Page 24 of Beast Unburdened

The inventory was so massive and confusing that Tori had complained twice already that she’d lost something she thought she’d already counted. A crate of rations and a smaller box of dehydrated bread cakes of some kind. I figured that might be pregnancy brain talking though. It was already confusing to me to take a single step into that hold and Tori still couldn’t find her way anywhere, getting completely turned around the moment she stepped into a corridor.

Kitan was thankfully on the mend, that is to say, he was out of the woods and currently confined to bed rest, which he did not do graciously. Sunder spent time with him though, making sure they hammered out the details required for hiring on a good navigator. He was well enough to make an appearance on the bridge and set the autopilot correctly once they’d taken off and he’d insisted on being helped to the bridge to take care of landing.

I was fairly certain that Ziame was relieved about that because otherwise, he’d be the only one qualified enough to make the attempt. I think he’d been envisioning our fiery death upon landing vividly all day until Kitan had announced he’d do it.

“Everyone’s got a com on them right?” I asked for what was probably the tenth time that hour alone. We’d found a good amount of those, a lucky stroke as the box that contained them had been right near the door to the hold. Sunder and Luka knew enough to configure them and had handed them out so that we’d each be able to reach each other anywhere on the ship or the planet as long as the ship was in orbit.

I absolutely hated the thought that I wasn’t going to be allowed to go down to the arena even though I probably would hate every second of watching my friends fight. That’s what they’d become over the days though, fast friends, not to mention Ziame whose cabin I’d shared since that night.

Right now the plan was for Sunder, as a free male, to head down to the space port’s bars to scout for a navigator. While Ziame, Jakar, Fierce, and Thorin headed for the arena in one of our small transports. As we wanted to have the Doc on hand in case any of them got hurt, he was to pose as their handler while the ones fighting wore fake pain collars.

Ziame who was still in the captain’s chair while he surveyed Sunder and a propped-up Kitan at the helm, gave out a low chuckle. “Of course Abigail. Luka has his right there on his shirt and Sunder’s got his too. You know none of the fighting males can have one.”

Luka was hovering over Kitan’s shoulder as he worked on our landing one-handed, as the other arm was still in a cast. It had been badly broken two days before the fight, due to the bad training gear and he’d neglected to mention it. Choosing to fight through it, it was according to him the only reason the damn Krektar had gotten the better of him.

“You can stay here with Kitan, ready to fire up the ship and you can watch the fight on the viewscreen should you want to.” But the censure in that voice told me he probably preferred I didn’t watch him fight. I wasn’t sure I wanted to either but at the same time, not knowing how it was going might very well be worse.

The landing went off without a hitch though and I left Kitan alone on the bridge to see them all off in the hangar bay. Ziame was going to be flying the shuttle that would take them to the arena and they’d drop off Sunder along the way. I half expected Tori to be there too but she was a no show, maybe she was resting as I knew she’d been up again early that morning. She and Sunder had been spending a lot of time together though so I had expected her to say goodbye to him.

The other males all boarded the shuttle, Luka dressed in the best clothing we could find looked very nervous as he did so. Ziame waited at the door, turning to look at me with an unreadable look on his face. “Don’t worry too much alright? I have much to return to.” When I felt my eyes actually tear up a little at the thought of him being in two back-to-back three-on-one fights in not too long he hurried to pull me in his arms.

“Look, you did really well renegotiating the terms of the fight with the organizers. You hammered out the details of payment, earning us even more than before and you arranged for payout to happen here so it goes to us instead of Drameil. You did fantastic. Now let me do my part.”

I had done all that, didn’t mean I liked any of this, even if I was the dumb-ass that suggested it in the first place. Grabbing hold of his horns I tugged his head down so I could look him in the eye, “You come back okay. I can’t do this without you.”

I’d been independent all my life, I’d also been alone. I knew I didn’t want that now, not out here in space where everything was scary and strange and dangerous. I wanted Ziame so he needed to come back and then he needed to be true to his word and never ever do this again.

“I promise my sweet,” he said, deadly serious, his long ears perked straight forward to show his attention was fully on me. Then he leaned in and nuzzled my face, the smooth band of his gold nose ring warm against my cheek.

When he let go of me he walked into the small shuttle with his back straight but his tail clung to me as long as it could. From inside the shuttle, I could see three pairs of eyes on me, probably on our entire exchange, the only gladiator who’d kept his peepers to himself had been Sunder.

The door slid shut and I backed up so that the shuttle could leave. I tried hard to make myself be amused at the younger gladiators and their curiosity. It was better to focus on that than on Ziame heading for two what seemed to me impossible fights. Come on Abby, the others all thought he could do this, it should be alright.

*

Ziame

“Sated your curiosity?” I asked at the other three fighting today and was gratified to see them guiltily snap upright. Jakar shrugged but Fierce frowned after a moment and shook his head, “She chooses you? She’s your mate?”

For a moment it felt as though he thought I was unworthy of a female like Abigail but then I realized it wasn’t that. Sunder and Kitan had both been something before they’d been forced to be gladiators, they’d had lives of their own. Though Sunder’s was half a lifetime ago.

Fierce on the other hand had always been a slave, sent into gladiator training at fourteen and fighting ever since. That life was all he knew. Of course, he wondered about relationships and how those worked, he’d probably never seen healthy examples.

“She has not yet chosen to be my mate,” I said gently because I didn’t want to lie. “But I will try very hard to convince her.” I winked and that made them lose their stiffness and chuckle with me. “I wish you luck then,” said Jakar, he looked thoughtful.

Finishing my pre-flight check I sent us out of the hangar bay and started weaving us through the spaceport until we found the right bar. According to our galactic database searches, this bar on Xio was one of the hotspots for navigators, finding one here should be easy for Sunder.

The older male was dressed in a generic jumpsuit, the kind we’d found dozens of in all of the ship’s cabins. We’d had to change the back panel to accommodate his wings but thankfully Luka had been handy with some needle and thread. A belt around his middle was weighed down with a gun and a blaster and his com was clipped to his lapel.

Before we reached the bar he went around with each of the males and discussed some last pointers for the fights. Weaknesses, things to watch for, tells to cover. He saved me for last, just as I touched down in a nearby parking lot. To me, all he said was, “Good luck. I have faith in you.”

Once he’d left, the air in the shuttle became far more subdued. Luka was just one big bundle of nerves, he was posing as our handler and he had to collect the payment. He was obviously afraid he’d give the game away and get us all trapped in slavery again. Us gladiators, we were far more familiar with our current roles, instead sinking into standard pre-fight rituals.

As I set our shuttle down in the assigned spot I turned on my companions, my brothers. “We can do this. Once this is over we’ll have credits, we’ll have freedom and we can go where we want to go.” Trading handshakes we all saved Luka for last instinctively. Turning on the male the four of us all at once from where he’d been observing us in his seat.

“Brother,” I said to him and watched his eerie black eyes grow more reflective. Grabbing his slender hand I hauled him to his feet and tugged him into a proper clasp. Fist around wrist, “You can do this. Pretend you’re in a play, or you’re back home, or maybe just pretend you’re the Caratoa’s captain. Just know, I trust you and we’ll have your back.”

“Aye!” chorused my fellow gladiators and Luka nodded, squaring his shoulders. “I can do this as long you all do your damn hardest to come out of that arena alive.” He met the eyes of each of my brothers over my shoulder and then lastly rested them on me, “Especially you. I can’t bring your body home to Abby. I can’t. So you damn well survive.”