Instead of finding the weapon maiden, he found Saber again. The man was bouncing off the walls nervous. “What the hell did you do to Lady Sorengaard? She is apparently fuming, and her brother is threatening to sell you to the deep mines rather than as a gladiator.”
“I didn’t lay a hand on her. Well, other than to take her hands off of me. Then I told her no. It wasn’t any big deal. Does she agree with her brother?” Kyle asked.
“No, that is the damnedest thing. She doesn’t want you to be punished at all, but still is biting off the head of any guard or slave that gets close to her. Oh, and was that you who bent the bars of the other cells?” Saber replied.
Kyle nodded. “I needed to speak to them, and it was too annoying to yell down through the bars.”
“Gods, you really don’t know what it means to be a slave, do you?”
“Look, I respect you and all the training that you have given me. So, I will be upfront with you. I’m only going to stay a slave as long as it serves my purposes. When I do decide it is time to leave, then there will only be two kinds of people. Those who are with me, and those who are against me. I appreciate what you have done for me. I hope you end up on the right side of that conflict.”
The trainer stared at Kyle for a minute, as though trying to determine if he was serious or not. Then he started to shake his head. “I don’t know what your future holds. I think you could be a champion of the arena, but I’m not gonna repeat a word of what you just said. I’d end up in just as much hot water as you would, just cause I listened to you. You are gonna learn that the noble houses are used to getting what they want.”
“Disappointment is a good teacher for the spoiled,” Kyle said before asking, “Do you know if Lash is still here? I need to speak to her.”
“She is with Lady Meeka, upstairs in one of the meeting rooms. Apparently after all the chaos tonight, Soren decided to try to sell all the slaves right away. It is going to cost a fortune to repair the coliseum, and the matches will likely have to be cut short by several weeks.
“Not only that, but the senate and the army are both investigating what happened here. No one has ever seen monsters like that. I have heard that even the church of Lige is going to be sending some Interrogators here to look into the matter,” Saber answered.
“All the more reason that I need to get out of here. So, can you direct me to where I can find Lash?”
“Fine, just don’t tell them I’m the one who told you where to find her,” Saber replied before giving the directions.
When Kyle got close to the conference room, the hallway became crowded with guards. There were guards wearing the insignia of each of the four primary houses that had been interested in the gladiators as well as from three other houses and House Sorengaard. Then there were also guards who had some symbol that he didn’t recognize but which Hilde informed him was of the city guard.
After the attack, it only made sense that they were on high alert. Most of the house guards were staying in clusters and they all glared at him as he moved closer to the door. When he actually got up there, a man from the city guard in a more ornate uniform than the others asked, “What is your business here?”
Matter-of-factly, he replied, “I am here to speak to Lash.”
The guards looked at one another and chuckled. “Oh, is that so? And what makes you think that Lash would want to speak to the likes of you?”
Kyle was instantly annoyed by their dismissive tone. That was only human nature after all. What was more worrisome, though, was the rage that swelled up within him. The part of him that was Krig was furious with the impudence of these mortals. His hand itched and Kyle could feel that his soul bonded weapon was ready to be called into action.
As he forced himself to take deep breaths, even the swell of emotion that was Krig calmed down. Not into a state of forgiveness, that part of Krig felt more like an understanding that one doesn’t get angry with ants for climbing onto your picnic lunch. It was who they were and what they did. It didn’t prevent you from squishing them, however.
“Kyle, you know, I’m all for you killing all of these disrespectful slugs, but are you sure you are ready to go there? It is what Krig would do, in fact he might just have swept in here and killed them all simply for filling up the hallway,” Hilde’s voice said.
She was right. He didn’t want to be controlled by that sort of sentiment. Of course, he also wasn’t going to put up with being talked to like this. It just didn’t feel proper, and he couldn’t shake that sense. So, the question was what constituted a proper measured response.
He started to pull his hand back from where he had intended to summon his weapon and another of the guards said, “I didn’t think so, slave.”
He saw red and before Kyle knew it, he had surged forward on muscles powered by War Essence and knocked the guard who had just mocked him out cold and slumped against the doorway with a thud. All around him weapons were drawn, and suddenly Kyle felt so alive. The rush of adrenaline made everything else in life pale in comparison.
Kyle was about to growl out a challenge and then release his Rage
