7. Ohara

"Isend you out with a box… and you deliver a beat down instead," Thillak said with a shake of his head.

There was a warm jolliness to his temperament but it could turn hot in an instant and I needed to keep my mind sharp. He wouldn't accept any attacks to the reputation of his business, even if it was done for the right reasons.

"You're lucky we came across you instead of the guards," Thillak said. "Otherwise your sentence would have been extended by a month — maybe more. What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking."

"That's obvious enough."

"I saw… what he was doing to her," I said, unable to keep the images of her beaten body out of my mind and stoking my anger once more. "I acted without thinking."

Thillak snorted. "If you did that in the pits, you would be the Champion, not these other Quet-Dreai pretenders."

"The limelight has never interested me," I said.

"And you've managed to avoid it this long… but I fear it has found you all the same and it's unlikely to leave you in peace for long."

The door opened and another pair of goons carried Druin into the office. The worst of the blood had been washed from his face and the wounds had been hastily stitched together. It wasn't for his benefit but for Thillak's floor. He didn't like mess, and blood was one of the hardest things to scrub clean.

"You've done a real number on him," Thillak said, sounding more than a little impressed.

"He jumped me!" Druin snapped, his beady eyes so swollen he could barely see out of them. "He jumped me while I was with my Prize!"

Thillak waved a hand of dismissal. "He didn't jump you. We have multiple eyewitnesses that tell us he challenged you, fair and square."

Druin jabbed a fat finger at me. "He ignored the rules of engagement! He should have let me put my armor on first!"

"He isn't wearing any armor," Thillak said softly.

"That's up to him! I could still wear mine! It's my right!"

Thillak turned to me. "Did you give him adequate time to put on his things?"

"I did."

"Liar!" Druin snapped. "He challenged me, then jumped me!"

"Did you ask for time to put your armor on?" Thillak asked.

Druin opened his mouth to speak — in other words, to lie — but recalled that there were eyewitnesses. His black eyes considered the chances that someone was close enough to hear everything… and decided it was too much of a risk.

You didn't lie to Thillak and get away with it — not for long, at least.

"No, I didn't ask," Druin said.

Thillak leaned back in his chair. "Then I see a clear case of a challenge and you losing it. You know the rules."

Druin growled under his breath. "That Prize is mine! Mine fair and square! I won her in the pits!"

"And you may lose her in a direct challenge," Thillak said. "That is what happened."

Druin threw up his trotters. "Take the stinking female!" he growled. "She was only for fun anyway."

"You beat her with your belt," I said calmly, though I was a writhing mass of boiling anger inside. "You consider that fun?"

Thillak disliked many things but chief among them was lack of respect. It didn't matter what form it took, toward whom or what, but he would not stand for it. But Druin was either ignorant of that fact or didn't know enough to keep quiet.

"I won her!" he growled, squaring off against me as if wanting to replay the earlier beat down. "I can treat her however I want!"

"Very well," Thillak said, his tone turning cold. "It seems the picture has become very clear. Druin lost his Prize fair and square. You also used Quet-Dreai to treat the Prize shamefully. From now on, I will no longer supply you with Quet-Dreai. Go through a competitor. I don't care."

"What?" Druin gibbered. "This has nothing to do with Quet-Dreai! I need them for… medicinal purposes."

Thillak didn't even look up. "You need them because otherwise, you would never win in the pits."

Druin had the good sense to bite down on whatever words he was thinking of using next. "I'm sorry," he said. "I won't use them outside the pits again—"

"I've made my decision," Thillak said coolly, considering the situation closed. He nodded to his goons. "We're done here."

They escorted Druin out the door but he managed to turn his head and bark a single threat:

"You're going to regret this! You're all going to regret this! You wait and see! Nobody crosses Druin and gets away with it! Nobody!"

A door slammed and Druin was gone.

"Well," Thillak said, moving around his desk. "You sure know how to pick your enemies."

Enemies.

For a decade, I'd avoided animosity like it was the plague. Now, in my final week, I'd managed to annoy the species with the worst case of harboring a grudge in the known universe.

"It's taken ten years and finally we see a little spark of anger in you," Thillak said. "What was it? A dislike for Druin? If so, I wonder why you didn't put him in his place a lot sooner. He's had this coming for some time."

I wasn't exactly sure I knew the answer but I was glad Thillak was on my side. Bad things tended to happen when he wasn't.

"Things just… came to a head, I guess," I said.

Thillak pursed his lips and nodded. "You won't be able to save her every time, you know." He returned to his chair. "Remember that. Oh, and try to be gentle with her. She's been through a lot already."

"Gentle with her?" I said. "Who?"

"Lily, I believe her name is."

"Where is she?"

"You won her fair and square. She's waiting for you in your cell."