by Maven, Ella
Mikko
Stolen Warriors Series
Ella Maven
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Ella Maven
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.
Copyedited by Del’s Diabolical Editing
Cover design by Natasha Snow
First edition: January 2021
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Ella Maven
Prologue
Mikko
I was familiar with pain, but this agony was on another level. I was dizzy with it, my head spinning as blood dripped to the floor of the cage.
“You could have been something,” the Pliken guard sneered at me as he tightened the chains across my chest. “You could have had the crowd cheering for you every rotation.”
I should have ignored him, but I’d never been good at keeping my mouth shut. “You think I want your filthy kind chanting for me? Fleck off.”
“Suit yourself, Drix.” He took a step back and hooked his thumbs on his belt which had two long sabers. “You only had to do what you were told. With those weapons of yours, you would have won every fight. Now you’ll be thrown into the Pit and forgotten. No glory for you.”
I wished more than anything I could lash out at him, but I was chained to the back of the cage with my arms crossed under my chin. If I ejected my machets I’d only spike myself in the neck. So, I hurled the only thing I could at him—words. “Only a Pliken would think pitting slaves against each other to the death has anything to do with glory.”
That insult hit. The Pliken visibly flinched, and then his eyes narrowed. I braced for more pain and got it when he drove his fist into my side. I felt a rib crunch. My breath left my lungs and for a moment all I could do was gasp as I fought to inhale.
“You’re not on your safe planet anymore.” The Pliken said as he leaned down to snarl into my face. “This is Vixlicin where we make the rules. Here, you’re nothing. No one cares about your stupid Drixonian honor. You’re only worth what you can do for us. And you, well you didn’t want to play that game.”
He was flecking right I didn’t want to play that game. I killed my owner, and I would have killed more if the pain of ejecting my machets hadn’t brought me to my knees, giving the guards enough time to subdue me. I’d have to fight through that pain in the future. I could get used to anything.
“So now you’re here,” the guard said. “The Pit. It’s where we throw away the worst of the worst. There’s no way out. You’ll spend the rest of your life there, and for your sake, you better hope that’s not much longer.”
Sputtering, still struggling to breathe, all I could manage was a raspy, “Fleck you.”
The guard laughed, a creaky sound which grated on my nerves. “One by one, you Drix will die out. No more females. No compatible breeders. And you, well you can live the rest of your short life knowing your family line dies with you.” He straightened up and gave me a cracked tooth smile. “You should have followed the rules.”
I didn’t get a chance at the last word. The chain holding my cage began to lower, and I could only stare up at the evil smile of the Pliken guard as he watched me descend into the Pit.
I vowed then and there I’d do the impossible. I’d escape the Pit, and then I’d make everyone pay who was responsible for what happened to me. The first person I’d start with was that flecking guard.
One
Rian
I didn’t mean to kill him. Well, I wanted to, but I didn’t think I was actually capable of doing it. I fought him because that was what I always did when backed into a corner. I fought back. But apparently the four-eyed alien with six arms had an Achilles heel. Using the pipe I’d managed to wrench from the bed frame, I’d smacked him right in the jaw, and he’d gone down like a ton of bricks.
Clutching the pipe like a bat, I’d stood panting over his body in anticipation of round two. But round two never came. Instead, his furry minions had run in and chattered in horror as I stood chained to the wall of the docked spacecraft.
After that, well, there wasn’t a second chance to be sold to a nicer alien in this galaxy. I’d been hauled away by a squad of the caped aliens called Plikens and thrown in the back of a dune buggy-like vehicle.
We’d raced across a red desert as sand stung my skin and filled my mouth. My hands were chained to the roll bar, so I was stuck, and eventually just closed my eyes and mouth, hoping like hell my nose remained clear, so I didn’t suffocate.
A day ago, I’d been in my one-bedroom apartment in Baltimore, sinking into my sheets after a long day of secretarial work followed by a lonely dinner for one. When I woke up, I was on a spaceship—for real—with dolphin-faced, one-eyed aliens watching me. When we docked, it was on this dry, dusty-ass planet where I’d promptly been sold to ol’ four-eyes as a… Well I wasn’t sure what my role was supposed to have been. I just knew I didn’t want it. I didn’t want any of this.
My life wasn’t roses back on Earth, but at least it was mine. I’d overcome a hell of a lot to have what little I did, and it’d been snatched from me in my sleep. What a bitch.
I rattled my chains and received a smack on the thigh from the Pliken next to me with the flat of a blade. I hissed at the pain and glared at him but quickly had to close my eyes as a gust of sand blew into my face.
I hated these caped guys. They were scary as hell but hadn’t hurt me too badly yet—just some rough handling—although bruises were already blooming on my arms. Before I’d arrived, the dolphin aliens had implanted a translator device behind my ear, so I could understand the Plikens’ language. Which was why I listened closely when the four of them started talking about our destination.
“They’re going to tear her apart down there.”
“Commander said to give her a weapon and make it last. The guards were promised a show.”
The one beside me in the back seat made a weird rumbling sound that might have been a laugh. A hand gripped my curly hair and wrenched my head back. I gasped and got a mouthful of sand for it as I opened my eyes to see him sneering down at me. “Seems like a waste, don’t you think?”
“Commander wants her untouched before we send her to the Pit. No one wants to hunt a wounded animal.”
I shuddered as the Pliken holding my hair let me go with a shove. My head bounced off the bar and I saw stars for a moment. Where were they sending me? They mentioned guards, which gave me flashbacks to the few months I’d spent behind bars on a theft conviction. Not one of my finer moments, but I’d been desperate. Honestly, desperation felt a little like my life theme, and I was over it.
We drove for what felt like an hour but could have been drastically longer or shorter. My head pounded, and I knew I had at least a mild concussion. By now I could see nothing but red sand in either direction. Just when I thought they were going to dump me in the middle of nowhere to fend for myself, we came upon a small structure and a massive crater in the ground. A long metal arm extended
over the edge, like a crane, and at the end was a cage.
They dragged me from the buggy just as the crane began to move, and I realized with a dawning horror that I was going in that cage. As they led me toward the edge, I could see nothing but darkness. I dug my heels into the sand, fought, and screamed, but it didn’t matter. There was no one out here to hear my screams and those that could weren’t going to help me. Eventually I stopped only to save my strength. I had no idea what awaited me below.
They tossed me in the cage and locked it. One of the guards peered in at me like I was a bug. “Welcome to the Pit, human.”
“What’s the Pit?” I gripped the bars just as the cage rose off the ground and begin to move out over the crater.
“What’s the Pit?” They mimicked my voice, and all began to make a weird cackling sound I guessed was laughter. One finally gave me an evil smile. “Vixlicin’s prison. It’s where we throw the worst of the worst. There’s no way out, and we drop in food every three rotations. But I doubt you’ll make it three yoras.”
“How am I the worst of the worst?” I nearly shrieked.
He shrugged. “This was our order.” He tossed something in the cage, and I dove for it.
My fingers closed around a handle seconds before it could slide out from between the bars. When I held up my catch in front of my face, I found he’d given me a long, sharp blade. I stared at it in bewilderment before meeting his mean yellow eyes.
“We’re watching,” he said as the cage lowered over the lip of the Pit. Right before I lost sight of him, he added with an eerie cackle, “Make your death interesting for those of us watching. It’s been a slow cycle.”
My stomach shriveled into a twisted knot, and my heart pounded so loud in my ears I felt like I was underwater. This felt less like a prison and more like a trash dump for living things. The metal arm extended me over a massive pit in the ground. The sides of which were coated in a shiny, smooth material, and I assumed it was to prevent anything from climbing out.
As I looked down, I could just make out some shapes moving in the dim light below. I gripped the steel blade in my hand, testing the weight. I slashed out a few practice moves in the air with the knife, but they felt a little silly. I was five-five and weighed one-forty. If any of the prisoners were even close to the size of the Plikens, I was screwed. Would they make it quick? Would I have to turn this blade on myself? I gulped. No way. I’d fight and take out as many as I could. I never knew when to quit, even when it was clear I was losing.
The cage began its descent, and I was grateful it wasn’t achingly slow. My stomach fluttered as it dropped, and the forms below grew larger until I realized I was being dropped into a literal pit of monsters. I’d never seen anything like what awaited me. My owner with four eyes seemed like the better choice now, as scarred faces, mean eyes, and snarling mouths came into view.
I trembled so badly my teeth chattered. I clenched them together as I fought to get myself under control, but my body was in flight mode. I was trapped in a cage to be left for dead among terrifying creatures. As I passed the first floor below ground, aliens shouted at me from within door-less cells. I counted three floors of them, and the creatures milled around the walkways.
Below, at the bottom of the pit, was a cesspool of bodies, and the aliens there looked ill-fed and crazed. Not that the ones in the cells seemed welcoming, but they at least seemed less like a pit of snakes waiting for a rat.
Frozen in place, I watched as the crowd gathered around a platform along a wall of the pit, just below the bottom cell floor. They were waiting for me, nearly salivating, and it was then I realized was where my cage was heading. A beeping sound came overhead, and I looked up to see a flashing yellow light. In a moment, I’d be on that platform, my cage doors would open, and I’d be at the mercy of whatever these aliens wanted to do to me.
I didn’t see one human. I saw aliens with missing limbs and infected flesh wounds. The overpowering smell of death made me gag. Claws reached for me. Blackened teeth gnashed.
Suddenly the beeping went silent, and the cage came to a jolting halt as it swung back and forth in the air about ten feet from the platform. The crowd erupted in a thunderous roar, and then my stomach soared into my throat as the cage dropped in a free fall. The cage hit the platform with a crash, and I slammed against the bottom on my hands and knees.
My knife fell from my hand with a clatter and I scrambled for it just as the light above me flashed a bright green. My fingers closed around the hilt seconds before there was a loud rusty click, and the door of my cage sprang open.
A clawed, two-fingered hand slapped onto the platform. I didn’t wait to see who that hand belonged to. No way was I getting trapped in this cage. I surged out and swung the knife at the alien’s wrist. A wail erupted from below as I sliced through bone, and a warm liquid spurted across my cheek. Heart pumping, I skirted the cage while dodging grasping hands at the edge of the platform. I eyed the walkway surrounding the first-floor cells. If I could just make it there, maybe I could find a lone cell with a door and shut myself inside. Buy some time…
Something slimy closed around my ankle, and I yelped as I stumbled. Slashing with my blade, I connected with a body. The hand released, but it was soon replaced by a whip-like appendage, which I soon discovered was a tail.
I hacked at it with the sharp blade, but the creature’s skin was too tough. The blade bounced off ineffectually. I fell to my knees as the tail yanked. The blade fell from my hands. I lunged for it, but it was gone—fallen off the platform into the abyss of writhing bodies.
“No!” I choked out as the tail yanked again. A terrible victory cry went up from the crowd. My hands sought purchase on the rugged stone surface of the platform, but it was no use. Whoever had me was too strong, and I knew this was it—Rian Perez was about to meet her end at the hands, claws, and tails of some alien creatures in a prison pit. What a fitting ending. If only my sad sack of a mother could see me now.
She’d blow a puff of smoke in my face and say, “You deserve this.”
A shout went up from somewhere in the back of the crowd, followed by a scream of agony. Were they fighting to get to me? More shouts followed, and the tail holding me yanked viscously. I tumbled off the platform and crashed into the body of a horned creature with half his face missing. Bloodied skin dripped off the exposed bone of his jaw. Rotten meat surrounded me, and my stomach heaved. His eyes glowed a sick yellow as he clicked his fangs at me. He gurgled something behind a mangled throat.
And that was all I could take. I pushed at him with all my strength and screamed my lungs out.
He only gurgled more in what sounded like an evil laugh. His hands closed around my neck, cutting off my air.
I wheezed as his face drew nearer and he unfurled a wet tongue which bubbled and oozed like a science experiment.
Tears ran down my face as I braced for the pain, as I wished for this to all end fast. Was he going to play with me? God no. Just kill me now. Please.
That tongue stretched an inch from my face, and just as I felt his hot breath on my cheek, a large black spike slammed into the side of his head. Right in his temple.
The alien’s eyes went wide, his body swayed while his face drained of color, and then he collapsed. I went down with him, gasping for air when his hands finally released my neck. I scrambled away from him but didn’t get far as claws raked my hair, tails wrapped around my thighs and an arm banded around my chest.
And now… Well, now I was just fucking pissed. Reaching down, I yanked the spike out of the alien’s head and whirled to face my attackers. I fought with everything I had—kicking and punching at the aliens around me. I was outnumbered, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t give in.
A gray alien tore through my shirt with his claw and immediately three black spikes, just like the one I held in my hand, plunged into his chest. He fell back, stunned, and glanced up. “The Drix,” he hissed before falling onto his back, blood oozing from his mouth.
; Suddenly the bodies around me began to fall away as a shower of black spikes rained down upon us. Well… not me. Everywhere but me, as if I had some sort of invisible shield around me. I heard a distinctive noise now—a grunting and growling as a shadow fell over me.
I lifted my head to find a blue alien soaring toward me on a swinging rope. I didn’t have a second to run as his strong arm wrapped around my waist and hauled me into the air.
We swung over the crowd at a dizzying speed just before sailing up past the first and second floor of cells to land on the very edge of the third-floor cell walkway.
My feet didn’t even touch the ground as he leapt from the rope and took off in a sprint down the walkway. I struggled in his grip, because I didn’t even want to think about what one of these things would do to me if they got me alone. I would have been better off dying in that pit. But his grip was iron-clad, and there was no way I was getting away from him.
A few shouts came from the cells as we passed, and then he banked a hard right into one. I was tossed to the ground as he turned around and slammed a door shut. The only opening was a small, barred window at the top. He threw a metal bolt to lock us in, and the sound jarred me into action.
I sprang to my feet just as he whirled around. His chest heaved as he stared me down, and I brought my fists up as if that was going to be any sort of defense against this guy.
We sized each other up, and I felt more despair the longer I studied him.
First of all, he was huge—close to seven feet tall, and his fairly humanoid body was stacked with muscles. His skin was a mix of blue and black scales that seemed to shift in color. He wore only a pair of pants and boots, and his tail whipped the ground at his feet, the end bejeweled with some sort of spiked jewelry.