Luken (Seduced by the Gladiators Book 2) Page 5

  “I …” Urkiza stammered. “I don’t know.” Her lips and forehead crumpled with dismay. “The scarf represents the blessing of the Goddess.” She put her hand to her mouth. “Never in my memory has the scarf simply drifted away from the arena altogether.”

  “Maybe,” Gray commented, “change is in the wind on Lurra.”

  Hannah looked down to hide her grin.

  First score goes to Gray.

  She studied the Lurran ambassador as the woman pointedly ignored Gray. Urkiza’s unflagging resistance mystified Hannah.

  She has no comprehension of the need for change.

  How could she not? The Lurrans had adapted before—they’d taken on the quad structure when it was necessary.

  Why not loosen the restrictions surrounding it now that they’re less necessary?

  The trumpeters and the Holy Quad left the field. Hannah practically bounced with excitement. One way or another, she had four combatants to favor. The crowd stood, cheering as the men jogged onto the field. Hannah jumped to her feet and pulled Gray with her. She clapped enthusiastically and craned her neck.

  “Who do you look for?” Gray asked.

  “My triad,” Hannah answered automatically, never taking her gaze off the field. She realized what she’d said and glanced at Gray. A light of speculation filled his eye, possibly disapproval.

  The fussy ambassador wasn’t going to ruin her day. Hannah turned her attention back to the field. The combatants circled the field, warming up and giving all the spectators a view.

  Hannah gasped. “They’re naked?”

  “Not entirely,” Urkiza said. “This is a competition, so the weapons are wood, blunted to prevent fatalities.” She watched the stream of athletic men running past in their scant fighting shorts.

  “To preserve the cultural import of these games,” Urkiza continued, “they will wear no armor. We call it ‘bringing skin to the games’.” She gazed pointedly at Gray, and added, “The combatants’ only protection is for their … seed. Men who fight for what they believe in are highly regarded on Lurra, as are their children.”

  Ouch, Hannah thought.

  Second point goes to Urkiza.

  The combatants stopped mid-field, in formation. “You see we have four groups,” Urkiza explained. “Normally there are three, to represent the triad. But because of the guest competitor, we have expanded to four—”

  Ambassador Gray wet one pointer finger and raised it above his head. “Yep, change is in the—”

  Raising her voice over Gray, Ambassador Urkiza added, “Four, representing the quad.”

  Hannah raised her eyebrows.

  I’d call that a draw.

  “What’s happening now?” Hannah asked. Four horses, each drawing a small open cart with a driver, entered the field.

  “This is an elimination round called ‘Facing Death’ where you will see the field reduced by half or better. Each man must stand in the face of a charging horse and cart. Those who stay to the last moment will advance. Those who break away are eliminated. Referees judge from the field. For the occasional tie, the audience will vote.” Urkiza leaned forward, speaking to Gray. “It takes a brave man to face such a threat.”

  Immediately Gray answered. “It takes a brave man to step away if he’s preventing progress.”

  Hannah glanced at Urkiza. The Ambassador rolled her eyes and turned back to watch the field of competitors.

  Call that one for Gray.

  The horse-drawn carts lined up at the long end of the field. This gave most spectators a side view of the harrowing moment before impact.

  Four men stepped up.

  Kazen, Mikolaus, Domiku, and Luken walked to the middle of the field. Hannah yelped and drew her hands to her face. “Are they going first?”

  “As team leaders, yes,” Urkiza said.

  Hannah held her hands over her mouth, afraid she was going to scream.

  Luken stepped out first and turned towards the ambassador’s box. He bowed with a flourish before facing the line of carts.

  “Hiayah,” the first driver yelled, lashing his horse. The animal hurtled forward at frightening speed.

  “Luken,” Hannah whispered, covering her eyes and cringing until a cheer rose from the crowd. She gasped, not realizing she’d held her breath, and peeked through her fingers.

  Luken waved to the audience, his devilish-bright grin glinting in the sun. A referee ran out and drew him to the side.

  “His score is the one to beat,” Urkiza said.

  Mikolaus was next. He, too, waved and bowed to the ambassador’s box as he did the night of the competition. Hannah waved back.

  “Dear heaven,” she murmured. “Watching this is going to kill me.” The second driver whipped his horse and she looked down, using one hand to shield her eyes.

  “You’re missing all the fun,” Urkiza said. She poked Hannah in the ribs. “These are your men. As their goddess-on-earth, you are duty-bound to watch.”

  She’s right. I should have more faith in my triad. She sat upright and placed her hands in her lap. She glanced at Gray; he wasn’t so brave and covered his eyes.

  Domiku was next.

  Even from up here, Hannah couldn’t help but admire his intimidating presence. Like the others, he honored the ambassador’s box with a salute before facing the horses.

  The next driver set his horse in motion. Hannah held her breath.

  Dear heaven, no—

  The horse pounded towards him.

  “Oh,” Hannah cried, standing as the crowd cheered. “I never saw him move!” She sat down, heart pounding, sweat slicking her palms. She fanned her face—suddenly, the games were not so fun.

  Am I strong enough for the life of a Lurran goddess?

  Kazen was the last of the four. He waved to the crowd, representing the Outlands, and they cheered him loudly. Hannah glanced at the ambassador, who didn’t respond to the audience’s support of Kazen—and by extension, the Outlands.

  The referee called him over and he took his place.

  Ambassador Urkiza leaned forward.

  Hannah dropped back into her seat and put her hands over her mouth. “Nope. Not strong enough,” she mumbled as she closed her eyes.

  Suddenly Gray shouted, “Woohoo.” He shot to his feet and pumped his fist in the air with enthusiasm.

  Hannah exhaled with relief.

  Urkiza slumped back. “Of course.”

  With the scores from the leaders, the rest of elimination went quickly. Staring down the face of death is not easy, Hannah thought as she watched the number of competitors drop. No matter your training.

  When the last horse cart ran, those remaining on the field broke into four teams.

  “Now what?” Hannah asked. Even Gray’s interest perked up. He leaned forward, listening.

  Urkiza explained, pointing to the program in her hand. “The teams will fight each other, one by one, until only four men are left on the field. Those four will fight until someone is eliminated. Their first weapon is the long sword.”

  The field hummed with activity as referees looked at scores and drew men into pairs. Hannah counted forty, eighty men in all. A referee called the mark, and the fighting began.

  Each man screamed as he attacked. The initial cry and clash was startling. Hannah covered her ears. “Why are they so loud?”

  “To frighten opponents off the field,” Urkiza shouted back, grinning madly.

  On the grass, sword strikes flew overhead, from the side, and stabbed at knees. Hannah grimaced when a man went down. She tried following her triad, but the field was pure chaos.

  “Lurrans really fought for women like this?” she asked Urkiza.

  The Ambassador flashed a feral smile. “To the death. You’re not a goddess until a man fights for you.”

  Referees dragged men off the field and matched new pairs. Kazen dispatched his opponent by diving to the ground and rolling through the man’s knees, then immediately leaping up to place his sword on his opponent�
�s throat.

  Hannah jumped up to cheer. Ambassador Urkiza sucked her teeth in disgust. “Come on,” Hannah crowed at the ambassador. “You have to give him credit for that.” The ambassador waved an acknowledgment.

  Hannah spotted her triad on the sidelines. Luken drank from a water jug; Mikolaus rubbed one of his legs; Domiku was bleeding from a cut over his eye.

  “He may be disqualified for that cut,” Urkiza warned.

  Hannah held her breath, but the referee raised Domiku’s arm, declaring him fit to continue.

  The field was now reduced by half again. “Forty men, twenty pairs, and my boys are all in,” Hannah said. She poked Gray in the ribs. “Isn’t this exciting?”

  He gazed back, his face breaking into a reluctant smile. “You really like all this, don’t you?”

  “This,” Hannah said, lifting her shoulders in delight and waving her hands in the air around her to encompass everything, “is why I wanted to go off-planet.”

  Urkiza announced the next round. “Now they use the short sword, the eye-picker.” She gave Hannah a quick glance. “Don’t worry, the swords still aren’t sharp, so no eye-picking today, either.”

  This fighting went faster, with referees running madly around the field. One after another, men were disqualified.

  “They’re tired,” Urkiza said. “They get sloppy and get eliminated. Next is knife fighting.”

  Hannah watched Luken. Suddenly he looked right at her. He bowed deeply in her direction.

  “The boy seems quite taken with you,” Urkiza said. “Two down, one to go, right?”

  Unwilling to reveal too much, Hannah shrugged. On the field, new pairings were arranged and she pointed. “There are only six pairs left.”

  “Watch carefully,” Urkiza said, her tone turning intent as she leaned forward. “Here is where it gets exciting.”

  Hannah moved to the edge of her seat, too. The action was fast, and try as she might, she couldn’t follow all six fights at once. A man went down and the crowd shot to its feet. Hannah jumped up clapping, even though she wasn’t sure who she cheered for.

  Mikolaus dispatched his opponent with a slice across the man’s hamstrings. The referee shouted, and the man limped off the field—the knives might be blunted, but the men didn’t pull their strikes.

  Luken tossed his knife from hand to hand. While his opponent followed the knife, Luken stepped in and aimed a kick between the man’s legs. “Out,” the referee called, and Luken’s opponent left the field of battle.

  Domiku circled his opponent, lunging in with his wooden knife to tap the man’s ribs, over and over again. Domiku was too fast; his opponent took hit after hit after hit. The referee called it—“Out!”—and the man was eliminated.

  The only pair left on the field was Kazen and his opponent, a man twice Kazen’s size.

  Everyone scooted to the edge of their seat—even Ambassador Urkiza.

  Kazen twirled his knife around and around while circling on bent knees. When his opponent charged, Kazen ran at the big man without hesitating, placing one foot on the man’s knee and his next foot on the other thigh, running up the man’s body as if he were a tree, planting his knives into the man like climbing pitons and using his momentum to knock the man down.

  “Out!” the referee shouted at Kazen’s opponent.

  The crowd came to its feet, cheering with a deafening cry.

  On the field, Hannah’s triad surrounded Kazen, shaking his hand and clapping him on the back. Luken and Domiku each grabbed one of Kazen’s hands and raised them over his head, declaring Kazen the victor.

  Ambassador Urkiza stood and stared down at the field.

  Gray rose and waited for her attention. He nodded to the field. “A wise leader knows when to follow the people.”

  The arena crowd emptied onto the field. Kazen was picked up by several of his defeated opponents and carried on their shoulders around the field.

  The cheering crowd followed, chanting the Outlander’s name over and over.

  “Kazen! Kazen!”

  Chapter 6

  Hannah watched the excitement on the field. Her triad men were winners and she wanted to go to them. But with Gray’s departure, she remained at the Ambassador Urkiza’s side, watching the crowd swarm the field to surround Kazen, their new champion.

  “Change doesn’t have to be devastation and ruin,” Hannah said. She gestured at the field below. “The Outlanders haven’t abandoned all your ways. Kazen won today using the rules all those men down there play by today.”

  Urkiza’s face remained stricken, her eyes filled with tears and defeat. She sighed and flopped back down wearily. “What’s going to happen to us?”

  “Lurran men don’t fight for women as they did in the old days,” Hannah said. “You developed a new paradigm—these games—when the time was right for it. Lurrans are incredibly adaptable. It’s why you survived.” She gauged the boisterous activity down below, but knew she couldn’t leave the ambassador like this. Hannah sat and took Urkiza’s hands.

  “Change your vision, Ambassador. Guide Lurra into the future.” Hannah peered into Urkiza’s face, coaxing her to look up. “Do you realize that when you open Lurra to E2, thousands of women will immigrate?”

  “Thousands?” Urkiza blinked.

  “Thousands, like me, will want to come here.” Hannah nodded toward the field. “They’ll want your world, your men—and they will change Lurra. If you deny and resist, change will happen without you.” She laughed a little. “Lurra may well end up with marriages of three women to one man.”

  Urkiza’s eyes bugged and she clutched Hannah’s hands.

  “But,” Hannah added calmly, looking down to where Kazen lead a throng of people toward the arena gates, “if you get in front of this parade and call it yours, you can guide its path.”

  The ambassador sat quiet, watching the last of the crowd following Kazen. “Lead the parade, you say.” She nodded, inhaled deeply, then exhaled and patted Hannah’s hands. “Such wisdom for one so young. You’ve truly become one of our own—a goddess in all the ways we value.”

  “Lurra showed me the way.” She blinked away the sudden prick of tears. “I have to go,” she said. She dashed a tear from her cheek and rose.

  “I’ll consider your words,” Ambassador Urkiza said. “See to your gladiators. They’ll be bruised for days.”

  With a nod, Hannah left the ambassador still thinking and exited the arena, unsure where to go next. “Where would I go if I was all banged up?” she murmured.

  To her right was the way to her triad’s home.

  I keep thinking of them as my triad.

  Just the thought of marrying into a quad with Mikolaus, Domiku, and Luken sent a shiver of joy through her heart.

  Home.

  Hannah took off in that direction, her heart hammering with excitement

  Kazen won and got his moment. Her triad had triumphed. Domiku was in her sights, and Hannah was certain she could win him over.

  How much better can this day get? Breathless at her arrival, she threw open the door.

  Luken sat in the front room, looking freshly washed as Mikolaus and Domiku worked in the kitchen. She rushed to Luken. “Are you hurt?”

  He gave his usual mischievous grin. “Nothing you can’t kiss away.”

  Hannah blushed and held his face. Gently she kissed a dark bruise on his left cheek. “I’ll be back in a moment,” she whispered before moving toward Mikolaus and Domiku.

  In the kitchen, Mikolaus stitched the cut above Domiku’s eye. At Hannah’s sharply indrawn breath, Mikolaus gave her a quick glance before cutting the thread on the final stitch. The flesh below Domiku’s eye was puffed up and turning dark.

  Hannah swallowed hard. On E2 there was disease and the occasional accident, but she’d never really been exposed to either.

  She touched Domiku’s arm gingerly, afraid of causing him pain. “How bad does it hurt?” she asked.

  Mikolaus grinned. “Domiku, what’s the n
ame of that bar you like?”

  “Edariak,” Domiku answered.

  “Right,” Mikolaus said, turning to Hannah. “Domi gets worse than this in a fight at Edariak.”

  “You’re not worried?” Hannah asked Mikolaus. She studied Domiku’s face. “The damage isn’t too extreme?” Without waiting for a response, she turned to Domiku. “Are you all right?” she asked, peering into his remaining good eye.

  Beside them, Hannah remained aware of Mikolaus packing up his supplies and leaving. But Domiku’s presence and the effect of his injury on her was overwhelming. She edged closer and placed the back of her hand to his uninjured cheek. “I can’t bear to see you hurt,” she whispered.

  He closed his eye and leaned his cheek into her hand, exhaling. “Hannah,” he said, softly.

  She leaned closer. “I am so proud of you, and Mikolaus, and Luken, my triad.” At those words, he opened his eye. She caught his wounded gaze. “Will you have me, Domiku?”

  His hand came up and captured hers against his face, holding her there for a long moment. Hannah sagged against him, relieved to have this moment. Suddenly, she felt tears on her hand. “Why are you crying? Don’t I make you happy?”

  He pulled her hand from his face and wiped his cheek. He choked out a laugh and banged a fist on his chest. “I am not—” His voice broke and he drew back, putting space between them. “Goddess, you deserve better.”

  Stunned at his words, Hannah stood immobile while he moved past her. The front door closed behind him.

  Again, she stood in her triad’s house—but the triad remained incomplete.

  * * *

  Domiku charged from the house and bolted down the street towards Edariak, Hannah’s concern over his suffering more than he could bear.

  “Some gladiator you are,” he reprimanded himself. “Running from her.”

  She sees into me.

  She understands my suffering.

  He reached Edariak and took his usual place at the bar. “Kastasha,” he ordered, holding up three fingers. When they came, he downed the first one. He smacked his lips against the sting of the liquor and tapped the glass on the bar, upside down.

  A vision of Zavia as he last saw her, shorn and bleeding, rose in his memory. “No,” he declared with a twist to his mouth. He swallowed the second shot, and again, left the glass upside down on the bar.