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“Once you’ve entered, you have to find the path, which does exist by the way.

There’s one allowing you to proceed with the least amount of damage,” Dmitri replied, “This is an exact replica of the one which will be at the imperial games and I have the clues to the safe routes memorized. You must do this as well.”

“You’ve done this before?” Benet asked. “In competition?”

Dmitri rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the floor. Marushka said proudly, “He won the Games five times and the Empress ruled he couldn’t compete any longer. Dmitri is unbeatable.”

“I believe it.” Benet had no doubt. How could humans possibly hope to defeat a Badari in a contest like this?

“Ae you ready to try it?” the Badari asked.

Hells no . “Sure, show me the ropes.”

They walked to the front again and Dmitri explained how to enter the maze.

Benet hauled himself up and paused in the tight safe space to check the area out.

Nothing but sharp surfaces with maybe a few places he could contort himself and get through.

If a man as big as Dmitri could get through relatively unscathed, he ought to be able to accomplish the feat.

“Do guys die at these games of yours?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Every time,” was the unsurprising answer. “The referees vaporize the body and the game goes on. Look to your right and up three feet. See a hole?”

Benet surveyed the designated area. “I wouldn’t call it a hole, you’re being too generous.”

“That’s your next move.”

“And then?”

“I’ll tell you at each point. We go slowly this morning.

After the dry run we’ll go to the house and draw it out.

You must memorize the best path from each of the five entrances.

The Grand Duke paid a huge amount of credits to have this duplicate structure erected here.

Other nobles will have done the same to a lesser extent no doubt and their men will also be practicing. ”

By the time Dmitri called a halt to the exercise, Benet’s body was as battered as if he’d been through a ringer.

He was dripping in sweat and blood as well, from a few cuts gotten when he wasn’t limber enough to avoid the cutting edges.

He’d made it through once after getting hopelessly entangled and having to backtrack.

“What are the small nodules?” he asked as he rubbed his face with a towel and guzzled a sports drink Marushka handed him.

“Those are self-directed robots,” Dmitri said. “In a few days we’ll practice with those powered up.”

“Robots?” Benet hadn’t thought it could get any worse. “What do they do?”

“Attack the contestants.” Dmitri slapped him on the back which nearly sent him reeling. “Tomorrow I’ll show you how to disarm them. Fortunately it’s simple. You did a good job today, keeping your head and taking directions. I think maybe you’ll be fine, Badari or not.”

“Encouraging as that is to hear and I thank you, I think I’d rather face an arena full of men trying to kill me than this fiendish contraption.”

“Don’t forget the obstacle course which follows,” Marushka said helpfully.

“Who dreamed up these tortures?”

“It was a long time ago. The Empress several centuries ago had a diabolical prime minister whose greatest delight was to amuse her and both of them were cruel. He designed many special tortures and punishments as well as these games,” Marushka said.

“I learned all about both of them in my history classes. Heaped with praise of course but I could read between the lines to see how evil they both were.”

“I knew them,” Dmitri said heavily. “A more evil pair of beings probably never existed. She was by the far the cruelest of the mistresses I’ve had to answer to since I was brought here.”

“There’s a reason folks stay out of Outlier if given a choice,” Benet said. “Your reputation is deserved, my lady.”

He felt bad because she was obviously hurt by his insulting remark and it was true she herself hadn’t done anything to him but he was having a hard time coping with his feelings about what had happened to him and what he was going to be forced to do for her father.

Dmitri shot him a stern look but didn’t say anything.

Five minutes later she made an excuse and walked off in the direction of the main house, the dogs running ahead, chasing each other.

“I’ll tell her not to come and watch any more if you continue to be mean to her,” the Badari said as soon as she was out of earshot. “Marushka is a genuinely sweet girl, like a daughter to me and she only wishes you well. She’s a delicate flower this cursed empire will crush all too soon.”

“I’ll apologize tomorrow.” Benet took a deep breath. “I’m upset and I’m angry and determined to get the fuck out of here any way I can but most people in Outlier had nothing to do with my problems and she’s one of them.”

Dmitri shook his head. “I told you, there’s no escape.”

“Did you try?”

“I had nowhere to go, my friend. I have no idea where the planet I come from lies in the galaxy. No one does.” He rubbed his chest again as if soothing an old ache.

“The goddess put me here for her own reasons and so I accepted my fate and will live out my years where she wants me to be. I do the best I can with each day. You should do the same.”

Benet had heard Kyden say much the same thing more than once about his own situation in the Five Systems. He could understand their thinking on the subject but for himself he refused to accept permanent captivity in the Outlier Empire, no matter how well treated he might be.

He intended to walk free at home again or die in the attempt to get there.

Training continued daily and Benet got quite good at working his way through the metal maze without suffering too many cuts and posted better and better times while doing it.

Marushka continued to keep them company most days and he found a quiet moment to apologize to her, which she accepted graciously and told him she hadn’t been upset.

He had to bury his intense anger at being kidnapped and brought to this place at the whim of the duke because the emotion served no purpose right now, except as an extra push to work on escaping.

On the surface he was going along with the duke’s plans as if he’d accepted his servitude.

He and Dmitri had many conversations in the evening about how he might be able to escape and find his way to the spaceport in the capital city.

“My choice was to stay but I had nowhere to go,” Dmitri said. “I couldn’t ever get home. I will do nothing to hinder you and I’m doing my best to help you survive the current situation.”

“Which I appreciate more than you’ll ever know,” Benet interrupted him.

They clinked feelgood bottles and drank, after which Dmitri continued.

“I’d like to see you go free. I pray to the goddess to help you in fact.

If you’re going to escape it has to be soon however; after Marushka gets married I may be sent to live at her new home with Vasili or I may be ordered to Court, or sent somewhere else, depending on Ekatereen’s whims. The point is I won’t be here and I won’t be able to help you even to the extent I’m doing now, my friend. ”

Benet had taken Dmitri’s words to heart and started going for a long run in the evenings, ostensibly as part of his ‘training’, but actually to scope out the estate’s security.

Throne might seem like a medieval world stuck in the mists of time but the force fence, the roving guards, and the robo dogs were all too modern and efficient.

He was allowed to do his run along the perimeter of the compound but the moment he set foot off the road which circled the estate, a drone or dog or groundcar full of guards would appear and chivy him onto the approved path.

The entrances were heavily guarded and Dmitri told him drones and aerial patrols also flew overhead.

Even a former soldier as well trained as Benet had been by his own Special Forces wouldn’t be escaping the place without serious outside help, which wasn’t to be found on Throne.

Finally Dmitri declared him ready to begin the obstacle course and that morning they hiked to a different part of the estate’s grounds.

Benet marveled at how much the Grand Duke had to be spending with all his efforts to field the winning team at the Games, not even counting what it must have cost to hire mercenaries to kidnap a Badari from the Five Systems.

Unfortunately the team had grabbed the wrong gladiator and gotten a superbly physically fit, well-trained fighter and former soldier who was not a Badari. Not even close. Dmitri was adamant Benet must never reveal the screwup.

“He’s a pompous proud man and will have you killed immediately if he learns of his mistake,” the Badari warned. “I’ve claimed you as my brother and who here would doubt my word.”

“I don’t like you putting yourself at risk to do so,” Benet said.

“I belong to the Empress, not to him. She would find the whole thing amusing, knowing her.” Dmitri was unconcerned.

Benet had a hard time controlling his amusement when he saw the obstacle course. After the dangerous metal maze he’d been expecting another high tech risky situation but when he reached the site, he found a few walls to scale, a tightrope or two and a lot of running.

Dmitri wagged his finger under Benet’s nose. “No so fast, my friend. Today we’ll do the bare course but we’ll gradually build up to the full effects.”

“Full effects?” Dmitri and Marushka were obviously in possession of a few facts he was missing and probably wasn’t going to like. “What are those exactly?”

She shuddered. “Flames, acid pits, sharp toothed predators—many an unwary competitor meets his or her end on the actual course during the games. It’s all so barbaric—I’m ashamed of my people when it comes to this truthfully.

But the games were established so long ago and have become unalterable tradition. ”

“And people wager on the results,” Dmitri added.