Anzil (Gladiators of Krix #2) - Miranda Martin Page 0,4
swings hard at my head. I do a shoulder roll past him, come up behind and stab mine into his back, throwing him forward. Rather than stop and let him get his balance, I follow it up with a kick.
It throws him further forward, and he trips, then falls on his face. I leap the distance and land on him with my knees on either side of his head and my sword laid across his throat.
“Tap out,” I say.
He growls as his pale green face flushes a deeper shade of green. He bucks, and I’m thrown up into the air. I twist enough to avoid landing wrong, but the shock of the impact is strong. He’s on his feet charging in my direction before I can react.
He’s going to barrel over the top of me. A blur of red rushes from the side, slamming into him and knocking him off his path. Anzil lifts him into the air and body slams him. As Spthifius slams into the ground, Ductores’ whip splits the air.
“Enough!” Ductores barks. All the sounds of sparring stop in an instant. “What is the meaning of this?”
“He lost his temper, Ductores,” Anzil says. “He would have hurt her.”
“Spthifius, is this true?” Ductores asks.
Spthifius climbs to his feet and glares all around. When his eyes reach Ductores, he opens his mouth to protest, but something about Ductores gives him pause. His shoulders slump, his head drops, then he speaks.
“Yes.”
“Then you can take your emotions out on the stables,” Ductores says. “What place do emotions have in the arena?”
“None, Ductores,” the gladiators yell in response.
“Good, train!” Ductores says.
When the day finally ends, every part of my body hurts and I smell terrible. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for a hot bath, but the quarters us girls stay in don’t have that luxury. Cora brags about the bath in Xyron’s room, and I’m jealous. I’ll have to make do with a wet cloth and a hard bed, though, because that’s all I’ve got.
“Out of the way,” Anzil says, pushing his way through the other gladiators until he’s at my side.
“I want you to sleep with me tonight,” he says without preamble.
“That’s your best pick up line?” I frown. “Seriously?”
He frowns too, then shakes his head. “No. I did not say tumble, I said sleep.”
“Sleep, tumble, same thing.”
“They are not,” he says. “I’ve cleared it with Ductores. You will rest in my rooms now.”
“How did you manage that?”
“By telling him I’d make sure you didn’t slip over the wall again,” he grins.
“You’re an ass.”
“You tell me this often.”
“Do I have a choice?”.
“No.”
There’s something in his voice and on his face that stops my next snarky remark. The wrinkles around his eyes are deep, as are the lines of his downturned mouth, and his shoulders are hunched. He’s worried. I’ve been here long enough and know his type well enough for that to give me pause. If he’s worried then there has to be more happening here than I’m seeing.
“Okay,” I say.
When he nods, the tension eases in his shoulders but not in his face. He gestures towards his rooms. His private rooms. He and Xactarin are the only gladiators that have private rooms. I’ve been bunking with all the other females in a room so small you feel it when the woman on the far side of the room takes a deep breath.
On the generation ship all us humans were kidnapped from, space was at a premium, but we still didn’t have more than four or six people to a room. Even then we each had our own sleep chamber. You would think that space on this entire freaking planet is at a premium. That doesn’t make sense either, though, since I’ve been beyond these walls and there’s nothing but empty space for as far as you can see.
Which means the Dominus is an asshole. It fits. What else should I expect from someone who literally buys and sells people?
Anzil opens the door to his room then stands to one side, holding it open for me. The door suddenly takes on a lot more symbolism than it should ever have. My thoughts race around as my heart thumps into my ribs so hard it hurts. Cold sweat trickles down my spine. Is he trying to get me alone? Is this a ruse to hurt me? I glance over my shoulder both ways, but no one is paying attention.
There are guards positioned around the compound, but I know damn well they’re