He didn’t like the answer. The Empress’ lover and her son, playing games like that with an Andinna. He had personal experience with one of them. It had never gone well when he ran into the Lord either.
“And…” Luykas tried to find a way to learn more. He needed to know more. “You said she was never given a chance. That the other males of the pits totally made her an outcast. Full on ensam. That’s why she’s plain-faced.” There was a chance she was plain-faced because she rejected her people. Luykas really needed to make sure that wasn’t the case. Then he couldn’t help her at all.
“Yeah. They didn’t even tell her the right word. She barely remembers anything of our language. We’ve been teaching her little bits and pieces. She eats them up, too. You can see a bit of fire flare in her eyes when you give her something new.” Rain chuckled sadly. “She didn’t have a single chance of truly knowing her people before meeting us. Shit, she doesn’t know how to read or write the languages she can speak.”
An outcast through no fault of her own? I can work with that. Maybe in freedom, we can find her a place where she isn’t.
“So, she’s desperate for more,” Luykas mumbled. He could give her that, too. More information. He understood the want to know, the need to understand his people. He stood on the line, knowing too much about both and not enough of either. He’d been there once.
“I wouldn’t say just the knowledge, Luykas. She’s an Andinna who has been alone. Little things to us changed her fucking world, I think. She didn’t…doesn’t know what to do with them. Being rescued? Her entire world is thrown off its axis.” Matesh groaned. “She spent a thousand years changing and adapting to what was needed for her to survive to the next day. She never thought this was going to happen, in her wildest dreams. No, that isn’t right. She didn’t dream, Luykas. She never allowed herself that. Everything she had, she had to earn, fight for, bleed for. Nothing has ever been just given to her. Not like this.”
“So, she knows very little, doesn’t fit in, is generally hated by other enslaved Andinna in Elliar, and has zero confidence. What can she do?”
“Kill. Efficiently. Violently. Fast or slow. Against one opponent or many. She can use a blade, and she’s fast as lightning. She doesn’t hesitate.” Matesh’s voice was full of respect at that. “She deserves the fear she got from the other gladiators, because she doesn’t fear anyone when she has a sword in her hand.”
“Hesitation didn’t help her survive.” Luykas was putting it together now. He and Alchan would be able to find a place for her now, hopefully one she could be happy with. “Moving on. The horn. Broken in one of the jumps?”
“Yeah,” Matesh grumbled. “Whoever broke it fucking kept it too. I’ll live. Just a horn.”
“Someone has grown up from his time in the pits,” Luykas teased lightly. “Not worried the females back home are going to think you’re damaged goods now?” He would have been, before he got taken.
Luykas wanted to get nosy, though, his smile growing.
“She doesn’t mind it,” Rain added in, a grin splitting out. Luykas loved that kid. “I wonder if she finds it better than the perfect shit you’ve always had going for you.”
“We haven’t…” Matesh shook his head. “You know, this is normally when I would tell everyone about how I’ve done this or that, but you know what? Not this time.” Matesh stood up and began to walk away.
“Your uncle wants to see you. I’m done. I’m going to keep Rainev for a moment.”
He watched Matesh glance at Rainev, who paled a little. Luykas hated what he was about to do. Rainev was great at telling him Matesh’s story, and Mave’s. Not his own. Matesh must have realized this as well.
Matesh left the room, leaving it heavy.
“Rain-”
“Luykas, you’re a nosy ass,” Rain growled. “A nosy bodrya.”
“When one of my men goes through something awful, I need to know. I need to know if you need time to heal and rest. I need to know if we’re going to have someone waking up screaming from nightmares. You were jumped, alone, by a group of males who have seemed to disregard everything about our people. If I have to go wake up Mave to get her to tell me what they intended to do to you, then I will.”
I shouldn’t be such an ass, but I can’t help him if I don’t know.
“Don’t tell my father,” he mumbled, collapsing in on himself.
Luykas reached out and ran a hand over the young male’s hair. “I’m not going to tell anyone. Not even Alchan. Not this.”
Rain began to talk more. How the other males looked at him, and how he knew Mave’s own history in the pits. How he fought the gryphon, and won. Luykas was proud of that. He knew Zayden was too. A gryphon taken on alone was dangerous, doubly so since he couldn’t fly and meet it on an even playing field.
Then he was dragged into a room. They had taunted him for being younger and smaller. How he was probably a bitch for Matesh. They had shoved him around. They’d beaten him. They’d kicked him to the ground.
“Mave and Matesh got there right on time,” he whispered. “Right on time.”
“To stop a rape,” Luykas whispered back. He said it as gently as he could, but he couldn’t let it be unsaid. “But not to stop them violating you. Your spirit, your sense of safety, your belief in the good of people, the good of our people.” Luykas knew all about it.
“Fuck, Luykas. I’ve been trying to just not think about it, okay? We’re out now. We’ll never see them again. I know those males were fucked in the head. I know the pits had twisted them, broke them in ways that free Andinna don’t have to worry about. They haven’t robbed me of my ability to trust all of you. You all raised me. But I’ll take the time off. This was hard, Luykas. Skies, it was hard.”
“Good. You can stay in one of the villages, let some females pamper you a little.” They loved to pamper Rainev. And it would put you out of danger, danger none of us ever wanted you to be in.
“You’re really not going to tell anyone?” he asked softly.
“No.” Luykas would never betray his adopted bodyra like that.
“Thank you.” Rainev groaned. “He’d never let me leave Olost if he knew.”
“He loves you, and take it from me, I would rather have the overprotective father than the one who never asked to begin with.” Luykas patted the young male’s head, ruffling his hair a little as he did. “I’m going to go let the others down now. They’ve been giving me a moment to talk to you all.”
“I’m going to crash in the same room as Mave.” Rainev got up and left him at that, his arms crossed protectively over his chest.
Luykas sighed, rubbing his neck. This was a shit-show, but at least they had everyone back. Now they just needed to get out of the Empire and not come back for a long time. A very long time.
He went above deck and whistled, letting everyone know that those off-duty could come down. He quickly got out of the way as they all tried to shove through the door. Matesh snarled, so everyone backed away to let Leshaun go in first. Then Matesh, so Leshaun had a stronger arm as he went down the stairs. Not that the older Andinna needed the arm, but he liked his nephew doting on him. A proud warrior, and respected enough to earn some help with his bad knees and not feel like an invalid from the help.
Luykas had missed Matesh dealing with his uncle.
“Alchan,” he called out. With everyone going below, he could talk to Alchan for a moment. If Alchan was feeling talkative.
“Luykas,” Alchan replied, looking up from the lines he was tying. “We’re well on our way now. We haven’t passed another boat yet on the river, so that’s working in our favor. We’re on track to meet our friends tomorrow night-”
“That’s all fine. I have all the details from the group of them.” Luykas waved a dismissive hand. He smiled sadly at Alchan, who glowered in return. “It’s not good. The broken horn is the least of the damage.”
“Why was she screaming? The collar? Maybe you should have left it on until we got out
of the Empire. She could have given away our position.”
Luykas shoved his hands in his pockets, to wait for Alchan to realize how that wasn’t okay of him to say. It never happened. They just stood in silence for a long time. Alchan was all business, all the time. The mission wasn’t a success until they were all out, and Alchan wasn’t going to let anything go wrong, even in the quietest of moments.
Brother, one day you’re going to meet someone who breaks you, and I’m going to laugh.
“No, I wasn’t going to leave the collar on her any longer. The damage from it was severe, and it needs to start healing. Nine hundred years since they took it off or replaced it. One of the longest I’ve seen on. Just a little too tight. It was done to slowly hurt her, that’s for sure.” Luykas waved a hand. “Moving on. We have our wyvern back. He’s fine. I’ve learned a lot more about Lorren’s daughter. Like Matesh is half in love with her.”
“Matesh? Matesh is with her? Are you sure?” Alchan crossed his arms, waiting for Luykas to give him more. Then he shook his head. “I can’t believe that it’s her, or that Matesh is into her. Her. Alive. It is her. Only she got her father’s eyes. Neither of her brothers had them. She’s the right age, in the right place. She has her mother’s face.”
“It was easy outside the Empire, to think she was dead and that there had to be a different female who was this grand Champion of the Colosseum. I think we spent too long convincing ourselves it was just propaganda.” Luykas shrugged. He’d always sort of believed in the myth. It was something the Empress would do. “Sadly, we were wrong. General Lorren would be disgraced to know we never came to check out the rumors. Saved his daughter.”
“Is that why you pushed for us to save her when I thought it was just going to get us in more trouble?” Alchan growled at him. “General Lorren is dead. He’s been dead for a thousand years. It’s not like he was our father or anything.”
“He was the only father we had,” Luykas snapped back. “Yes, that’s why I pushed to save her. I’m glad I did. Let me explain exactly how bad the damage is, Alchan. Daughter of our last general, daughter of the man who taught us everything we know - and she doesn’t remember us. Or her people. Or her language. She’s spent centuries in the pits with males who would rather rape or kill her than give her a mayara. Or her tatua. Who made her live in such fear that she dropped the fear and did everything she needed to survive without a single shred of guilt for doing any of it.”
“I figured she didn’t remember us.” Alchan snorted. “She was a babe when we met her. When he paraded her in front of us and his men, excited his wife had brought them a daughter. Like three years old. She couldn’t even hover with those little wings.”
Of course. Bring up the happiest day of the General’s life, having a moment to show off his little girl. You fucking dickwad of a brother.
“We left her there, Alchan. We should have been here the moment her name was whispered as a gladiator of the Colosseum, instead of just passing it off as more propaganda from the Empress.” He felt an indescribable guilt over it. He’d promised General Lorren to remain loyal to his people for as long as possible. So had Alchan. But they had never moved themselves in any way to free their General’s daughter. They barely moved themselves to save anyone anymore outside those who were easy to help.
“I agree, but I won’t live in this bubble of guilt like you, Luykas. We have men who have relied on us for centuries. We have duties in Olost and Zira to our free people. We had other things that were always more pressing than a dangerous mission based on a rumor. We have her now. We got our men back and we saved Maevana Lorren, just like our now-dead General would have asked of us. Sure, it took a thousand years, but we’ve done it.”
“He did ask us,” Luykas reminded him, trying to remain passive. “If you have forgotten, please remember those were his dying words, Alchan.”
“Then we lost the war, Luykas! Our Royal Family was slaughtered thousands of clicks away in the capital, in their fucking beds. We were scrambling to find anywhere to go, any way to survive, to keep as many of our people free as we could. Something like eighty percent of our people are slaves.”
They stared at each other for a moment, Alchan’s a glare. A battle for dominance between equals. Normally they could hold it until someone got in between them. Alchan was the one who broke the stare this time.
“We’ll continue this later,” Luykas told him, knowing he’d won. Alchan could say whatever he wanted, but eventually, he’d fall to the same guilt Luykas felt. He couldn’t cover it up forever. “Then we need to figure out what to do with her.”
“Drop her in the nearest village and let her two friends visit her on occasion, when they take leave. I see the wheels turning in your mind, Luykas. I don’t know what you’re scheming, but can we please keep this simple? You’ve been doing really well not making this any more complicated than it has to be. I gave you her freedom at the risk of our own men.”
“We needed to save her too, if we wanted that guard’s help…remember?” Luykas slapped Alchan’s shoulder. “Stop making it sound like it wasn’t beneficial. It made getting them out of the pits, and the city, easier. Those two, who were in it to help her, gave their chance to escape up too. Now we’re on our way out of the Empire with everything we came for.”
Alchan glared at him again. “Get below. I’ll come get you when we change shifts.” Luykas growled at Alchan and turned away. He was grabbed before he could leave. “You know her life isn’t going to get easier, right? Free Andinna might not blame her for the war ending, they might not blame her for what she’s supposedly done in the Colosseum…but she’s still the reason General Lorren put our army in the worst place it could be. She’s still the reason our Queen let him. They won’t blame the war on her, but they will say she was the reason the General lost our homeland.”
Luykas tried to put that out of his mind. He would help her. He knew the pain of living in between two worlds for so long, alone. He was smart enough to help her like her father would have wanted.
“You don’t give me orders, Alchan,” Luykas whispered. “You don’t make all the decisions for this Company. Before we get back to Olost, we need to get on the same page about her. We owe her.”
“We owed her father.” Alchan’s face was hard.
“You keep telling yourself that,” Luykas said, pulling away. They owed her. Certainly, they did owe her father, and her brothers, but they also owed her.
He went back below deck and glared at Brynec as the rogue looked over the slave collars.
“Don’t play with those. If you accidentally put one on, I’ll leave it there until I think you’ve learned your lesson.” Luykas was feeling out of patience with all of them.
“I figure we can sell ‘em,” Brynec mumbled absentmindedly, still holding one and looking over the intricate designs on it. “They’re pure silver. We could melt ‘em down. That should destroy the magic in ‘em. I’ll need to clean this one though.” He poked the one Mave had been wearing with a finger, looking disgusted by it. It was fairly gruesome on the inside. “Easy money for this trip, since we sank a bunch of resources into it. Plus, gets ‘em some use since we don’t want ‘em goin’ back to the Empire and have no use for ‘em otherwise.”
Luykas considered that and nodded. “Okay, Bryn. Just don’t put one on or anything stupid. Or on anyone else.”
I’ll need to keep an eye out. These guys would all probably get a laugh out of it, and it would happen at the worst time.
“Perfect. I’ll get ‘em clean and we can melt ‘em down when we get back to Olost.” Brynec grinned, picking up the collars. “I’ll keep ‘em safe. No worries.”
Luykas didn’t say anything to that. Brynec was very money-oriented. He had a mind for numbers and keeping them financially afloat.
He wandered into the back towards the rooms. He whispered a small spell and followed the tiny light to where it bounced in front of a door. He opened it slowly and looked at the occupants. Mave and
Rainev were both asleep.
She shifted as he walked in and sat in the sole chair of the room.
He had wanted to free her because he owed her family. Her father had given him a place in their people, even when he was the worst type of mutt possible. With the worst father and mother possible. With the worst history surrounding his birth possible.
He could do that for her. It was the only way he could think to repay the debt. Now that he knew how desperately she wanted to know her people, he was going to do his best to give her a place among them. Alchan didn’t understand how terribly lonely it was to be withdrawn from the people you most related to, and he never could, being a purebred Andinna.
“What do you want?” he asked softly as Matesh walked in.
“What do you want?” he retorted. “I’m here to keep an eye on them, like I have for nearly a month. You’re the one being weird. Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep for the night shift?”
“I was thinking,” Luykas answered, looking slowly at the male.
“You’re always thinking. The most Elvasi thing about you, if one could ignore the sorcery. Think somewhere else. She doesn’t know you and won’t trust you up in her space like this.”
“I can handle that,” he mumbled absentmindedly, waving Matesh away.
“Get. Out.” Matesh snapped, holding the door open. Luykas sighed. Yes, Mat was her mayara now.
“Does she know what a mayara is? If she doesn’t, and she probably doesn’t, tell her.”
He left before Mat could say anything.
24
Mave
A hard rock of the boat woke her, and Mave jerked quickly up to look around frantically. She grabbed onto the sheets, holding on as it continued to sway harder than it had before. She tried to stand, but her stomach turned uncomfortably.
The Gladiator's Downfall Page 28
