Lerah gasped as Dominic spun out of the way.
“I’m going to kill you, merchant!”
“You’re doing a piss poor job of it.”
Eirik charged again, spinning the sword up and down, from left to right. Dominic could feel the wind on his face, but he wasn’t shaken.
Eirik spun and brought the sword around to chop Dominic’s head from his shoulders. Dominic rolled under the blade, came up beside Eirik, and kicked back with his right foot, driving his heel into the back of Eirik’s right knee. Eirik went down and, for a brief moment, looked as if he were proposing marriage. Dominic spun around and kicked him in the back, planting him on his stomach. Before Eirik could recover, Dominic fell across him and wrapped an arm around his neck. Eirik writhed and coughed as he fought for breath.
“Drop that sword or the next thing you’ll see is darkness.”
The sword clattered to the floor.
There was running. Men shouting. It was the two soldiers rushing in to protect their leader.
“Stand down, men!” Roserine shouted. “Sheath your weapons and return to your posts! Now!”
Dominic started to squeeze tighter and could feel the fight beginning to leave Eirik’s body. “You shouldn’t have tried to kill me. You ready to say sorry?”
“Dominic!” Roserine shouted. “You’ve made your point! Let loose of him or I’ll cut you down myself!”
“As you command, Queen.” He uncoiled his arm from Eirik’s neck and shoved his face into the floor as he stood. “I’ll be holding onto this for the time being.” He picked up the sword and joined Lerah and Hawthorne.
“That was awesome, Dominic!” Hawthorne gushed.
“Thanks, kid.”
“Yeah, really awesome,” Lerah scoffed. “You satisfied knowing that you’ve got the biggest cock in the room? Hope it was worth it. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be treading water tonight.”
“My Queen!” Eirik came clumsily to his feet, waving his arms. Fuming. Embarrassed. “I demand this man be thrown in the dungeons!”
“For what?” Roserine asked with feigned befuddlement.
“He assaulted me! I am the Commander of Anthena’s military and by that right I demand justice!”
“Well, Commander, you do make a compelling case; you do have that right.” Roserine tapped her chin as Eirik stood before her panting, fists balled, teeth bared. “How do you answer those charges, Dominic?”
Now it was him that was confused. “Lady, you were sitting—”
“You will refer to the Queen by her proper title, do you understand?” The woman standing beside Roserine with a dagger on her hip finally spoke. “If you have any objection then let me assure you, I won’t go down as easily as the Commander.”
“Understood. My apologies. Queen, you were sitting right there. You gave the Commander your blessing to attack me. I was simply defending myself.”
“Did I?” She turned back to Eirik. “Okay Commander, how’s this for justice. We arrest Dominic and hold a trial. Clearly, he has a defense he’d like to offer and it is customary to allow the accused the opportunity for vindication. The whole of Anthena will know that some unarmed, sea-beaten merchant bested you in combat.”
Eirik didn’t consider her offer long. He rounded on Dominic, unable to meet his eyes. “My sword, you dog!” Eirik reached for it and Dominic let it fall to the floor at his feet.
Eirik retrieved the sword, his hands rattling as he struggled to return it to its sheath.
“You’re dismissed, Eirik.” Roserine flicked her wrist.
He turned on one heel and marched a war-path from the room.
“He’s not a man that’s used to losing,” Roserine said.
“I gathered as much.” Dominic slowly returned to the center of the room.
“He won’t let this go, either; watch your back.”
“Does that mean you’re letting us stay?” He tried not to sound too desperate.
“I haven’t ruled it out.” She stood and approached them, the woman with the dagger following closely. “We’ve got a few unoccupied homes. And Anthena can always use more good men and women. But we don’t do handouts here. You want to eat. You want a place to lay your head. Then you’ve got to work for it.”
“I know I speak for these two when I say that we don’t take handouts,” Dominic said.
“Good. Sounds like you’ll fit right in.” She stared up at him. “You’re strong and you’re capable. You’d be a perfect soldier, but you angered the wrong man, I’m afraid. I trust you can swing a pickaxe.”
“I can.”
“Good. We need more men in the mine. You’ll fit in nicely.” She took two steps over and was in front of Lerah. “And what of you?”
“I’ll let you decide what to do with me,” Lerah said.
“Tempting. Perhaps we’ll talk privately later.”
Lerah squinted and shook her head, confused.
Roserine took her hands and turned them over in her own, caressing the palms. “For a merchant, your hands are quite smooth; not many calluses to speak of.”
“I try to put his muscle to good use; he does all the heavy lifting.” She tilted her head toward Dominic.
“Wise girl.” She smoothed her dress before folding her hands at her waist. “How would you like to be my handmaid?”
“My Queen…” the woman with the dagger gasped.
Roserine raised an open hand and clamped it shut. “Not now, Emily. We’ll discuss it later. Right now I’m talking to our guests.” Roserine’s eyes flowed across Lerah’s body. “You’re an impressive woman; chiseled from stone.”
“Um…thanks,” Lerah sounded uncomfortable.
“If I were to take a guess, I’d say you can probably handle yourself just as well as your man; you two seem cut from a similar cloth. You’d be working under Emily. Rotating shifts.”
“My Queen, I don’t need—”
“It’s not up for discussion, Emily.” Roserine cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Lerah, can I count on you?”
“What does being a handmaid entail?”
“Emily will fill you in later.” She moved on to Hawthorne. “And what shall we do with you?” She reached out and squeezed one of his biceps. “You could do with a bit more filling out. However, I’ve seen smaller dockworkers than you hauling barrels of spiced wine; one on each shoulder.”
“Oh, I’m plenty strong.”
“Enthusiastic too; I like that. How would you like to work a fishing boat? Think you can pull nets?”
“I know I can!” he chimed, a grin spreading from ear-to-ear.
“Then it’s settled; you’ll be working overnight, so make sure you get plenty of rest during the day.” She returned to her throne. “Emily will show you to your quarters. Take the evening to get settled in. Tomorrow you’ll be shown to your assignments.”
21
“You didn’t have to talk to me like that in front of those people.”
“Emily, I’m sorry. But I’m the Queen now. Eirik has eyes everywhere. Every soldier is watching me and I know they’re reporting back to him. He’s looking for any reason he can find to undermine me; I can’t afford to show weakness when I’m out there. After everything that happened with my brother, I’m walking a very thin line.”
“I understand. But I don’t need help.” Emily sat at the bottom of the bed as Roserine reclined against the wall at the head of the bed wearing a loose nightshirt and a pair of panties.
“I love you. I appreciate your desire to serve. But I’m doing this for your own good. You’ve got Coen now. He’s important too. You’re laying the foundation for something more than just…this.”
“You sure it’s not for your own good?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I saw the way you looked at Lerah; you’re smitten.”
Roserine blushed. “She is…lovely, yes. But my life is a storm, there’s no place for matters of the heart. Besides, she only has eyes for
Dominic.”
“He scares me. You saw what he did to Eirik; he was going to kill him.”
“Maybe he was.” Roserine crossed her legs and sat forward, elbows propped on the insides of her knees.
“I know there’s bad blood there, but surely you wouldn’t want that.”
Roserine shook her head. “But it would simplify things. Still, you’re right, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface with Dominic…with all of them.”
“He’s no merchant, that’s for sure.”
“No, he is not.” Roserine scooted to Emily and took her hands. “Think you could get Coen to do me a favor?”
“You’re the Queen; he’ll do whatever you ask.”
“I know, but it’d be better coming from you.”
“What is it?”
“I’d like him to befriend Dominic. Take him out for drinks. Get him talking; see what he reveals after a few rounds of Lokavia’s finest.”
Emily nodded. “I suppose it’s worth a shot. What about Lerah and the boy?”
“I’ll handle Lerah. The boy’s harmless.”
***
“It’s not so bad,” Dominic said as he stepped onto the balcony behind Lerah. Their home was chiseled high up in the cliff-side, overlooking the sea. Night had come and the water was black; they could see the lantern-lights from the merchant ships and fishing vessels bobbing up and down across the surface.
“Really? You could have fooled me.”
“What do you mean?”
“That stunt you pulled with Eirik. If you love this place so much, you might want to stop trying to get us tossed back into the goddamn sea.”
“What the hell, Lerah? Why are you talking to me like this?”
“I’m tired of the needless violence. I’m tired of the bloodshed. I left that on the shores of the Glass Mountains. If you want that, you’ll be stepping onto the battlefield without me.”
“If you need to talk about—”
She felt his touch graze her shoulder and she twisted away. “I don’t need to talk about anything. Stop killing people. Stop starting fights. I’m not impressed. It doesn’t make me feel safer. Whatever guilt you feel because…”
“Because what? Say it, Lerah. Because what?”
She sighed and dropped her head. “Nothing. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Say it, Lerah. Say you blame me for what happened to you.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t blame you.”
“Bullshit. You wouldn’t have said that if you didn’t.”
“Whatever guilt you feel is self-imposed. You’ve been asking me for months if I’m okay and I don’t know how many times I can give you the same answer before you’re satisfied.”
“Maybe I’ll stop asking when I’m not catching you crying or listening to your nightmares!” He was leaning over her shoulder. “You keep fucking shutting me out!”
It’s true, she was shutting him out. But she had her reasons. There was nothing Dominic could do or say that was going to make her feel better. He was being eaten alive by guilt and she didn’t have the energy to reassure him; she was too preoccupied with keeping her own sanity.
“I’m not shutting you out, okay. I’m dealing with what happened in my own way. There will come a time for us to talk. But right now isn’t it. I love you. Know that I love you and let that be enough.”
She waited anxiously for more yelling, but minutes passed in silence.
“Okay,” he finally said.
“Like…okay? Or, okay, fuck off?”
“The first one.”
“Good,” she fell back against him. “Let’s move to something more pleasant.”
“Do you like it here?”
“It’s damp and cramped, but it’s better than being out there.”
The dwelling was two bedrooms separated by a thin, stone wall and a slightly larger room for cooking, dining, and whatever else they could dream up.
Dominic wrapped his arms around her waist and set his hands against her stomach. She held them there with her own, feeling something like contentment.
“Do you think this could be it?” she asked softly.
“What do you mean?”
“You know, do you think we could make a home here? A future?”
“I suppose we could try. What use was it making it this far if we just stop trying, right?”
She heard the hesitation in his voice. She understood it, now more than ever. All of them had been betrayed by everyone they’d ever trusted, except each other. But if she could find love and trust in an Outlander, the one man she’d been programmed to detest, she held out hope that she could find it anywhere.
“We both know there’s no quit in you.” She leaned her face against his bicep and watched a star plummet below the black horizon.
“No ma’am, there is not.”
“This place is weird, though, isn’t it?”
“Not sure I’ve seen a single thing in this place that isn’t weird.”
“I was thinking mostly about the armor and the swords. I mean, they’ve got a castle and a Queen; stuff I read about in fairytales when I was a little girl.”
Dominic nodded. “It knocks you off balance, that’s for damn sure. Best I can guess, they rebuilt, same as us, and never quite managed to move beyond all this.”
“Some get lucky, some don’t, I guess.”
“Not sure it’s luck. It’s not like we were technological marvels or anything; outside of Genesis, most of us were still living in huts without electricity and clean water. We just happened to have a lot of guns lying around.”
“But at least you had a little thing called freedom, right?” she teased.
“Ha-ha, you’re so funny.” He tickled her. “I meant it when I said it and I still mean it.”
Lamps were beginning to extinguish in the windows of the houses around them.
“What do you think of the Queen?” she asked.
“She’s a character. She seemed a little taken with you.”
“You noticed that too? Not sure what her deal is.”
“For all you know she’ll be your new best friend, you’ll be braiding each other’s hair and trading gossip by the end of the week.”
“Highly doubtful. I don’t even know what it is she expects me to do. Handmaid? What is that? If she thinks I’m drawing her baths and fetching her water she’s got the wrong girl.”
“Judging by the looks of the other girl—”
“That Emily bitch?”
“Yeah, that Emily bitch. Judging by the dagger and the way she came at me, I’d say it’s something like a bodyguard.”
“Huh.” she thought it sounded better than working in the mine and scaling fish. “Guess it could be worse.”
“It can always be worse.”
She turned in his arms and locked her hands around the back of his neck. “No matter how bad it gets as long as we’re together, we’ll get through it; I’m sure of it.”
“You’re safe, Lerah. You know that, right? No one will ever hurt you again, not while there’s still breath in my lungs.”
“Dominic, I’m a big girl. It’s not your job to save me. You coming back for me, you standing with me now, tolerating my bullshit day in and day out, it’s more than anyone in this world has ever done for me.” She smiled. “I love you, you brute.”
“I love you too.”
She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him.
22
Byron sat at one of the dining tables that’d been erected in the subterranean mess-hall. They were crudely constructed and prone to handing out splinters to reckless eaters, but they served their purpose. He’d sat quietly during the evening meal while men stared with open hostility and mothers cautioned their children to stay away; in this world, he was the monster.
He was one of the last ones left. He sat with his forehead in his hands and a full plate of slop resting at his elbows. He was borderline comatose, having only accumulated a few short hours of sle
ep during the past week. But even with a roof over his head and something resembling a bed, he still couldn’t seem to find rest. He had allies at his back and the promise of revenge ringing in his ears, but he still couldn’t find shelter from the storm raging in his head.
“They said I’d find you in here.” Draxus took a seat across from Byron. “They said you were being a mopey motherfucker; appears they were not wrong.”
“They wanted nothing to do with me. The children looked at me as if I were something from one of their nightmares.”
“You’re an Anthenian; you are something from one of their nightmares.”
“I’m exhausted, so you’ll have to excuse the absence of laughter.”
“Bed not comfortable enough for you, sweet prince?”
“Bed’s fine. Beats sleeping on the ground in the rain.”
“So what is it? People fucking too loud? I can tell the boys to keep it down. Or do you need to do some fucking of your own? Forgot you were wandering around out there like a lamb with a blind shepherd. I can send a girl to you. Shit, I can send two. You know how many girls in here are itching to know what Anthenian cock tastes like? Guess I should be offended, but the truth is I’m goddamn curious myself.” Draxus reached out and caressed the back of Byron’s forearm.
Byron jerked away. “Stop!”
“Jesus! Your ass is puckered tight today. You gonna eat that?”
“Have it.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Draxus dragged the bowl across the table, spilling some of the contents as it rode over the short stretch of rough terrain. “So what is it? Can’t help ya out if you don’t tell me, Anthenian. You’re sort of fucking up the vibe around here. We’ve already lost our homeland and we don’t exactly see the sunlight much, it’s tough enough trying to keep the morale up without some exiled little prick coming in and stirring the shit.”
“I’m not trying to stir the shit.”
“But you are,” Draxus said through a mouthful of food.
“What do you want me to do? Tell me and I’ll do it.”
“Just want you to be straight up with me. Shit, we’re together now, right? Shooting for the same star? Linked fates and all that cosmic shit. Your problems are my problems. I need your head clear.”
Blood & Stone: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 3 Page 16
