Kyden glared and gestured for silence as he located the missing device and looked to see who the com was coming him. “Two Swords,” he said.
Benet turned serious in the blink of an eye. Two Swords was an old hand in the gladiatorial game who’d helped Rennyr and Jaine escape slavery. Kyden had him on the payroll at a generous consulting rate and paid many of his medical expenses as well. The man knew the sport inside and out and was on top of or ahead of all the gossip and news worth hearing. He’d even shared an arena with Kyden once, not that the two of them had fought each other. Kyden had saved the other’s life and the old man insisted he owed a debt he couldn’t repay.
“Two Swords, always good to hear from you,” Kyden said as the holo appeared on his desk.
The other man took in the state of Kyden’s desk and slapped his knee, guffawing. “Looks like you’re drowning in candidates for your summer school program.”
“Yeah, I was just telling Benet I regret the whole damn thing.”
“Didja get an application from Samyra the Beast Lady? Out of the Porter-Tevigni circuit?”
“Who didn’t we get an application from would be the better question,” Benet groused as he searched his handheld for the scoring information on the candidate and passed it to Kyden, who read it off.
“Good discipline, skill level acceptable, got excellent marks for her public relations skills from Elara, been in the game too long to be as flexible as we need gladiators to be in terms of learning our methods, has her own House, small but mildly successful, didn’t offer us anything outstanding, put her in the rejected pile.” He looked at Two Swords. “I want young and hungry or I want someone with stellar skills we don’t possess. I would like to feature a female gladiator or two but nothing about Samyra really stuck with the evaluators. She’s a good enough gladiator for where she is but I doubt she’d shine here in the Five Systems.”
“Might want to rethink that,” the old man drawled, plainly relishing whatever tidbit he was about to drop on them. “She might be of great interest to you.”
Kyden let him enjoy his moment and played along. “And why would that be?”
“I guess you haven’t seen the trideos of the new gladiator she just deployed last week.” Two Swords sat back, hands folded across his slight potbelly. “I’ll wait.”
Benet was busy sorting through the feeds and locating the right one. Kyden had access to input from all across the Hinterlands, more than one man could possibly review but that was why he had scouts and sources like Two Swords. “Here’s the latest broadcast from Porter-Tevigni.” He fast forwarded through the trideos until he reached Samyra’s headline bout with a gladiator named Tirion. Kyden and Benet watched in silence as she fought him and his team. Then came the revelation they were waiting for as a man burst out of the backstage area of the arena, running across the sands at an inhuman speed, brandishing a sword, claws and fangs clearly visible. The rest of the event unspooled as he drew off and decimated the other fighters while leaving Samyra to handle Tirion. The mystery gladiator defended her right flank and the bout ended with the crowd calling for mercy for the fallen Tirion.
“Badari,” Kyden said, gut churning. He hated seeing his kind under duress, forced to fight, alone without a pack to support them. “There’s no doubt.”
“Another brother,” Benet agreed. “What are we going to do about it?”
Talons out, Kyden glanced at him. “You know what we’re going to do.” He directed his attention back to the grinning Two Swords. “You’ve done well again, old friend. I’ll be sending a sizable bonus your way.”
The old gladiator gave him a cocky salute. “I live to serve. Talk to you later.”
His holo winked off.
“Guess I’d better rescue Samyra’s application from the mess on the floor,” Benet said, stirring the pile with the tip of his boot.
“Let Elara try the easy way first,” Kyden replied. “There’s time. If we can simply buy his contract through a proxy and get him off that damn planet, things don’t have to get complicated.”
“Boss, did you see how he rushed to protect the woman? I don’t think she’s going to let him go for any price.”
“Credits talk. We’ll see.” Kyden suspected Benet was right and more hands-on measures would be needed to free this lost Badari brother from his captivity. He sent a silent prayer to the Great Mother for help in bringing the man to safety and the embrace of the pack without obstacles or problems. Rescuing his brothers had never been easy but a man could hope, couldn’t he?
Chapter Four
Several weeks later…
Samyra had never been so nervous in her life, not even before her first bout in the arena many years ago. She waited in the spacious foyer of her House, her gladiators drawn up behind her, Jaxur at her side, profoundly bored as only a cat can be, licking one massive paw. Jamirr was at the end of the line of fighters—she was always conscious of where he stood in a room nowadays, even if she kept herself from looking at him. Darryl waited slightly behind her right shoulder and in front of the line of gladiators.
The human butler answered the summons from the door and a moment later returned, announcing in suitably stentorian tones, “Kyden the Death Dealer, Master of the House of Badari.”
The famous gladiator strode into the room and her first impression was shock at how big he and his two companions were. True he and his team were at the top of the standings in the Five Systems but if they were in any way representative of what she and her men would face in the arenas there, her House was in trouble. Her second startled thought was how much Jamirr resembled both Kyden and the second fighter now standing behind him. They could be close cousins. The third man appeared human although there was something about him she couldn’t put her finger on in the few seconds she had.
Kyden was bowing to her politely. “Kind of you to welcome us to your home, Lady Samyra. May I present my second in command Benet Arencollo and my top ranked fighter Rennyr.”
She took Kyden’s hand and shook. She was conscious of the power of his grip, not that he made it crushing but it was firm and steady. “It’s our honor to receive all of you. We’re intrigued by the possibility you may want us to join you for your unusual offseason events.”
She introduced them to her team, beginning with Darryl and saving Jamirr for last. “He’s my zookeeper,” she added.
“And a gladiator?” Kyden said, one eyebrow raised.
