Reborn Raiders (The Weatherblight Saga Book 4)

by Edmund Hughes

  “Yes, that’s right,” said Bruno.

  Ari rested his fist against his forehead. He felt his Ring of Insight pressing against his skin, and sent a query into it with his will as to whether the plan was as terrible and ill-advised as it seemed on the surface.

  The ring’s enchantment confirmed what he basically already knew. It was a horrible plan, and Bruno wasn’t the type of man to reconsider or compromise any part of it. If he wanted to make a serious attempt at helping the Ravarians or raising an army, the dismal opportunity he’d been presented with was the only path forward.

  “Do you already have the costume?” he asked.

  CHAPTER 36

  Ari spent another hour at Bruno’s estate, going over small aspects of the plan and doing what he could to buff out some of the less-than-realistic parts of it. Bruno had a grand vision of the commoners and nobles uniting as one and carrying him to victory.

  Ari told him to get one of his guards, or better yet, several of them, in close enough to Baron Luka to slip a dagger into his ribs once the chaos broke out. It felt strange speaking about murdering a man in such practical terms, but he still remembered how Kerys had lost her hand, and the beating he’d endured immediately after Luka, then a Marshal, had accused them of poisoning the senior Ogwell.

  Bruno had been resistant to the idea, but Ari had sold him on it by presenting it as more of a last resort. He’d still fight in the Bout of Sacrifice and reveal himself at the end, and that part of the plan felt somewhat sensible, at least. He was still a wanted man in Cliffhaven, and the ensuing drama that would come about when he presented himself to the crowd, especially if Baron Luka attempted to refuse him a pardon, was the type of chaos that he could work with.

  He was a little nervous about how the actual fighting within the Bout would go, but he figured he could wear his Feathercloak under the costume. Weapons were allowed, so he’d have Azurelight along with the various tricks it brought to the table. He also had the Weathersense potion, though its usefulness was diminished by the fact that the festival would likely be called off in the event of rain.

  “This is the most foolhardy action I have ever seen you take,” said Eva.

  “You aren’t wrong, but it would help if you stopped second-guessing me and focused on offering suggestions to make it work,” said Ari.

  They were walking back toward the bunkhouse. It was late, but the mist from earlier had abated aside from a thin layer of swirling fog at knee level. Ari frowned as they slipped into the inn and surveyed the common room, finding it in much the same state as it had been when they’d left. Virgil was half-asleep near the hearth, and he let out a small, boyish yawn as he started talking.

  “There has still been no sign of Lady Kerys,” he said. “Amber already gave up and went to sleep. Said she thought Kerys was fine and would come back in the morning.”

  Ari sighed and collapsed into one of the chairs. “I doubt it took long for her to convince herself of that. Mud and blood…”

  A flash of light came from over his shoulder as Eva shifted forms. She rested a hand on Ari’s arm reassuringly.

  “It is sweet how you worry for her, but in this case, I think it unnecessary,” said Eva. “Kerys seemed very confident of herself when she left earlier. You should trust in her capabilities.”

  “I guess I don’t have much choice, do I?” asked Ari.

  Eva smiled at him. She stayed for a few minutes before retiring to the shared bunk room, reiterating one last time that the best thing they could do in the situation was rest and wait. Virgil kept Ari company for some time after that before doing the same, leaving him alone with his thoughts in the common room.

  It felt like an eternity had gone by before he heard a noise at the door, but it was likely no more than an hour. Ari all but ran to the door and threw it open, and there she was.

  Kerys was essentially being held upright by two similarly aged girls, both of whom Ari recognized from when he’d first reunited with her in Cliffhaven after her injury, though he couldn’t remember their names. Laughter, sloshy movements, and in Kerys’ case, hysterical and exaggerated crying combined to create a picture of the night they’d probably shared.

  “See? I told you he’d be worried about you, Kerys!” One of the girls let out a drunken laugh and almost lost her balance.

  “We were so clooose,” said Kerys, in a devastated voice. “We should have stayed a little longer.”

  “No, we shouldn’t have,” said her other, more sober-sounding friend. She rolled her eyes and looked at Ari. “She got it into her head that she could help you with a problem that you’re having by plying some of the nobles for information. I’m not sure what she intended, but she had half the horny young men in the Golden Goblet buying her drinks for most of the night.”

  “Uh-huh,” said Ari.

  “Noooooooo…” said Kerys, in a whiny voice.

  “None of them did anything with her, other than getting thrown out by one of the doormen for being too handsy,” said her friend. “You’re a lucky man, Aristial. She really loves you.”

  The two girls lifted Kerys, and gently, but insistently pushed her into Ari’s grasp. Kerys came close to tumbling onto her face as her foot caught on the doorstep, but Ari caught her by the shoulders.

  “Ari,” she muttered. “I’m so sorry. I thought… I thought…”

  “She’s your responsibility, now,” said her friend. “Might want to make sure she gets a glass of water in her before bed. Trium blessed, Kerys, next time you go out with us, you’re cut off after your second ale.”

  “Thanks,” said Ari. Kerys’ friends headed off down the street. Ari shouldered the door to the inn open and halfway carried Kerys through the threshold as she sniffled and stumbled over her words.

  “I really thought that this time I could help,” she muttered. “The Golden Goblet is where all the nobles go when they want to drink and gossip and, and…”

  She stumbled as Ari let go of her to close the door. He spun and caught her before she hit the floor.

  “I appreciate the effort you made, all the same,” he said, smiling. “Here, let’s get you into a chair.”

  Kerys let out a sniffle and nodded. She looked completely crestfallen, and even knowing that it was likely due to how drunk she was, it still made Ari feel like comforting her.

  “Really, it’s okay, Kerys,” he said.

  “I can’t do anything right,” she said. “I’m useless. You should just… throw me awaaaay.”

  She let out a melodramatic sob and stared at her injured arm. Ari considered the situation for a second before slipping into the bunkroom to grab something out of his pack.

  “I was going to give you this soon anyway, and I honestly can’t resist seeing what your reaction will be like with so much ale in you. Stick out your arm.”

  Kerys sniffled, wiping away tears and furrowing her brow in confusion. She stuck out her good hand and Ari shook his head, still keeping his present for her hidden behind his back.

  “The other one,” he said.

  “Aristial.” Kerys shook her head. “I don’t want to think about my injury. That’ll just make me even more…”

  Ari took her injured arm and gently began undoing the button that closed the sleeve of her dress. Kerys blinked in surprise as he brought the silk glove and copper hand out and set them down on the table.

  “Now, this isn’t a perfect solution,” he said. “The hand fits inside the glove, but you’ll have to use these extra ties to keep it held in place. It’s enchanted, so you’ll be able to manipulate the fingers using your will, but I’m not sure if you’ll ever be able to feel anything through it.”

  The look on Kerys’ face was a dumbfounded mixture of disbelief and awe. Ari slid the copper hand into the elbow-length silk glove, pushing it so that it filled out the fingers while leaving room for the fabric to be pulled onto Kerys’ arm.

  “You’ll probably have to get someone to put it on and take it off for you, but that’s alrea
dy the case for the dresses you wear with ties,” he said, with a smile. “Which, by the way, I’m also fine with helping you with. I know I’ve mentioned that before a few times.”

  Kerys seemed at a loss for words as Ari continued securing the ties. The copper hand didn’t hold in place as a real hand would have, falling slightly limp at the point where the metal met the healed skin of Kerys’ stump. Ari frowned as he shifted it around experimentally, and then pulled back in surprise as the hand closed around his finger.

  “Whoa…” said Kerys. “I… did that?”

  “Apparently,” said Ari. “It looks like it works for you.”

  He felt his professional curiosity take over as he watched Kerys flexing her fingers experimentally. She could clearly activate the enchantment with her will, and doing so seemed to pull the copper hand into place, making it hang where it should be and act like a real replacement more effectively than he’d been expecting it to.

  “How…?” Kerys shook her head. “You made this for me?”

  “More like repurposed,” said Ari. “I took it from one of the steam golems in Deepwater Spire and just restored the essence within it.”

  Kerys put the hand through a series of different movements, opening and closing a fist, stretching out her fingers, and touching the individual buttons on her dress. Her motions were clumsy, but Ari wondered if that was due as much to her newness with the hand as it was her general drunkenness.

  “Aristial.” whispered Kerys. She sniffled, blinked a few times, and started crying again.

  “Maybe I should have waited until you were sober to give this to—”

  Kerys cut him off with a kiss, pressing her lips firmly against his and, as fit her usual habit, not doing much more in the way of moving them. She sat on his lap in the chair, almost falling over as she threw her arms around him. Her new hand pressed against Ari’s cheek, and he could feel both the cold of the metal and the tingle of essence through the soft silk glove.

  “I love you,” she muttered. “Dormiar’s face, Ari. I really love you.”

  Ari smiled and ran a hand through her hair. The kisses continued, and Kerys began shifting on his lap, wiggling her butt against his crotch to the full effect of her inebriated ability. Ari slid a finger into the bust of her dress, then his entire palm, cupping one of her breasts and feeling tempted to pull it loose.

  “We’re not exactly in private,” he whispered. “One of the others could walk in at any time.”

  “I don’t care,” said Kerys. “I… want to show you how much this means to me.”

  “Well, there are plenty of other ways you could…” Ari wisely decided to stop talking as Kerys slid off his lap and dropped to her knees in front of the chair.

  She had a wicked and somewhat silly smile on her face as she looked up to him. Using her new hand, she slowly and clumsily undid Ari’s belt and pulled his pants down. He leaned back as she freed his cock from his underwear, feeling excited but also a little wary.

  “Maybe you should hold off on testing your new hand,” he said. “Just for now?”

  “Does it feel too cold?” asked Kerys with a giggle. She ran one of the silk-clad fingers of her new hand along the length of Ari’s rapidly hardening shaft.

  “Cold isn’t the right way to describe it,” said Ari. He could feel the essence in the hand, a tingling, not unpleasurable sensation. It was weird, and as Kerys closed the fingers of her new hand around his cock, he shuddered at the intensity of the sensation.

  “I’ll be careful, don’t worry,” she whispered. “I have to test it, after all.”

  She slowly began to stroke, letting the silk glove slide up and down Ari’s length. She used the thumb of her other hand to gently caress the tip, and she grinned up at Ari as he let out a low moan.

  “I know what would feel even better,” she whispered.

  She kissed the head of his cock, and Ari couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “How is it that you know how to purse your lips for that, but can’t—”

  Kerys engulfed his member with her mouth, and the thought died before he could finish giving it voice. Ari took a slow breath as she began to suck, savoring the pleasure and melting into his chair.

  She was still rather drunk, but the sloppiness of her technique only seemed to add to the intensity of the experience. Ari ran a hand through her hair, urging her onward. Kerys took his cock a bit deeper with each additional bob of her head, until she’d pressed forward further than a normal woman would be able to.

  Ari felt his shaft sliding an inch or two into the back of her throat, a little trick that Kerys told him Rin had helped her learn. He couldn’t resist taking her head into his hands and giving a few gentle thrusts with his hips. Kerys kept a tight seal with her lips and her tongue stayed flat against the underside of his cock, which quickly became too much for Ari to handle.

  He was right there, hovering on the verge, when Kerys pulled back. She kept his cock held in the firm, interesting grip of her new hand as she turned her gaze up at him. Slowly, she started licking again, watching his face the entire time and reading each shift in his expression. It was torture, and it was bliss.

  “Kerys!”

  Ari lost control as he unloaded, shooting his seed onto Kerys’ face. She let out a tiny squeak, but seemed more concerned with keeping the silk glove covering her new hand clean, rather than her hair and face. Ari leaned back in the chair, smiling like a fool.

  “You must be really drunk to not be getting mad at me for dirtying you like that,” he said, with a smile.

  “You should at least offer to help me clean up,” said Kerys. “I’m not so drunk that I don’t, uh…”

  She stood up and swayed on her feet. Ari caught her and deftly set her down into the chair in his place. A small, mischievous smile crept onto his face as an idea popped into his head. He dropped to his knees, and before Kerys could say anything, slipped his head under the hem of her dress.

  “Aristial Stoneblood!” she muttered. “What are you—oh!”

  Ari had pulled her panties aside, and he ran his fingers in a gentle, caressing motion along what lay underneath them. Kerys reached her hands down and grabbed his head through her dress, not pushing him back, but not pulling him closer in either.

  He let his breath warm her up and waited until Kerys started bucking her hips forward before beginning his true onslaught. He went slow, kissing first and then licking, aware of how easy it would be to overwhelm her.

  “Ari,” moaned Kerys. “Oh, Ari! Dormiar’s eyes…”

  Kerys let out a delicious squeal after no more than a full minute, arching her back and nearly wrapping her legs around his head. Ari felt her body quiver, and when he pulled his head out from under her dress, he was smiling from ear to ear.

  “Did you enjoy yourself?” he asked. “From the noises you were making, I have to assume that… Kerys, are you crying?”

  She was, and she quickly wiped a hand across her face to get rid of the tears. She looked as beautiful as Ari had ever seen her, face flushed from the alcohol and intimacy, her now medium-length hair still a mixture of gold and black.

  “Ari,” she said, in a soft voice. “I want to be your wife.”

  He was surprised by how hard the words hit him. His first reaction was to brush the suggestion off as an impulsive thing, an idea born from the afterglow of ecstasy and her drunkenness. She kept looking at him, though, waiting for a reaction, or rather, an answer.

  “I want you to be my wife, Kerys,” said Ari. “Mud and blood. That’s what I’ve always wanted.”

  She stood up from the chair and Ari pulled her into a tight embrace, followed by a lengthy kiss. It was, by a fair margin, the happiest moment of his life.

  ***

  They stayed with each other in the common room for another hour or so, until Kerys fell asleep in Ari’s arms. Neither of them said anything else, though the silence was comfortable, and it certainly didn’t extend to Ari’s thoughts.

  She’d said tha
t she wanted to be his wife, but he’d still need to go through the motions. A man would give a woman a bracelet to propose down in Golias Hollow, usually one studded with gemstones of various types. Ari wondered how quickly he could find a suitable bracelet in Cliffhaven and how much it would cost.

  He thought about Eva, too, and how a potential marriage between himself and Kerys would affect their relationship. It made his heart feel strange to consider committing fully to Kerys, despite that being what he’d wanted for almost as long as he could remember. Eva was part of his life, a friend, a lover, a companion, someone who he couldn’t simply toss aside at the whim of circumstance.

  Was there a possible compromise? It felt unreasonable for him to expect to marry Kerys while still sharing a bond with Eva, especially if the two of them were actively maintaining it with their intimacy. Of course, shutting Eva out for the sake of committing fully to Kerys would also put them at a disadvantage when it came to survival, given how much stronger he was when fighting with Azurelight.

  Ari listened to Kerys’ soft, rhythmic breathing and slowly stroked her hair. He decided that he didn’t need answers for every question and gently carried her to bed. Everyone else was asleep, and within minutes, so was he.

  INTERLUDE (MYTHRIL)

  The rune harp had a wavering, elegant sound, as though it were several instruments playing at once. The woman working the strings was young, a Hume slave barely into her teenage years. Mythril let out a slow sigh and took a sip of his wine, wishing that Diya had thought to include more options for distraction at the celebration.

  “What a beautiful sound!” said Bloodrose, through their bond. “Mmmm… true ecstasy.”

  “It’s just a harp,” muttered Mythril. “Nothing special.”