Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Deacon

A s the carriage pulled to the arena’s unloading zone, our guard hopped off to let the gatekeeper know who we were.

Sarah fidgeted beside me. “I don’t like this at all. What do you think they’re doing to Jac?”

“I imagine they are preparing him for battle,” Omen said, glancing around at the gathering crowd. “There are too many spectators here for a simple execution. They want to see a fight.”

I placed my hand on Sarah’s leg and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Omen is right. The last execution I went to, this was not the energy of the crowd.”

She looked at me, her expression horrified. “You’ve gone to executions?”

I did not know how to break her of the habit of questioning things I had said, but I wished I knew how. It would save us time, if I did not need to repeatedly specify things for her. “Certainly. Jac tells me they have fallen out of fashion on Earth.”

“You mean, as a thing where people go to witness them for fun?” she asked incredulously. “Yeah, for the most part. It’s seen as barbaric.” She sounded awfully negative on the matter.

I gave her a pointed look. “If humans were as good at their penal codes as they are at judging others for their traditions, then perhaps your crime rates would fall.”

“Harsh, but true,” she admitted, and sighed.

The guard returned with an usher. “Abaris will take you to your viewing box.”

We all climbed out of the carriage. Our escort, Abaris, was a handsome young man wearing only pants. His bare chest was not yet corded with muscle—too young yet—but he had the softer version of a muscular body.

He held out his arm for Sarah to take, while his smooth voice flirted, “This way, Contra.”

She smirked at me, before taking his proffered arm. Leda, Omen, and I followed closely behind. We maneuvered through the crowd and up the stairs to the second floor, where Abaris delivered us to a private box. There were a dozen in the oversized arena—I was surprised we warranted one, until I remembered that Rex likely knew we were there.

That thought made me take a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to chase away my anxiety. As I did, I spotted a friend in the seats nearby. Still living, too. A miracle. I waved him over, relieved to see a familiar face. He grinned as he approached. He was my height, my build, but forty years my senior, with wrinkles and a dull blue sheen on his yellowing skin. His hair had fallen out years ago, leaving him completely bald, even down to his tail.

Sarah leaned close and asked, “A friend?”

“A very good friend,” I said. When he walked into our box, I shooed Abaris away. “Tact! How good to see you!” I shook his hand as Sarah joined us. “This is my consort, Sarah Hollinger.”

The old dog blinked as he looked at her, then he smiled like he was unsure of how to react. “Understand, little one, I mean no disrespect, but,” he looked up at me in shock, “you united with a human ?”

I grinned, completely unashamed. “I did, as well as Jacaranda Cozz.”

He laughed. “You lucky bastard!” He hugged me, his bare and boney tail wagging. “And now you’re in a box seat at the Faithless arena…how did this come to pass?”

“Strange days, Tact,” I said, not sure how to explain things. “Are you staying here now?”

“I travel between worlds, you know how it goes.” He shrugged his meaty shoulders. “And you? Are you living in Faithless?”

“No, I’m here on Halla visiting with my father and handling some family business.”

“Of course, may he find peace on Halla.” Tact bowed his head respectfully. “Your father got a raw deal from the Bateens. That’s part of the reason I don’t stay on Orhon much anymore. I’d rather be in this cesspool of a city than most places on that cursed rock."

"Why do you call it cursed?" Sarah asked.

"I cannot imagine a more terrible place, little one.” He shuddered visibly. “It is rife with two kinds of Ladrians. Those who are treacherous and out for only themselves, and those who don’t do anything to stop them.”

“Which are you?” she boldly asked.

He laughed, the sound gruff. “Neither. That’s why I had to leave.”

She smiled up at him. “I think I like you, Tact.”

“That’s high praise coming from a human. Must be my lucky day.” He winked at her and glanced back at me. “So, Deacon, where is your other companion?”

“Jac will be fighting today. He is being prepared.”

Tact’s brown eyes widened. “Then I should be betting on him. I’ll be right back.” He dashed toward the gambling office.

Sarah looked after him in amusement. “Are all your friends so cheery?”

“Not all. But Tact was my father’s sergeant in the army. I have known him my whole life. Good man.”

She sweetly squeezed my arm and kissed my shoulder. “Nice to know you and Jac aren’t the only ones around here.”

I smiled at her, wishing I felt like a good man. But the closer we came to Rex, the worse I felt about everything. “We should take our seats—”

“Deacon Ladrang, you son of a dreck!” someone shouted behind me.

I whipped around to see who spoke of my mother that way. But I laughed as soon as I saw the culprit. “Cin!”

She beamed at me and rounded past the short gate separating the box from the other areas. Abaris made a face at me, but I ignored him. He was frustrated when he looked down his nose at me and asked, “Does elevated status of the box hold no significance to you?”

“My friends hold more.” I stood back up and hugged Cin.

In a flash, Sarah was next to me, her arm looping through mine a bit possessively. “Who is this nice lady you’re hugging?"

Cin’s gaze snapped back to mine, her tone sharp when she asked, “And who is this human to ask you about me?”

I sighed at the tension I felt between the females. “Hyacinth Rosewater, this is Sarah Hollinger, my consort.”

They shook hands and eyed each other carefully.

“A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Rosewater,” Sarah said politely.

“Hyacinth, please.”

“And how do you know my companion?”

A sly smile curved the other woman’s lips. “We used to sleep together.”

Sarah arched an eyebrow at me. “Oh, did you?”

It was hard to miss the undercurrent of jealousy in her tone. “Cin is referring to when we were soldiers and sleeping in the barracks. Not the way you think, I swear.”

Sarah didn’t look the least bit placated. “Mm, hmm.”

My consort did not like Cin, and it was plainly mutual. I was not sure what I could do to change that. In my experience, when women did not like each other from the start, there was nothing to be done to remedy the problem.

In an effort to take the heat off of me, I changed the topic. “Cin, what are you doing in Faithless? This is not your usual leisure time activity.”

“No, not usually,” she agreed and looked around the arena, “but I do enjoy when men get all sweaty, fighting each other to the death. Plus—”

“I’m sorry, did you say, ‘to the death’?” Sarah asked, her expression panic-stricken.

“Yes. Is that not the way on Earth?” Cin asked.

“Not hardly. Deacon, can I see you over here? Privately ?” Sarah pointed away from everyone else, her eyes filled with genuine fear.

“Excuse me, Cin,” I said, and joined my consort in our private corner, feeling my own stomach plummet. “I did not know it is to the death,” I said to Sarah.

“What are we going to do?” she asked in dismay. “I can’t watch Jac die in some arena, fighting just because I insisted on seeing Rex so I could return Leda—”

“Calm yourself, Consort.” I lowered my voice and gently stroked my hand over her hair. “Jac is one of the best fighters I have ever known. If anyone can do this, it is him.” But my gut knotted all the same.

“What if he can’t?” she asked, wringing her hands anxiously.

I touched beneath her chin, making her gaze meet, and hold, mine. “Do you lack faith in our companion?”

“No, but I don’t want to see him injured, either,” she whispered.

“Neither do I,” I murmured soothingly. “I promise you he will be fine, Sarah.” As the words left my mouth, I prayed they held true.

She was still worried, despite my reassurances, and glanced around a bit frantically. “Is there some kind of concession stand? I need beer—no, wait—you probably don’t have that. What do you have, mead?”

I frowned. “What is—”

“A drink with tiny bubbles and alcohol,” she explained. “I need a buzz to deal with all of this.”

“There is kocha,” I told her. “It is mildly alcoholic and has bubbles. But why do you need alcohol? We are not celebrating just yet.”

She gave a short laugh. “In my culture, alcohol is good for a lot of things, particularly for calming the nerves.”

“He will be fine, I swear—”

“Kocha,” she insisted. “Where do I find it?”

Figuring she was not going to give in on this, I glanced around and spotted a seller station. “There, but the line is terrible. You’ll likely have better luck if you go to the interior station beneath the seating. Everyone is outside, so they do not miss the beginning of the fights.”

She nodded and started for the station, but I touched her shoulder. “Where are you going?”

She turned back around. “To get kocha—”

“You have no credits.”

“Huh?” She scrunched up her nose at me in confusion. “Wait, you mean money, right? I didn’t think of that.”

I smiled, and from my rucksack I presented her with a tiny gauntlet driver. It was black, like mine. “Put this on your forearm.”

“Okay,” she said suspiciously, but trusted me enough to strap the device in place.

I showed her how to work the small gadget, then transferred several thousand credits. “This will be more than enough for both kocha and anything else you might want for the next few months.”

“Thank you, Deacon.” She gave me a tremulous smile. “I’ll be right back.”

“Take Omen with you,” I said before she could dart off. “For safety.”

She huffed. “Fine.”

She wrangled Omen into going with her for kocha, and I was glad for it. I did not like the thought of her wandering around the arena without protection and I knew that Omen would guard Sarah with every last bit of her ghost.

I returned to Cin, who’d waited during my conversation with Sarah.

“She is unhappy about the fighters dying?” Cin asked.

“Our companion is fighting today,” I explained.

Cin’s pretty face dropped. “You two, you share a companion? I knew the Ladrangs were traditional, but moons above, Deacon, that is verifiably ancient.”

“We love who we love,” I said with a shrug, because I was the happiest I’d ever been. “Are you involved with anyone these days?”

She flashed a sinful grin. “A man in every port.”

I chuckled. “So your leisure activities have not changed that much since last I saw you?”

“No, not at all, much to my family’s dismay,” she replied cheerfully. “I am in Faithless to visit with a few of my men, actually.”

I did not want to ask, but it felt inevitable. “Would one of them be Rex Terian?”

“Is that why you’re here?” she asked curiously. “To see your old mentor?”

Mentor. Yeah, that was an interesting way of putting things. “I am here on family business.”

“Regarding Rex, he and I have had a dash of fun here and there, but alas, he is not one of my men.” She paused and smiled. “Yet.”

I shook my head, trying to not judge her for her tastes. “That is a dangerous game to play, Cin.”

“Dangerous games are the only kind I have ever liked, Deacon.”