The Rings Fighter (4 page)

Chloe did a double-take, disbelieving her eyes.

“Oh, that.” The girl laughed. “Yeah, Trazen likes animals. I mentioned the zoo, right? He lets me feed the big cats sometimes...”

Chloe nodded, but knew her jaw continued to hang.

The full-sized giraffe continued to eat leaves casually where it stood halfway inside and half outside the domed sunroom. Chloe only knew what it was because she and her sister had once gone to the Nirreth city zoo to look at the old Earth animals.

Looking past the tawny, chocolatey-patched animal with its absurdly long neck, she glimpsed a tree and grass-filled garden. A full-sized pond stood there, surrounded by willow and other trees in the distance. Birds with long tail feathers strutted around the lawn.

Trazen was wealthy, obviously.

Which made sense, given his record in the Rings and his current position as Ringmaster. Chloe knew the position was one of the most coveted in the Nirreth world, mostly because of the prestige attached, but clearly it paid well, too.

No one became the Head Rings Operator without first earning the rank of “Ringmaster,” a lifelong title granted to one with an undefeated record in the Rings. It happened so rarely that Ringmaster Al-En Mosq––Trazen’s predecessor and an aged, crocodile-like creature who repulsed Chloe whenever she’d been forced to interact with him––held the position for over thirty years before Trazen won it from him.

Chloe remembered hearing or reading somewhere that Trazen was the youngest Rings Operator they’d ever had.

They walked through another carved archway dripping with flowers and into an open-air patio. At the white stone table nearest the lawn, feeding what looked like a small deer, sat Trazen, a plate of food mostly untouched on the table in front of him.

Chloe watched him as they approached, studying his face while his attention remained elsewhere.

The planes of his face looked even more dramatic in direct sunlight. She found herself thinking that he really was handsome. The structure of his face was perfect enough to be fascinating, well beyond the way Nirreth faces in general tended to be more symmetrical than those of humans. Nirreth faces tended to elongate forward more too, making them appear more cat-like... even close to a horse or deer, depending on the individual.

Something about Nirreth face structure struck Chloe as almost
unnervingly
perfect at times, alien beyond even the surface attributes.

Trazen was beautiful, however.

His dark eyes looked liquid in direct sunlight, his mouth forming a perfect curve in the slightly elongated face. He wore a cloth wrapped around his head like most Nirreth males, black, like what he wore the night before. The loose shirt that covered his upper body made it clear just how muscular that body was. She saw the low V-shape of his collarbone and a swell of muscle on his neck and upper chest through the collar.

Studying those angular lines, she swallowed a little, in spite of herself.

His skin looked like deep-blue silk, gliding perfectly over muscle and bone.

She was still staring when he glanced up, his dark eyes meeting hers before she could look away.

“Hello.”

He studied her face, swishing his muscular tail as he patted the deer with a three-fingered and one-thumbed hand. He continued stroking its fur as he used his other hand to indicate towards the side of the table opposite him.

“Sit,” he said politely. “Someone will bring you food.” He glanced at the girl servant, who grinned at him openly. “Can you let the kitchen know she’s here, Mira?”

“Sure thing, boss,” the girl said.

Nudging Chloe’s arm, Mira gave her a wink Chloe wasn’t sure how to interpret.

Then the girl wandered away across the patio, presumably towards the kitchen.

Chloe watched her go, bewildered all over again.

It occurred to her that she was still standing. Flushing, she walked over to the bench opposite of Trazen and sat down, smoothing the long skirt under her. When she glanced up, he was watching her with those dark, gold-flecked eyes.

“Are you all right?” he said, his voice low.

She blinked at him, thrown completely by the concern she could see there.

“Y-Yes.”

Tension touched his mouth. She distinctly got the sense he didn’t believe her.

Remembering he’d been there when Agnon cut Kiji’s throat, she fought with the pain that rose in her chest, enough that she couldn’t hold his gaze.

She thought about saying more, but just... didn’t.

After another pause, he cleared his throat.

“I need to ask you a favor, Chloe,” he said.

Again, she stared at him, trying to decide if she was dreaming... or hallucinating maybe.

“A... a favor?” she said. “You want me to do you a favor?”

“Yes,” he said. He released the deer’s neck, leaning back over the table and picking up a spear-like utensil and a sharper knife. Sawing into the piece of meat that stood on his plate, blackened and smelling of some spices she didn’t know, he frowned again as he cut off a bite-sized chunk. He used the spear to put it in his mouth and chewed.

Making a displeased, bleating sound, perhaps because he’d stopped petting it or perhaps because it didn’t like the smell of the meat, the deer wandered off.

Trazen spared the animal a faint smile before looking back at Chloe.

“I have been informed that Agnon is quite displeased with me,” he said, his voice mild.

Chloe let out a surprised snort.

When he looked at her, the skin over one dark eye lifting like a quirked eyebrow, she forced her expression smooth. He smiled one of those subtle Nirreth smiles though, and conceded her point with an inclined head.

“Yes... you probably gathered that last night,” he conceded. “But it turns out this may be a problem for me. For us.” Plunking his elbows down on the table, he gave her a level look over his plate. “His infatuation with you... if it can be called that... is more intense than I anticipated. His feelings on the matter were sufficient that he’s calling in favors from several quarters to see me punished.”

His frown grew a touch harder, holding more disgust before he looked down, sawing into the next piece of meat on his plate.

“...I guess killing a human pup not old enough to reach my chest wasn’t enough to sooth his ego in this matter,” he grunted.

Chloe felt her chest clench more, but only nodded.

She heard no scorn in his voice about Kiji. If anything, his anger eased that pain slightly.

Her voice came out stronger.

“What’s the favor?” she said. Meeting his gaze when he looked up, she made sure to hold it. “Of course, it almost doesn’t matter,” she added. “You must know I’d do anything you asked of me right now, Ringmaster Trazen.”

He frowned slightly at that, but in a different way that time.

She almost got the impression he might argue with what she’d said, then he exhaled in a rolling purr, as if thinking better of it.

“Well then... the favor is this. We need to be seen in public.” His voice held a tinge of apology. “I’m thinking after the Rings match today. I’ll need to take you to the public functions following, so that we are seen together. It cannot wait.”

Chloe smiled. “You’re taking me out for dinner?” she said, unable to help herself. “That’s the big favor, Ringmaster Trazen... ?”

“Well, yes...”

His voice trailed, his eyes shifting to someone approaching her from behind.

She glanced up as the new person reached her side, setting down a plate in front of her on the stone table. Looking down, she realized it was food––more of a platter than a plate, and heaped with more good-smelling things to eat than anyone had ever put in front of her in her life.

... Eggs, toast, berries, mushrooms, bread, what looked like yogurt, a greenish paste she knew to be Nirreth curry next to another dollop of jam, butter, sausage...

The human who’d given this feast to her, a male human roughly in his thirties and with shaggy auburn hair and wearing a blue T-shirt with some kind of writing on it and a stained apron, grinned at her when she looked up at him in bewilderment. She smiled back, and he responded with a chuckle before looking at Trazen.

“Anything else for you or your guest, sir?” he said.

Guest?
she couldn’t help thinking.

Trazen looked at her. Realizing the silence was a question, Chloe glanced up from where she’d been staring at the insane amounts of food on her plate and shook her head.

Trazen looked back at the human.

“No, I don’t think so, Greg. Thank you.”

The human––Greg, presumably––grinned, winking at her when she glanced up at him a second time. She watched as he walked back towards the main house, wiping his hands on the stained apron and whistling.

Chloe bit back another wave of incredulity, then looked back at the food, still in awe at the sheer amount of it, much less the amazing smells coming off her plate.

“You might not like how I’ll need you to come with me,” Trazen said, going on with what he’d been saying once Greg was out of earshot. “...To the dinner I mean. That’s more the favor part,” he added. “More than dinner itself.”

She picked up her own spear-like utensil and poked at a mushroom. Her stomach let out a growl that Trazen must have heard.

She hadn’t seen this much food all in one place in...

Well, ever.

In Kabasi, food was relatively scarce. Not starving-scarce, but nothing like this.

Plopping a mushroom in her mouth, she had to fight not to groan in pleasure as she chewed. Realizing Trazen was still watching her, expecting some kind of reaction to his words, she glanced up, flushing, and nodded. She swallowed the mushroom, nodding again.

“How do you need me to come?” she said, clearing her throat.

He watched her, a faint thread of amusement in his eyes as she huddled over the plate of food. She saw a darker shade of seriousness in his expression, too.

“You’ll be dressed less comfortably, I’m afraid,” he said, coiling his tail behind him and sighing. Motioning towards her, he added with another small frown, “We’ll be playing a part, you and I.” He added more apologetically, “And I’ll need to sting you. More than once. Enough to make us believable.”

She nodded, chewing and then swallowing the second mushroom she’d stuck surreptitiously in her mouth.

“Okay,” she said. “I can do that.”

“You won’t like me very much during this dinner, Chloe,” he warned her, softer.

Puzzlement wafted over her, but she felt herself tense slightly, too. Remembering some of the things Agnon had done to her in quasi-public settings didn’t help.

“Do I need to know what that means?” she said.

Trazen sighed another of those purring Nirreth sighs from deep in his chest.

“Yes,” he said. “Well... not in detail. Like I said, I’ll be playing a role.”

“What role is that?” she said, her voice still wary.

“Of a slave-whoring bastard,” he said simply, tossing his napkin to his plate. He leaned back, balancing lightly on his tail as he watched her react to his words.

Chloe thought about what he probably meant, then nodded slowly.

Resignation crept over her, but she only nodded again.

“I see,” she said. “I understand.”

He gave her a sideways Nirreth smile.

“No,” he said, softer, his smile edging towards sadness. “You don’t. But I think you’re sufficiently unhappy in reality to sell your end of things... no matter how I behave.”

That time, something in his words made her flinch.

She didn’t answer him, though.

THE GIRL FIGHTER

CHLOE SAT ON a bench seat of one of the city trolleys, feeling her nerves rise as she fidgeted, watching the back entrance to a large, mushroom-shaped building.

She’d never been here before.

She recognized the structure of course, having seen it in the Nirreth news and on billboards all over Green Zone Hezeret. The Rings stadium was probably the most iconic structure in the city. At least twenty stories tall, it shone a shimmering white-silver in color, almost a metallic blue when the sun beneath the Green Zone dome hit it just right.