Page 60 of Gladiator's Captive
Chapter Twenty-Eight
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Rager
I stood next to Sayk on the balcony overlooking the city, just outside the enforcers’ quarters. I looked at the town below, its people filling the streets.
There was bad there, no doubt about it, but there was also good. Good people, wanting nothing more but to build the same thing I wanted to build. A good, simple life. Safety, food, shelter.
But they couldn’t. Wylder and his cronies had all the power and they would not let it go easily.
If I ever wanted to make Tartarus my home, I had to get rid of the worm at its core. Wylder had to be pulled out of the ground like the noxious, invasive weed he was.
“This is your city, Huugwor, but is it your home?”
Sayk cast me a quiet sideways glance. “It is the only home I have left.” His words were cryptic and his expression closed off. “I can never go back to the desert.”
I turned to Sayk, watched him as he stared below. He looked at the city without really seeing it and not for the first time, I wondered why he was here. A Huugwor in Tartarus, a species so rare they were almost legends. A man banned from his home, from his people, perhaps.
I didn’t need to know more. I had committed my fair share of sins and I was not going to blame Sayk for whatever darkness his past contained.
“I want to become one of your enforcers.”
“What changed?” Sayk stood, stoic as usual. Huugwor really did earn their reputation as emotionless, lethal machines. “Why help me now?”
“Tartarus is my home, now, too.” I didn’t turn toward Sayk in case someone watched us. “I won’t be able to earn enough money for passage out of Valcan and maybe I don’t want to. There is no other home for me to go back to, either. Muhar is long lost and the few of my people who remain will not accept Serena in their midst.”
Sayk nodded, his face still expressionless, but his eyes sharp as he gazed below. “It will be dangerous, now that Wylder is your enemy.” Sayk spoke in a matter-of-fact manner, but his words were nothing but.
“Yes, it will.” I braced my arms on the balustrade at Sayk’s side. “And even more dangerous times lie ahead, if what I suspect is true.”
The Huugwor didn’t look at me, but I knew I had his full attention. His shoulders were tense and I could see the beginning of his spikes forming under his skin. He was on high alert.
“You want to overthrow Wylder.” I spoke low, my voice drowned by the clamor of the city below, audible for no one but Sayk. “And I want to help you do it.”
Sayk turned to me, still bracing his upper body on the balustrade. We faced each other in the deafening clamor above the city. Two warriors, matched in strength and cunning. Matched in secrets and violence.
“And how do you know I won’t kill you just for saying this?” Sayk’s entire posture did nothing to hide the threat. “I have no reason to trust you. You could as easily be working for Wylder.”
Allies or enemies, it was to be decided now. I faced Sayk, fully intent on convincing him that I was sincere, but fully prepared to forfeit his life if he wasn’t.
“You are right.” I stood, unmoving, sustaining Sayk’s cold, assessing gaze. “But you forget one thing that makes us stand together above all else. Our mates. Serena is the daughter of the richest gladiator owner in Valcan and Janet seems to be Wylder’s target.”
The mere mention of Wylder setting his greed on Janet made Sayk purse his lips in a feral snarl.
“As long as I live, he won’t have her,” Sayk said.
“Wylder can destroy both our mates,” I continued, encouraged by Sayk’s reaction. “All he needs to do is sell out Serena to her father. Then he will have all the money he needs to corrupt enough men to overthrow you and take over the enforcers. It won’t be long after that before he gets his hands on your mate.”
