The Gladiator's Downfall

by Kristen Banet

  Damn the Skies, what are you doing, you ass? You’re going to get us recaptured. I can’t go back. I just can’t. I’ll gut them if it comes to it - just let me go.

  “Fucking animals, you Andinna. In a dirty alleyway and everything. Go back to your owner. Don’t have time-”

  “A female is there with you? We need to see her. Now.” A different guard. A smarter one.

  “No, you don’t,” he answered, a smile coming over his face. He moved her head to the side, so she couldn’t even try and glance at the soldiers. She heard the armor of them growing even closer.

  “Now!” Alchan snapped from somewhere nearby.

  “What?” the first guard said, confused.

  Zayden was off her in a second, spinning as he pulled a dagger. He stabbed the guard in the gut twice then slit his throat.

  Mave didn’t move as she watched the bodies of the guards drop. She didn’t even have a chance to pull a weapon. They were all dead before she had the chance to understand what was happening. “You used me for a trap.”

  “Forgot you didn’t know our hand signs yet. When Bryn waved, it meant to scramble and hide. You didn’t move fast enough. I had to think of something.” Zayden spread his arms. “Sorry. There wasn’t time to explain.”

  She just nodded in response. It was a smart move.

  “We have to keep moving,” Luykas said quietly. “Let’s go. Bryn, lead the way.”

  “Aye,” he agreed, and suddenly they were off again, and she was back in the pack, trying to get out of the city.

  They continued moving. In the dark, she was happy she could see. The alleys they went through grew narrower at some points, forcing them to go in a single line. At others, they could bunch up, sometimes three people wide.

  “ANDINNA!” a feminine voice screamed. Mave’s head snapped up, along with the others. An Elvasi was standing in her window, pointing down at them. “Guards, they’re here!”

  Damned Elvasi whore.

  “Go!” Bryn snapped. “Go!”

  He pushed Alchan and Luykas ahead of him. Mave didn’t question it when Bryn motioned for her to go too. Already they could hear the running guards, coming closer with every step.

  They ran out of the alley, and Mave nearly ran into Alchan, who had his sword drawn. In less than a second, she registered that there were guards there as well. She pulled her own sword, moving around Alchan and Nevyn to assault one of the guards in their way. Behind her, she could hear fighting as well. People began to get loud around them. The area was no longer asleep because of the fighting.

  “Fuck! Bryn!”

  She spun around. What happened?

  Bryn was staggering back, snarling. Matesh pulled the rogue back further and shoved his blade into the soldier’s chest, through the metal armor.

  “All dead, let’s move!” Alchan ordered. “Bryn?”

  “I’ll be fine!” Bryn called. She didn’t like the red line over his side. It could be serious, very serious.

  “Are you sure?” she asked as they began to jog back into the dark, trying to get away from the area. If they could disappear back into the night, then they’d be fine. “How deep is it?”

  “It’s fine, little miss,” he answered. “Just keep your eyes forward. I’ll tend it when we’re on the ship out of here.”

  “You’re a bit pale,” she pressed. “Blood loss-”

  “Mave,” Mat called to her gently. “Leave it.”

  “I don’t want more people dying for this,” she replied.

  “Stop talking, all of you,” Alchan snapped. “Bryn, come back up to the lead. If someone needs to go down, let us know.”

  “Aye.”

  He left her side, leaving her with Mat and Varon.

  “How much further?” Alchan asked as they were deep in the nicer area of the city. Mave felt like it had been ages since they left the boat. They had been sneaking for what seemed like an eternity, far away from the scene of the previous fight.

  They all slowed down and stopped as Bryn sighed, seeming weak from his injury. He held a hand to his side and leaned on a wall. “Pier fifteen is on the other side of the city from where we came in. The piers are crawlin’ with soldiers, of course, which means I’ve needed to bring us around the long way.”

  “We don’t have time for the long way,” Alchan grumbled, leaning against a wall. “We’ll need to make a faster route.”

  “We don’t have time to fight the amount of soldiers crawlin’ around either. If you haven’t noticed, they’re on high alert. We’ll end up fightin’ the entire damn Navy. I’m already injured. They know we’re here. It’s a fuckin’ risk, Alchan.”

  “We’ll take the risk. You said it earlier: if we don’t get out by the time the sun comes up, we aren’t getting out.” Luykas was rubbing his face as he said it. “Quick vote. Fast or slow.”

  As the males all quickly whispered their vote, she said nothing. It wasn’t her Company. They probably didn’t want her opinion in it.

  “Mave?” Mat looked over to her. She looked around and noticed they were all staring at her.

  “Fast?” She questioned her own decision, but the idea of running through and getting to their way out faster appealed to her. What if I’m wrong? Bryn needs help but what if this is just worse on him?

  “Awesome, we all agree except Leshaun, Brynec and Varon.”

  Bryn and Varon rolled their eyes, while Leshaun just threw his hands up in defeat. Varon signed quickly, an angry expression on his face, to Nevyn, who grabbed the other male’s hands to stop it. “Don’t yell at me - you know the rules. We voted, we go.”

  Varon snatched his hands away and began signing again. It must have been insulting or funny since Bryn began to chuckle while Nevyn glared at those hands.

  “Fine, we’ll try not to get ourselves killed doing this.” Bryn shrugged, pulling his hand away from the wound. Red covered it. None of the other males said anything, but she had a feeling they all worried like she did over it. “Let’s move.”

  He led them down a road between patrols. As they moved, he ducked into another alley and she began to see what he meant. As she could smell the bay waters, that salty sea water she’d only heard about, the soldiers became more congested, filling the streets more effectively. They had to begin breaking the group up. She was up to run after Alchan across a street in one such case when he said something to her again.

  “When we get through with this, we’ll talk,” he muttered to her. She nodded in response. That would be good. Matesh and Rain worked for him, and she wanted to keep them in her new life of freedom. Alchan then became someone she was going to need to deal with. It rubbed her the wrong way but she would deal.

  Mave, he’s offering a chance to deal with it now. He’s already proving to be slightly better than Seventy-Two.

  He made his run across the street. She waited for Bryn to signal her and went fast. She didn’t like sneaking but she had some experience in it from her early days in the pits. When she was across, they waited for Matesh, who was last.

  “This blows,” Rain muttered as they continued on.

  “I agree,” she whispered back to him as they continued towards the pier.

  “Fuck,” Bryn snapped. She heard a small shout and steel crash together. She looked around Rain and saw Bryn lowering a dead guard to the ground. “Damn the fuckin’ Skies.” She watched him touch his wound again. And saw a new one on his arm.

  “Roger?” another guard called out.

  “We need to move.” Alchan waved them to continue while Bryn went for the second guard, dispatching him efficiently - but not soon enough.

  “HALT!” another Elvasi screamed out.

  “Move!” Luykas yelled, taking off down another alley.

  Bryn was still leading them, now at a breakneck pace. Now it was very reminiscent of her previous night in Elliar.

  “We’re close!” Bryn yelled back to them.

  She turned around for only a moment, to see guards following behind them. Mat a
lso glanced back, noticing she had. She made a quick decision. She stopped running as they continued on and attacked the first guard who got to her, dropping the pack to draw her second sword as she moved.

  She cut him down, opening his gut with a fatal slash he didn’t have time to stop. She spun and shoved her sword into the chest of the second.

  “Mave! What-” Zayden stopped talking as she kicked the guard into the wall, yanking her gladius free. A third guard ran up to her, and she side-stepped his swing, letting it slide off her left blade, cutting open his throat with her right. Blood sprayed in a way that reminded her of times she’d killed on the sands, getting on her face and chest.

  “Skies,” Luykas mumbled.

  She picked up the pack without a word and walked closer to the group, who had stopped when they realized she had. She didn’t say anything as they all stared at her, until Bryn snapped his fingers. “Ya, guys, we need to keep moving. Good work taking those out.” He pointed to the dead guards.

  “Yeah…good work,” Alchan whispered, his eyes locked on the bodies, not her.

  Only Matesh and Rainev seemed unsurprised. Rain even elbowed Nevyn and grinned. “I found a good big sister, right?” he asked, his voice light and cheery. Nevyn just nodded. That made her feel more pride than she felt was possible. Not just a big sister, but a good one. He was proud of her.

  They didn’t waste any more time after that. In the dark alleys, they kept moving. She felt more focused now, honed and ready. A little bit of combat and bloodshed made her less annoyed and anxious with the running, and more in her element. Rainev’s comment stuck with her as well, bringing up her confidence about the entire situation. She’d done well enough to silence the Ivory Shadow Mercenary Company, and Rain claimed her in front of all of them as a good big sister.

  Bryn held up a blood-covered hand to stop them at the end of an alley. She could smell the sea water clearly now, the fish as well. “We’re nearly at the pier. We’ll have to make a flat-out run from here. Get on the ship, kill any guards in the way.”

  “Which ship?” Mat asked him, leaning next to her, his hand on her wing. A comfort, a casual touch that when she’d met him, she would have taken his hand for. Now, she liked it.

  “Sail is a white gryphon on blue. First time working with them specifically, but you’ll know the captain. He changed companies to keep the Empire guessing on his smuggling operations,” Luykas answered. “Bryn, you let us know when we’re going.”

  “Aye.”

  They settled down, ready to run. White gryphon on blue, she mentally repeated to herself. It took ten heartbeats - she counted - for Bryn to say the word.

  “Go.”

  29

  Matesh

  They all took off. Matesh could see the ship immediately. Nearly four times the size of the boat they had taken down the river, it was a seafaring merchant craft with no arms. He didn’t like that, but he hadn’t had any hand in planning this mission.

  “Don’t stop!” Alchan roared, his sword drawn. Matesh was behind and could see his blade cut into the first guard stupid enough to try and draw his own sword. He watched Bryn, his daggers out, jump on another Elvasi, snarling as he took the guard down.

  Then he looked back to Mave, who was running as fast as she could - at the back of the pack, though, which he didn’t like. He saw that behind her, they had followers. Archers were nocking arrows to try and rain them down on the entire group.

  “Mave, to me!” he called, slowing. She ran past him and he took up the rear, hoping to watch her back. An arrow sliced through his wing, making him hiss in pain. Another cut his thigh, but he refused to let that slow him. He was getting the fuck out of the Empire, even if it meant he’d be a damn cripple from injuries.

  “Are they getting ready to leave?” Nevyn screamed, hitting the pier with Varon before anyone else. Varon had an arrow in his wing as well, yanking it out with a snarl.

  “Clear the guards off the ship,” Luykas ordered, reminding them all of their last objective.

  “Don’t worry, mates! We’re already on it!” a roguish human-Elvasi mutt called back. Matesh wanted to laugh as the pirate waved at them, his crew causing all sorts of drama around him, shoving guards overboard. In their metal armor, those guards were goners. They would sink to the bottom of the bay. “Let’s get out of this shithole!”

  Captain Sen was a great man. Matesh hadn’t been so happy to see pointed ears before in his life. He didn’t have time to celebrate, as a unit of guards - maybe thirty of them - came running down the pier.

  He kicked the closest one back then lopped his head off, a war cry erupting from him. It brought out the war cries of the other Andinna, a chorus that promised blood and violence. A warrior people, they were born and bred for death.

  Even Mave roared, diving into the guards, spinning and cutting them down, by their legs. Any that she didn’t kill, he and Alchan worked on, as Luykas ran onto the ship. The sails came down in a flash, catching the wind immediately. Matesh had no idea where Zayden and Rain were, or where Nevyn and Varon had gone. Leshaun was completely missing. He hoped they were all secure aboard. None of them could get hurt while on this fucking insane rescue mission.

  “Keep them down there!” Luykas called out as magic began to hang in the air around them. It was suffocating. Matesh’s blood felt like it was vibrating from the energy of the battle and magic Luykas was conjuring.

  A fierce wind began to blow. Mat ignored it and the dust being kicked up as he cut the sword arm off a guard, then swung his longsword into the neck of another. Blood was beginning to cover him.

  He screamed in pain, though, when something sliced open his wing. A roar followed that. He barely turned in time to see Mave jump on the guard that had hit him, sending her blade not into his chest, but into his head. It split the guard’s skull wide open, a gory mess of brain and blood everywhere.

  “Get up here!” Luykas yelled.

  Mat grabbed her and pulled, getting her out of the battle. As they ran up the ramp, they had to turn and kick back guards who were trying to follow. Alchan was coming up last, doing his best to push the guards in the metal armor into the water were they would drown. Matesh took another hit, something cutting through the leather he wore and sliding across his ribs. He shoved his sword into the guard closest to him, lost in a madness of pain and blood.

  He'd hated killing on the sands at the orders of Elvasi who wanted bloodbaths for entertainment, but this, this was what he was trained for. This was what his people were meant to do. Defeat their enemies by any means necessary. No mercy, through the pain and injuries.

  He gutted the next, spinning. He noticed Mave at his side, killing another guard, a vicious pleasure on her face.

  Together, it was like they were back in the pits that day. Their backs against the wall, protecting Rain. This time, they protected their ship from these guards. This was their way home, and they would not lose it.

  Something grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked. His back and injured wing slammed into the deck of the boat and he snarled at the pain. I need to kill them!

  He tried to get back up, but was shoved down by a boot. He roared up at the male, only to see white.

  “We’re moving! Kick the damn ramp down, Alchan!” Luykas was harsh and rough, standing above him. He must have been the one to pull him back and force him down. He heard the wooden ramp fall into the waters below. The ship creaked and groaned. “Everyone find some cover! They’ll be shooting at us!” He moved the boot finally, looking down at Matesh. “Stay on this ship.”

  Matesh cursed and pushed himself up, looking around. His eyes quickly fell on Mave, her hair damp and her face covered in blood. Her armor, even though it was a dark brown, looked nearly black in the night thanks to the gore of battle.

  She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  “Get inside, you idiot.” Leshaun broke him out of his reverie for the gorgeous female. “Your wing is all fucked up now. Looks like a clean cut, bu
t I need to suture it. Let’s not talk about your ribs, or legs. How could you take so many injuries?”

  “We don’t have time,” Matesh growled back. “Treat Bryn. He’s been bleeding out.”

  “If you ever want to fly again, you’ll-”

  The ship rocked hard and Mat grabbed his uncle before he slipped and fell to the deck. He would let Leshaun tell him what to do if he went inside too, he decided. He hauled his uncle to the door below deck and opened it.

  “We’ll stay near the door, in case we need to fight,” he told his uncle. “Understand? I’ll risk the wing to keep everyone alive. You can do whatever you want to do here. Inside. Behind me.”

  “I don’t need you to protect me, Matesh. We’re in this position because we’re rescuing you,” Leshaun growled back.

  “It’s called a compromise, bodrya,” Mat snapped.

  “I compromise with females. I kick the shit out of males.”

  “No, you take orders from females, you compromise with other males,” Mat fired back.

  “Damn. I should have never told you that,” Leshaun grumbled. “Let me get a kit and start sewing that up.”

  Mat looked over the deck. He was under an overhang from an upper deck, safe from arrows. Mave was holding up a crate lid above her, which had two arrows in it already. Rain and Zayden were hiding under the same overhang of the upper deck, panting. Zayden had blood dripping down an arm, but otherwise, they both looked okay.

  “We’re going to get boarded while we’re trying to leave!” Luykas called out.

  “Everyone stay ready,” Alchan joined.

  Mave jogged to him and he kissed her forehead, ignoring the blood. He was glad she was okay. To think he hadn’t wanted to get involved with her at the beginning. Now he was nearing obsessiveness. He knew it was just how his people were. Males tended to find a female to get attached to, then did everything they could to prove they were worthy of her. He was there. He’d admitted he wanted to be her lover, and then she’d offered to die for him and Rain. He wasn’t sure he loved her, but he wanted to be hers either way. Her lover, a member of her mayara, a male she could lean on when she needed it. He wanted to be chained and owned by her. At her beck and call.