by Eve Langlais
Especially when something breached the vessel and a gas penetrated even the bulkhead of the bridge.
A gas she couldn’t fight with a knife.
An invisible enemy that put her to sleep. Coward. I am going to…Zzzzzz.
Eight
Awake again. The good news was Jedrek no longer found himself bound to a bed.
And that was the end of the good news.
Things were imminently worse considering he’d gone from blue-balled tied to a bed by a purple vixen intent on killing him with sexual teasing to tossed in a cell, the stone and dirt floor stained and smelly from fluids he’d rather not contemplate.
Pushing himself to his knees, then more slowly to his feet, Jedrek’s body protested the abuse. Too bad. He needed to find out what clusterfuck he’d gotten yanked into and how to escape it. Fast. Because cells never boded well.
The first one he’d ever encountered, aboard the alien slaver ship that stole him from summer camp, was a rough transition for a boy used to a soft mattress and three meals a day.
The metal grate of his first prison, meant to allow fluids to pass through for easy sluicing, bit into tender skin. The bowl of thick paste the abductees were granted once a day might have had all the nutrients his body needed but made him gag with each mouthful.
The next cell after the slaver ship didn’t prove any better. Dozens of children, crammed in a large room, taunted by the guards with stories of what would happen to them after the auction.
After Klardivus bought him and took him away from that horrifying existence, Jedrek swore to never be a prisoner again.
Yet here he was because of Azteriya, because he had no doubt this was her fault. Stubborn woman. She’d obviously gotten them captured somehow. Mentally cursing her made him wonder about Azteriya. Was she in a cell somewhere too? As a woman, she had even more to worry about than him. Add in the fact a Kulin female was rarely seen off planet without a cadre of warriors and her danger mounted.
Her own fault. She should have let me go to fly the ship.
Much as it irritated him, he grudgingly admired her spirit. He’d seen enough sexism in the galaxies to understand why she fought so hard against the role society wanted to impose on her. Problem was not everyone was nice like him.
“About time you woke up.” Speak of the devil. Her voice rang out, and he whirled to see her several cages over to his left looking rather bare without her leather straps and weapons.
Her hair wasn’t held back in its usual tidy braid. A bruise marked her cheek, a reddish blot on her mauve complexion. She wore a simple toga, and not a single knife.
I’ll bet that made her happy. Probably how she’d gotten the bruise in the first place.
But he refused to show any sympathy, not when her actions had brought them to this.
“This is your fault. Had you released me—”
“You would have flown us away from the pirates who boarded our ship, gassed us to sleep, and brought us to this asteroid.”
“Exactly.” How surprising for once she recognized what she’d done wrong.
“I am so glad I left you tied up, or we’d be missing out on all this fun.” The woman grinned.
Fucking grinned.
“You fucking lunatic.” Said slowly so her simple mind would understand. “In case you haven’t noticed, we are prisoners.”
“I don’t know if I’d say that.”
“We’re locked in a cell.”
“For now. And as cells go, they are rather sparse. Good thing we won’t be staying in them long.”
The urge to ram his head into a wall to hopefully make sense of her words hit Jedrek strongly. “I highly doubt whoever went through the trouble of capturing us is just going to let us go.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course they are not letting us go. We were brought here to fight!”
“How do you know this?” He glared at her, annoyed by many things, including the fact that she wasn’t frightened at all. Which meant he couldn’t be afraid either.
“The fellow in the cage beside you told me all about this place. Apparently, we’re on an asteroid that runs illegal gaming rings.”
“Lac’uus?” That was the most famous one run by the crime lord Jakk’ohb A’Diabbloh.
“No. Apparently, that one got destroyed by some Rhomanii prince. This is the new and improved Lac’una.”
“What’s so improved about it?” he asked, glancing around with distaste at the already rusted bars and stained ground.
“Improved because they finally got a fighter of quality.” She struck a pose.
He deliberately ignored it. “Who did they get? Do I know him?”
“Me.” She glared.
He snickered. “I think you were misinformed, princess. They don’t want you to fight.”
“Then why else capture me?”
Did she really not grasp it? “Because you’re a female. And given some clients are rough with them, they tend to need a constant fresh supply.”
Her eyes widened. “They expect me to fornicate?” Her gaze narrowed as she snarled. “I shall show them the error of their thinking if they try.”
“Don’t do anything stupid. Which I know will be hard for you. Try and behave. Don’t draw notice to yourself while I figure a way out.”
A plan she completely and willfully ignored the moment the jailor, a reed-thin fellow at least nine feet tall, slouched in, keys jangling at his side. His canvas trousers, cinched tight with a rope, hung off his three hips. He no longer had his third leg.
She grabbed the bars and yelled through them. “You. Miscreant with the foul stench. I wish to speak with your employer at once.”
“Good, because after what you did, he wants to talk to you too.”
“What did you do?” Jedrek asked.
The guard answered. “Killed a few guards and a client who paid handsomely for her services.”
“Your employer was impressed with my skill,” she said with a sage nod. “Understandable. It is why he wishes to meet me.”
“Meet you. Yes. You could say that.” The deep guffaw sent a chill down Jedrek’s spine.
However, oblivious to the danger, Azteriya exited her cage to follow the guard.
Jedrek gripped the bars. “Whatever you do, don’t drink or eat anything they offer. It might be drugged.”
“You worry overly much, human.” She waved at him.
And then princess was gone.
He didn’t want to worry about her. Really he didn’t. However, in many ways, she was naive. Her father might have taught Azteriya to fight, but she had no common sense when it came to the dangers of the galaxies. No idea how hard it was for females in a still male-dominated universe.
Hell, Jedrek was a guy, and he constantly had to be on his guard lest someone try and take what was his.
Speaking of his, they’d taken his princess.
My princess?
Well, he had licked her, and she had come for him, even if he had little to do with it. Only because his hands had been bound. But he’d been there when she came, seen the way her eyes closed in ecstasy and her lips parted on a cry of delight.
Now someone else would try and touch her. She’d probably kill them. Then they’d try and kill her. And he was stuck in this stupid cage.
I need to get out of here.
He banged on the bars.
Wham. Wham.
Occupants in other cages lazily rose to their feet to stare.
“Banging he is, why do it he does?” asked one tall and chunky green fellow with pointed ears.
Jedrek explained. “I want to speak to someone in charge.”
A shorter red male, in a loincloth that did little to conceal his masculine attributes, pressed his face against the bars. “Aren’t you a pretty boy. Maybe they’ll have a different fate for you than the arena.” The lascivious lick and wink evoked a deep shudder.
“I’d rather fight than fuck on demand.”
At that, both the green and red
fellows snickered. “We’re not in these cages as contenders. We’re considered too puny and unworthy.”
“Then why are we here?”
“Food. We’re the reward to the monsters that win.”
“Everyone in here?” Surely the Ymp lied. “What of the female they took?”
“The one who’s been making the master’s army look bad?” The red creature, who looked just like a miniature devil from Earth, chuckled. “She’ll be feeding the master of this place. He likes his food with a bit of fight.”
Slam. Jedrek’s forehead hit the bars, and he closed his eyes for a moment.
I won’t feel guilty. She brought this on herself.
“You might be able to watch the show. The master likes an audience for when he feeds.”
At those words, he lifted his head. “How can I watch?”
“Get chosen as the next meal. First come the fights. Then when his pet monster wins, the master gives him a treat, then while his creature is noshing, he then chases down his own dinner.”
“So, in order to save her, I have to not be eaten.” Not exactly his idea of fun. But what other choice did he have? “All because she wouldn’t untie me,” he muttered under his breath. Actually, it had all started when he didn’t kick her off his ship when she stowed away. Too late to change things now.
He could only go forward and do his best to survive. Survival meant escaping this cage. When the jailor returned, Jedrek was ready—and convinced insanity was contagious—because he banged on the bars hard enough to get chosen.
Here was to hoping he was fast enough to evade the belly of the beast.
Nine
Events were not unfolding as expected. First off, those running this supposed fighter planet wouldn’t give her weapons. They laughed when Azteriya asked for some.
Then, they compounded their transgressions by telling her she was to provide fornication. After she killed a few guards and a male who thought his puny dick would impress, they let her stay a short while in a cell—where she got to see Jedrek—before taking her to some kind of staging area.
“I don’t want to wear a dress,” she stated, crossing her arms over her bosom.
The red-skinned female, her features wrinkled, her shoulders drooping, shook her finger at her. “You will wear what the master orders.”
“Your master can suck it.” A human expression Jedrek had used more than once. Much like it stymied her, it also baffled the servant.
Not for long, though. “Grab her. The Kulin female needs to be prepared.”
It took six large guards—the seventh and eight off wailing that Azteriya had broken bones—to hold her while servants bathed, perfumed, and oiled her skin until it gleamed. They brushed her hair until it crackled and left it loose. To top off their transgressions, they dressed her in a filmy gown, a sheer white fabric that clung to her breasts, dipped in a vee to her navel, then hung to her ankles with slits up each thigh. It left little to the imagination, and she found it humiliating to be dressed so femininely.
No respect for her warrior status at all.
“If you think this attire will make me fornicate, you are mistaken,” she said with a grimace of disgust at the soft silk.
“Your chance to provide pleasure of the flesh has passed. You’ve been selected for another duty.” The deflated red female gestured to the guards. “Take her to the arena.”
The arena? Wasn’t that where the fights occurred? Finally, she was getting what she wanted.
The wall of bodies around Azteriya was unnecessary. She would have skipped to the arena by herself if someone gave her directions.
Walking into the stadium, she took a deep breath and felt at home. The walls of it were comprised of rough-hewn rock, splotched in some areas with dried ichor and blood. The stony ground didn’t fare much better, its stains more plentiful, and some of them fresh. The violence that had occurred in this space spoke to her.
The guards guided her to a dais in the center, where a creature stood, taller and thicker than her, his skin a deep gray, his tusks pointed and yellow, his three eyes each a different shade.
“Master, we’ve brought the female as requested.” The guard thumped his chest and stepped back, all of them did, leaving Azteriya alone.
The three eyes perused her, and the being leaned in and sniffed loudly.
“You smell delicious,” he announced to the delight of the crowd that roared approval.
“Whereas you could use a bath,” was her wrinkled-nose reply.
Jagged teeth emerged in a grin. “I intend to bathe in your blood and wear your entrails as a necklace.”
“That assumes I am going to stand still and allow you to disembowel me.” She shook her head. “And we both know that won’t happen.”
“You won’t be able to stop me. I am the all powerful master of this place. Obey me or face my wrath.”
“Wrath of what? Your breath? Any warrior worth his weight knows better than to leave a scent trail that can be tracked.”
“Be quiet!” the creature yelled.
“Make me.” Because if her family couldn’t shut her up, then what made him think he could?
He lunged toward her, and she easily dodged his grip.
“You’re slow,” she remarked.
“Your resistance is pointless.”
“Not so pointless given you couldn’t catch me if you tried.”
“I don’t need to catch you. Guards, hold her still. Guards?” The male stylizing himself as master peered behind her.
“About your guards. They might be kind of dead.”
She heard his voice and whirled. Azteriya found herself inordinately pleased to see Jedrek striding across the stadium floor, a loin cloth hanging low on his hips, looking sexy and dangerous.
Despite her initial shock when she’d first met him, she’d had time to get used to his tanned flesh, the color like a thick creamy syrup on a dessert her mother made. He was still furry, not bare like a Kulin, and yet, it no longer bothered her.
She’d had the chance to stroke it while he recovered and found it to be soft. It made her wonder what it would feel like to rub against.
Naked. Like the videos. Videos that got her thinking about so many things.
There was a roar, and she frowned as she looked upon her delinquent host. “Must you make that noise?”
“You will pay attention to me.” The master thumped his chest.
“But you are ugly.” She pointed to Jedrek. “He is not.”
“He is dinner.”
“You are going to eat him? Won’t that make you too full for me?”
“Not me! That.” The large fellow pointed at a portcullis.
“Those bars are going to eat him?” She learned something new every day.
“No. The—” The gray male shook his head. “Never mind. Release the knovakian beast.”
Jedrek paused, his gaze fixed on her before he sighed. She thought he might have mouthed something along the lines of “Why me?”
Why him indeed.
“I want to fight the monster.” She might have pouted as she said it.
“You’re my dinner. He’s going to get eaten by the knovak.”
“But he doesn’t want to. Look at him. A puny human. Would you really dishonor your pet monster in such a manner?” she argued. “Much better that a mighty Kulin warrior fight.”
The master sneered. “If we had one.”
At that rejoinder, she scowled. Sexism wasn’t just alive on her planet. Everywhere she went, no one took her seriously. “You are making me angry.” And Father told her, When angry, channel it and destroy anyone who irritates you.
“Don’t worry, princess. You take care of Rhino over there, and I’ll handle whatever comes out of the hole.”
Had Jedrek just given her a foe? She might have smiled. At least he thought her capable of fighting.
Jedrek pivoted to face the opening, the bars receding to leave a maw of darkness. He rolled his shoulders, impressively wide
shoulders actually. He had a decent musculature to him, toned and defined. She could even forgive him the nipples the males of his species so oddly possessed.
What a waste given they only served as ornaments incapable of feeding their young.
From the dark cave something slithered. Something with tentacles that writhed from hiding first, the suckers on the underside of its arms dry and cracked.
She could almost feel pity for it. This beast didn’t belong on an arid world but rather a moist one with oceans.
The knovakian beast lurched out, its body riddled with scars. Of its two eyes, only one stared. The other bore a milky sheen over the surface of the orb.
But despite its injuries and laborious movements, the creature oozed danger, especially given its size alone could crush someone if it fell on them.
As the monster approached, Jedrek stood tall and as unflinching as a Kulin warrior, the comparison startling to her.
He was but a human. A barbarian. Who showed more intelligence than expected. Cunning too. He also had bravery and wasn’t a craven coward.
A male who would make strong babes and a good mate.
Blink.
The revelation fled as a tentacle pounded the dirt, right where Jedrek stood. Except he wasn’t there anymore. He’d moved and ran toward the creature.
Why closer?
His strategy soon became evident as the tentacles couldn’t maneuver as well close to the body. The tips were the most flexible part, but they had difficulty bending to reach Jedrek, who’d tucked against the monster’s body.
However, what would Jedrek do next? He had no weapon. Nothing but his hands.
She almost clapped as he dropped to the ground and rose, clutching the broken end of a spear.
He wasted no time, jabbing the beast with it, only it barely penetrated the scaly skin.
He needed something longer. Like the pennant hanging from the stands. But it was too high to simply grasp. She would need a boost.
Azteriya had to time it just right. Ignoring her host’s bellowed, “Come back here,” she ran at the beast, making sure it noted her coming. Her hair streamed behind her, as did the skirt of her gown, flashing her legs.