She went to his side in silence, stiff. Zayden saw her eyes flicking all over Luykas, taking him in. An Andinna male with the black eyes and black hair, but Luykas stopped being a normal Andinna at that point. He was too naturally tan for one, a tan not just from the sun. His eyes were black, but the irises were a pure molten gold, a color not found in their kind. His horns, wings, tail, and tatua were a pure ivory white, making him an unusual-looking man.
“I’m Luykas, one of the leaders and founders of the Ivory Shadow Mercenary Company.” He talked as they walked. Zayden moved back to end up next to his son, with Matesh on the other side. “My co-leader and founder is Alchan. You’ll meet him on the boat. I need to know now. Are you in any way loyal to the Empire?”
She answered with a snarl.
“I thought so. We’re going to get you out of here. We don’t normally just free Andinna slaves, since it draws a lot of attention to our operations and our people that isn’t needed. When we get on the boat, I know the spell that will remove the collars from all of you. Just know, you aren’t free just because the collar is gone. We need to get out of the Empire first. The boat will take us down the Myriar River into the Aegan Sea. Once we hit the sea, pirates become a bigger problem, and you can cheer and get excited about being free. Until then, I need you focused on doing whatever you can to help us.”
“You think the boat will get boarded?” Matesh asked, calling out to Luykas at the front of their party.
“On the river? Definitely, though we could get very lucky. I think we’re about to be the most wanted criminals in the Empire, if we weren’t already. She knows we’re here now, and she’s going to know the river is our fastest way out of the damn Empire.”
“She…Empress Shadra,” Mave whispered. Zayden noticed she said it like a curse, a nightmare, like she was haunted by the Empress. “I’ll stay focused,” she promised. “I can do that.”
“Good. That’s all. Oh, and one more thing.” Luykas snapped his fingers. “I was friends with your father before and during the War. You have his eyes. He would be proud of you for surviving so long. If you’ve become even half the warrior I’ve heard about, he’d be so proud of you. So would your mother.”
Zayden nearly walked into her, as she just stopped walking. Her eyes were wide. He wondered how fast her mind was working to absorb what Luykas had just told her.
Matesh grabbed her and pulled her along, trying to keep her moving.
Zayden knew her small world of the Colosseum had just been blown wide open. He wondered how she was going to handle that. His son’s new illo amyr.
22
Mave
Mave hadn’t thought her night could get more interesting. Telling her only two friends she wanted them to kill her. Trying to fuck the aggravating male she had wanted since she laid eyes on him.
Escaping Elliar.
That hadn’t been on her to-do list for her last night alive. Neither had been feeling a pang of sadness over the loss of two freemen who helped them escape.
Remember them, Mave. Don’t forget such kindness.
Now she was walking through a forest in the Empire, having cut down a group of soldiers that had been hunting them. She was surrounded by Andinna males, only two of which she knew and trusted. The other two…
She didn’t like Zayden, from first impressions. He might have been Rainev’s father, but he was an angry son of a bitch. Every time he looked at her, it was like she was the stupid cow, the uneducated whore that the Elvasi had always wanted her to believe she was. Confusion and distrust were in his eyes, or that’s how it seemed to her. The only thing that lessened the sting of his looks at her was that he looked at everyone like they were stupid or that they annoyed him, including his own son. There’s a real possibility he’s just an asshole, and it’s not me at all. Which I’m not sure is better or worse.
The second, Luykas, was an enigma. He’d thrown her for a loop, as if it wasn’t a big deal. He’d known, been friends with, her father. She wasn’t sure what to do with that information. She had his eyes? That was something she hadn’t known, or at least didn’t remember. Then when she took in how Luykas looked...
He was an odd male, no doubt. A mutt, definitely, though she wasn’t ready to admit that she figured she knew what his other half was.
“Going to keep up, Mave?” The gold eyes in the dark looked back at her. He was hard to miss or lose in the forest. White wings stood out in the night. Not just white, but a pure ivory white, like the marble of Elliar itself.
“Yes, sir,” she called out to him, picking up her pace. She settled in next to Matesh, who gave her a concerned look.
“Sir?” Luykas asked Zayden softly.
“Slave,” Zayden answered, shrugging.
“Good point,” the white Andinna murmured, glancing back at her.
Rainev walked up next to his father, saying something she missed in Andena. It launched an entire conversation in the language she didn’t fully understand. Stuff about her came up when she heard illo amyr and her name. Her real name and her chosen one.
She looked down at the earth. She was a slave, wasn’t she? Calling them sir. They had probably expected a loud female Andinna who was going to walk all over them. They had probably expected a warrior who would battle and be fierce at every opportunity.
She was proving to be much more scared of freedom than she had ever been on the sands. I don’t know anything about freedom. I’ve never known so little.
“Are you okay?” Mat whispered, pulling her closer to his side. “Mave, you with me?”
“Yeah, I’m just…I don’t know what I’m doing here, Matesh.” She tried to find the words to describe the confused and fearful sensation in her chest. “This was never a thing I thought would happen. I’m…getting used to this idea of running still. Freedom. That’s never been…” She still didn’t know if she believed it or not. Once they had left the city walls and she had seen the sky and the fields, and the forest, she had known she was out of her depth. “I’ve been a slave for a thousand years. Freedom was never something I expected, and suddenly, without even a warning, here I am. Walking to a boat with two males I met only a few weeks ago, having lost everything I spent a thousand years building up, with two other males I don’t know.”
“I can see how that’s thrown you,” he agreed, nodding. “Rain and I are here with you. We know all of these guys, and we have for centuries. I’ve known many since the War ended, some before. This is the Ivory Shadow Mercenary Company, the people Rain and I work and live with, or did until we were captured.” He pulled her into his side and slid his arm over her shoulders. He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “You are still a warrior. You were all over my idea of what to do about those soldiers. You helped fight us out of the city.”
“It just feels surreal.” She folded her arms, pulling them to her chest.
He let go of her, still nodding in agreement. “It does to me too,” he admitted softly. “It’s not in our code to go get anyone that’s been captured. I should have known better than to think Zayden there would leave Rainev to slavery, or Leshaun would leave me, but I wasn’t prepared for this either.”
“I thought dawn was going to rise and I was going to die.”
“Still a possibility,” he reminded her. “We’re still in the Empire.”
“True. You know, they took me to Elliar and I never left. I have no idea where we’re going. Tell me?”
“Do you know the Myriar River? It comes off the Sun Lake. Elliar is near both.”
“I’ve heard of them both.”
“Okay. We’re moving now to Myriar River. There, we’ll move south into the Aegan Sea. We’ll cut west towards Olost and its Free Cities. Olost is a smaller continent, but it’s all free, and the Empire has never been able to get a foothold on it. It’s a month-long journey by boat. Once we’re there, I can tell you anything.”
“Like what the hell I’m supposed to do next?” That was a large topic weighing on her.
Freedom meant choices. Freedom meant options. She had no idea where to start.
“Definitely that,” he murmured. “And I hope there’s space for me in whatever is next for you.”
“I’m not sure I can do freedom without you and Rainev. Plus, you might want to get rid of me in Olost. I wouldn’t blame you.” She knew she’d been a pain in his ass for the entire time he’d been in the pits with her. They were no longer going to be forced together by circumstance and an alliance for safety.
They don’t need me anymore.
Everything she knew was based on a life she didn’t have anymore. One she refused to go back to. She would die before she was dragged back into those pits to live that lonely life.
“Freedom changes people. You never know. You might not need us as much as you think you do.” Truer words had never been said.
She had no idea.
He ran a hand over her wings and she shivered from the touch. The Andinna never touched each other’s wings, since they were somewhat sensitive. They had to be so they could read the air currents. As it was, the bonds had always chafed and itched them.
All of that told her the touch was supposed to be intimate reassurance.
They could hear water finally. Mave felt like she’d been walking for hours. As they left the forest to reveal the river, she could see the hazy tint of dawn breaking.
A dawn that should have been her last.
As Matesh had reminded her, it could still be her last.
“Luykas! You found them?” a male called out. She found the Andinna who spoke on the pier. He was a standard male Andinna, with the black features that all their people came with. He had a strikingly similar face to Luykas though. She would have guessed they were relatives.
“I did! Mave, meet Alchan, my partner in leading the Ivory Shadows.”
The moment he said that, more Andinna showed up, climbing off the large boat and down to the pier. A couple flew, landing roughly, feet thumping on the wooden pier. Rainev was laughing as a few caught him, roughing up his hair and hugging him. Zayden watched with an annoyed smile. Matesh found the oldest male in the group, obviously past his prime, and hugged him tightly.
Mave just stood awkwardly as Luykas and Alchan walked over to her, leveling her under weighty stares, unusual gold and a rare Andinna amber. She even shifted her wings, trying to make them comfortable. Everyone had their wings slightly open, but she kept hers tight to her back, since they had always been that way.
“Mave is General Lorren’s daughter. The Champion. She was real, like our contact had told us. She was our boys’ ally in the pits, as they’re called. The tunnels under the Colosseum where most of the Andinna gladiators live. Rainev explained some of it to me, but not much past what we didn’t already know.” Luykas motioned to her.
Alchan kept his amber eyes locked on her and extended his hand.
She had seen the Andinna handshake to know what he wanted, but she had never been one to touch strangers. She looked down at it until he began to pull it away then she took a chance. Matesh said he knew and trusted these males. If they were anything like him, they would aggravate her but she wouldn’t hate them.
She grabbed his elbow and met his gaze. “It’s nice to meet you. Forgive me for any oddness. I’ve spent a thousand years with Andinna who…” She wasn’t sure if she had the right to talk down about the other Andinna left in the pits.
“Rainev explained some of that too,” Luykas whispered. He leaned to Alchan and his voice stayed low, keeping the conversation private. “They didn’t trust her, didn’t treat her right, didn’t teach her anything about our people. She’s plain-faced because they wanted her to be.” His eyes went back on her. “Rainev said there was more you would need to tell us in your own time.”
“There is. I’ll put it lightly. I’m not sure I’m comfortable being on a boat in the water with no way out, surrounded only by males.” That was hard for her to admit. The pits had places to hide, had securities she had earned over years of hard work. But this was a new, potentially dangerous situation. It was best they knew not to mess with her, or bodies would start dropping - and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop herself. Not after the last few days she’d had.
I probably wouldn’t realize I’d killed any of them until after it was done.
“It’s the only way to get all of us out of the Empire.” Alchan’s tone wasn’t gentle, but still not cold or angry like it could have been. It didn’t have any pity in it, either. “We need to get on the boat and get moving.”
“We do. This long journey isn’t over by a long shot. We need to smuggle three gladiator slaves out of the Empire.”
“We need to smuggle ten Andinna out of the Empire,” Alchan corrected, turning away and walking back to the boat as he spoke. “Everyone load up!”
Luykas didn’t move. He just watched her. She stared him down.
“Do you know what I’m mixed with?” he asked softly. “What makes me a mutt?”
“I have a guess,” she answered. There was only one race that had pure gold eyes and they were rare, that molten hot gold.
“Will it be a problem?”
“No.” She hoped, anyway.
Then again, she had no idea if he was more Andinna or more Elvasi in nature. Either could prove dangerous for her based on her experience. She had no idea what a mix of those two races could mean for her.
“Let me escort you onto the boat,” he said, offering an arm.
She looked down at his arm and a bit of her stubbornness flashed through her. “No, thank you. I know how to walk up a ramp.” She walked past him and towards the boat, ignoring the stares of the other males. She wasn’t an invalid. She was just thrown for a loop. The night had brought some huge changes in her life.
But she could walk herself onto the boat, and she did. She was on the deck when Matesh caught up to her, stopping her before she could go find a place to hunker down and wait.
“Let me introduce you to my uncle. Bodrya, this is Mave. Mave, this is my uncle, Leshaun. My real uncle, not adopted.”
She shook hands with the aging male, who had a firmer grip than she had expected. He looked her up and down, nodding in appreciation. It didn’t seem sexual at all, but rather, he was judging her on other merits, ones she didn’t know. His pale green eyes, one nearly white from blindness, were still calculating and intelligent, even with his age. He was probably over five thousand years old. Ancient by the idea of the short-lived races, but then, so was she. He was old even to the Andinna.
“Glad to finally see and meet you. Thank you for taking care of Matesh and Rainev in the pits.” The words were full of emotion and respect.
I don’t deserve this. “I could have done better,” she admitted. “I failed them in the end.”
“You didn’t fail anyone,” Matesh cut in, giving her a glare. “She didn’t, Leshaun. She fought like a beast when we were in danger. It's why we ended up in so much trouble.”
“What made you fight so hard?” the old male asked her, ignoring his nephew’s energy. He remained calm, a little soft-spoken.
“I never had any allies before. I wasn’t losing the two who finally gave me a chance.” She didn’t see any reason to lie to the old male. She didn’t want to get into it further, though, pulling her forearm away from him.
“Can anyone tell me exactly how you all got into so much trouble?” Alchan asked it, walking up. “One day we were planning an escape for next week, then suddenly, we’ve got a change in schedule where she was supposed to fight you two today. And with the track record she has, we couldn’t let that fucking happen.”
Mave looked to the deck, hoping she didn’t draw attention to herself. Yeah. The Empress had been hoping her track record would prove consistent as well.
“She got injured. We all got separated. The other gladiators took advantage of that. It was a well-executed hit to kill us all and get rid of the Empress’ favorites, or something,” Matesh answered, turning to see his leader.
“It was messed up in the pits, Alchan. None of you would have liked the males down there.”
“He’s got most of it right,” she agreed. “There wasn’t much else. Let’s say that meeting me and convincing me to be their ally wasn’t in their best interests, but it’s what happened.”
“I’ll explain what I got from Rain about it later,” Luykas whispered to Alchan as he walked by. His eyes went over her again as he said that. “We need to get moving though, like you said, Alchan.”
“You’re right. Everyone gather around!” Alchan called out, suddenly becoming more of a military commander than he’d been. She jumped a little at the change in tone. He stood, tall and stiff, while Luykas leaned on a rail behind him. The difference between them was startling, but she still felt they were probably related. Their faces were too similar. They had the same type of horns that went out the sides of their head and up.
She stayed glued to Matesh’s side. Rainev was with his father, talking about something. She didn’t know any of the others, and those she had met weren’t making the best of impressions.
“To get here, we traveled at night and docked to sleep during the days. You’ll notice we have Empire flags, which gives us leeway. You’ll also notice this is too small to be a seafaring vessel. We will be meeting with our friends in Myrsten, boarding their ship and getting out of here as cargo.” Alchan looked back to Luykas, who shrugged. When he turned back to them, he sighed. “I’m getting ahead of myself. It’ll take two days to get down the Myriar, at a steady, safe pace, but we can push it into one day if we go hard enough. We’re going to go hard. We’re going to work on a skeleton crew with most of you hiding below deck unless we need you to come up to defend the ship. We’ll arrive in Myrsten at night and board our friends’ ship under the cloak of darkness. They will leave as soon as we’re all on board. They are doing us a huge favor, so let’s not get any of them killed.” Alchan pointed to a few of the males. “Varon and Nevyn, you’ll be up here with me for the first shift. When night falls, Luykas, Leshaun, and Brynec will take over.”
The Gladiator's Downfall Page 26
