Caged Warrior (31 page)

I
f you’re in agreement,” said Hark, that grinning idiot, “today will be the day.”

Leto stood in the weapons room. He’d been mentally preparing for his upcoming match
where, for the third and hopefully last time, he would be paired with Nynn. For their
second turn in the Cage, a month before, they’d been manacled at the wrists. Maybe
this time, for added sport, the Asters would chain them at the neck.

Apparently pairing him with a woman who’d rather incinerate him than stand with him
wasn’t interesting enough.

The Asters knew. They knew he and Nynn had fallen out, even if they didn’t know the
reason. For giving Lamot the command to change Nynn’s tattoo, Leto had endured twenty
lashes by one of the family’s hulking human thugs. Nearly, very nearly, he would’ve
preferred being whipped by Hellix. To turn his back and take his punishment from a
human had been a withering blow to Leto’s pride. That incident, three days after earning
that first dynamic victory with Nynn as his partner, only added to the cracks in long-held
beliefs.

He was only as valuable as his last success.

In every other respect, he was a slave.

As Nynn progressed through the weeks, appearing more and more content with her lot,
she became a living mirror of how he’d spent his life. That she served the people
who’d ruined her family was even more devastating. She’d called him brainwashed. Now
she was. Literally.

After standing to his full height, he looked down at Hark—and kept his fists firmly
at his sides. The man’s smile was fraying Leto’s already tissue-thin temper. “In agreement
with what?”

“That today’s the day.” He nodded toward where Silence leaned against the wall. A
line of swords and shields reflected her placid expression, unnerving black eyes,
and white blond hair. “Silence and I have taken what we need from this place. It was
needle in a haystack for a while, but we’re all set. It’s been surprisingly satisfying
to follow a hunch and have it work out. But now it’s up to you.”

“Speak plainly. Nynn and I fight next.”

“Yeah, about that.” Hark handled a pair of sickles as if he might select those weapons
rather than his usual
nighnor
. “See, big guy . . . we are your opponents. I’m surprised you hadn’t noticed. And
I’m a little disappointed. Being completely ignored doesn’t say much about our ability
to intimidate.”

Leto blinked. He was surprised, too. So caught up in the strife he expected to face
with Nynn in the Cage, he hadn’t moved through his tried-and-true routine. He hadn’t
been this clumsy since he was a green kid.

Then again, he’d never faced decisions that threatened to rip his life in half. He’d
trained. He’d fought.
He’d won. Those had been the three tenets of his waking days and the dreams he relished
at night.

Had been.

He was no longer that arrogant young man. Nynn had become worse than a stubborn neophyte.
She was trained and she hated him. That hatred showed in every skewering stare and
frenzied attack. Her mastery of her gift bordered on the sublime.

Sublime and devastating.

His right arm still throbbed where she’d landed the full force of an energy burst.
Five days ago. Even the fresh lash marks on his back had only hurt for two. Something
about her gift had the ability to wedge under the skin and leave traces of that Dragon-damned
electricity behind. He itched with the pain of it.

“So,” he said. “We fight. I hope this isn’t your way of asking for mercy.”

Silence hid her mouth behind her hand, but her eyes crinkled around a concealed smile.
Hark laughed outright. “We’d never beg quarter and you’d never give it. A waste of
breath.”

“You know a great deal about that.”

“Generally. But not this time.” Bright blue eyes morphed from idiotic geniality to
the sharp focus of a merciless killer. Intense. Unrelenting. Leto knew from experience
that the man was capable, even brilliant on occasion. This was something else entirely.
“Are you listening, Leto of Garnis? We know you can, even past these Dragon-damned
collars. Listen to the silence.”

Leto glanced at the woman who still leaned against the wall. She lowered her hand,
tipped her head, and began to speak.

Only, her voice was more like a sigh. Leto fought past the damping powers of the collar.
He’d worked diligently to make that possible, never thinking he would one day use
his repressed gift to hear words among a woman’s sighs.

What he heard he could not believe.

Found both halves of the idol.

Deactivate the collars.

Living gold.

Waiting for this.

Go free.

The plan Silence whispered in his ears—practically in his mind—made him want to wring
her slender neck.

“And you’ve been hiding this the entire time?”

She lowered her eyes, apparently done with her end of the conversation.

Hark stood close. “Not all of us bought into the system. Some . . .” He looked back
toward his lover. “Some of us had never planned to stay. There is an outside world
and it’s pretty damn fabulous. You, fearless leader, need to be introduced to it for
the first time.”

“Do you always make plans with madness at the root?”

“No, but there’s patience. That should be her real name, you know.”

Leto couldn’t go through with what they suggested. He still had his sister to care
for. This was the final match before earning his reward for Pell. Her well-being had
been his aim for nearly four months, since first meeting his new neophyte.

Let it go,
a deep, greedy voice said.
You can’t afford to care
.

He could take care of Pell. He could . . .

“And what of Nynn?” he asked, having known the whole time that he couldn’t leave her
out of his decision.

Silence selected her preferred shield, the one with the serrated edges. Hark shrugged,
then hefted the nearest
nighnor
. “Her brain is a mud puddle. Tell us a way to guarantee her restored mental health
and we’re all over that. Ready to skip right to the endgame.”

Nynn was falling away from him. Things that fell eventually crashed and shattered.
For nearly two months, he’d lived with the shadow of who she was. He’d sworn to keep
her safe. In body, she was, whereas he was cursed with too many overlapping memories
that swirled into gray clouds. At night, when he slept alone in his dorm, he simply
remembered her kiss, her smile, and the feel of her body. That satisfaction was gone
now. Knowing it had existed at all was an internal scar he would bear for the rest
of his life, one spent in darkness and brightly lit Cages.

During the waking hours, however, he watched her. Had she given him any sign, he would’ve
been able to select the right course. A softening of her expression? She might have
forgiven him and he would work to get Nynn back. A frown of confusion as old memories
filtered through? She might be close to breaking past the barriers in her mind.

He’d seen nothing except the balls of energy she hurled around the practice Cage.
All he knew, all he felt, was her fury. It blotted out everything else.

“No.” Leto grabbed a mace and a shield, strapping the latter in place. “I won’t go
through with it. If you try, I’ll take you both down.”

“You’d rather let her sleepwalk through the next ten years?” Hark was smiling again,
but the expression was cruel, completely void of mirth. “Or until some Kawashima or
Townsend bastard takes off her head at the next Grievance? She’d die and she wouldn’t
even know the reason. Her little boy . . .”

“How did you know that?” Leto growled.

“Silence and patience. I have my partner, Leto of Garnis. Yours seems to have gone
missing. Tell me these last few weeks haven’t been like fire under your skin.”

“Shut up, you Thief bastard.”

“And you’re a remnant of the Lost.” Hark stepped back, hands spread wide. One still
held the
nighnor
. “How appropriate. So lost.”

Silence looked between them, until her bizarre tickling voice became real sound. “I
don’t want to be numb. She said that to you.”

She’d actually spoken, and the words cut Leto to his heart.

The two departed, with Hark calling over his shoulder, “Good hunting, my friend.”

Leto stood, chest out and spine straight. He no longer wanted to be numb either. He’d
been selfish for too long. After this match, with Pell safe, he would do what Nynn
needed—even if that meant tearing into her thoughts with his bare hands.

He looked down at his hands. Scarred. Calloused. Too many years of abuse for his body
to repair itself. If using force would make this better, he would’ve done it already.

♦   ♦   ♦

Nynn smiled at Silence and Hark as they entered the Cage. It was a nasty smile. It
felt nasty on her lips. Yet she
would’ve traded her partner for either of those Sath Thieves. Leto of Garnis was still
shackled to her—although not literally. No one entered the ring to bind them together.
She didn’t think she’d be able to stomach another such round. Chained as a pair, they
took the applause as a pair. The champion of the Asters got to take equal credit when
her gift blew the air out of their opponents’ lungs.

She wanted to scratch the tattoo on her shoulder. Scratch. Peel. Rip it off. This
was her third match. Leto fought for a promise for his sister. Nynn intended to appeal
to the Old Man. A new tattoo. A serpent. One that proved she belonged among his best
warriors.

First she needed to win.

Thousands of people bellowed their eagerness to get the evening’s final match under
way. Nynn bounced on the balls of her feet, back and forth, and loosened the ligaments
of her shoulders. Leto had wanted her to use the whip-thin sword edged with gold.
She’d stuck with her heavier, austere choice and her right arm had compensated. She
was stronger now. Strong enough to take her place as the Asters’ champion.

The bell sounded.

The collars winked out.

The fight was on.

Nynn had gained so much control of her gift, but it remained a slow process. Build
the energy. Release it. She hovered back as Leto took on the paired Thieves. Her opportunity
would come. If she had her say, her partner would stand dead center of the blast.

Leto was in fine form. Fast.
So
fast. By the time his eyes set on a target, his body was already there. The mace
swirled in his wake like a contrail.

She shook her head. Pressed fingers to her temples. Sometimes words came to her that
didn’t make sense. She saw the image of a plane, with a defined trail of white lancing
the blue sky in its wake.

She lived in the complex. She was losing . . . missing . . . something.

“Move!”

Nynn snapped back into her head with a crash. Leto’s warning had come just in time.
She raised her shield and deflected Hark’s pouncing assault. He’d stolen Leto’s agility
and speed. She landed on her back, shield over her chest, with Hark balanced there—practically
squatting. He looked over the rim with that infuriating smile.

“Are you sure you don’t like being numb?”

Mouth open, Nynn couldn’t speak, could barely think. She let her body take over. The
collars reactivated, so it was strength against strength. She used momentum and a
trick of balance to fling Hark away. Bounding to her feet, she found Leto dodging
Silence’s fierce shield.

The break was brief, as the collars deactivated again. Her gift, coming and going
on a whim, was like drowning—catching a breath—drowning again. Whoever was in charge
had shortened the bursts, perhaps to compensate for her ability. She couldn’t get
the rhythm of it. Every time she gathered enough concentration to hurl a ball of energy,
she lost it again.

No.

It wasn’t the collars this time.

The Sath had teamed up to take the power from her. Beyond a blue blaze of light and
her own red fury,
she saw Hark laughing. Silence was nearly . . .
sympathetic
.

Leto’s shout was drowned in a sea of pure energy. The force slammed into her like
taking a wrecking ball to the chest. The back of her head connected with one of the
octagonal frames. She had a brief moment of déjà vu. Once, long ago, she’d let go—let
it all go—and had wound up with her head smacked flat against the pole.

Then the image was gone, because she was screaming. Fire lanced across her body. She
practically felt the metal of her armor dissolving into hot glue. Or, Dragon-damn,
maybe that was her skin. Her nerves swam and collided. No relief. No air. No telling
up from down from death. Her lungs felt crushed in on themselves. Even if she had
a thousand bones, they would all be shattered. Pain beckoned her toward unconsciousness.
She tried to keep her eyes open but failed.

With her body made vulnerable, and her brain left defenseless, a concussive force
of another kind slammed through her skull.

Crowds? A Cage?

Leto was shouting at the Sath. “What the fuck was that?”

“A test,” Hark replied. “We can’t rely on a weak link.”

At the man’s mock salute, Leto took up his mace as if to resume the fight. The crowd
thundered its approval.

“Leto!”

Her scream jerked his head. He ignored both Hark and that thumping call to violence
by kneeling beside Nynn. He lifted her head and brought it to rest across
his thighs. A manic bubble gurgled up from what was left of her consciousness. “Not
a good pillow.”

Why did she need him? Why had she bellowed his name? He was her tormentor and her
captor. Only, the shelter of his arms made her shudder. His body forced her to feel
pleasure and relief and utter confusion.

“Nynn, open your eyes. Now, lab filth. Open your eyes and look at me.”

She flinched.
Lab filth
.

Why do I have scars?