By the Skies, we do not need any more enemies. I’m not sure if I could handle pissing off any more damned gladiators.
“Will we be seeing them?”
“Let’s just say that soon I’ll be keeping you in here, rumors be damned.” Mave swallowed. It was so risky. “Luckily, the other ludas are smaller than the pits. The pits? We’re owned by government officials and shit. They are owned by people who work in the gladiator business. Smaller groups, but unluckily, there’s still tons of them. For games like this, they will be housed here, under the Colosseum. We’re talking double or more than the numbers we have down here.”
“Double? That’s over four hundred male Andinna, and you’ll be…” Rain’s eyes went wide as she watched the reality dawn on him. The only female. The Champion. The one everyone will hope to take down during the games and earn the notoriety that would come with it.
Yup. The pits are already hell, and they are about to get worse.
“You’ve survived something this big before?” Mat asked, leaning over to rub his face.
“Being owned by the Empress gives me, and now you, some protection. No ludas wants to lose their rights to ever fight in the Colosseum because their idiot gladiators killed off the Empress’ property. But that won’t stop some attempts, some willing to get dirty so their more successful friends will defeat me on the sands. You’re lucky that you don’t have much of a fighting reputation yet.”
Something settled over her like a cloak, a weight that wouldn’t let up. A week to survive this hell. A week to survive with them. She had to make sure they were prepared. That was one of the reasons the lenasti gave them the ability to roam more, leave the schedule. They knew their best fighters were in more danger than just on the sands.
She realized the weight was a responsibility she’d never had before. So far, she hadn’t needed to worry so much about them. They were resourceful males. Now she worried a lot. A week of games? That could kill them.
I don’t know what I would do if I lost them now. I don’t know if I can go back to being alone. They have to live through this.
“When will the others show up?” Mat was still leaned over, rubbing his face.
“The day before the fights, they will be moved in here. They will leave as their fights are done, to make sure the Empress isn’t funding their extended stay in the pits. Fights will break out a lot that day. Don’t listen to whatever schedule they put out for the games. People will die down here. The schedule will get changed.”
“Why do it like this when it’s so bad for their business? I mean, surely no one wants their gladiators dying.”
“Because the streets will be too crowded to move the gladiators from their normal operations for their daily fights. They have to take the risk to make sure their fighters are in the right place at the right time,” she answered Rain, trying to ignore the exhaustion that was attempting to drag her down. Even the idea was exhausting. “In the end? They don’t really care about us. We’re just cattle to slaughter for their entertainment. You’ll see.”
Like cattle, we Andinna just needed to die at the right place and the right time.
Silence settled over them and Rain moved closer to her, his tail moving to touch hers gently. A sign that he wanted to ask something personal, she’d been taught. They’d given her a few lessons in body language already. She met his sapphire eyes and waited, a silent message it was okay for him to break the silence.
“What bothered you in the training area?”
“I missed my birthday,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s not a problem. It just means I’m another year older. These games…they represent a thousand years exactly in slavery for me. It's just a stark reminder of how long it’s been and how much longer I have until I’m too old to fight, too old to survive.” If she were lucky, she wouldn’t die of old age, which wouldn’t happen for another four to five thousand grueling years. But at the same time, she was too stubborn to die on the sands like they all wanted her to. They all wanted her to one day fall in her prime. She wasn’t going to give them that, not ever.
A thousand years of failure, too. I’ve failed for a thousand years at stopping all of this.
“Happy birthday,” Rain whispered, leaning closer to her. His horn hit hers and they chuckled. Mat watched the interaction. She met his eyes and looked away.
She had promised herself not to get close to these males, but Rain had become her little brother too. She couldn’t stop it. He was a breath of fresh air, a good young male and a warrior, a good one. A nice man, and someone she could trust while she slept.
Mat was a different can of worms. Where Rain was safe, Mat was dangerous. He was a strong ally, and that’s all she could allow him to be. She couldn’t use him for the physical action her body craved, something that was hers. Her ability to have consensual sex was the one thing the Elvasi couldn’t take from her. They could use her, try to break her, but they couldn’t take that from her.
Too bad the one male she was interested in now was the one she absolutely couldn’t have. If she had him once, she had a feeling she would want him again.
It was when things stopped being casual that gladiators got in trouble. When people were sneaking off together for another moment. That brought attention. I want so much more than casual with him. I want to have him. I want to own that arrogance. At least now I know that I can’t resist them and their friendship because it's what our people are like. It’s not like I can choose this, this need.
“You’ll start staying in here the night before the first day of games, when everyone else has arrived. You’ll stop staying in here when the games are over, to keep people from looking at us wrong, hopefully. All the other gladiators in this hall will be doing their best to keep their circles together as well. Guards will be doubled, maybe even tripled, in case there are riots. This place is going to get very, very crowded. But once the games start, there are no trainings. You go to the gates when your fight will start, you do your fight, then you get back to whatever corner you want to hide in. Meal times will be double in length, and it’s not going to be allowed to hang out. You get your food, you eat it, then you get out. They don’t want too many people so close to the outside world and the chow hall is the way out - the one we know, anyway.”
“This will be hell.” Mat straightened up, looking stoic and ready.
“This will be hell,” she agreed. “This is as bad as it gets, you two. I…” She took a deep breath. She wanted to say something that meant something. “I hope we all make it through.”
“We’ll make it,” Mat promised. “You don’t need to question that.” The confidence in him nearly inspired her.
“I hope so.”
“Will you tell us what you did the last time games like this were held?” Rainev stayed closer to her than to Mat, nearly leaning on her shoulder. She knew he was doing it to make her feel comfortable, a part of this weird family they had in private. She was beginning to love it, in a way she had never loved anything in the pits before.
The fact that I can say I love it, when I’ve loved nothing ever, means this is already too far. There’s no going back.
“Ah…” She sighed, trying to remember. There were some key moments she could recall. “I had to battle five males on my own, day one of that week. I took a hit that I carried for the rest of the week. People began to gamble against me after that.” She leaned back on Rain. “On the fourth day, I fought a gryphon. One of you will, that much I can promise. They will be chained to the center of the Colosseum and able to fly just enough to scare the crowd but not touch it. It can hide above you, though, and will look for an opportunity to drop down. That was one of the hardest fights of my life.”
“No wyvern?” Rain asked.
“No. They put twenty males against the wyvern last time. Those twenty males lost, by the way. I almost wonder if it will be the same wyvern this time. Those things live longer than we do, right?”
“About ten thousand years. They’re g
oing extinct like the chimera, though. Less and less of them every year. In Anden, there were strict rules about hunting wyvern. We didn’t want the thing we share the skies with to disappear. People took pride if they had a small community of them in their territory.” Mat sighed sadly. “They’re beautiful creatures when free. They aren’t normally aggressive to our kind either, not in the air. Flying beside one - a real one, Rain - is fantastic.”
“I am a real wyvern,” Rain muttered, glaring at his bodrya. “I’m just also an Andinna. Makes me want to shift. It’s been hell not to for so long.”
“It’s been hell not to fly, but this is life now. As Mave said when we got here.” He looked back at her and she just held the stare. He had learned something from her, at least. A sad thing. She felt bad for clipping his wings. “Now we just get ready, huh? Fight our best when we do train. Hide from the worst of it. Survive.”
“That’s right.”
She didn’t have any other advice to give them.
11
Rainev
The next day, Rainev saw that things were already different. At breakfast, everyone was tense. Mave had let them spend the day just talking, and they trained when the evening training period was over instead. They ate their meals and avoided the gladiators, but she had said they couldn’t skip too much. So here they were, at breakfast the next day.
“Feels like a powder keg,” he mumbled to Mat.
“It does. One that will go up at the smallest of sparks.”
“This is normal. Just tread carefully with them and they will hopefully remain focused on their own deal, their own futures.” Mave looked back down to her food.
Rain watched her carefully. Even she was tense, even if she didn’t say anything about it. He knew she was worried about everything. She was a worrier. He didn’t blame her. If he’d lived through the childhood and adulthood she’d experienced so far, he would probably have already been on his knees, begging for an end. I wish I could be as strong as she is.
Like the night he claimed her as a big sister. He meant that. She deserved it. Seeing her so beaten up, so kicked down, and yet still staggering to walk back into her home, her space. Letting him help her.
That was inspiring. Painful but inspiring.
Now, the bruising was gone; no evidence was left of that night. From what she’d mentioned in their time together, it happened frequently. Maybe not that bad, but bad enough.
Over and over again.
So he didn’t blame her for being a worrier about everything. He understood it.
Breakfast was called and they moved up to the training area. They were able to find a circle before anyone got in their way. It gained them some glares, but nothing more. The lenasti were on high alert, making sure everyone was working and training their hardest. Whips cracked to keep them moving.
No one is allowed to screw around now. Except me, Mave, and Mat. That’s probably pissing them all off.
He, Mave, and Matesh just rotated their sparring, a steady rhythm. It worked well for them. One had the chance to breathe, then got two spars in a row, then another chance to breathe. Kept them working hard, but not overworked. The lenasti didn’t bother them; one just watched for a moment then moved on, nodding.
He looked over at the trainers on his second break. Ten of them, for the near two hundred gladiators that lived in the pits. More guards than that. Dozens of them hid down in the pits, more covered the training area and the gate.
It already felt crowded and it was going to get worse? That astounded Rain. Over double the amount of gladiators. Over double the amount of guards. The lenasti were going to disappear to enjoy the games themselves once the scheduling was done.
Chaos. He could taste it on the tip of his tongue. It was going to be chaos.
“I have an idea,” he told Mave when the morning session was over. They were already going to skip lunch and the afternoon, then do a double session in the cooler evening. He figured they could use the hot hours to get something done.
“What is it?”
“Matesh and I can move cots into your room early. Have them ready for the week of the games. If this is going to get worse as the week goes on, then we should get things settled early.”
“Go. I’ll meet you both at my room. You should eat first, though. I’m not hungry so I’m going.”
“You okay alone?” Rain went to stand up and Mat nearly did the same before she answered.
“Not me I’m worried about,” she muttered, walking away from them. Rain saw Matesh’s eyes following her and dropping a little too low. He reached out and slapped his uncle’s chest.
“Stop. You can’t do it, Mat. You really can’t.”
“Don’t I know it,” he said quietly. “Yeah, Rain. I really do know it. She and I can’t go there. It would cause all sorts of problems.”
“Staring at her like that won’t help us either,” he hissed softly. “And I damned sure don’t approve.”
“You don’t need to,” Mat snapped back, growling low in his chest.
“Yeah, I kind of do. She’s accepted me as little brother. She might be a female Andinna with her own choice and no one will tell her otherwise, but at the same time, I need to look out for her. You aren’t good for her. Not right now, at least.” Rain sighed. “If we had any hope of escaping, getting her away from…them, I would say go for it. You’re both interested, even if you don’t say anything. But we both know we’re never getting out of here and our best chance of staying alive is not going that route. It could very well make her hate you, make her think you were just in it for that.”
“I hate you sometimes, Rainev.”
“I’m only doing what my dad taught me. What all of you taught me.”
“I know. You can’t take the choice from her, though, in some need to protect her.”
“No, but I can tell you that I think it’s a bad idea right now. To ask you to wait. Male to male.” Rainev knew all the ins and outs of being a male in Andinna culture. While the other males in the pits forgot, he would always remember everything his father taught him. He would remember what his adopted uncles taught him. He wasn’t going to let Matesh forget either.
“You can. That is well within your rights.” Matesh gave him a strange look. “I forget sometimes you’re well old enough to make these arguments. I remember you as a babe, with your dad cooing over you. Big-ass warrior from the Hundred Year War, and he was cooing. Shit was unbelievable, then I held you.”
“You cooed too.”
“It’s becoming easier to remember, being here, how old you are. No games here like on the outside.” Mat stood up slowly. “Let’s go get this done, my favorite nephew.”
“Yeah.” Rainev jumped up to follow him. He worked his shoulders, hoping to ease the stiffness that never seemed to leave where his wings merged with his back. Always too stiff, thanks to them being bound down, unable to spread and stretch.
Rainev and Mat rolled up the mattresses of all the cots they had stashed away. “We’ll leave the frames. Worthless, anyway. We’ll just use these.” Mat pointed to the rolled-up mattresses and Rainev silently agreed, nodding as he looked them over as well. They could easily carry these and put them in Mave’s room for a few days. “We’ll have a hard time sleeping for a few days-”
“No need to worry about that,” Seventy-Two said, entering through the door. Rainev bared his teeth at the other gladiator. “Got a little plan? Going to stick with the Champion? Look down on the rest of us while you hang out with the whore?”
“What do you want?”
“To remind you that these are the pits. Nobody is above the law here. Not even you two. Next time you want to talk shit to us, I want you to remember this.”
Rainev stepped back when more males came through the door. They got fucking cornered. He was there worrying about if Mave would be fine alone and she’d been right to worry about them instead. They should have watched their backs better. Fuck us sideways. How did we get so relaxed? Why wasn’t on
e of us watching out for this?
“This is what honorable Andinna males in slavery do? Jump their own kind.” Mat counted, making a show of it. “Eight to two?”
“This is what gladiators do.” Seventy-Two’s face was hard. “And you are no longer in the Ivory Shadows. You’re gladiators, now.”
“Why now? Today was going just fine.” Rainev stepped back again, closer to Mat as two of the other Andinna were trying to cage him off from his uncle. “We haven’t caused you any trouble. Killing us doesn’t get you anything.”
“No…but we’re not here to kill you. Just remind you where you are and where your place in it is. Knock you off those damned high horses you seem to sit on all the time.” Seventy-Two looked around to his guys. Rain’s shoulder bumped Mat’s. They were going to have a fight and it was going to be bad. “Don’t do anything the whore will kill you for. And keep those wings unharmed. You know how the lenasti get about wing damage. We’ll all be beaten for it, maybe even maimed ourselves.” Seventy-Two waved a hand at them and Rain’s heart dropped. Then he walked out of the room, leaving a bunch of snarling Andinna between them and the door.
Fucking coward directs his guys and just leaves? Dishonorable piece of Elvasi shit, that one. How dare he claim to be better than Mave? At least she fights her own battles.
Rainev snarled back, baring his canines. Mat was the same, his teeth out, and his hands up, ready for the fight.
They all jumped at the same time.
Rain connected a strong right jab to the face of one, breaking his nose as a result. He was met with a solid hit across his left cheek, twisting his head to the side.
He kicked out to hit the knee of one as another got a hand on his neck. Rain punched up into the Andinna’s face. His back hit the earth and stone wall with enough force to knock the wind out of him.
The Gladiator's Downfall Page 14
