As Nalah suspected, Tiffany’s eyes lit up. “I did! I told Bey that women needed a little color! He’s so involved in all those fights, he forgets we’re not all dark and dreary like the boys.”
Tiffany continued to speak in exclamation points, and Nalah endeavored to nod at appropriate places. Unless Tiffany was putting on a hell of an act, she was, perhaps not the brightest of lights, but genuinely friendly and enjoying the female company – as well as her place as the alpha female whom everyone else sucked up to.
Finally, Tiffany leaned forward in the universal pose for conspiratorial gossip sharing. “Soooo, you and the Cage King? How did you get him? He is soooo hooottt… Like, we were all talking, and there is no one better looking on the circuit. Honestly, you should keep an eye on some of these women. I wouldn’t trust any of them alone with him.”
The other women nodded, and from the flash in the eyes of a couple, perhaps one or two of the women Tiffany was worried about were sitting right here.
“I’ll remember that,” Nalah said, “but I trust Esh. He knows how I feel about straying.”
“Honey, they all say they know, but it’s really ‘Don’t ask so you won’t be told.’” Tiffany waved that away as if it was a known quantity, and continued. “But when did you get together? I only heard about you when Esh accepted the invitation – and gods, that was a complete surprise! Bey near had a heart attack when he got word!”
Figured there would be gossip. If luck prevailed, Beylor wouldn’t think about how the Cage King accepted an invite after so many years and brought a new woman no one had ever heard about. If he did, and then realized how it coincided to the acquisition of the ring, she might be screwed. “I knew him when we were younger. My family moved a lot, so we got separated, but not long ago I walked in on one of his fights. When I realized it was him, I met up with him just to catch up, and one thing led to another…”
Nalah trailed off, gave a half shrug. The less detail, the better, and the best would be to let Tiffany and the rest of the girls create their own drama from those few sentences. Judging by the giggles and the half-friendly/half-envious nudges they were giving her, they were concocting some serious stories.
This was all well and good, and making a connection with Tiffany was a lucky chance, but training time was waning and she needed to check out the fighters still. Nalah slapped on the most false-feeling simpering smile she could manage, and said, “I’d really like to watch Esh, surprise him a bit. You can imagine how hot it is to see him during practice.”
Waggling eyebrows and lewd comments met that statement, but then Tiffany gave a small frown. “Bey said we’re supposed to stay here. He said the women aren’t safe on the grounds.”
“I know, I know,” Nalah cut in, quick words to stop the conversation from derailing. She lowered her voice and leaned in. “But just finished from training, dripping sweat, those muscles all defined…” And she gave an exaggerated wink, full of false sisterhood.
Giggles became shrieks and grown women fanning themselves, and Tiffany looked around, her gaze locking on where the guards stood, very bored and very not listening. When no closer guards were found, Tiffany whispered. “The back door never has many guards, and they change shifts for lunch, so they won’t be looking for anyone. But if you get in trouble, you didn’t hear anything from me.”
Nalah crossed her heart. “You are innocent, I swear.”
Leaving was easy after that, the guards not worth the name, and in quick work Nalah approached the first training area.
There were three training areas located on the outer edges of the compound, not much more than a large ring and basic equipment. None of the fighters would do any serious fighting before the tournament started tomorrow, so it was more for keeping limber and sticking to whatever their exercise regime was.
“Hello, pretty lady.”
Crap. Nalah spun around, off-guard as she looked for the owner. The voice was more force of nature than mere instrument of communication, and as she located him, she took an instinctive protective step back while elemental flight-or-fight primed every cell.
He was part orc, features less misshapen than the full-blood version but no one would ever call him even average-looking, his body massive compared to a human’s, his darker-toned skin with the slight undertone of green.
“Are you lost?” he continued. There was no magic around him – not surprising, since orcs as a general rule had little magical talent – but his presence hit her as hard as Esh’s always had. He would give Esh a hell of a fight.