“Fuck you, Maalik,” I gasped, struggling to my feet. “Call me what you want, you know my name.”
The pain grew worse, and my sight began to dim from lack of oxygen. Why the hell was I arguing with him? I knew better than this.
“You are Kataramenos, ‘Cursed One’,” he insisted, each statement followed by a push of his power. “You have no father. You have no family.”
I struggled to stay upright, my eyes shooting daggers at Maalik, but I knew it was a losing game. He wouldn’t be happy until I was on my face in the dirt; and maybe not even then.
His power brought me to my knees. I could just barely glimpse Vlakas kneeling in the dirt of the practice arena, head down and hands on his knees, palm up in the required gesture of Mageia submittal to an Elusian. Only a tightening of his lips into a grim line told me how much he was struggling with his anger. The sight of my brother, who would have outranked Maalik, hell, outranked any Elusian in the Legion if he hadn’t had the bad luck to be born Mageia, kneeling in front of this asshole infuriated me, but I knew there was nothing I could do.
I toppled forward at Maalik’s feet, unable to catch myself with my hands, the pain knifing through my brain, nausea warring with the feeling of suffocation. Around us, I saw Mageia after Mageia drop to their knees as Maalik increased the Suppression field on me, and I saw Vlakas wince. I knew he and the other Mageia were catching the ambient Suppression even though my tormentor was focusing on me.
“What is your name, Hoplite,” he demanded.
My lips remained stubbornly closed.
He pushed harder with his power.
“What. Is. Your. Name.” He demanded.
I heard Kira, a young Earth Mageia, puking her guts into the dirt off to the right as I struggled to breathe, and shamestabbed through me. My pride wasn’t worth making my fellow Mageia suffer. With a supreme effort I managed to lower my head and stretch my arms out, palms up in the accepted position of submission.
“K-k-Kataramenos,” I wheezed.
Even though my head was down, I could feel Maalik’s eyes boring into the back of my head, his power pushing without ceasing, and I wondered if this would finally be the time he went too far. Then a voice barked a command.
“Maalik! Quit playing. We have work to do,” I heard Sera, one of the Lochagos of the Legion call out.
“As you wish, Lochagos,” Maalik said, his voice crisply responding to the voice of command. Even a Crown Prince had to follow the chain of command. The pain and crushing feeling of suffocation lifted so quickly that for a moment I couldn’t react, could barely breathe.
“I’ll be seeing you soon enough, Kataramenos,” He stopped in front of Vlakas. “And you too,mikros prinkipus.”
Maalik had always had an unhealthy attraction to our half-brother, even as children. I’d been fortunate enough to date to be able to keep him away from V, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it forever.
He stroked a finger over Vlakas’ lips before leaning down to whisper in his ear. My brother’s hands shook with barely suppressed rage.
“Very soon.” He whispered with an evil grin before walking to the knot of Elusians clustered at the side of the arena.
I pulled in gasping breaths as the Suppression lifted completely and struggled to my knees, trying desperately not to lose the contents of my stomach in the aftereffects. I saw Vlakas spit and wipe his mouth where Maalik had touched him before helping me up. This time there was no playful banter.
“Thanks,” I rasped.
“No prob, Kat,” he said. “Fucking bastard,” he whispered as Maalik walked away.
“Yeah, no doubt,” I agreed.
Mageia could be powerful, but even the most powerful Mageia were powerless in the face of the Elusian ability to Suppress our abilities. With a thought, even the strongest Mageia could be brought to their knees by an Elusian. Like I had been brought to my knees in front of the King, and in front of Maalik. It’s what led to the enslavement of my people for the last two hundred years.
“Someday,” I promised Maalik’s departing figure.
“C’mon,” Vlakas said, moving back into practice stance. “Let’s get back to work.”
Chapter 5
Helios
We began making our way over the dead and wounded Alexandrian soldiers, our goal the nearby tree line. Tib and I had arrived at the rebel encampment just a few hours before, escorting a shipment of ammunition, but we’d found the base abandoned. We could only hope the base leaders had gotten wind of the coming attack and evacuated before our arrival, because soon after we had arrived the Alexandrians had attacked.
It had been over two years since Ri had been killed. When I’d finally woken from a series of drug-induced fever dreams, I’d had a long road of recovery ahead of me.
