. “You can sit there. Don’t talk to me. Don’t even look at me. If she owns you too, we’re all in for a bad time no matter what.”
I think I just won something, but Skies if I can tell what that is.
Mat chose that moment to walk over to the table and take a seat quickly. He glared at Rainev, and the sound of grinding teeth could be heard. “Why?” he asked her. Mat didn’t spare any of the caution that Rainev did. “Why are we all in for a bad time?”
“Because now you have targets on your backs and you don’t even have a say in it,” she answered. Rainev noticed she was trying to stay detached. She was shifting her body to create distance, uncomfortable with people sitting at her table with her. He wondered if she was considering throwing them both away from her. Her tail gave a single flick of agitation, but he couldn’t discern much else from her body language, and her face stayed blank.
Her body language is as cold as her eyes. I’ve never met an Andinna so closed off.
“I’m Rainev,” he whispered, as softly as he could. Names were trust here. He needed their only possible ally now to trust him. She knew what life was like in the pits as a gladiator for the Empress and he needed that knowledge. So did Mat.
Her eyebrows went up, just a tiny bit, almost unnoticeably, but they added an emotion to her face. Shock. He’d actually surprised her.
“I’m Matesh.”
Rainev spared a tiny movement to nod his head to his friend. He was picking up on what Rainev was trying to do.
“I like to be called Mave,” she offered, her voice softer than he’d heard it yet. More feminine, more real. It wasn’t as cold or calm, but somewhat vulnerable.
He frowned. Mave? It wasn’t a standard female Andinna name.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mave,” he whispered. He held out a hand but she shook her head at it.
“No. I’m not going to be your ally or your friend.” In an instant, the cold and calm were back. Whatever moment he’d had with her disappeared. “You can sit here to keep from getting jumped. I won’t stop you, but I don’t do friends.” With that, she stood up and took her bowl with her as she left them sitting there.
Rainev dropped his hand to the table and looked at Mat when she was gone from the chow hall.
“What in the name of the Skies was that, Rain?” He snarled at the end of it.
Yup. Mad at me. I knew it.
“She’s our only chance now. You saw how Seventy-Two was acting. I’m not even sure why you sat there trying to convince him we were good people to have on his side. He was cold the moment we sat down. We need to survive? She’s been doing it here on her own for nearly a thousand years. These guys can’t be trusted.”
“She might not be trustworthy,” Mat reminded him harshly. “Shit. Well, you’ve gone and made that decision for us now. I’m going to kill you if we ever get out of here.”
“Sure.” Rainev shrugged. If they got out of the pits alive, he would take the rage of Matesh.
They would be alive and free again. Matesh’s anger paled in comparison.
4
Mave
Mave couldn’t believe it. Emotions warred inside her like a blood battle in the Colosseum. She wasn’t the only gladiator beholden to the Empress anymore. Those two were. The two interesting ones, the Skies-damned standouts.
Rainev and Matesh. They gave me their names! By the Skies, what? I just…
Names. That had surprised her enough to give her name in return. Not that they wouldn’t have learned her name anyway. Every gladiator knew her name, but it felt good to offer it in exchange for theirs.
She barely slept that night, considering it. Why had the Empress bought new slaves? What had they done to get the Empress’ attention? It couldn’t be good for them. Or her.
But they gave me their names. A gift, even if they don’t realize it. How do I repay that?
She lay in bed all night, mostly staring at the ceiling, and as the morning broke, she considered the two of them separately. Rainev had called them family. They didn’t look related at all, but she would allow it. Many males claimed families that weren’t true family. He had also been cautious of her, softer, easier. Wary. He probably thought she would gut him if he screwed up. He was probably right. She would strongly consider it, at the very least.
There’s no such thing as too cautious. Names or not, I can’t let
them ruin me.
Matesh, on the other hand, had sat down without a pause and spoke like she didn’t scare him at all. That appealed to her in a strange way. Every male in the pits treated her with a certain level of fear once they learned who she was and what she did to them on the sands. Not Matesh. He just treated her like he’d been treating the old Andinna slaves around them, like he wasn’t worried.
She’d seen confidence before, but every male before him lost that confidence when finally confronted with her and her reputation, her history of killing them. Something had made other males, full of bravado, take pause with her. Not Matesh.
I want him.
That was a truth she couldn’t deny. He called to her like any other Andinna male, but then he wasn’t scared of her. She wanted a piece of that, as terrible of an idea as that was.
I want him and I can’t have him. Just another truth she couldn’t deny.
She went to breakfast when the bell tolled and sat down in her normal spot. Rainev and Matesh entered and sat down quickly after her, looking less put together than they had the day before, but not worked. They must not have been on four-a-days anymore. No more pre-breakfast training.
“The cots here suck,” Rainev complained as he sat down. She didn’t answer, since she didn’t know if he was talking to her. No one spoke to her casually. “Seriously. Also, didn’t see you. Do you have different quarters for females?” He was talking to her, she realized.
Didn’t I tell him not to talk to me? I remember saying that last night. Why is he talking to me?
While his disobedience annoyed her, she was also somewhat happy for it. He wanted to talk to her. She debated for a moment. This could be how she repaid them for the gift of trust the night before. They gave her their names, and she could offer them some information about the pits. It seemed fair.
This is a bad idea, Mave, and you know it. You talk to them more than you have and they’ll have bigger targets.
But I’m also tired of talking to myself. “I have a private room, along with the other four best fighters in the pits. We get privileges, like a small bathing pool and some private furniture.” She took another bite of the slop and continued to stare over the crowd filling the chow hall.
“How do you eat this stuff? It’s disgusting.”
“It’s food. They aren’t starving us.” She didn’t really know how to help this male, but she was beginning to think he talked too much and they had only just sat down.
“Have they starved the fighters before?” This time it was Matesh asking.
“Not the males.” She took another bite. She didn’t see what was so bad about the slop. One got used to it after a time. It was bland, but it was filling and had what she needed to train.
Doesn’t compare to real food, but seriously, there’s no reason to complain.
“What do you mean by-” Rainev began but Matesh cut him off.
“They starved you,” he said, stirring his slop around with the spoon. “Why?”
Is he serious? Why would I tell him that?
“You are both very nosy,” she noted before taking another bite of her food. She turned to Matesh, the one with the vivid green eyes and rugged face. He was in his prime, not a grey hair in sight. She wondered if he was even much older than her.
“Trying to learn about this so we can survive, that’s all.” He leaned back in his seat, ignoring his food now. That annoyed her. Was he too good for the food? They were slaves. A slave eats what a slave is given. None of them were too good for anything.
Time for hard truths. None anyone likes, including me, but truths nonetheless.
“They won’t starve you; you’re male and you aren’t me.” She pointed to the bowl. “If you refuse the food after taking it, you’ll be considered wasteful. The lenasti don’t like wasteful. You’ll be force-fed, then worked until you puke. Repeatedly and for days, then thrown onto the sands, half-starved from the torture and weak from it, to be killed. If you aren’t hungry, don’t show up to the meals. If you don’t show up to the meals too often, the lenasti get curious as to why. Then they start digging into your secrets. Then you are on the fast track to a quick death on the sands versus an opponent that out-matches you. Probably me.”
I’ve seen it happen. Please don’t make me have to see it again.
He narrowed his eyes on her, looking angry at what she said. He picked up his bowl, though, and took several bites without complaint.
Should I have been softer? Lightened the blow? Less rude?
“You missed lunch yesterday,” Rainev pointed out softly.
“I have two days off. Well, one now. Today. I have free roam of the pits and my schedule.”
“How do you get days off?”
“You don’t die in the monthly fights. You have to get chosen for the monthly fights first. Then you must survive them. It’s hard to earn two days off. Sometimes, on major holidays, they will give everyone in the pits a day off. Don’t expect it, since it never ends well. Things get too…undisciplined too quickly.” She rattled off the facts to the two Andinna as they ate. She felt oddly responsible for them. They had no place with the other males because of the tag on their ears, which shared a symbol with the one on hers. Now, she was curious. “Why would the Empress want you two? She doesn’t buy Andinna slaves for no reason. She despises us.”
“You don’t know?” Rainev looked at her with confusion. “Really?”
“Why would I?” she asked softly. She knew what he was thinking. He’d already heard most of the rumors then. She was a spy for the Empress, there to keep her Andinna gladiators all in line, make sure the warriors in the pits weren’t planning rebellion. She had the ear of the Empress and was the only Andinna slave that she would speak to.
That last part was true, but none of them accepted that Mave had always refused to speak back. She hated the bitch. She didn’t stand with the Empress for idle chatter. She stood there because the Empress knew she fucking hated it.
“I figured she would have mentioned something…I don’t know.” Rainev shrugged, then shook his head. “I’m sorry. The rumors…”
“I said believe most of them, not all of them. No, I had no idea you were even coming or would be her property. No, I have no idea why she would want to own you. I don’t know who you are.” Mave went to take another bite of slop and looked down to an empty bowl when she heard metal hit clay. She’d finished without thinking.
“You want the rest of mine?” Matesh asked her, offering his bowl.
“Absolutely not.” She scoffed at him. “Gifts aren’t something that happen here, and we’re all given the same amount of food. Eat it. Don’t pass it out. It’ll get both parties in trouble.”
Rainev glared over to Matesh at that, and he put his bowl back down in silence. She didn’t understand the interaction, as if something had already happened between them about it. She wondered if they were lovers in secret like the other two males, the ones who just died on the sands.
Breakfast was called to a close without more conversation. She considered what she would do with the rest of her day as they left her view, up the stairs to the training area.
Then a thread of curiosity got the better of her. Who were these males to get the attention of the Empress? Could they be the spies the Empress had finally brought in, the spies everyone claimed she was?
They were definitely going to shake up her life, she knew that. With those ear tags, she wasn’t going to be able to avoid them during training. They would all be together. She would no longer just be sparring against a lenasti who had the time for her, or beating on dummies. She had an actual group now.
A group. One of the few things I’ve wished for but never said out loud either. Centuries of hoping and now I have a chance. They want to be my allies. Can I trust them? Can I even trust?
It was one of two things, actually. She only ever had two wishes, nestled deep by her heart. Ones she couldn’t speak. Ones she shouldn’t even acknowledge: acceptance and an end to t
he hell she was doomed to.
So, they would shake up her life. She just needed to know how much and for how long.
She gave her bowl to the dwarf slave, who grumbled because she was late with it. She didn’t react. He was a murderer. He deserved to be in the pits just as much as the rest of them and could deal with her being a few minutes late with the last bowl.
She moved up the stairs and saw the two males already sparring in a circle. They were both fast, with Rainev seeming to match her own speed. They didn’t use anything specialized, like nets or spears, instead each having a wooden sword. Rainev used a gladius, something she used. She used hers in pairs - not proper technique, but she enjoyed it - while he paired his with a small shield.
Matesh was using a larger two-handed sword, like several other big males did. He wasn’t slow with it, though. He was nearly as fast as Rainev, forcing the smaller male to be tactical, moving around the outside and into Matesh’s unprotected areas.
They were skilled. Very skilled. They didn’t fight for the sand, though. This seemed like general sparring, and they didn’t do anything dirty to get the upper hand. That would need to change if they were going to live through the next fights. They would be chosen, that much was certain, but living through it was another story.
She crossed her arms, interested now in a way she hadn’t been in years. The warriors in the pits with her had always been good, but nothing great. She didn’t think she was great, just a survivor. She just refused to die since it was the only real control she had over her existence.
These two were bordering on great in comparison to everyone else here.
I hope they’re stubborn like me. With skills like theirs, they could do really well down here. Or make a lot of enemies.
The Gladiator's Downfall Page 5
