Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (26 page)

Next I started wandering the hallways. It only took a few twists and
turns before I ran into one of the servants from the night before.
Male this time, but with the same business-like air that the others
had last night.

“Can I help you?” He asked.

I shrugged.

“Did you need something?” The man said.

“Am I allowed outside or did Kahina lock the doors?” I
spoke slowly. The world was moving at full speed as my muddled mind
tried to catch up.

The man looked at me for a moment. One lip curled up with a hint of a
smile. “They’re not locked, no.”

“Can I go out, or do I need permission?” Not that I had a
clue who to ask. Kahina would be out for hours yet, and her second
needed a punch in the face.

“I’m sure there’s plenty to entertain a man of your
nature around here somewhere. I’ll see if we have someone free
to guide you.” He said.

“Just don’t make her cute, Kahina is the jealous type.”
I tried to sound playful and failed. There was no reason for me to
let Kahina’s employees get in trouble over me.

“I doubt that will be an issue,” He said. Clearly he
thought my charming factor was pretty low. What did he mean by a man
of my nature? Like I was some mindless thug. Never mind. “Head
to the main entrance. Someone will be along shortly.” His arm
waved out to give guidance then he left me alone.

By the time I found my way to the front the little maid was there
waiting. Same red hair, same freckled face. She was shuffling her
foot from heel to toe and back again. It was difficult to tell, but
she seemed to be looking around the room for somebody. Probably me. I
stepped down the stairs.

“Sir?” She stopped rocking.

“Are you my tour guide?” I asked.

Her head bobbed.

“Breakfast was good.” My first attempt at conversation
had fallen flat. My people person skills needed a lot of work.

“It was nothing special.” She shrugged off my compliment.
“Come on, we’ll tour the house and the grounds. Then I
have an appointment at six, you may join us if you wish.”

“Join what?” I wasn’t all together yet.

“You’ll see.”

The tour itself didn’t do much for me. We did a pass of the
outer property edge. Everything inside was the same anyway. It was
basically an endless series of rooms with names and general
descriptions. The few non-staff we did see were promptly avoided.

“Where’s this appointment?” I tried to broach the
subject again.

“I will show you once it’s time,” She said. And the
tour went on. A few hours had passed before I noticed and the girl
eventually led me into a larger room deep in the mansion.

“Basement?” I asked.

“Part of one.”

I liked basements. They felt more comfortable then other types of
rooms. It brought a sort of happiness, being underground made me feel
at home. Secure.

“The Lady suggested that you might want to see how we pass our
time during the day.” My tour guide said. I assumed they all
worked like normal people. There were certainly enough folks
fluttering around the hallways.

I shrugged.

“She believed you might find it interesting.” My guide
sounded disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm.

“Suitable to a man of my nature?” I said.

“Perhaps.”

She opened the door and showed me inside, where I saw something that
didn’t match what I expected. My expectation had been either a
theater with a lot of cheap violent flicks or a line of girls eagerly
waiting. Both would have been suitable for my nature.

Once again my inner male was disappointed. There were twenty or so
people kneeling on the ground. Each one wore a plain white set of
loose pants, with a folded shirt bound by different colored belts.
The only redemption was the two people in the middle. They did give
an air of cheap violence.

“Take your shoes off.” My guide said.

“Socks too?” I asked. Looking around made it clear no one
was wearing socks either. Part of me felt dumb for asking.

My guide motioned to the end of the row. I tried to sit like the
others, with my feet bent back under me and toes pressed against the
floor. It was quite possibly one of the most awkward positions I had
ever attempted outside of childhood games and the odd sex pose or
two. My guide vanished into another room.

No one snickered so maybe I wasn’t a complete failure. Of
course, no one actually looked at me other than my guide and perhaps
a brief flicker of eyes that I hadn’t caught. The two in the
middle of the room were the center of attention.

Both wore black belts, which by what little I understood meant they
had been at this for a while. One of them was about average height
with a light tan against dark hair. The other one was taller, a
little bit bulkier and his hair was a carefully pulled back.

The short one took the offensive. He stepped in, shuffling his feet
quickly and lifted a knee. The taller man barely flickered his eyes
and opened his hands to try catching the entire leg. Shorty instantly
stomped his foot down and whipped out a spinning back kick from the
other direction.

Another shuffle of feet and the larger man had backed away. There was
too great a difference on the reach between them. The smaller guy
seemed faster, the taller one could strike sooner. It was the same
effect where a shorter swifter basketball player was able to steal
the ball frequently from the larger ones.

I blinked my eyes and there was another blur of movement. Somehow the
tiny guy had stepped back in to try and throw the larger one. They
had to be practicing a sort of mixed martial arts if they were
changing tactics. Most disciplines focused on specific movements.
Some on fists, some kicks, some throws, other joint locks.

Another twist of bodies later and the taller one had the shorter guy
pinned on the floor. A leg jutted backward while the rest of his body
kept the shorter man locked on the ground. Not a feat I would try.

Someone was counting in words I didn’t understand, then a shout
that sounded like victory being called. The two on the mat broke
apart, scrambled up to bow then turned away to different parts of the
mat.

I found it fascinating that people who were professionals could find
the fight over in a sudden flash. That made me feel better about
being out of place. Combat made sense to me. Those were street
fights. They didn’t have rules aside from not beating the other
guy beyond whatever healing he could manage.

That was a fine line. Hastily regenerating from wounds was one of the
perks of fighting any of the races aside from human. The slight limp
the shorter man had wasn’t likely to heal up anywhere as fast
as a wolf might.

Another match started. My former guide was sitting further down the
line. She was in a completely different set of clothes. It was all
white and around her waist was a blue belt. I had no idea where that
fell on the rankings.

“Did you want to spar against someone?” She asked.

Yes and no. It looked exciting, very exciting. The idea of facing off
one on one to test yourself was thrilling, but it was a game I didn’t
know the rules to. The next set made it all look a lot smoother, more
drawn out this time. They were of an even height and wearing
different belts than the first two.

“No that’s alright,” I said.

“Afraid?” Her voice went from that cutesy maid voice to a
deeper more annoying and raspy voice while she tried to whisper. I
tried to think of an appropriately intimidating comment but settled
on the truth.

“I’m used to scrapping against wolves, no offense to
anyone here, but I don’t want to do something I’d
regret.” Like knee someone in the package over and over in
self-defense. Humans didn’t heal nearly as fast.

“Then we’re not good enough?” She questioned.

“I prefer a different battlefield.”

“Maybe we could learn something.” She continued to goad
me.

I didn’t add anything to that, my advantage against the others
was mainly because of how my mind perceived things. They became my
targets when I hunted them. That switch inside me provided an edge as
I tracked down what was mine.

“Nothing that’s useful here,” I muttered. There was
a noise to shush further down the row.

She stopped talking and went back to watching. A flash of movement
and one of the contestants was pushed out of the ring by a series of
kicks and yells. Their routine was easy enough to follow. Bow, sit
down, next set, bow again, fight.

“We could all learn from someone who has fought against wolves
and vampires one on one.”

“No thanks, I enjoy watching.” That didn’t sound
creepy.

“I saw what you did to Mister Janns, he’s asleep right
now, but that scar won’t go away anytime soon. Not without
plastic surgery.” She said.

“Who?” Mister Janns? I had no clue who that was.

“One of The Lady’s partial guards. There are two assigned
to her by her patron, and Mister Rays is her Second.”

The person assigned to change Kahina had likely sponsored other
transformations. Who had Daniel said her sponsor was? Keeper?

“I’ll pass anyway,” I said. Another shush of noise
came down the path again.

This round finished when the higher belt tossed the lower one onto
the ground and brought a heel down that wasn’t stopped in time.
The winner managed to pull the foot so it did minimal damage. That
didn’t stop the shout from whoever was refereeing that signaled
it was over.

They stood then bowed.

“You sure you can’t show us?” She wouldn’t
let it slide. Maybe this employee of Kahina’s was nervous and
looking for tips. That made more sense than her trying to goad me.

“No,” I said. My eyes were eagerly waiting for the next
set of people to come up and spar.

“If we’re to protect The Lady, we need all the guidance
we can get.”

Someone shouted down the aisle and people almost simultaneously moved
back a few feet. Even the nagging guide who kept hassling me the
whole time had shuffled back a good three feet. It wasn’t a
movement I had time to see or understand. Standing out in a crowd was
already a problem because of my size. Being in the wrong clothes
worked against me.

There was another shout of words that didn’t make sense, and
everyone pressed their heads to the ground. My dumb self didn’t
notice as I was still trying to back up. Now I was two mysterious
motions behind.

“I wasn’t aware we had someone new starting.” A new
voice said.

I looked around, hoping he wasn’t talking about me. No such
luck. It took a few seconds to figure out who was talking. He was the
taller of the two black belts that had been fighting earlier.

“Huh?” Was my stellar response.

“Who are you?” The black haired man asked.

“Jay.” I gave my real name accidentally. It was hard to
keep them straight.

“Why are you in the middle of my class tonight, Jay?”

“Someone told me this was the place to be.” I managed to
say it without glaring at the girl who had escorted me to this very
room. The basement location no longer felt as welcoming as it might
have.

“Did they? Fields, right? I’ve heard a little bit about
you.” The man paused for a moment. “You’d be doing
us a favor if you could show us what methods you’ve used to be
considered so formidable.”

My escort was easier to brush off than this man. Not only issuing an
informal challenge, he was all but saying that I wasn’t the
tough shit my reputation said. Which was sort of true but to hell
with letting him know that.

“I’m not practiced at sparring,” I said.

“Use whatever you know.” He calmly responded.

My eyebrow went up. What I knew was how to put someone down quickly.
It wasn’t clean fighting. How did that translate to a place
that clearly had boundaries and a countdown? Walls were out, there
was no cross or silver. These weren’t twitchy dumb kids I could
get a drop on.

I could get thrown around a little bit while trying not to break
anything. That would keep it clean. There was only so much that you
could learn by watching anyway. Then maybe this whole sideshow would
end and I could go back to focusing on Evan and the answer to this
Lord business. However to do that peacefully I had to wait until
Kahina gave me approval, and pissing her off further didn’t
seem like a good idea.

Life was easier when I only had to worry about myself.

“I guess.” I stood up and walked to the main part of the
mat. There were small markings on the ground indicating where each
person started.

My opposite was colored belt. Not that I knew the difference. She
wasn’t wearing black or white. Her hair was shaggy and brown.
She bowed and my return attempt felt botched. All I could hear was
Stacy yelling at me that just because they would heal, I had no right
to hit someone. It was especially true for a human like this girl.

I had almost given up thinking of myself as a human. Either way, the
thought was enough to make me feel dirty for taking part in this.
Play fighting, against someone I had no reason to bring my fists
against. It was pointless.

She proceeded to toss me around for three minutes. Not that I fought
it. I made dumb mistakes like stepping into painfully obvious moves.
It wasn’t that I was familiar with the martial arts she was
using, but I could see by her eyes what she wanted to do. Which way
she wanted me to move. At least her blows were pulled. I think she
was as afraid of hurting me as I was of hurting her.

I buried my own natural response which would involve barreling in and
hitting her as hard as possible to end the fight. I wasn’t
trying to knock her unconscious. There were still a few times that we
were close enough that a bit more resistance from me might have ended
badly for her.

Taking the hits had to be enough to satisfy them. Soon someone
shouted signaling the mock fight’s end. My hands reflexively
brushed at my front from the supposed ass whooping and botched my bow
again. Once my ass was sitting, I took a mental inventory of how bad
it would hurt tomorrow. Less than the encounter with the vampire a
few weeks ago, far less than the wolf battle.