Page 210 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Luka

Pato would take the key to her collar straight to her, I had to believe that.

Even if this meant I didn’t have a chance to prove to her how much she meant to me, it was better to think that she’d managed to escape.

Without her here, my mother had no leverage over me, either.

I patted my chest and felt the ache of her absence a little more keenly.

At least I’d have something to remember her by.

Letting my cousins escort me back to the ballroom was galling. I wanted to do more, I wanted to punch the smug grin off Ceralion’s face, make Aurelion stumble into a wall or something. I wasn’t usually one for such violent thoughts, but the situation seriously warranted it.

It made my blood boil to see that my mother had everyone back at the banquet table, that they’d sat down and continued their dinner as if nothing had happened.

Only… I saw, with a sick feeling in my stomach, that a whole row of people had been lined up against one of the walls.

They were kneeling with their heads angled down while a couple of guards patrolled around them.

Spotting a flash of green skin, I thought for a moment that Koratalin was among the people kneeling, but then I realized it was Aradne.

There, next to the tall Xurtal woman, was the shy blue-skinned female as well.

My mother had pulled her illegal slaves out of the Resort, making sure she couldn’t be caught if I managed to get the word out.

Of my supposed fiancée, there was no sign, so I figured that deal was done.

She probably didn’t need that kind of alliance any longer now that she’d killed Tiam, and the female had seen the writing on the wall and bolted.

The composition at the head of the table had drastically changed.

Drameil was still there, lazily sprawled in his seat, gold-capped horn glinting on his chin.

Several other people sat around the table as they discussed things in heated tones.

I could only guess that these were the top brass, the Crimelords, although not all twelve were present.

Maybe that was just a myth—maybe there weren’t really twelve—but I suspected it was entirely possible they never all gathered in one place.

Some were even rumored to be avid rivals.

Like my mother had just done, the fear that one of the others, or one aspiring to be, would take you out was much too high.

Aurelion had me by the arm, urging me to the head of the table, where my mother finally looked up at me.

“So,” she said, “wedding’s off. That should make you happy.

” Her words made several people at her table laugh, Drameil’s grating, eerie laughter rubbing wrong against my skin.

She was filled with anticipation again, and so were those around the table; that couldn’t mean anything good.

“And since you’ve blatantly proven yourself willing to disobey my orders, I think it’s time you proved your loyalty in a different way.

” As she spoke, I couldn’t help but stare at her incredulously.

Was she seriously still acting shocked that I didn’t want to do the things she wanted me to?

Did she really think I even wanted to be loyal to her?

Lifting my shoulder into a shrug, I tried to act casual.

“Right. And I want to do this why exactly? We don’t see eye to eye.

” I tried not to look at the gathered slaves kneeling on the floor behind me.

I didn’t know why they’d been brought in, but I feared it couldn’t be anything good.

Was she going to use them as leverage? I couldn’t leave without making an attempt to free everyone here.

She laughed. “You’re going to, if you want that girl to survive the night.

” Then she gestured at the cleared space behind her, where a raised podium had been set up.

She couldn’t even remember Noa’s name, but it was clear that that was who she was referring to.

My blood turned to ice in my veins. Noa hadn’t escaped?

My mother was holding her somewhere? No, that made no sense, if she had Noa, she’d happily rub in that fact.

When Aurelion pulled me to the stage, I went, trying to figure out what it was she wanted of me. I had no weapons, no plan, and I was heavily outnumbered right now. There were over twenty armed guards in this room, and I seriously doubted that anyone at my mother’s banquet table was unarmed.

Drameil was the one who drawled in a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard, “I thought your gladiator friends might have rubbed off on you. Why don’t you entertain us tonight?

” Oh, shit. They wanted me to fight on this stage?

With who? My eyes slid over the gathered slaves with some concern.

Were they going to make me fight Noa’s Xurtal friend?

She was a former gladiator; I wouldn’t be any kind of match for her, at least, I didn’t think so. That female was intense.

But it was Aurelion and Ceralion who leaped onto the stage with me, excited grins on their faces.

Ah, better. My dumb cousins thought they could have some fun.

Well, they’d guessed wrong. I wasn’t scared to take those two on.

Not even both at the same time. While Aurelion had always been a brawler—more force than finesse—Ceralion was a coward through and through.

Under the noise of the guests making bets on the outcome of my fight, I shrugged out of my tunic and used the sash from my waist to tie my hair back from my face.

That long hair was a liability in a fight, as Ceralion was soon going to find out.

My mother made a surprised sound, her shock spiking through my mental shields at the sight of the tattoo I’d had engraved on my chest last week.

Good, let her know where my real devotion lay.

Aurelion charged me, his fists up as he aimed a hard uppercut at my face.

I dodged, hit him hard and fast in the gut, and then spun out of Ceralion’s path.

The three of us circled each other, trading blows.

I weaved and dodged, catching only a few glancing ones while I managed a few solid hits on them.

Then I curled my fingers around a lock of my youngest cousin’s long hair and, with force, sent him spinning straight off the platform and into the gathered, cheering crowd.

Ducking, I caught Aurelion in the middle and threw him after his younger brother so the two landed in a heap at the foot of the stage, dazed and injured.

“Yeah, not such an easy target, am I?” I taunted them while I hurried to work on shoring up my shields some more. Each blow I’d successfully landed on my cousins had hurt me more than any of their pitiful attempts had. I was certain this wasn’t over yet; I needed to be ready for more.

Indeed, my mother and Drameil shared a look, and with a hand gesture from the evil crimelord who had once owned my friends and me, more men leaped onto the stage.

These were far better trained than my cousins, and there were four now.

I had to focus as I dodged their attacks and chanted little bits of training advice Sunder had given me in my head.

If only my mother would send that Kertinal guard up here, I’d happily wipe the floor with him a second time.

*

Noa

The laser pistol had no charge anymore after I’d done a number on Drameil’s spaceship, but if that meant the bastard couldn’t get away when the authorities arrived, that was a well-spent effort.

Now, I just needed to sneak back inside and figure out a way to get Luka out of there or sabotage things enough to cause some chaos and mayhem.

I liked that last option, but how would I go about it?

I backtracked out of the ship, my knife clutched tightly in my fists as I crossed the tarmac.

I was alert to the possibility of more guards roaming the area, of other pilots sitting inside those shuttles.

The entire way back to the tunnel entrance in that tower, my skin crawled with awareness.

I felt like I could get caught at any moment.

Why was I going back in again? Oh, yeah, because I had apparently managed to fall in love, and I was too stubborn to sit around and wait for help.

I made it to the tunnel without incident and was just slowly descending the stairs when a sound alerted me.

A dark set of eyes was the only thing I had time to see before Pato was suddenly clinging to my shoulder, his slight weight solid and warm.

He chittered in my ear as I clutched at my chest to calm my racing heart. “Geez, buddy, warn a girl first.”

He stuck out his paw, waving the slender stick that Luka had tried to give me in my face.

As I reached up to grab it, he pulled it back, shifting around on my shoulder so that I suddenly had a mouthful of hairy tail as he curled it around my face for balance.

There was a snicking noise, and then the pain collar slid down my front, clattering to the metal grating of the stair landing.

“Oh, damn! Nice job, Pato,” I said, and I patted his small back, relieved that Luka had managed to get himself such a smart little friend. That was going to make this rescue mission much less perilous.

The sound of a ship stopped me from descending the stairs.

Leaning just around the corner, I checked what was happening.

Had someone already responded to my distress call?

I checked the com device in my pocket; it had cut off its transmission when I stepped into the tower.

That was good, that meant the property blocked signals from going out.

Or in? The people inside would not have heard my message.