Defiant by Aaron Hodges

Author:Aaron Hodges [Hodges, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780995142237
Published: 2021-04-05T22:00:00+00:00

16

“Another lap, worms!”

Rydian flinched at Marcus Aureli’s bellow, almost tripping over himself as he ran the circuit around the gladiator complex. The thumping of boots from behind only served to add urgency to the task, and lowering his head, he struggled to pick up his pace. Hazel jogged ahead of him, loping along with easy strides, while Johanas had already fallen behind.

And behind even him, came the new trainees.

They had arrived by Alfurian ship that morning, just as Rydian and his friends had the day after the last games. Yet more innocent men and women picked by the Enforcers back in Goma for their supposedly violent nature. They were three as well: a man and woman around Rydian’s age, the last a man who seemed to be closing on his late thirties.

The three had taken the news of their fate much the same as Rydian and his friends had that first day—with varying degrees of denial, rage, and despair. At least they hadn’t experienced the misfortune of a hungover Falcon welcoming them to the complex.

Not that Aureli was much better.

The illusive weapons master had quickly proven more vicious than the hound he kept at his side. There had been no orientation for the newcomers, no moment of quiet to adjust to their fates—just Marcus Aureli’s curt explanations and a command to run, and keep on running until he bid them stop. With the hound growling at his side, not even the boldest of the newcomers had dared question the man’s authority.

Rydian gasped as he turned the corner around one of the barracks and emerged into the open place surrounding the complex. Despite a month of his own training, his lungs were already burning, his body aching at this fresh punishment.

In the distance, the trees loomed. He noticed the eyes of the newcomers drawn towards that unknown wilderness, shimmers of fear and apprehension appearing on their faces. Like most Gomans they had never been outside the city walls, never seen the vastness of the world beyond. But they had heard the stories, knew the dangers. In the jungle, the beasts lurked…

…and yet Rydian remembered well his first day in this place, the temptation of those trees, of a place free from Alfurian rule.

“Faster!” Aureli’s bellows drove them on, though Rydian risked a glimpse behind.

The man pounded along behind them, his hound growling at the last of the runners—the young woman called Ruby that had arrived that morning. Fear showed on her face as she glanced back at the beast, though she managed to pick up her pace, overtaking Johanas as he trailed.

Rydian shook his head, and they continued around the perimeter, puffing and wheezing, running as though their very lives depended on it, Aureli’s hound intervening whenever one of them lagged behind.

It was an hour before Aureli finally allowed them to stop. One by one, they finished the last lap, collapsing to the ground, gasping, sobbing, coughing as they struggled to draw breath. Rydian and his friends knelt together, but the newcomers turned in fear towards Marcus Aureli, and the terrible beast at his side.

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