Maxym
MAXYM
I roll over onto my side with the obligatory groan. My head spins unpleasantly, and I retch, but my stomach is empty.
From the smell, I know I’m in the hole, the place all gladiators are sent when we disobey. There’s little light and no home comforts.
“Drink some vrexing water,” Klynn growls in my ear.
I fire out an arm but only get air.
“Too slow, old timer.” He laughs.
“Vrexer,” I growl.
I feel around for a pitcher, finding the thing and shuffling myself until I’m in a position where I get some of the liquid in my mouth. It tastes stale, but I feel better for it.
“What did you do to get both of us a dose?” Klynn snarls in the dark.
He hates narcotics more than he hates anything else. But I suspect if I was trapped in what passes for Klynn's mind with no escape, I’d hate them too.
“They got you?”
“No warning,” he grumbles. “Just shot me with the stuff.”
The image of my eregri swims into my head. It calms me a little, takes some of the pain away. I don’t want to kill Klynn as much either.
“I might have vrexed the procurator off by attacking one of his guests.” I lean my head back against the rough stone behind me.
Klynn mutters some curses at me. I hear his wings swishing as he paces his cage.
“He’ll get over it,” I say. “We won’t be in here long. There’s games soon.”
All I get is a deep growl, which is probably what I deserve. I close my eyes and think about the little creature I very nearly had. My cocks harden to the point of pain, including, in a surprise move, my second cock.
The vrexing thing hasn’t ever managed anything in my life before, but now it throbs more than the rest of me. Its desire to sheath itself in the ripe little female almost makes me want to take myself in hand.
Although the cold drip of water down my neck dampens my desire somewhat. Instead I concentrate on remembering her pretty face, the way her body felt next to me, the young rounding her belly.
Did she say if she had a male? I can’t remember, and I know it won’t make any difference. The little female belongs to me regardless, and that includes her young. If anything, her being with young makes me want her more.
I want all of her.
Which means I need to get out of the hole and somehow get a pass to search Tatatunga.
I’m going to have to master the violence and rage which I thought I could not control if I want to have any hope of seeing her again.
Of sheathing myself in her.
Lights come on, and despite the wooziness which plagues me, I’m on my feet. Across from me, Klynn leans insolently against the bars of his cage, feathers pressing through. If I’m as dirty as he is, we both need several baths.
I need to get clean for my mate. When I find her.
The head clerk marches down the center of the cages, six Zarvu guards in tow.
“Gladiators,” he announces in a high reedy voice. “Are you ready to comply?”
“I never comply, but I probably won’t rip your head off and piss down your neck if you let me out of here and feed me,” Klynn snarls at him.
The clerk is already within striking distance for my fellow gladiator, and he takes a step back, bringing him closer to me.
“What he said,” I respond with a growl, making him jump.
The Habosu, skinnier than his species usually are, spins and glares at us both.
“Paraxio is expensive. You will pay for its use on you both. Basic rations for a week.”
Klynn snorts but doesn’t say anything. He simply exudes violence through every pore. The clerk glares at him.
I lean my head against the bars.
“Let us out.” I fix him with a gaze I hope is relatively benign. “We have games to win.”
It’s the clerk’s turn to snarl ineffectually at us both. I guess he feels safe because he’s outside the bars. Only whoever designed these punishment cells did not have the Gryn in mind.
“Your release is based on your complicity. One wrong move will have you back here for a much longer stint,” he says, turning on his heel and gesturing to the guards.
I see Klynn swipe out at him, deliberately falling short but enough for the guards to pull out pulsars.
The head clerk marches away, unconcerned, leaving a set of very jumpy guards to deal with the pair of us.
“Move and we shoot. We all know you can fight even when injured,” the one closest to us snarls.
“I just want my rations and to bathe.” I groan. “You won’t get a fight from me.”
Klynn is silent, but I suspect he agrees, even if the vrexer pretends to hate everything.
We’re put into bonds and prodded back through the service corridors until we get to the our quarters where the captain is waiting for us.
“Gladiators.” He dips his horns slightly. “You are on your last warning.”
Klynn growls at him. I fold my arms over my chest.
“The procurator means it. You might make him credits, but there’s a limit to what he will tolerate without finding alternative income. Both of you are at the mercy of the dome.”
“A fact of which we are well aware, captain ,” I snarl.
“He believes he’s about to obtain another ziggurex.”
“Vrex,” Klynn mutters.
“And if he does, he will put you up against it in a death match,” the captain says. “Which is the reason you are here. To pay your debt and to die well.”