I rock back on my heels. Crulden the Ruiner is here on this planet? That's not keffing good. "Your owner bought Crulden the Ruiner?"
"Yeah. Recent purchase." He grimaces. "And like I said, I just want to get the kef out of here before he figures out I should fight him, because I'm pretty good, but that's not a battle I'll win." He glances up at us again, then snaps his gaze down when he looks over at Alice. "Whatever you want, I'll do it. But if you send me back, know that you're killing me."
We might be killing him anyhow, so I'm not too bothered about that. "What's your name, splice?"
"Salvotor. Arena name is 'Gloom' though."
"Of course it is," Alice mutters quietly. "Can we have a word, Killer?"
She looks over at me, and I realize I'm “Killer.” "Yeah, all right." I get up from the edge of the pit and move away several paces, putting a hand on her shoulder protectively. Sterre snarls, her tail flicking, and the splice in the pit makes an unhappy sound. I study my mate, keeping my voice low. "You think we should just go ahead and kill him?"
Alice bats my arm, frustrated. "Didn't you hear what he said? The guy that runs this place just got a whole bunch of gladiators on the cheap. Cloned ones."
"Yeah, so?" All the more reason to get out of here, if you ask me.
"The people in the pods on the Star…a lot of the guys were red. You said that Helen was a clone because her skin was red. And a lot of the guys in the pods were really scary looking. What if…what if Straik went back to the Star and sold all the pods off to someone?" She looks up at me, her eyes wide. "Or what if someone else found the ship? What if Jade and your brother are out there right now looking for us? If anyone can find us, it's Jade." Alice reaches for my hands, excitement on her face. "This might be connected to the Star. We need to find out if I'm wrong. Because if I'm right, then we're so close to being reunited."
Jade might be able to find anyone, but she's paired up with my idiot brother. That could be a problem. Still, Alice might be right. If the hold had a lot of clones in it, and the guy running this place bought them…then we need more information.
Our buddy “Gloom” has to stay alive for a bit longer.
Kef. Kef twice.
61
ALICE
Gloom is a chatty son of a bitch.
He's got no survival instinct that I can see, because he eagerly volunteers for us to tie him up. When Kas finally jumps down into the pit to do so, I hold my “blaster” (really my finger in the pocket of the coat) on him until we know for sure if this is a trick. He doesn't fight, though. In fact, he seems happy to answer any and all questions we shoot at him.
Gloom has been on this planet for several months, but he doesn't know how long because the glads (as he calls them) aren't given technology. He has no way of tracking time but he knows the seasons changed at least once.
He knows that the lord that runs the place is a mesakkah who works with a doctor, and he has to see the doctor regularly for his “shots.” He doesn't know what's in the shots, just that he needs ’em or he gets “all keffed up.” He doesn't know the lord's name, either. Everyone just calls him “my lord” or “Lord Sir.”
He's gone out a few times on “practice hunts” for a different sort of gladiator bout, but he's not very good at them and the training master isn't pleased with his performance.
There's twelve glads that have been there since Gloom first arrived. There were originally fifteen, but two didn't return from their practice hunts and one “didn't meet performance standards” and disappeared. There are a great many clones that act as guards and trainers (and the unlucky ones as bait) but he doesn't know how many because “they all have the same faces.”
He wants a girl as a reward for a fight—any fight—but hasn't had the luck yet. I'm thinking the luck is with the girl, right now. Gloom clearly wasn't bred for his brains or his discretion.
He's seen a human or two in the compound, but most of the slaves are of different races. There's a lot of females, but most are kept separate from the glads because “bad things happen” if they're not watched carefully. That chills me. My attitude is quickly changing from “We should steal a ship” to “We should burn it all to the ground.”
"I hate it," I tell Kaspar a short time later. "I hate all of it."