Gladiator Bear's Battle (Shift In Time 1) Page 4

  “I apologize for barging in like this,” she whispered, suddenly caught by how it must have looked. “I did not mean to inconvenience you.”

  “You could never inconvenience me,” he said, a smile breaking across his lips.

  It looked… warm. Kind. Surprising. She’d seen him snarl countless times and destroy warriors left and right, but she had never really seen him smile. It made her appreciate him all the more feverishly.

  “Did you come with more news?” he asked curiously, peering at the tray she brought with her.

  “No… well, yes, but… yes,” Kiya stuttered.

  “And?” he urged, smiling.

  Erden sat down and Kiya saw a spark of amusement in his eyes. He must have known that the situation was serious—she wouldn’t be down in the dormitories, risking her health and her position in the household otherwise. But she also saw the way his eyes roamed her body. Unlike when others did it, his gaze made her feel confident. Beautiful.

  “Julius Augustinus will use you in a fight put on for some Senators. They will have a party here in a few nights,” Kiya blurted.

  Erden’s eyebrows rose up a bit and he nodded then, catching her drift.

  “And you think that is when he will attempt to… get rid of me?” he asked.

  She nodded her chin a little, the thought making her throat close. He exhaled and patted the cot next to him, inviting her to sit down. She hesitated, but when he reached over his hand and grabbed her hand, pulling her next to him, she couldn’t deny him any longer. With her heart beating wildly in her chest, she sat down next to him.

  “Is that the only reason you’re here?” he asked.

  After a moment of silence, she shook her head. “No,” she said with a small voice.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  She shook her head. Erden gave her a long look and she felt her cheeks burn red. What she wanted the most was to just get to know him and spend some time around him so she would have a good memory to cling to when her time inevitably came, when she would need something positive to look back on.

  “I understand. Do you have time? Could you tell me a little about yourself?”

  “Why?” Kiya asked, looking up with surprise in her eyes.

  She’d seen him seek her out in the crowd a few times, but she had thought nothing of it. While a small piece of her hoped that he was looking for her, a much bigger part was sure that he had always been looking for Mistress Aelia Fausta, to see whether she was pleased with his fights.

  “Because I would like to know more about you, Kiya.”

  He squeezed her hand and she realized that he had not let go of her yet. Her other hand went over his without a second thought. It just felt perfectly natural. A warm feeling pooled in her center and then spread to her limbs. Though a moment ago she had felt she couldn’t say a word, now her vocal chords were untying and she felt the words coming easily. Yes, there was danger, and yes, she should not have lingered, but she longed to share some time with him.

  “What is there to my life? I am a slave,” she said, smiling weakly.

  “I am as well. That does not mean that our life ends simply because our freedom is taken from us. There’s always hope that it can be captured again and when the time comes, I’d rather know what I want to do with my life and my freedom, rather than be in a situation in which I do not know what to strive for.”

  Erden shrugged his wide shoulders, and it almost looked like a mountain thoughtfully shifting. He truly was a large man and Kiya felt insignificantly small in his shadow, like if she stayed next to him, nothing could get at her. Of course, she knew that not to be true. The lanista’s reach was far and wide and no slave was ever safe from the wrath of their master. But if she were thinking purely rationally, she would have not been here in Erden’s room right now.

  “That is true. I just… I don’t see it as a possibility anymore. I have known a better life. I have known a different life. But it seems so far in the past now that it barely counts. Like a distant memory I would love to keep, but cannot hold onto. It keeps sliding out from between my fingers.”

  She sighed, but Erden squeezed her hand again reassuringly. It felt incredibly good.

  “Were you bought as a child?” he asked.

  “I was,” Kiya nodded. “I was the youngest of my sisters. My family were distantly related to the pharaoh. When he was overthrown, they came for everyone connected to him. My family was slaughtered like sheep. I was the only one left. I think they took mercy on me because I was young. My mother was a great beauty and her daughters were all meant for big marriages and happy futures. But they all ended up thrown into the Nile and I am the only one who can remember them at all.”

  She shook visibly and Erden put his other hand around her, enveloping her in his warm embrace. Physical closeness was not something slaves got to enjoy much and being so close to him now, touching him, was like the sweetest drug.

  “I was sold at an auction and carried over the sea to Rome. There, at a market in Capua, Julius Augustinus’s wife saw me and had me purchased for Aurelia Fausta. I am thankful I have been given a reasonable and kind mistress. I know it could have been much worse,” Kiya confessed.

  She exhaled deeply and the tension within her lifted a little. She had not told anyone her story since coming to the empire. It was common knowledge that the more you gave, the more people took, and Kiya did not have anything left to give. Any bit of information she shared took power from her, what little she ever had, but with Erden, all those worries seemed to disappear. When she told him something, it felt more like she was growing stronger through shared knowledge, not becoming less than she was.

  “I was a prisoner of war,” Erden said, his deep voice rumbling through her. “There was a large unit of fighters moving toward the north, farther north than they had ever been, I think. I am from the far north, where the snow never melts and when it is either completely dark or the sun is up for days and days. We were on a scouting trip across the narrow sea when we were ambushed. My brothers-in-arms were cut down around me. I think I must have cut through twenty-five of the bastard warriors who had come for us in the dark before they stopped me.”

  He fell silent for a moment, contemplating the words he spoke before continuing.

  “I thought they would kill me as they did the others. But the phalanx commander was impressed, even though I was a beast. He said I would be valuable, that I had more worth as a caged predator than a dead man in the ground. So, I was brought here to this blasted place of warmth and sun and sand. I have now been fighting here for many years, hoping that I would gain my rudus and return home.”

  Erden shook his head, sighing. Looking up at his face, Kiya could see the knotted tension there. The memories washed over him and threatened to suffocate him, dancing before his eyes. She had been taken from her home as well, but for her, the difference was not so great between Egypt and Rome. There was nothing to return to in Egypt and she could hardly imagine a way for her to create a better life for herself outside of the walls of the ludus. Erden, however, knew exactly what he desired and what he needed and the ludus obviously was not enough for that.

  “Did you leave someone behind?” she asked.

  “My family.” Kiya must have looked apprehensive, because he rushed to correct himself. “My brothers. My sister. No wife, no children. I thought there was time and I would have set out to find a mate soon, but the trip came before that. I think it is for the better, though.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if that night had never happened in those dark woods, I would have never met you.”

  His words took Kiya’s breath away. What could she say to that? Her eyes stung with tears and she looked away, down at her hand in his. Just then, she heard rustling behind the door, and a chatter of voices and shuffling feet. Quickly, she bounced up on her feet and let go of Erden’s hand.

  “I must go. Before they notice that I am missing.”

  Erden nodded and stood
up, though he had to hunch a little instead of standing at his full height. Her hand was already on the wooden door handle when he spoke again.

  “I do not want you to put yourself in danger, Kiya. But I do hope to see you once more.”

  The look in his deep brown eyes told her that he meant every word. With a heavy heart, she fled the room.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Erden

  The log Erden lifted with his bare hands splintered under his fingertips and scratched at his tough skin. The sun was beating down mercilessly as it seemed to always do and there wasn’t a whiff of wind blowing through the pit that made up the practice yard. With a grunt, he let the log slam onto the dirty sand once more, before dragging it back up and then pressing it over his head.

  There were men all around him. Some were sparring, some were doing calisthenics and others were working on brute strength as Erden was. The ludus had a fine collection of gladiators and the lanista made sure they were kept in peak physical form. Erden had been given a few days to recuperate and he could still taste the sweetness of the wine he had been given as a reward some nights earlier.

  The finer things in life were something far too distant for the gladiators, so when they were blessed with a tiny sliver of a better life, that memory hung with them for a long time. Like Kiya’s hand in his and her body shaking against his chest. The flash of memory almost made him lose grip on the wood and he let it drop down, panting.

  His wounds were healed now and just a few faded scars indicated that they had ever been there at all. He was not the only shifter in the ludus, but he was certainly the most experienced one, and he had to count his lucky stars that he could still heal as efficiently as he did. Though, in all honestly, he believed a lot of it had to do with Kiya as well. Not only the salves she had brought, but her reinvigorating presence. When he was near her, the thought of becoming old and weak was something that made him buck and rile against it. He had to be strong, if only so he could protect his mate.

  A small grin flashed across his face at that. She had come to see him again a few nights later, making excuses as to why she needed to check on his wounds. She must have known he was fine already, but he didn’t call any attention to it. If she wanted to come and see him, that was more than fine by him. They had, again, talked and shared and Erden had been reminded of what it felt like being a person. Being a man.

  It was damn near impossible keeping his hands off of her, but he was respectful. Being so much stronger than she was, he did not want to assume anything that was not there, nor did he want to pressure her. Even if they could only talk for the rest of their lives, even if she would never return to him again, he would hold those nights as precious jewels in his heart, giving him strength to fight on whenever he felt too weak to do it otherwise.

  “What is so funny, north-mongrel?” Tertianus bellowed, the main trainer of the gladiators, the doctore.

  “Nothing, doctore,” Erden responded respectfully, bowing his head.

  “Come here and show all these novicii how a true gladiator brawls then,” the doctore called.

  Erden knew that the doctore was not to be trifled with. He, next to Julius Augustinus, was the only law the gladiators knew. Erden stepped over the log and headed into the middle of the pit. Some other sparring pairs either finished or stepped aside to give him room. It made him stand a bit straighter, seeing the admiration in the eyes of his brothers in training. So much loss, pain, and danger lurked in the world of training and becoming a gladiator that the men in the ludus often formed close bonds. It was just about the only human contact they had, so their brothers were to be cherished.

  “Davida, come forth,” the doctore called.

  A young gladiator that Erden had never met stepped forward. He was almost as tall as Erden himself and had fair hair and blue eyes, clear marks of a capture from the north. When he murmured a greeting in Erden’s mother tongue, Erden frowned deeply. It was like someone struck a knife straight into his heart and then twisted it as well. For years, he had worked on packing everything about his past into a small box and shoving it into the back of his mind. He did not need this reminder to open that box up again and make all the pain in the past spill forth.

  “No weapons.”

  Erden instinctively crouched down a bit, spreading his feet in the sand and raising his hand. Davida had long arms and almost catlike speed, and when he came for Erden for the first time, he was not prepared. Erden narrowly avoided being slammed down on his back. Davida had slammed his knee right into Erden’s thigh, aiming for the sight of his latest wound. Clearly, this gladiator was new and green.

  A grumble of annoyance shifted through the viewing gladiators, but the doctore silenced them with a sweep of his hand. Out of the corner of his eye, Erden could see Julius Augustinus come to the balcony and lean on it, watching the fight with bored eyes.

  Davida attacked again and this time, they captured one another in a bear hug. Trying to jostle one another to the ground, both of the big men grunted and growled like dogs on a leash. The kind of power that lurked in Davida’s body told Erden clearly that the man was a shifter himself. Probably not a bear, as he could not smell it on Davida, but perhaps a wolf. Easy prey if they were shifted, but his youth and raw strength were providing a challenge in human form.

  When Erden suddenly found himself on his back, staring up at the remorseless sun, it came as a shock like no other. He quickly scrambled to his feet, but the look in his eyes was echoed by others that knew him well. He had never been slammed down by another gladiator during training. In the arena, with more than one opponent, yes. But not here where the odds were even.

  He centered himself and pressed his lips tight to keep from snarling in irritation. Davida wore a mocking smirk that was begging to be wiped off his face. He came for Erden again and both of them got in a few punches. One of them was so hard against Erden’s cheek that he stumbled back a step, his ears ringing.

  “Seems that the old champion is losing his edge,” Julius Augustinus yelled from the balcony, chuckling.

  The doctore said nothing and Erden appreciated it. There were far too many reminders lately that he was not a young man anymore. He did not need some upstart to bring him his first ever loss, not on this day of all days, when he had finally ventured forth to begin training again.

  Davida’s feet carried him over the sand so fast it was as if he had lived on it all his life, not on the soft grass of the northern lands. He came charging at Erden like a bull and Erden dodged him just in time. A heavy fist to his back sent Davida tumbling forward, his hands digging into the sand as he somersaulted to keep from collapsing on his chest or back. Davida snarled as he jumped to his feet again, his blue eyes flashing gold.

  A wolf, Erden confirmed wryly.

  Julius Augustinus had not said a word as Erden tricked Davida, but Erden could feel his hateful gaze on the back of his neck. Davida came for him again and they locked together, hands shoving and jostling for grip and their sweaty bodies slamming against one another, trying to bring the other man down or punch him. When Erden pushed Davida off again, he was visibly panting. This was quickly turning from a small fight to a battle of consequence and Erden didn’t like the fact that he seemed to be evenly matched, if not slightly outmatched.

  Minutes passed with the fight becoming more and more heated. Erden couldn’t feel one side of his face after being hit by Davida’s right hook one too many times, and Davida was limping from being thrown against the stone wall by Erden. Their bodies were covered with sweat and sand clung to their pores.

  “Bring the blades!” Julius Augustinus suddenly roared, catching Davida off-guard so Erden could punch the underside of his chin.

  It sent the younger man reeling and stumbling back, but to his credit, he stayed on his feet. One of the lesser trainers brought out two jagged swords, but when he went to give one to Erden, Julius Augustinus stopped him.

  “No! Only to the new one. The old bear has too many tricks as it is. If
he is truly a champion worth his name, then he will win no matter the opponent,” Julius Augustinus hissed.

  “But, sire…” the doctore began, shaken.

  “No! Do as I say.”

  Julius Augustinus’s words were curt and after glancing at the doctore for confirmation, the trainer passed both blades to Davida. A hungry glint shined in Davida’s eyes as he stared down Erden, feeling the weight of the blades as he adjusted his grip. Erden’s heart went cold, missing a beat or two. This was no longer a game. This was his life on the line. He had no weapon and his opponent had twin blades, both looking to cut him down.

  Davida took off running and Erden braced himself. He stood his ground until the very last second, before he crouched down and grabbed a handful of sand. Throwing it up in Davida’s face, he rolled out of the way. As Davida passed, he slammed one foot into the back of his legs, sending Davida flying. The younger gladiator spun around though, hacking up the sand and wiping his eyes. His cheeks burned red and his brows were knitted in irritation.

  Yes. Get mad, Erden thought.

  He was weary and tired and the younger shifter had strength and youth on his side, not to mention the lanista. Kiya had been right. Julius Augustinus was clearly thinking about getting rid of him and apparently he wasn’t above using lowly tactics to make it happen. Erden had to be thankful though, he figured. The lanista could have easily had him dragged outside and simply cut his throat. At least now, he had a fighting chance.

  Erden didn’t give Davida time to attack first this time. With only Kiya’s sweet face in his mind, he let all other thoughts go. He let the bear take over his heart and his mind, but not his body. Erden ran toward Davida and leapt at him from a distance far greater than a simple man could have crossed. Though Davida brought his blades up and Erden could sense the sharp pain of one of them cutting into his forearm, he did not let it stop him. With the brutal force of centuries of bears behind him, he brought Davida down on his back on the sand and slammed his fists into the wolf’s face.