Anzil (Gladiators of Krix #2) - Miranda Martin Page 0,10

towers over me, and those shiny, pitch black eyes glare.

“Yes, Ductores,” I say, hanging my head.

I’ve been on the same duty since the last time I ‘escaped.’ I’m okay with it, but I don’t want him to know that. It’s helping me build the right muscles for wielding a sword.

I walk around the edge of the house to where the stables are, and grab the shovel. The cart is waiting, someone having emptied it overnight. I set to work shoveling the shit. The creature in the stall next to me bumps the wall and mewls.

“I hear you, stinky,” I say, not slowing down. “You should really take a look at your diet.” It makes a low moaning sound in response, as if it somehow understands me and is protesting. “Hey, calling it like I see it. Look at this pile. This all came from you; can’t be healthy.”

I’ve got too much time to think and it’s getting me nowhere. This is the same damn conversation I had with this unthinking beast and here I am repeating myself. Pausing I wipe sweat from my brow and look around. We shouldn’t be here. Regrets leap out of the carefully stored mental boxes, swamping my thoughts. I work while replaying the chain of events that led to us being here. I can’t stop going over and over them, looking for what we did wrong.

There has to be something. Some action, some preparation. I’m a marine. Our one job was to protect the ship. There is no way the Zzlo should have gotten on board the ship without warning. Every system was redundant. All of them failing? At the same damn time? It makes no sense.

The sound of the blaring alarms still echoes through my mind. Leaping out of my bunk right as an explosion caused the room to tilt and I slammed against the wall. Emerging into the common room with my bunkmates, we grabbed our weapons and headed for our stations, but it was already too late.

Which doesn’t make sense. How did they get onto the ship before the alarms? As soon as I stepped out into the hall, a laser sang past, forcing me to leap backwards. Adeline, Nevaeh, and I went over it a million times. If it was only me, I might accept I’d slept through the alarm going off earlier, but not all three of us. No way.

Which means someone on the ship let them on. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Who? Why?

“Wow, that is… oh wow,” Cora says, interrupting the ongoing circle of my thoughts and gagging before she can finish her sentence and stepping back to get fresh air.

“Yeah, pungent,” I say, grinning.

“Good word choice,” she says, pulling the front of her shirt up over her nose. Her eyes are watering, and she’s shaking her head. She must not recall the episode of The Office, or she isn’t putting two and two together. “How do you stand it?”

“You get used to it,” I say.

She comes up next to the cart I’ve been loading, which is almost overly full. It sits low on its axle with a most incredible mound of poo piled onto it.

“This is what they’re doing to you for trying to escape?” she asks.

“I didn’t try to escape,” I grin. “I was kidnapped, remember?”

“Right, kidnapped,” she agrees.

“How was the mating ceremony?” I ask, changing the subject.

The regular slaves and the unbranded gladiators weren’t invited. She smiles, and her face lights up.

“It was great,” she says, but she looks either way before saying anything more. “Are you planning another escape?”

“No,” I say. “Not yet.”

“Oh,” she says, looking crestfallen. “Xyron is working on a plan too.”

I frown, narrowing my eyes. “Is he?”

“Yes,” she says.

“How much have you told him?” I ask suspiciously.

“Well, I don’t know much,” she says. “He wants to help, though. Have you heard of the free movement?” I nod that I have. “There may be a way to reach them.”

“Really,” I say, unconvinced.

This is one of the things I was concerned with Cora going full on native. It’d be bad enough if she was only sleeping with Xyron, but she had to go and get herself all hooked into him, up to and including a ceremony to announce their love. Getting her out of here is going to be hard.

“Yes, he’s very driven,” she says.

“I’m sure he is,” I say, not bothering to try and hide my skepticism. “Before anything else happens, I have to get Nevaeh, Scarlet, Camilla, and Paisley