The Rings Fighter (7 page)

Focusing back on the table and the girl sitting there, Chloe smiled again.

He really did like her. A lot.

Stop it,
he growled in her mind.

Fighting to keep the smile off her face, Chloe glanced back at the girl. The Rings fighter, Jet Tetsuo, hadn’t taken her eyes off Trazen either, but the ex-skag watched him warily, like he was some kind of dangerous animal.

Even as Chloe thought it, the male Nirreth sitting next to the Rings fighter pulled his girlfriend closer, wrapping his arm around her tighter. He must have said something to her too, because she dropped her eyes, taking on a demure, almost submissive posture as she pressed into the tall Nirreth’s side. Chloe had an absurd desire to laugh; the pretense at submission was so obviously put on it struck her as funny.

Her Nirreth boyfriend must have warned her to play the pretty plaything in here.

Trazen glanced at Chloe at that, but scarcely long enough to meet her gaze.

His tail lashed violently behind him in an arc. He looked back at the table, smiling and relaxing some of the heat in his stance. Even as he did, a more lecherous look rose briefly to his dark eyes, as if he were reappraising Jet as a sex toy.

Interesting,
Chloe thought.

She could clearly see Trazen’s end of the dance, too.

He was pretending to be appeased by her submission, and turned on by it... as if he was some egomaniacal dingbat who needed humans to cower in front of him.

She felt a pulse of... something... off Trazen at the thought.

He didn’t look at her, but continued to focus on the female Rings fighter, looking her over as if she were a slab of meat.

“She is exquisite,” he said, bowing to her Nirreth companion once he’d finished his heavy-handed appraisal. “You are quite fortunate,” he added, even as Chloe felt another pulse of that very real jealousy vibrate under his skin. “...I’m afraid the virtual screens did not do her justice, and I thought her quite unique, even then.”

“Thank you, honorable friend,” Laksri said, bowing.

“I don’t suppose either of you is open to share... or perhaps an exchange... ?” Trazen added, nodding towards Chloe.

Chloe tensed. She couldn’t help it.

Do not worry,
Trazen assured her softly.
He will not agree to it.

The girl fighter at the table had a similar reaction to Chloe.

She turned, her almond eyes widening slightly, to look at her Nirreth companion. Then her eyes darted up, focusing on Chloe herself for the first time. Chloe fought not to flinch under the other woman’s stare. Not because it was hostile––more that it was not. The girl fighter looked at Chloe with sympathy in her eyes, a kind of longing, as though she felt deeply sorry for her and wished she could do something to help her. Realizing the girl thought it was Trazen she needed rescuing from, Chloe bit her lip, fighting the impulse to reassure her––maybe even to laugh––to at least let her know in some way that Trazen wasn’t what he seemed.

Do not do that, my friend,
Trazen warned her softly.
Continue to look sad, if you can.

Chloe sighed internally, but let her feelings about Kiji return to the surface.

She saw the girl wince, like she’d felt her grief empathically through the air.

Somehow, seeing that made Chloe feel guilty.

Why are you being so awful to her?
she thought sharply at Trazen.
You obviously like her. Maybe more than like. Why are you so determined to make her hate you?

Trazen’s mind grew utterly silent.

The male Nirreth at the table still seemed to be reacting to Trazen’s offer, when the middle aged human sitting with them, the one with the gold streak in his hair, laughed.

“You’re kidding... right, Trazen?” he scoffed. “Aren’t the brain scans enough? Do you really need
more
intel on our girl?”

“I had thought she belonged to the Royal father,” Trazen growled, swiveling his gaze to glare at the handsome human. An audible thread of irritation touched his voice, one that felt real to Chloe that time. “...Not to trader
scum
like you. And I was not asking you, mammal. I ask her lawful companion.”

The male Nirreth’s arm tightened possessively around the Rings fighter, right before he switched to Nargili.

“No,” he said, letting out a slow hiss as he focused up at Trazen, a thinly veiled hostility in his eyes. “...We do not share. I am sorry, for I honor your position. And your consort is quite tempting...” the other Nirreth added politely to Chloe herself, motioning towards her with his jointed fingers. “Is she a recent acquisition?” he said, his voice still light. “I don’t recall seeing her at any of the Royal functions before... ?”

“She is new,” Trazen said, his voice openly dismissive. He’d gone back to staring at the girl fighter, that harder, more predatory look back in his eyes. “...We had thought perhaps to sell her for the Rings, too, now that the Boards have opened it to female mammals for sport. She is aesthetically pleasing enough for such a placement. But sadly...” His lips twitched in a small smile. “...She is not a fighter.”

Chloe stiffened slightly at that, too, but decided it was more of Trazen’s b.s.

Why would he tell them such an outrageous lie?

She felt nothing whatsoever off Trazen to explain it.

The other male Nirreth glanced at her, looking her over in her barely-there clothing and coiling his tail more tightly around the lean fighting girl at his side. His voice, when he addressed Trazen, sounded more genuinely polite, if wary.

“...I am sorry about that,” he said to Trazen. “I am sure you will find another suitable candidate, however.”

Trazen’s eyes grew colder as they flicked over Chloe herself. She could see him in that look, but wondered if she would have, if he wasn’t touching her skin.

“Don’t be sorry,” he said, his voice as cold as his obsidian eyes. “She has other... talents. And as you say, we will find another female for that purpose.” Giving the girl Rings fighter another heavy-handed stare, he added, “A pity you are guarding this one so jealously. Not that I blame you. Still, if you change your mind, let me know. I may be able to ensure her safety in other ways. If you were feeling so generous...”

Chloe bit her lip, again fighting the urge to smack him for being such an ass.

As for the girl Rings fighter herself, she’d gone back to staring at Chloe.

That sympathy in the girl’s eyes was on the surface now, mixed with an obvious frustration at her own powerlessness as to Chloe’s situation. When the girl went back to staring at Trazen a few seconds later, Chloe saw the open disgust she aimed at Trazen himself.

Chloe wondered if the girl had any idea what a risk she would be taking by doing that, if Trazen truly was what he pretended to be.

Somehow, the thought brought her mind and heart back to Kiji, intensely enough that she closed her eyes, fighting to shut out the pain, the image of her sister’s cut throat.

Next to her, she felt Trazen flinch.

Then a flood of reassurance and warmth reached her through the venom, along with an enveloping kind of support that felt almost physical.

You should let her see who you really are,
Chloe admonished him, fighting another urge to smack him. Her thoughts sharpened, borderline angry.
Whatever your reasons, you are being stupid, Trazen... really stupid. She’s got a good heart... can’t you see that?

All that answered her was silence.

THE RENEGOTIATION

THEY REMAINED AT that restaurant for a long time.

Too long, from her perspective.

By the end of several hours of aimless-feeling wandering, watching Trazen talk to vacuous Nirreth who leered at her and flattered him and told stupid jokes, Chloe was having trouble feigning interest. It didn’t help that Trazen’s venom had more or less worn off. Its absence left her tired and having to fight harder not to think about Kiji and wishing Trazen would just take her home so she could sit by the pool and watch the birds again.

Trazen seemed to feel this on her in some way from the pulses of sympathy she got off his skin, but he also seemed to be waiting for something.

By then, the girl Rings fighter and her Nirreth companion were long gone.

Still, Trazen lingered.

She caught him glancing surreptitiously at the door and felt that waiting on him even more strongly as his eyes scanned the room. She felt impatience on him as well, as if he would rather not be there, either. She didn’t pick up specifics about
what
he waited for however, apart from what he’d already told her.

It occurred to her somewhere in that, that Trazen may have actually broken Nirreth law, taking her from Agnon the way he did. Technically there were rules about human companions and ownership. She didn’t know those rules in detail, but she knew the Nirreth respected them enough to sue one another on occasion to see them enforced. It was the same reason Trazen couldn’t take the Rings fighter home without her Nirreth’s permission, even if her companion was of lower status.

Not that Trazen would do that.

Well... Chloe hoped he wouldn’t.

Realizing that the venom really
had
worn off when doubt crept over her mind in relation to that point, as well as the reminder that she hadn’t known Trazen for twenty-four hours yet, Chloe fought to reestablish a healthy skepticism around the Ringmaster and his motives. She knew the venom would make her want to trust him.

She was still thinking about that, watching Trazen where he sat casually on a curved bench, his muscular arm draped lightly over her shoulders as he listened to something another Nirreth said, when a commotion by the door got her to turn.

She hadn’t swiveled all the way around when a familiar voice rang overhead.

“Ringmaster Trazen!” it said in Nargili. “I would like a word with you... friend.”

She froze.

Around her, the dozen or so Nirreth at their table fell silent, too. One cut himself off abruptly, mid-laugh at some joke a Nirreth bureaucrat had been telling them. That same Nirreth had been flirting openly with Chloe for the past half-hour, but seemed to fear Trazen enough that he wasn’t very aggressive about it, so she’d barely noticed.

That voice, however, smashed her calm into a million jagged pieces.

Her whole body stiffened, jerking immediately into fight or flight.

As if he felt it, Trazen wrapped his arm and tail strongly around her, pulling her against his muscular side. His presence enveloped her at once, dimmer from the diminished venom, but still strong enough to force her muscles to unclench.

Relax,
he murmured in her mind.
He won’t touch you, Chloe. I promise.

She nodded, but no longer believed him.

I promise,
he repeated, softer.
I promise, Chloe. Everything is all right. I would not have brought you here if I could not handle this...

She nodded again, but didn’t meet his gaze.

She could feel him contemplating stinging her again, fearing she might say something, expose him in some way. Even if she simply came across as too attached to him, to quick to jump to his defense––

I won’t,
she told him, forcing her fear back, shutting herself down.
I won’t. You don’t have to worry about me. I won’t do anything stupid.

Trazen’s arm coiled around her tighter.

She felt a flush of affection from him, worry.

Only then did she turn her head.

Barely giving Trazen a glance, she looked past him instead, focusing on the Nirreth with the crooked tail who stood there, his eyes glassed with drink and venom.

Agnon flicked his kinked tail in a whip-like arc when she turned, gripping the arms of two mostly-naked human females, one in each hand.

“I see you brought my property with you,” Agnon hissed. “Very considerate of you... I’d like it back. I have even brought these two in trade... to soften any sentiment you might harbor.” Agnon thrust the two humans forward, one of whom almost fell, teetering on high heels. Agnon didn’t spare her a glance, but stared at Chloe, his deep black eyes cold. “I believe we only agreed on a loan, venerable Ringmaster? I am calling that loan in... if you don’t mind.”