War God for Hire- Gladiator by David Burke (books under 200 pages .TXT) 📕

full of all kinds of surprises. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt your book. I know how valuable such things can be.”

“Oh, I wasn’t…” Selma began before letting her voice trail off. Of course, she had been worried that his meaty paws would not be gentle enough handling something as fragile as a book. Then without another word, she handed the book over to him.

Kyle handled it delicately, not wanting to risk harming something so obviously precious to a person he was trying to get on the good side of. He had intended to peruse it and act interested just to connect with Selma, but got the biggest shock he’d had in a long time—and that was saying something after some of his prior encounters. Plain as day across the front of the book were the words in English, ‘Plastic Surgery Adapted for a Flesh Mage.’

The shock must have shown on his face. Either that or she noticed from the way he suddenly sucked in air, but Selma said, “You can read the cover, can’t you?”

Kyle didn’t need Hilde’s voice in his head warning him that this could be dangerous. He answered slowly as he saw the way Selma was looking at him excitedly, “Uh, yes. It looks like it.”

“How is that possible?”

“I wish that I could tell you, but things in my life are fuzzy before I appeared in an alleyway in Thena a few weeks ago,” Kyle replied.

“This is a miracle. If only you weren’t so valuable, I’d ask Lord Soren to let me buy you and keep you here as one of my assistants. It would be worth it just to have you help me translate more of the book,” Selma said.

“So valuable?” Kyle asked.

“Yes. With the potential that you showed, Lord Soren must be practically drooling about the price he can get for you. Being a flesh mage pays well, but not that well. Between you, Kierra, and Gilthan, he is likely going to make a fortune at the end of the exhibition matches,” Selma said.

“I’m sure that Skrug and the others have just as much value as I do.”

“Maybe, I’m certainly not an expert in the value of slaves, but I tend to think that you and Gilthan will fetch the highest prices. You have been treated with respect here, even if the accommodations are a bit rough. Not all slave owners are like that. Many like to take liberties with their slaves. Kierra will be valuable as a slave, but no self-respecting nobleman would lie with a lycan. Skrug is strong, but slow and stupid, which will limit how far he can go in the arena.

“Gilthan is powerful and capable of being used as a combat mage in the military, not just an arena fighter. Beyond that, he has the traditional good looks of an elf and so there will be many lesser nobles or even some of the great houses that wouldn’t mind breeding their daughters with him. Half-breed children could never be heirs, but if any of them inherited his bloodline, they could add power to their houses.

“You will be just as popular with many of the women, even if you don’t have the stunning good looks he has. Your muscles have muscles, and many women will go weak in the knees over that. Heck, if I was twenty years younger, I might have found more reasons for you to come to the infirmary more often. Then, of course, there is your heritage. An elemental will be valuable but a war elemental doubly so, especially since the priests say that the war god has disappeared. The fact that you heal nearly as quickly as Skrug is only another factor adding to your value.”

Kyle wanted to laugh about her last statement but was more caught up in some of the other aspects of what she had said. Being a slave so far hadn’t really bothered him. As Hilde pointed out, he was getting the training that he needed here, was fed well, and he really liked spending time with Nyda, so there hadn’t been much of a downside so far. Truthfully, he didn’t really think of himself as a slave. Manacles or no, he just had an innate confidence that he would be able to escape any time he wanted to.

Now though, to hear that there was more to this than just fighting was oddly off-putting. Many guys may have dreamed about being used sexually, but that wasn’t Kyle’s way. He liked being in control too much. For him, the idea of someone else deciding who he would sleep with was repugnant. Not to mention they might stick him with older women, and cougars had never been his thing, even though he knew that many young ball players dove into that pool headfirst. All in all, it made the silly costumes that they were required to wear while fighting make more sense.

“I can see that you are shocked by some of what I said. I’m sorry if it is off-putting to you. I kinda assumed the male slaves didn’t mind it, but I realize, looking at your face, that that was a faulty assumption on my part. I guess it is really a vile practice to force someone, regardless of their gender. Just one of the problems with slavery, but the power of Thena’s empire is built upon it, so it won’t be changing anytime soon,” Selma said as she took the book back from him.

Kyle thought to himself that he might just go about changing that, but then decided that he already had enough on his plate for now. Fixing social injustice was a first world problem. Before that, he needed to learn to tap into his powers and make sure that one of the other gods wasn’t going to come and lay a big smack down on him.

Selma signaled for the guards to take him back to his cell and Kyle followed them aimlessly while thinking through the situation.

Hilde laughed in his