Page 9 of Warrioress

Chapter 7

Uma watched as the males moved around the training room. Of all parts of the station, it seemed the least likely to be damaged by the Ragoru. Even in the training room, the size of the triad was emphasized by the way they filled the room and towered over the training equipment against the left wall. She watched them prowl through the room, sniffing the air subtly as they got a feel for their new environment, every inch the predator. She should have felt more nervous being alone in there with them, despite the guardswomen stationed just outside the door. But spending a day with them in the detention area had prepared her mentally for this.

The big scarred male, Laro, was clearly the triad’s leader. Possessing more bulk than the other two, he was the most physically intimidating and yet was the more subdued and quieter of them, preferring to recline silently against the wall of their cell rather than pace restlessly like the other two. In the shadows of the cell, it was easy to imagine that he likely once would have been considered pretty, with his dark fur and violet eyes, before his face and torso had been shredded, giving him a far more ruthless and dangerous appearance. She still wasn’t sure how much of his perceivably calm nature was a performance and how much of it was real. More than once she had seen a calculating look in the male’s eyes since coming into her custody. The restraint, however, was just at odds with his appearance as Vrin’s was compared to his attitude.

Vrin was just as Kam had described him. Possessing sharper features, bright yellow eyes, and luxuriously thick fur that looked incredibly soft to the touch in a slightly lighter coloring than Laro, Vrin was the more attractive one of the males, which belied the nasty attitude lurking just beneath it. He gave everyone who came within the detention area a hard time, intentionally intimidating the guards. It didn’t take long for Uma to catch on to what he was doing and flat out ignore him, but even she had to admit that he was difficult to deal with at times. He got a kick out of being unsettling that sometimes even caught her off guard.

Kam, on the other hand, lacked the imposing size of Laro and Vrin’s features, and he was a lighter shade of flat gray that was as equally unimposing as his broad features. Standing next to his brothers, he did not physically stand out in any way except for his amber eyes, which had a tendency to glint with mischief and humor. He was the chatty one who seemed to run continuously with an inexhaustible energy as he moved around their small cell, at times to the annoyance of his brothers who occasionally snapped their teeth at him when they got tired of it. Even now, he had already broken into an easy lope around the room as he explored everything in interest compared to his triad’s more cautious pace.

The moment the males ventured to the far part of the room, Uma turned and waved in the guardswomen waiting patiently at the door, their arms laden with supplies. They immediately filed in, the first two carrying a table between them, which they set against the wall closest to Uma, while others brought in covered containers full of food and a large jug of water to provide them with plenty of water for the day. They made quick work of setting them on the table before hurrying out of the room once more, not one of them eager to linger in the same room with the Ragoru once their task was finished.

Uma watched them, a frown settling on her mouth. She understood their hesitation, especially since being in a confined space with predators was inherently dangerous and Vrin had played too well on their fears, but still—they were professionals. If they were shaken so easily by sharing space with the Ragoru, how could she depend on them to act as they should on patrol through the lower district? The last thing she needed was an incident filed because one of the women under her command acted recklessly. The one who seemed the least on edge was Katiera, and even her wariness was stamped blatantly across her face as she leaned against the wall beside the door with her arms crossed over her chest as she waited on the women to leave the room. Uma swallowed back a groan. There were those who were afraid, and then there was Katiera, the suspicious.

She would need to address all of it and update their training. Perhaps the Ragoru being in their custody could serve some beneficial purpose after all.

Jessie, the youngest of the women, came to a stop at Uma’s side, her short dark hair brushing her jaw as she glanced nervously over toward the Ragoru. “Are you sure you are going to be all right locked in here with... them?”

She immediately flinched as Vrin’s head turned toward them, no doubt overhearing the question, and grinned evilly as he snapped his teeth in their direction. Uma scowled at him, not the least bit impressed, but his grin merely shifted to a smirk before he gave them his back and blatantly ignored their presence. Rolling her eyes, she looked down at the shorter woman at her side.

“Don’t let him get to you. That’s exactly the sort of reaction he wants,” she chided. “If they were going to do anything, they would have already done it. Like with all prisoners, caution is expected and necessary, but it’s important to remain cool and calm and act in a way that is reasonable to the situation.” She gestured to them. “What are they doing right now?”

Jessie squinted at them apprehensively and bit her bottom lip as she watched them. “They are exploring the room.”

“How is their body language? Is the tail rigid, the back tense and ears flattened?”

She shook her head quickly. “No, they look... relaxed. The lighter one seems to be jogging around the room, his ears are at a relaxed angle on his head, not pricked or flattened. The other two, their ears occasionally prick forward but also sit at a relaxed angle.” Her lips pursed slightly. “The darker one has picked up one of the weights,” she pointed out quietly.

Huh? Uma looked back over at the triad, her eyes seeking and immediately finding Laro by the weights. He had hefted one of the largest hand weights like it were nothing and was currently turning it effortlessly as he gave it a curious sniff. No wonder Jessie was a little intimidated.

“So he has,” Uma agreed in a bland voice in an attempt to put the other woman at ease. “I should introduce him to the barbell. He might find that more interesting.”

Jessie swallowed. “Don’t you think that might be a little... unwise? They are already huge and a lot stronger than anyone in our station—or the entire citadel for that matter.”

Uma raised an eyebrow at her pointedly. “Exactly. They could overpower us if they wanted to do so already, so what is the harm of letting them work out some of that excess energy in a productive way? Worse comes to worst, we are armed and are capable of taking them down if they attack.”

Which was the truth. Although the Order of the Huntsmen had kept many of their secrets under lock and key, their Master had made sure that the guards of the citadel were trained in basic combat should the unlikely scenario arise that the guardswomen were confronted with a Ragoru within the citadel. Training that foreman Renny Walsh made certain that the guild kept up on. They could bring down a triad if absolutely necessary—though likely not without losses on their own side—but that was a scenario that they were under orders to avoid unless impossible to do so. Problem triads were to be immediately escorted out of the citadel before there was a chance of potential violence escalating. And so far, that had worked. Ultimately, Ragoru did not enter the citadel with the intent of harming anyone, which was something that the women serving under her needed to remember.

The males weren’t their enemies any more than any other person locked up for getting into a brawl in a local tavern.

Jessie drew in a deep breath and nodded as some of the tension eased from her face. “You are right, Captain. I will leave you to it then. I’m on rotation standing guard just outside, so if you need anything at all, just let me know.”

“Of course, thank you,” Uma replied, giving her subordinate a reassuring smile. “I suspect that we won’t need anything for a while yet so take advantage of the downtime. Just remain alert.”

“Yes, Captain.” Offering a quick smile, Jessie hurried out of the room to resume her post, leaving only Katiera to give Uma and the Ragoru one last look, heavy with misgivings, before leaving the room as well.

Uma shook her head as the door closed and the heavy sound of the bolts sliding into place echoed through the room, though the Ragoru didn’t react beyond a twitch of an ear in the door’s direction. At twenty-five, Jessie was young and idealistic still. She would struggle less in adapting to their new world than some of the more seasoned guardswomen. Katiera would be a harder nut to crack. Coming from a family that had more than one man join the Order and become a huntsman—many of whom died young in their duties—Katiera was distrustful of the Ragoru as anyone from a family with members who were once among their ranks. Even though she was quiet vocal in her disdain long before the Order was abolished, there were some things far too ingrained.

Even Uma recognized that within herself to a degree. Although there were no recent males born to her family to be indoctrinated into a huntsman, her family historically were blacksmiths who forged weapons for the citadel and the huntsmen alike. As young as six years old, she had held in her hands the cold steel of the massive double-notched spearheads designed to bring down a Ragoru. Although her family had protested against her joining the Order, she wondered what they would think of the situation if they saw her now. If any of them had lived to see it.

She banished the thought with a harder shake of her head and blinked furiously. She refused to allow herself to think of it; why it was coming up to haunt her now while she was on duty was a question to examine later.

Tightening her jaw, she headed toward where Laro was casually tossing the weight from hand to hand and walked straight past him to the door to the storage room in the corner. She felt his eyes follow her with curiosity, and she wasn’t entirely surprised when she heard the soft pad of his paws follow her inside. For just a moment she felt an itch of wariness tighten between her shoulder blades, but she forced it away as she exhaled. Not her enemy. The confines of the storage room were even smaller, so small that she could feel the warmth of his body and was certain if she reached behind her that she would be able to feel the brush of his fur against her palm.

“Your females stink of fear,” his deep voice rumbled as he audibly sniffed the air, “but you curiously do not. Wariness, yes, but not fear. Are you not scared, female?”

There was a growl of challenge to his voice that brought Uma to a stop, and she rolled her eyes upward to the ceiling. This she recognized. The combativeness of a male sizing up an unknown female of some authority. She had been treated to the attitude more than once by huntsmen, and even more frequently by the young lords carousing in the lower districts. Without hesitation or regard for the tight confines of the room, she turned to face him, her head tipping up so that his muzzle was only inches from her nose. His mouth parted, giving her a close look at the dangerous length of his sharp fangs. Rather than draw back, she smirked at him, refusing to be ruffled. This was Laro, not Vrin. From the latter she would be wary of some sort of underhanded trick to frighten her, but he was far more direct than his triad brother.

He wasn’t trying to intimidate her. He was... curious. The realization made her blink and her smile widened as his eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her.

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