Page 8 of Chained

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.”

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