Blood on Sand

BEHIND BARS

Zoe was getting very tired of the wine cellar. He'd walked the six steps that took him to the far wall, only to walk the six steps back to the iron gate more times than he cared to know. It was cold, and even though he didn't mind the dampness, it wasn't his favourite pastime to look at Wojtek's wine bottles. He reckoned there were about 1,500 of the dusty vessels, perhaps a little fewer. Maybe he should try to organise them... although they were probably already organised.

Why couldn't Wojtek have locked him up in the bedroom instead? His bedroom. Zoe sighed. That room was fabulous. It was almost impossible to see the walls behind all the orchids, and the humidity was almost right, as was the temperature. He wouldn't have minded a few degrees warmer, but he hadn't felt an environment that welcoming since he'd been taken from his home in the south.

With a frustrated groan, he went back and shook the wrought iron gate. Couldn't they have forgotten to lock it or something? His legs wanted to pace, but it wouldn't do any good. The cold had already started to make him slow, and even though he was pretty sure nothing would happen to him here, he hated the helplessness that came with being drowsy.

****

Wojtek didn't feel bad for leaving Zoe in the cellar. He didn't! As they made their way through the woods to the outskirts of pack territory, and right up to the barbwire-decorated chain link fence that surrounded the slave quarters, he noticed Satul getting more and more tense.

"I'll take a walk around the perimeter; see if I can find something."

"You don't want to come inside with us?" Wojtek frowned. They'd decided to stop by on their way to Tedor, just to have a smell around. If someone was planning an attempt to spring the fighters, they'd want to investigate the barracks—or at least that was what Wojtek would've done.

"Nah, I've seen it enough times." Satul had never made any effort to hide what he felt about keeping stock, but the disgust so clearly written on his face was something new.

"He just wants to avoid Aldo." Koray was clearly amused by Satul's reluctance to be there, his eyes were twinkling, his face split into a wide smile.

"Why?"

The way Koray scoffed was almost comical, or it probably would have been comical if it wasn't for the fact that Wojtek clearly was missing something. "The man's an arse, dude. How can you not see that?"

He looked at Satul to see if he agreed and got a short nod in return. Aldo was an arse? Wojtek had never noticed. He'd been his father's Beta. Wojtek had grown up with him and had seen him in his home more often than not. Aldo couldn't be an arse. He was good at his job. He trained the lizardmen well and ran this operation without a hitch. He'd stepped down from his Beta position when Wojtek's father died, but he'd always been there for Wojtek when he needed him. He couldn't be an arse.

"Fine, circle the fence while Koray and I take a look inside."

As soon as they stepped into the lodgings, Wojtek wrinkled his nose. The smell of sewage was so thick in the air he almost gagged. And even though he moved with stealth, it was like his footsteps echoed against the thick concrete wall on one side and into the barred cells on the other. No one was present, apart from the fighters in their cages, but he had a nagging feeling of being watched, which, of course, was ridiculous. They were still on pack ground, no foreign smells were present, and he was surrounded by his men, well one of them. There was no threat here, no danger.

Zoe was securely locked up in the cellar, not that he thought he had anything to do with this—at least not directly. He might be the reason behind the break-in, but Wojtek didn't think he'd initiated the action.

Each cell had a number to make it easier to keep track of the reptiles. He wondered what number Zoe'd been in and glanced into one of the chambers. A naked man, not as emaciated as Zoe but still not healthy-looking, glared back at him. The iron bars keeping him in had once been white but were now covered in dirt and rust. Wojtek looked away and shuddered. This cold would have him shivering through the night. Zoe's expression from when he saw Wojtek's bedroom flashed through his mind. It didn't fit with the mouldy corners, the stink, and the chill.

They walked through the building without finding anything suspicious. He avoided looking into the cages; he didn't want to see the fighters. He guessed there was a chance he'd miss it if something was unusual. He never went into the slave quarters if he didn't have to, so he really couldn't tell if something was off. But he could tell by the smell that no one outside of the pack had been in there.

"Don't we keep them because they're unproblematic?" Koray pursed his lips as he thought. "I mean, isn't that why it works: they don't unite, they don't fuss, and they don't sacrifice themselves for each other. Imagine us being locked up like this."

Wojtek glanced at the barred doors. Most of the cells were single ones, there were a few that had room for two, and that was where Aldo kept the ones he hoped would mate and give them new fighters without having to go south and capture them. It was a long-term project, one Wojtek wasn't particularly invested in, but he could see the benefits of having a constantly renewed stock of warriors to pick from.

"It would never happen to us. We're not like them. We would never fight for someone else." Wojtek didn't want to think about what it would be like to be held like this—it wasn't his job to think about that.

"You don't know that." Koray forehead creased as he looked around. "If it was your only way to survive, wouldn't you let Aldo put you in the pit?"

"But there's no way out of a situation like this." Wojtek didn't want to talk about it, and he didn't want to think about it.

"Sure there is, you'll either die, or you'll be set free."

"We've never set anyone free." He thought about how Zoe had tried to make him deliver a deadly blow in the ring. He wanted out, and that was his only way. Wojtek swallowed and tried to ignore the feelings that were clawing at his chest. Once again the unguarded happiness on Zoe's face when he'd closed his eyes and stretched out his arms in Wojtek's bedroom flashed before his eyes—because of some fucking plants and a little humidity.

"They don't know that. Aldo tells them that you'll set them free once they've won enough fights." Koray grimaced. "Did you think they fought for you out of loyalty?"

Wojtek felt a bit dizzy. Of course, he hadn't thought they fought out of loyalty to him, but lizards never folded, it was in their nature not to give up. That was why they fought, wasn't it? He'd had no idea Aldo was talking to them. He knew he gave them orders, how else would they know what was expected of them, but to sit down and chat with them. He couldn't believe that, yet hadn't Zoe said something along those lines?

"No, of course not. I'm not stupid." Though he started to suspect that he was a bit more stupid than he wanted to admit. "Let's go talk to Aldo before we head out." Koray didn't answer, just followed him out of the stinking hovel and toward the adjoining building.