The Enemy's Triumph Page 6

  “Andinna,” she called. They all stared at her, wary yet hopeful of getting off the ships and making it to freedom. They were so close. She wanted to make sure the right people got there first. “Women and children will leave the ships first! They’ll go to the shore, and someone will help them find everything they need for the day and tonight until we can properly find them homes. After them, I want any male Andinna who didn’t serve as a gladiator at any point in their lives. Males, you’re going to stay away from the females, regardless of familial connections.”

  There was grumbling. There had been some minor talks about this, and they were ones she had paid attention to. She included her own pieces, knowing the Andinna on the ships better than anyone behind her ever would.

  “Who are you?” someone called.

  “Mave Lorren, Champion of King Alchan Andini,” she answered, looking for the one who asked. She didn’t find him in the crowd, but by the pale faces, she knew her name was recognized. “I speak for the King, and if that’s a problem…stay on the ship and go back to the Empire.”

  No one replied.

  “Gladiators, current and former, you’ll leave the ships last.” She turned back to Alchan, who nodded once. It was time to start getting them off the ships. While she was telling the freed slaves what the due was, he was having the Company coordinate other Andinna into stations. Everyone was ready now. Turning back to the ships, she nodded to herself. This was it. She was about to let faces from her past into her new life, and there was no stopping it. Raising her chin, she yelled for the first phase to begin.

  “Females and children may now disembark!”

  It felt like an eternity, but females led the groups off the ships. The children ranged from very tiny babes, who were probably weak and tired, to young adults, not quite old enough to face real horrors. They had faces full of fear as they were confronted with so many adults around them, something she knew they probably didn’t have much experience with once they were taken away from their mothers. All the children were under a century. They wouldn’t know enough about their people to understand the power. They had time to learn. She wasn’t concerned about them.

  As the first female drew closer, Mave stepped aside, her arms behind her back and her feet spread. She wanted to give them something, and respect was the best thing she had. Many of them met her eyes, then respectfully looked down as they passed. Children stared at her with wide, curious eyes. She smirked playfully at one of them, who giggled.

  She glanced down the pier to see Alchan shaking the hand of every single adult female who passed him. Luykas patted shoulders of the young adults, giving each of them a moment to adjust to a less intimidating male than the king.

  There was something joyous about it. Kian even picked up one of the children, laughing as she tried to grab his horns and climbed up higher. It was a good moment. This was why they were fighting this new rebellion. This was why they had to take Kerit. For moments like this one.

  There was only disappointment.

  There aren’t many females or children. There should be more.

  Three ships instead of five. Mave knew tragedy had struck, or they were separated. She hoped they were just separated, but she didn’t have the chance to ask. Once all the females were off the pier, Alchan nodded at her once again.

  Mave went back to the center of the pier and raised a hand to grab everyone’s attention.

  “Males without gladiatorial experience!”

  It confused some why that was a distinction, but not all of them. There were males now on the ships with dark, nearly enraged faces staring down at her. None of them moved as other males got off the ship. She knew they were her peers. The ones who kept her isolated for so long. The ones who tried to break her body and her spirit.

  “You may pass,” she said to the first males who approached her. Mave didn’t move for the males, making them go around her. It was a power move. While she conceded the path for the females and children, she didn’t for males, and that made her status and the status of the other females very clear.

  It felt like an eternity, knowing the hateful stares of the gladiators were all focused on her while the other, innocent males were allowed to leave and achieve the freedom everyone truly wanted.

  “Champion, you may proceed,” Alchan called. His tone was patient.

  “Gladiators, come meet your Champion!” she roared, old rage bubbling up.

  They didn’t move very fast, many of them smartly wary. As they left the ships, they glared at her. Ten paces from her, the front line of them stopped, halting the entire procession.

  “Gladiators,” she greeted, reining in the momentary rage. Mave schooled her face, calling on the centuries of cruelty to make it all disappear. It had always thrown them off balance to know she was so cool and above them. It was a sign she was willing to kill them without blinking an eye. While she had grown beyond it in recent years, it was still a part of her. She was still capable of it.

  “I think it needs to be said now. I’m certain many of you knew me as Mave Lorren, Champion of the Colosseum. Some of you know the events leading up to my escape.” Behind her, something cast a large shadow on her, then there was a loud thud as Rain landed on the pier between her and Alchan. “This is Rainev. He’s a member of the Ivory Shadows as am I. He’s the mutt who befriended me in the pits and is King Alchan’s nemari.”

  There were several gasps, eyes looking above her at the blue wyvern, whose head stretched out over her. She smiled a little as the weight lessened. Her family had her back. She hadn’t wanted Rain on the pier. Either he decided to do it, or one of the Company asked him to. Either way, it was a heart-warming gesture when all Mave wanted to feel was cold.

  “Now, I am Mave Lorren, King’s Champion. There’s bad blood between us, but it’s important to say now, it ends on this pier, at least between you and me. Any attacks against me will be met with King’s Justice.” She looked over the crowd, catching some eyes. Many were naturally looking away.

  In the crowd, she caught a glimpse of one plain face with dark skin like many humans and Elvasi were. His red wings and ruby eyes were a wonderful complement to it, and he was pretty. She couldn’t deny that. He also seemed like the most intimidated and confused of the group. That had to be the mutt Trevan and Dave were traveling with. She would make sure they were reunited later.

  “Don’t think that all the crimes you’ve committed in the pits are forgiven, either. Before you make it to the king, you’ll get into a single file line. You’ll look me in the eyes before you make it there.” She glanced up and considered Rain and what happened to him. “If you’re one of the gladiators who attempted or succeeded to rape anyone I know, you’ll be executed on the spot. There is no mercy and no freedom for you here.”

  There were several gasps.

  “The king can pass that judgment if he wishes,” someone snarled. “None of us can trust you when it comes to that. You’ll claim your rivals did, even if we never attempted it.”

  “You know, Seventy-Two, I was really hoping you were dead,” she said softly, finding his face in the crowd. He wasn’t in the front, which surprised her. He pushed forward when their eyes met.

  “Yes, Champion, I bet you were,” he growled. “Does our king know what you did for centuries? How you slaughtered us? How you were given nice things because of what you did to your own people on the sands?”

  “He does,” Mave answered, nodding slowly. Something felt off. Luykas sent her a warning through the blood bond that set her on edge. She opened her mouth to continue talking but didn’t get the chance.

  “I also know what was done to her against her will, out of your sight.” Alchan’s voice was clear and strong. “I know the ‘retribution’ you and those like you would pass onto her after she was just brutalized by the Elvasi. These were things she never had to report to me. Rainev and Matesh reported to me when we were leaving the Empire with her. I expected better of you, Kenav.”

  Seventy-Two went
pale.

  Kenav. Mave finally had a name to the face. It felt like a revelation, but she wasn’t sure what the revelation was supposed to be. She turned slowly to him, working hard to keep her face blank.

  Alchan knew him once. That means enough.

  “Alchan, you have no idea—” Kenav

  “King Alchan,” he snarled. “And I have every idea. I’m not a fool. You’re lucky for only one reason.”

  “I’ll take whatever luck you can give me, Your Majesty.” Kenav bowed his head low in submission.

  “As I forgave Mave Lorren for her possible crimes in the name of survival and rage at all of you, I shall forgive you of crimes of passion and anger against her due to the stress of your type of imprisonment by the Empire. What Shadra did to all of you was brutal and torturous.” Alchan showed no vulnerability, no flicker of anything on his face.

  “I have heard descriptions of the pits you were kept in. I have seen the damage done to many of the slaves that have left the Empire. I have seen the horror in my own warriors’ eyes as they relayed to me what all of you were forced to live with. So, I shall forgive. I shall forgive the fights. I shall forgive the perception of Mave’s position in the Empire. But hear this and hear it well. This is the only mercy you get. From here, I expect all of you and my Champion to work to the common goal we all share. Freeing the Andinna from the shadow of the Empire and reclaiming our home.” Alchan adjusted his leather chest piece. “And thorough investigations will begin into all of you who may be involved with the act of rape, which has always been and will always be punishable by death.”

  Mave gritted her teeth a little. She had wanted to gut them, but she understood what Alchan was doing. He was trying to maintain order.

  He turned and started walking away. Rain did as well, his big tail sliding over the wood. Mave waited a moment, staring down the gladiators before turning her back on them as well, following behind Alchan and Rain. She watched as Rain shifted back into his Andinna form and pulled his pants on, the view protected from others by Matesh and Bryn. Mave stopped at Matesh and wrapped her arm around his waist, a clear sign to the gladiators that saw them that she had picked the big male as her own. Bryn and Luykas flanked her and Matesh, creating the appearance of a unit. Nevyn, Varon, and Kian glared at the gladiators, but when Alchan ordered them to find homes for the entire lot of them, they fell into the work.

  “Wait,” she called. “I want that one.” She pointed to the plain-faced mutt with even more prominently pointed ears than Luykas. His ruby eyes went wide as she stared at him. “You know Trevan and Dave?”

  “Yeah, he’s the fucking traitor,” someone muttered.

  “Watch your tongue, or I’ll take it,” Luykas snapped.

  A head ducked down, but the mutt came toward her. She looked him up and down. He wasn’t as tall as Luykas, who had been lucky to take mostly after the Andinna side except for his coloring. This mutt was very Elvasi except for the most obvious Andinna features. The red of his coloring was all blood or ruby red, vibrant in the same way Rain’s blue and Luykas’ white were.

  “Emerian, right?” When he nodded, she was glad to have read the reports and picked the right mutt. “We’ll get you to them,” she promised. “I figured there would be some hostility toward you for sticking close to an Elvasi.”

  His mouth moved, but he didn’t say anything. She stared him in the eye and finally saw his eyes drop as instincts told him to look away.

  “Learn to follow those instincts a little faster,” Luykas advised quietly. “Take it from another half-breed, life is easier once you accept the Andinna in you. She’s the most dominant female of our people, and she’s not going to let you forget to follow the rules for long.”

  Emerian’s growl was soft, but nothing that anyone needed to call out. She filed the response away to think about another time. The day was stressful enough.

  “I am going to leave Nevyn, Varon, and Kian with the gladiators for the rest of the day,” Alchan said, cutting into the situation without care. “Matesh and Bryn, help the other males. Mave, I’ve already gotten many of our female warriors to put a guard rotation on the freed females and children. I want you with Luykas and me to speak to the captains and…our other allies.”

  “Be careful,” she said softly, looking at the backs of the gladiators. “They’re not going to like keeping Trevan, maybe Dave as well.”

  “Do you want to keep them in Anden?” He frowned at her, confused. “I figured we would send them on the next ship to Olost to live out their lives.”

  “Give them the choice,” Luykas said, splitting Mave and Alchan down the middle. “If they want to go to Olost, we let them. If they want to stay here and make themselves useful, we’ll make sure no one on our side attacks them.”

  “That’s what I was going to offer,” Alchan grumbled. “This is too many people for me. Meeting building. Now.”

  Alchan launched into the air, Rainev following him. Mave sighed, kissed Mat and Bryn on the cheeks, then launched into the air with Luykas to follow the king. She turned to see Emerian wasn’t following and rolled her eyes.

  “Let’s go,” she ordered. “You’re with us if you can fly. If you can’t, someone will escort you to us.”

  His wings looked a little unsure, but he followed as well.

  She took one last look at the gladiators being talked to by Nevyn and Kian and letting the sinking sensation in her stomach settle.

  Her past was now on their shores. She wished she could say she was okay with it. She had a small bone to pick with Alchan over his declaration on the pier.

  6

  Emerian

  Emerian was practically shaking as he landed on the rooftop behind her—The Champion—Mave Lorren. Trevan’s…whatever she was to him. He kept his head down and eyes to the ground as he followed her into the building. She walked with a male with identical armor as her, but his main pieces were nearly ivory white leather. The cost of something so fine meant he had to be important. He didn’t really hear what she said down on the pier from his place on the ship. He was too busy trying not to flip out that he’d been separated from the only two men he was familiar with enough to feel safe around.

  Safe. He’d thought becoming a gladiator, while dangerous, would one day make him safe. That had been proven wrong the longer his stay had been there. The Elvasi would never accept him, but…

  The Andinna apparently accepted mutts without blinking. The white-winged male was half-Elvasi. The eyes gave it away, a pure Elvasi gold Trevan’s eyes tried to be. Not that Trevan’s eyes were bad. When the white-winged mutt turned his head for something, his hair revealed very small points to his ears, another indication of his heritage.

  And they matched exactly with the Princess’. Perfectly.

  “Because I have a brother like you.”

  There’s no way he’s that brother, right?

  He said nothing as he was led into a giant room with a table in the center, covered in maps and other items—quills and ink, blank scrolls and some with writing, and leather-bound books and pamphlets. This had to be the war room.

  But what am I doing here? Is this where they brought Trevan and Dave? Are they safe? She didn’t make it seem like they were in any danger. She called them allies. They better be safe.

  “Hey, Emerian,” she said, making his head come up and meet her eyes again.

  This time he looked away quickly, feeling more comfortable with that than staring too long at her unusual eyes. Some would say they were blue, some would say they were grey, but he found them an odd mix of the two. He’d grown up in the northern reaches of the Empire. They reminded him of steel covered in ice and were just as cold, threatening to give him the same chills he’d gotten as a boy.

  “Yes, Champion?” he replied, swallowing.

  “Alchan just said Trevan and Dave are in the next room, back door on the left. You can go meet them. We’ll call you three out when we’re ready to figure out what to do with you.”

  H
e nodded quickly and started to walk away. Before he made it out of the room, he caught something that made it feel as if he was being punched to the gut.

  “You’re being very nice to him,” a male commented.

  “Yeah…” She sounded thoughtful.

  “Want to tell us why?”

  “I know what it means to have a plain face,” she answered, sounding absentminded.

  “Let’s get down to business. You told them we would investigate? How long is that going to take? Andinna could get hurt before we can kill off the ones who need to die.”

  Emerian walked faster, not hearing a response to that. There was something terrifyingly bloodthirsty about the way she spoke in a cold, annoyed tone. He ducked into the door she pointed out and sighed as he closed the door behind him.

  “Emerian!” Dave said, laughing. “We’re here! We made it!”

  “Yeah…” He looked up and saw them sitting on a long, soft-looking couch with drinks and small food items on a low table in front of them, and the fire was going. “This is Kerit, huh? Anden.”

  “Yeah,” Trevan said softly. “I’m glad someone grabbed you and brought you here. I was going to ask the moment I saw…them, but we were escorted here without being able to really talk to anyone, and we haven’t heard from them.”

  “She figured out who I was,” Emerian explained quickly, moving to them. “She, uh, apparently doesn’t trust the gladiators with anything.”

  “She wouldn’t,” Dave said darkly. “They did awful things to her for a long time. My entire time as her assigned handler was watching her protect herself from them. Everyone who had the job before me was the same way, constantly watching her fighting on the sands, in the pits, and at the…private parties she was required to attend.”

  “And now, she’s the King’s Champion,” the Elvasi whispered. “It suits her. She’s always been so…”

  “Above it all?” Dave asked, smirking. “Yeah. She has. She looked terrifying on that pier. And she finally has the…what are they called? Tatua?”