Barbarian Gladiator (Princesses of the Ironbound Book 4)

by Aaron Crash

  Charibda wound up on Ymir, straddling him and caressing his face, his chest, his hair with her tentacles. The tendrils were warm, and they felt good.

  Ymir gazed into the mermaid’s eyes while Jennybelle started laughing. Lillee giggled, and Tori proclaimed in a loud voice, “I am never going to be the same after tonight!”

  Gatha was quiet, though she sighed every so often to show she’d had the time of her life.

  Charibda looked deep into Ymir’s eyes. “I have found you, and you have found me. I won’t take another man. I will not have other lovers. When I cannot stand it, I will come here, and if you are willing, we’ll do this again.”

  “He better be fucking willing,” Gatha growled. “I’ve never come so much in my life. Now I know how you other bitches feel. Being able to orgasm a dozen times in a row is...very fun.”

  That made them all laugh.

  Ymir saw the sadness in Charibda’s eyes. She’d found them, but now they couldn’t be together.

  He wiped away the tears as soon as they fell. “No, Charibda Delphino, weep not. We will address this change, because, yes, you have changed, but the spell promised you’d change forever. We will make sure that happens.”

  The mermaid kissed him again.

  Ymir hated to go, but they had to get back to their school. Charibda would stay the night before starting the long swim home in the morning. It was sad, but they were alive, and Ymir was at the best magic school on the continent.

  And he now had a weapon that would destroy Gulnash.

  Ymir and his women were quiet as they rowed back to the hidden docks. They were equally quiet as they made their way up through the silent streets back to the Zoo. It was far past midnight and most of the revelers were sleeping, though a few still howled and partied in various places across the campus.

  Ymir and his harem were exhausted, but they weren’t about to take to their beds.

  They had a Betrayer to deal with.

  Sitting at the kitchen table, with the kaif brewing, Tori took out the Veil Tear Ring. “Oh, I’m still a little drunk. I hope Fluffy goes easy on me.”

  She never had the chance to find out how the hellhound felt about half-drunk dwabs using the magic item.

  From down the steps came a voice, clear as day. It was Sarina Sia, and she was talking to him as if she were just down in the bathroom. “Della needs you, Ymir. She needs you, and you alone, like never before.”

  Tori shivered. “Tell me you all heard that!” She was pale. All the women were pale.

  Ymir stood. “You four stay here.”

  Somehow, Ymir knew where the Princept was, in the sixth-floor alcove, and she wasn’t alone.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  DELLA PENNEZ HADN’T had a kharo stick in weeks, but that changed that night. She stood on the balcony of the Imperial Palace, which was closed to all. She’d passed by Gulnash’s room and found herself staring into the dead eyes of a dozen of his followers. The big Gruul men sat splayed out on the floor, spit dripping from their tusks as they fingered their swords.

  A dozen. Della had her two swords at her side. She could’ve killed them easily, yanked open the door, and then finished off the Betrayer inside along with another dozen of his horde. She might’ve been killed, but the work would’ve been done.

  Instead, the Princept walked through their ranks and went to the Reception Room and out onto the balcony.

  She smoked six kharo sticks in a row. It was way past midnight. She needed to sleep, but she needed to murder Gulnash before morning. She wasn’t going to spend another day on the burning pit sands, watching him flaunt his new ring and potentially murder those Della loved.

  Like Charibda. It had only been Ymir’s quick thinking that had saved her—him and his fake barbarian ritual. It played well. None of the Gruul were questioning if Charibda was still alive. Della knew the truth.

  Then came an avalanche of other issues.

  The Honored Princept and Issa Leel had to deal with any number of problems, and most of them concerned Gulnash, but not all. Shlak’s betrayal of their mission in the battle royale had caused an uproar, both with the Alumni Consortium members and with other royalty. The Vempor Acadius swore that he had the troops to take Old Ironbound and put all to the sword, including both Gulnash and Shlak. He didn’t. It was an empty threat.

  King Velis IX pulled Della aside to whisper his concerns. It was unlikely that a Blood Steppes conqueror would make it as far as the Sorrow Coast, but then, no one had expected Aegel Akkridor to not only conquer all of Thera, but to hold it for a thousand years.

  Dillyday, the Undergem Guild fairy, didn’t have concerns so much as worries about Gruul tribes paying their gambling debts. She’d been covering most of the bets but was worrying about welching. Dillyday was very happy that The Paradise Tree was doing so well, and she suggested Della might want to invest. It was cold and cynical, however much giggling and rhyming there was. And always, that sweet smell of the Fayee and the air full of her gold dust.

  After her sixth stick, Della’s head was dizzy, and she was exhausted. She’d wanted to get at Gulnash that night. It didn’t seem possible without going to extreme measures. In the Illuminates Spire, there was Arrhy Topert’s Cloak of Invisibility that not only hid you from the sight of others, both physically and magically, it also allowed you to walk through walls. You became a ghost.

  It was illegal for Della to use any of the forbidden objects without direct permission from the Alumni Consortium, but she was beyond morality now. Della decided she would go to her room, she would gather the cloak and a deadly sharp hairpin, and she’d sneak into Gulnash’s room and stab him in the neck. Ironically enough, she could use Obanathy’s cantrips to hide herself. Ymir had brought those into her life, as well as so much moral chaos.

  He had any number of Akkiric Rings. And may she fall from the top branches of the Tree, but she’d give him permission to make all eight if it meant ending Gulnash the Betrayer.

  Charibda. Watching Ymir carry her lifeless body up the stands with Lillee in tow, just to fling her into the sea, had killed what little softness Della had left in her heart. She learned the truth later, but at that moment, she’d decided she’d sell her soul to the darkest of the orishas if it meant the destruction of that rogue orc bastard.

  Della walked into the Librarium Citadel, and it was empty, the feasting hall abandoned. Those who didn’t want to end their party had taken it down to the Sea Stair Market. Even Della’s own Gruul security guards weren’t in the citadel at that moment.

  She was on her way up to her room when she saw the three figures standing in her mezzanine office, clearly looking for her. Auntie Jia. Ghrinna. And King Cebor. Those three up there, perhaps the senior members of the Midnight Guild, had come to talk to her. Della couldn’t say no.

  She’d taken her two swords from her belt and now carried them. If she had to fight, she certainly had the weapons to do so. She walked up, and judging from the looks on their faces, this was going to be a serious conversation. The witch, the orc bitch, and King Celibacy were such an odd combination, but then again, war and money made for strange bedfellows.

  “Good,” King Cebor said. “We need to discuss something with you, Princept. Immediately.”

  Auntie Jia’s eyes glimmered. “Is there a more private place for us to talk?”

  Della nodded, thinking the same thing. “Yes, up on the sixth floor. No one will be there, so follow me.” Della walked down the steps with the three following her. She did have to wonder if Sarina Sia would be there. The shade normally would appear in the shadows to watch Della masturbate. However, this meeting might draw out the spectral Princept as well.

  They walked to the alcove. The elven king took the seat to the far left, Auntie Jia and Ghrinna sat on the couch, and Della sat on the chair to the right. She had her two swords, in their sheaths, across her lap. She smelled Sarina Sia’s musky perfume wafting out of the shadows.

  Ghrinna was a white-haired crone with a face tw
isted and lined. She wore armor, but she didn’t have the muscle to carry the look. It looked sad, though she had an ornate curved sword in a golden sheath. She set the tip on the floor and toyed with the bejeweled hilt.

  Cebor had his hands steepled in front of him. “Do you have Thera’s best interest in mind, Della?”

  “Princept,” Della shot back. She wouldn’t have this cold-hearted elf calling her by her first name.

  The Ohlyrran king tilted his head. “Very well. Most Honored Princept, at this school, you have shown an interest in doing whatever was necessary to keep your institution and the continent safe. We have noticed.”

  Ghrinna curled a lip. “And you have done any number of questionable things. Like taking in Gruul orphans without any good sense, elevating them to a position of power, and then allowing them to fill your library with their pornography.”

  Della had seen any number of terrible things, she’d experienced her fair share of grief, hate, and murder, and yet watching this woman parade around her hate for own daughter made the Princept feel sick to her stomach.

  “Now, now, chieftainess,” Auntie Jia soothed. “We know Della has done her best with some of the more troubled students here. I have my own issues with how she runs things. But we’ve talked about that.”

  Ghrinna wasn’t about to be silenced. “And the shit they are talking about my husband? It was a fucking Kurzig Durgha! And it wasn’t a Maiming or a Slaying, just a Blooding. They don’t know how much that Goyyoat street pup has schemed against us.” She knocked her sword against the floor.

  Sarina’s voice whispered in her ear, They want Gulnash dead, and Shlak has his own plans for conquest. You fielding a team has complicated their plans. You are in the way.

  Auntie Jia leaned forward. “When we spoke before, Princept, at the reception, you said something we all found odd. Something about the night not ending. And the day not beginning. We are wondering...we’ve always wondered...how close were to you to someone named Unger?”

  That single name made Della’s blood run cold. Having the dead murmuring into her ear wasn’t so bad in comparison. “I’m sorry, Madam Josen. What was the name you mentioned? Unger? I’m not certain I know anyone called that.”

  “Not even from your time in the Silent Scream?” Ghrinna asked with a cruel smile on her lips and a definite glint in her eye.

  King Cebor spoke before Della could say a word. “Yes, Princept, we think you might still have contacts with Unger. He knows the night can never end. And the day can never begin.”

  Careful, Della. Be so careful. Sarina didn’t need to warn her. Della knew.

  The Princept sat up straight, gripping her swords. She’d been exhausted. Now the adrenaline had every one of her senses piqued. Cebor had a sandalwood smell to him, and Ghrinna’s teeth were yellowed, no matter how much she tried to whiten them, and when she talked, her tusks were visible. Auntie Jia’s breath was coming quick. She had a hand in a secret pocket in her dress.

  All their eyes were on the Princept. She smiled and prayed it would be mask enough. “Really, the idea that I would be an assassin in the Silent Scream is preposterous.”

  “But true,” King Cebor said quietly, toying with his Focus ring. He wouldn’t touch his essess because he had long ago accepted his cage. “Don’t be coy, Della. We know all about you, including your interest in the Midnight Guild. We hoped you would drop this obsession. Really, we hoped you’d find that your barbarian student had broken so many rules that you’d either expel him or kill him. We believe you threatened him at some point. Is that true?”

  “Threatening students?” the Princept laughed.

  Sarina Sia’s voice again. Why do you think they wanted to talk to you this night? Late and alone? You guessed that they were a part of the Midnight Guild. And King Cebor has been in the Librarium, casting spells, searching for something. That something was Gulnash. He might know the Betrayer was crafting an Akkiric Ring.

  “Don’t laugh at us, bitch!” Ghrinna snarled.

  “Princept,” Della corrected. “You don’t want my laughter? How about we finally stop our secrets and lies. How about we talk truth.”

  “What could that be?” Auntie Jia asked quietly.

  Della felt like she’d walked out into another kind of arena. Would this end in a Blooding, a Maiming, or a Slaying? She kept her voice even. “It would take money to tempt the Cujans into giving up their blood feud. That would be money that Cebor Nehenna has. Excuse me—his royal highness of Greenhome. Yes, he had the money to bring together the Sorrow Coast. I would imagine that Dillyday and the Undergem Guild would be surprised at how big the Greenhome coffers have grown from the elven king’s deals in Panseloca, or so I’ve read in that town’s crier and from friends I have at Wootash College. Or could King Cebor have grown rich with gold from Gulnash? No, I would think it was from Shlak, and the deals he made with Gulnash. The elves have always been a unified front. Now the Blood Steppes come together. And now the Swamp Coast. And with those bulwarks in place, the Age of Separation can last another thousand years.” Della saw the look of surprise in their eyes. “And, yes, here I am, guessing your plans. And now that I know? I have to die. But that was your plan, to get me up here, because King Cebor has been around, casting spells to divine two things. Where you could bring me to remove me. And if Gulnash has been in the Coruscation Shelves, because, really, who better to blame my death on? I am murdered, Gulnash is blamed, and you can call upon the rite of Iyyag Gallrogg, the betrayal of the Kurzig Durgha, for if there is a death outside of the pits, then the murderer is executed. And Gulnash doesn’t have a blood coin. There are a couple of problems with your plan...”

  There was a moment of absolute surprise on the faces of the three. Then? Murder filled their eyes.

  Sarina whispered, Good, Della, good. We can use their plan, but first, you need to steel yourself.

  “I’ve been steel for centuries!” the Honored Princept hissed. “Caelum caelarum!” The Moons magic gave her speed, and she used it to unsheathe one of her swords. She threw herself into Jiabelle Josen and rammed her sword into the crone’s heart. The poisoned needle fell out of the old woman’s hands.

  “I know Unger,” Della hissed. “I fucked Unger. And you made the mistake of thinking you could kill an assassin of the Silent Scream. It will be your last mistake.”

  Both Ghrinna and Cebor were trying to get up, but Della wasn’t going to let them. “Jelu jelarum!” She caked ice on the elf king’s face, blocking him from using spells.

  “Ignis armatus!” Ghrinna burst into flames as fire armor covered her. The sofa began to smolder in the heat.

  Della extinguished the flames with her own Sunfire magic. “Ignis ignarum!” Then she cast a Flow weapons spell because their deaths needed to look a certain way. “Jelu prolium!” She created a spiked mace.

  By this time, Cebor had managed to rip the ice from his mouth well enough to dispel the ice magic. He kicked his chair back and hissed, “Caelum prolium!” Lightning crackled from his hands, but it was a mistake to cast that spell in the Coruscation Shelves at that moment. The lightning crackling behind him across the books was drawn to his own lightning. He was caught in fingers of lethal energy, crisping his skin and making him shriek.

  Della couldn’t have him making too much noise. She slammed the spiked ice mace into his skull, turned, and dodged a pathetic attack from the orc chieftainess. Her sword was pretty, yes, but she didn’t know how to use it.

  “Bitch!” Ghrinna shrieked.

  “It’s Princept!” Della smashed her skull in with the spiked ice mace. She then spat words into the Gruul woman’s face. “Your daughter is a thousand of you. Goodbye, Ghrinna. I hope you rot in hell for what you’ve done to your family.”

  The chieftainess staggered back onto the couch, then lay there, even as the upholstery smoldered. Ice was beginning to melt. The lightning crackled across the shelves and kept going.

  All was quiet for a moment.

  Della sucked in air,
trying to breathe, her eyes glued to the corpses. She’d killed three of Thera’s elite. How could she have done such a thing?

  She’d seen murder in their eyes, but she’d attacked first.

  Why had those three come to her? Why not use pawns or assassins?

  Because they were drunk on their own power and self-importance. And they’d used pawns before, and those pawns had failed. Over and over.

  For a minute, the enormity of the situation clouded Della’s mind. She’d been so tired after all. She’d fought for her life that day and had expected another battle that night. No, she’d expected to murder again, sure, but it should’ve been Gulnash and not the corrupt relatives of three of her students.

  Della stood, blinking, unable to move.

  Then Sarina was there, whispering, and this time, it was clear her voice wasn’t just in Della’s mind. “Their plan, Della. You can use their plan. I’ve summoned help.”

  “What help?” Della murmured.

  The ghost didn’t reply.

  Yes, the Princept could use the Midnight’s Guild plan to undo Gulnash, but she didn’t know how to do it without casting suspicions on herself. She couldn’t think. Fear held her. They’d known about her, about the Silent Scream, about Unger. Yes, they were very interested in her relationship with Unger. What was he to them? He’d been important, certainly, but was Unger an ally or a foe?

  Della didn’t know. She needed help, to think, to possibly put the bodies in a position that would corroborate her story.

  A single name came to her. Ymir.

  And then he was there, magically, as if he’d known.

  Because of Sarina.

  Della stood, with her bloody sword, her robes torn, and she found herself in his arms. She’d longed for this, for so long, to be held by this man’s strong arms and to feel the heat of his impossible soul, burning with so much power.

  She dropped her sword, took his dirty blond hair in her grip, and kissed him.

  Because this was a night of fire and chaos, and if ever she was going to betray all the promises she’d made to herself, she would do it then. She’d murdered a king, a chieftainess, and the most powerful woman in the Swamp Coast queendoms.