Page 12 of Gairo

“Enjoy solitude for the next seven days.” Magdorian powered off his tablet and left me to stew in my cell.

FULL MOON

VERONICA

SEVEN DAYS LATER

Rathgar was pacing in our cell, restless. I was not doing any better. I wanted my heart-mate back. Zyloxia had come back with food and the proper prenatal vitamins for the little one inside of me.

“Zyloxia told me while you were asleep that the fight the death is tonight. Soren will know that something is wrong, since he told us to keep in touch.”

“Nobody has come to spring us from this cell.”

“It’s strange to be here without allies. Without the ambush, I would have sent a mayday call back to Soren. It’s good that he stayed back home. I want to help Gairo, but I can’t. Soren can’t help us before the rite happens.”

“I’m sick of waiting here.” There was an old-style lock on the door.

“Have you seen the guards?”

“I can’t smell anyone but us.”

I pulled the hair pins out of my hair and got to work unlocking our cell. Gairo didn’t call me Little Thief for nothing. There wasn’t a computer in it, so after a few minutes, my hair pins did the trick: we were free. Rathgar immediately shoved the door open and said, “Stay behind me.” There was a long dagger hanging on the wall, which Rathgar instantly grabbed.

There were only two guards posted at strategic points, and Rathgar killed them before they had time to react. They had the long daggers, too, and I put one in my hand. Rathgar didn’t tell me that it wasn’t ladylike to fight, which I liked. I might have been pregnant, but I was not helpless.

Right at the end of the hallway was a guard that Rathgar questioned. He gave up the location of the fight immediately, begging for his life. Rathgar killed him, too.

“We need to hurry and get to my heart-mate.”

“If the full moon rite has started, there’s nothing that we can do to stop what they’ve started. It’s an ancient ritual.”

“Fuck honor. If I have to jump in and kill Magdorian myself to save my heart-mate, I will. Honorable or not!” I hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, but Gairo was the father of my child.

BEGINNING OF THE RITE

GAIRO

Anger and fear had been my constant companions for the last week. Once a day, they gave me water and a travel ration. I knew it was Magdorian’s way of weakening me and making me easier to defeat. I kept in shape with bodyweight exercises in my cell. The more that I thought about Magdorian, the more I understood that he was a coward who would fight without honor if it meant Magdorian would come out on top. Magdorian had come to my cell during the week to gloat about killing our parents, whom I couldn’t even remember. I cared far more about my heart-mate. Because of our bond, I knew that she was still alive and, I hoped, pregnant with our baby.

When the guards came to escort me to a massive coliseum, I looked and saw my brother dressed for the fight. They had a rack of armor meant for me with weapons. Magdorian was giving some kind of speech over the speaker system, which I ignored. It wasn’t relevant to me. When I was fully dressed in the armor that they provided and climbed into the elevated battle ring, I looked for Veronica or Rathgar. They were nowhere to be seen. I could see Zyloxia on Magdorian’s side of the arena. I bared my teeth at here, and she never flinched. All she did was look away, as if I wasn’t even worthy of her disdain.

A massive gong went off. It had been a week of little food, but I was ready to kill my brother. He had threatened me and my pregnant heart-mate. We went at each other in the ring.

FIGHTING ARENA

VERONICA

Rathgar moved like a one-alien killing machine. There was blood all over his body. He killed the guards who opposed us, while others ran away. I didn’t know how many lives he would take on the way to getting Gairo at the full moon rite. I grabbed a small hand-blaster from one of the killed guards who never got a chance to even get it out of its holster.

We got to the arena, and I could see that Gairo and Magdorian were locked in battle. They were covered in blood, as they both had weapons in their hands. It was clear that they were both trained for combat, though Gairo was skinnier than he had been when we first arrived on this continent. I could see that he had his own cheering section. Some of them considered him their prince.

Rathgar was carried away from me inside of the crowd. I could feel more than one pair of hands lifting me into the arena. Gairo screamed my name, but I jumped towards Zyloxia, out of the arena again. I could see my blaster where they had pulled me into the arena. Rathgar was bellowing something a little bit away from me.

“I’m sick of your shit,” I said to Zyloxia. Zyloxia charged at me, and I dove to get out of the way, pregnant or not. Zyloxia had a lot more status here than I did. All I was was a rebellious human thief.

“Why don’t you fight with honor, human?” sneered Zyloxia.

Finally, I got the blaster back.

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