“I did. A Clan-member who was tired of Zira and the tribal warfare that ravages those people. Official marriage isn’t an Andinna thing, but she wanted something of her people with me. I married her under the eyes of her gods.” Zayden’s entire personality shifted as he spoke of her. Something gentle took him over, his eyes becoming unfocused. Mave knew that look. The other gladiators would get lost in their memories just the same way. Dreaming of times past as if it changed the world they lived in. Zayden refocused, his eyes sharp. “She passed away a long time ago.”
She figured that, since Rain was over three hundred years old. None of the short-lived races lived over a century. The dwarves sat in a middle ground like mutts, living to nearly three thousand, but no one lived as long as the Andinna and Elvasi.
The conversation disappeared as the two males began to play cards. She watched and slowly picked up the rules until Mat decided to deal her in.
They felt the boat stop and Mave stood up with the others, ignoring the hand of cards in front of her. “Why did we stop?” she asked Zayden, hoping he had the answer.
“I don’t know…” he answered quietly. He headed up the stairs to the deck and she moved to follow. Matesh stopped her.
“We have-”
“You need to stay below deck. People are looking for you, Mave.”
She considered that reasoning then shook her head, pulling away. “We need to help them fight if they need it.”
“They would have called a warning if it came to that.” Matesh was stern. “In the pits, I trusted your judgment. Trust mine now.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. He had a point. He had listened and learned to survive her world, and now she was in his. Covert operations, sneaking through enemy territory. This was what the Ivory Shadows did. They were so well-known for it that the Empress had bounties on their heads so high that some thought she was crazy.
“I think we hide here for the rest of the day and then move again at night. We’re approaching a busy area and things could get ugly if we just float through when everyone can see us.” That stern voice was Alchan. She looked up the stairs and he stood in the doorway. She could see the bright afternoon sun behind him. He turned and saw her, frowning. “You’re awake. I figured you would be out for another day.”
“It’s easy to knock her out of the healing sleep,” Matesh called up. “The rapids did it. We’ve been playing Wyverns.”
“Damn kid’s game.” Alchan snorted. “Really, Zayden? When are you going to stop playing that? Rainev has been playing poker for two centuries.”
“I was teaching her the cards,” Zayden snapped back.
“He’s got excuses!” a male laughed. “Get in so we can all camp out down here until the sun goes down.”
Alchan walked down the stairs, followed by three other males. Zayden was obvious, but she hadn’t met the other two yet. They looked her over as she did them. They weren’t quite purebreds. One had a dark emerald tone to his coloring and the other was a dark, deep red. They both sported the black hair and eyes, though, and the large, masculine build.
“What kind of mutts are you?” she asked them, tilting her head.
“We’re not. Not half-breeds, anyway,” one answered, his eyes locking on hers. They were a common yellow-orange, a knock off of the rarer amber color Alchan had.
“But your coloring…” She was now incredibly confused. Off-coloring made them mutts.
“Oh, you’ve never…” He frowned. “Only the purest Andinna have black wings and horns. About a third of our people have a little bit of something else thrown in, though. It throws our coloring off, even if we have regular lifespans. I’m part-human about five generations back. Varon here is part-Clan, nearly seven generations back and doesn’t have the ability to shift. Eventually, our lines will become pure enough again for the black. But all of our parents lived full life-spans. So sure, we’re technically mutts, but not really. Black is dominant too, so any kids might get the right coloring.”
She wondered if she had just always passed them off as mutts, if she had the chance to know this earlier, but missed out on the knowledge.
“Mave, meet Nevyn and Varon,” Mat cut in quickly. He pointed to them respectively. The one with the dark red wings and yellow-orange eyes was Nevyn. The dark green one was Varon and he had green jasper eyes. “They’re good guys.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said, daring to extend her hand first this time. Nevyn smiled kindly and grabbed her forearm near the elbow, allowing her to grab his. The shake was strong and friendly, none of Alchan’s stiffness in it. Varon peeked around next and extended his hand without a word.
“Nice to meet you too, Mave.” Nevyn was still smiling as he walked around her. “Oh, excuse Varon. He’s a mute. He knows a form of hand signing to speak. I can teach it to you if you want. Everyone in the Company knows it so Varon doesn’t need me always translating for him.”
Varon did a few weird hand signs at that. Mave furrowed her brows. There was even more for her to learn. She would. This form of silent communication was probably a strong skill in battle. It only required line of sight.
“What did you mean by the black is dominant?” she asked quickly, going back to the talk of generations, mutts, and Andinna coloring.
“Like, if I had a kid with a female with black wings. There’s a higher chance the babe has black wings, but not certain. The biggest thing to look for in a mutt? The eyes. An Andinna with a full life-span will have the black eyes. Ignore all the other attributes. Sometimes someone just throws back to an odd color, but it’s not a big deal.”
“Like Rain has white eyes,” she mumbled to herself, considering that. “That’s odd.”
“It’s the way we are,” Nevyn responded, moving further away. “She’s got a lot to learn, Alchan.”
“Apparently,” he muttered back, staring at her. She felt that insecurity run through her again. She repeated her promise to herself. She would learn everything when they were out of the Empire. She would listen to all they said, and she would dedicate her time to reclaiming all the knowledge she was never granted. “Do you know what a mayara is?”
“No,” she answered honestly. She’d never heard the term before.
“Well, when you do learn, please understand that we aren’t that.” Alchan said nothing more after that, walking out of the small dining area and into the tiny hallway.
“He’s such an ass,” Nevyn chuckled out.
“A mayara is a unit of males who dedicate themselves to a female. An Andinna family unit, really.” Zayden was the one who gave her the explanation she was hoping for. “More specifically, it means the husbands and lovers of a female, but can be looser to include brothers, fathers, and even male friends who have no other females to watch over. It also includes any children the female has who haven’t reached maturity.”
“Oh!” She liked that word. A mayara. It had a nice ring to it and she felt like she’d heard the word before. “My father would have been in my mother’s mayara, then.”
“Your father was your mother’s mayara. She only took one husband in her life. Your brothers, who never married, were also considered members. When the war started, they returned to live with your parents. They were also in yours, being a babe at the time,” Luykas’ gentle voice said as he walked in with Alchan.
She looked at him, almost upset with his words. He knew more about her family than she did, so much more. It wasn’t fair. She should have known those things. She should be able to recall her father’s face, or her brothers. She could only remember the hazy details of her mother, only on that last day. It was like that was the day her life started and ended. The next thing she could remember was Elliar, her first slave collar, and being trained in her duties as a handmaiden.
“Why are you awake?” Mat asked, ignoring the conversation about mayaras and family, her family.
“I don’t answer to you,” Luykas replied, chuckling. “I’m awake because Alchan hates me. Obviously.”
That brought laughter out of all the males except Alchan, who just glowered at the half-breed. “I don’t hate you. We need to talk about tonight.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Luykas groaned. “You stopped us here because we moved faster than you expected. We’re hiding until the sun goes down. Then I take over and get us through the trading point here at the fork.” He sighed and looked at her again. A small smile came over his face again, a mischievous one. “He hates me. You would think he wouldn’t hate his only brother so much, but here we are.”
“I don’t hate you, damnit.” Alchan growled, looking between them. He stopped on her and pointed to Luykas. “Don’t believe a damn thing he says. Really.”
“I figured you were related,” she said, looking between them. “Your bone structure is the same, like only the coloring is wrong between you.”
“Smart female,” Luykas praised, nodding appreciatively. “Most see Alchan and me and don’t figure it out quickly. They see all my white and think there’s no way he’s my brother. You could say they get blinded by it. It doesn’t help we were born within a year of each other.”
“They aren’t observant enough then,” she said, shrugging. She had learned to people-watch after years of loneliness. To her, the differences and similarities between them were more obvious than just the color of their features. “I’m going to go lie back down.” The room had gotten too crowded for her and her neck was beginning to burn and itch, probably from moving her head and neck too much. She touched it gently, something Luykas must have noticed.
He grabbed her wrist and looked over the bandages. “They haven’t closed up yet. You must not have fallen into a good healing sleep. We have something to help with that.” He snapped his fingers with his other hand. “Nevyn, the potion in the blue bottle please.”
“I’ll be fine.” She tried to pull away but he held her. She didn’t want to be drugged, but she didn’t have the energy to get away from him. She didn’t like that he’d grabbed her either. She wanted it to stop.
“Let her go, Luykas,” Matesh warned.
“It’s a tiny sleeping potion. It’ll make it harder to wake you up. You shouldn’t even be walking around.” Luykas grabbed the potion from Nevyn as soon as it was close. He held it up in front of her. “If you’re having a hard time, just a drop of this on the tongue and you’ll be out for a few more hours. It’ll help speed the healing since it’ll put you in a deeper sleep. Only a drop though. Can’t have you putting yourself into a coma.”
“Stop coddling the female,” his brother growled. “She said she’s fine.”
“Females tend to be lying when they say that,” Nevyn mumbled.
Are they really talking about me while I stand right here? I’m not deaf.
“I’m more worried about Luykas touching her. Let her go.” Mat was still growling, that rumble from his chest that meant he was serious.
Mave stared at the potion, then the gold eyes of the half-breed. He seemed like he just wanted to help. He seemed concerned. She took the bottle with no intention of using it, but she knew it would stop the discussion faster than her trying to convince him it was okay and that she didn’t need it.
“Get a good rest,” he murmured kindly, his fingers making circles over her skin. She only nodded, pulling away her wrist. She wondered why she hadn’t just attacked him like she had Bryn. Maybe it was how tired she was feeling suddenly.
“You ass,” Matesh snarled. “You fucking spelled her.”
“Of course not!” Luykas declared innocently.
She swayed.
“You obviously did,” Alchan commented mildly.
“She wasn’t going to use the potion. I think she needed some aided sleep.” Luykas shrugged in front of her, blurry. “She’ll thank me later.”
An arm grabbed her before she fell into the wall. It lifted her with ease.
She was going to have words with him when she woke up. They weren’t going to be ones of gratitude.
That was the last thought she had.
25
Mave
Mave woke up alone in the room, confused. She thought back to what happened. Luykas. Luykas had spelled her, the damned mutt, with sorcery. She pushed herself up, looking around. She was very alone. Rainev was no longer sleeping in the other bed and Mat wasn’t around either. She could hear soft laughter coming from another room, or maybe the dining area.
She struggled to get up, drowsy and disoriented. The door opened quickly and an arm grabbed her as she swayed.
“Whoa. It’s not an easy spell to get up from,” he whispered. She growled at the voice. It was his fault she was having a hard time.
“Fuck you, Luykas,” she mumbled, her words slurring. “I should gut you where you stand.”
“It was to help,” he insisted. “You’ll notice your neck should be nearly closed up now that you’ve gotten a good sleep.”
“What time is it?” she demanded, pushing him away. Matesh was in the door behind him. She recognized him even though her vision was still blurry. His green eyes stood out.
“Night is about to fall,” Luykas told her. “You should have been sleeping straight through the night. Odd that you’re awake, really.”
“She doesn’t stay down for long,” Matesh commented, shouldering Luykas out of the way, making the mutt chuckle. “Are you okay?”
“I’m pissed off,” she snapped. “You ever do that to me again, mutt, and I’ll kill you. I hate being drugged. I can’t wake up if anything happens when I’m drugged.” She’d had some awful things happen to her when she couldn’t wake up. “I can’t protect myself.”
“Ah…I’m sorry. I…” Luykas seemed paler than usual. He looked at the ground, confused and upset. “I guess I wasn’t thinking.”
“Guess not,” she growled.
“I warned you she would be furious with you,” Matesh snarled as well. “You can’t just do that to people, Luykas. Not strangers.”
“I’m not sure how I didn’t think about your life when I decided to try and help. My apologies, Mave. It won’t happen again. I’m normally much more thoughtful.” He sounded so formal and bowed his head to her. Then he spun and left them in the room.
“He really is,” Matesh sighed out as the door closed. “I’m not sure what got into him when he pulled that stunt.”
Is he really trying to convince me to not be upset? “I don’t care,” she hissed. “It better not happen again.”
“Luykas is very good at not repeating his mistakes,” Mat promised. “I’ve spent all afternoon and evening berating him for it.” He gently ran a hand over her shoulder. “Why do you keep waking up?”
“I’m on a boat full of Andinna males, in a situation I’m unfamiliar with. I guess my body just wants me up as fast as it can so I know I’m safe.” She shrugged, knowing she was right. None of them were threatening her, or whispering about what they could do to her. Aside from Luykas trying to be helpful, none of them were outwardly dangerous. But that didn’t ease the small nagging anxiety in the back of her mind, the anxiety she had been ignoring all afternoon.
She also had never slept very long. There was that too.
“I’m not sure how to get you comfortable. Me, you, and Rain…we were in a vastly different situation.”
“I had control,” she reminded him. “In the pits, I knew what to do, how to do it, the rules of engagement, and the politics between me and the rest of the gladiators. I don’t know any of that here.”
And it’s terrifying.
“That’s a solid point. Speaking of Rainev, he’s out there right now if you want to go see him.”
“I do,” she admitted softly. She wanted to stay close to the ones she knew. They left the bedroom together and walked into the dining area. Rainev was laughing at something with his father, who looked happier around his son than he had before. Rain looked up at her and grinned. “Hey, big sister. Come sit down and listen to my father regale you with tales of my stupid youth.”
“I thought males didn’t want embarrassing stories told about them,” she replied, sitting down next to him. Their shoulders touched as they nearly leaned into each other.
“Well, Matesh maybe wouldn’t, since he’s trying to impress someone, but I don’t care.” Rain was still grinning as Mat glared down at him.
“I’ve got stories about him too if you want to hear them,” Zayden said, chuckling.
“Please don’t,” Mat mumbled, sitting down next to the young father.
“They’re all probably stories of him being aggravating, which I would believe without question,” she teased, a smile coming over her own face. This felt better. Just the four of them. With Rainev, Zayden didn’t seem as abrasive, and he was the one who kept trying to tell her new things, even when she didn’t ask, which she appreciated.
“I like you more and more,” Zayden choked out, laughing. “I like her. Keep her.” He said that last bit to Matesh, who rocked when Zayden elbowed him. He was glaring at her and she smiled back.
“I’m considering it,” he answered.
She stopped chuckling to herself and went silent, looking into those emerald eyes. She wasn’t sure what startled her more. That he would even consider keeping her or that he would consider not keeping her.
Her cheeks heated and she looked away. It was one thing to joke and know there was a sexual attraction between them that would eventually come to a head. It was another to think there was something worth keeping. It was something that hadn’t even happened yet.
“Wait, wouldn’t it be ‘keep him’ since Mave is the female?” Rain asked it, but it was Mave who desperately wanted the answer. How did relationships even really work for them? She’d never…
She didn’t finish that train of thought. She already knew the long list of things she had never done.
“I mean, yeah, but don’t finish explaining that to her or Matesh is going to find himself bedless. I mean, who wants to keep him once they’re done with him?” Zayden joked, grinning at his son. Rain was howling with laughter at that answer but she just looked at Mat, tilting her head at him. He sighed heavily, glaring at Zayden for what he’d said. As the laughter of the father and son died, Zayden gave a happy sigh, grinning at her. “Yes. Really, you would be keeping him. He could want it until he’s blue in the face but it’s your choice. And, here’s something good: if you get tired of him but don’t want to lose him, you can always just get a second lover. Or a third. Or however many you want.”
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