by Raven Dark
Until Tari, Gita, Adeline, and even Serena joined us. The chance for a few hours with our new friends lessened the sting of the day’s events.
Serena looked happy and alert, with none of the dazed confusion clouding her eyes, at least for now. Adeline looked wonderful, her face glowing with a mother’s pride. She even brought her little ones out and let us play with them while she sat by the side of the pool on a chaise.
Still, as much fun as we were having, I couldn’t help the nagging fear that Damien would return with his J’nai and drag me off to Hell’s Burning. It made me feel better that Lord Bain insisted on having his guards keep watch over us at all times.
Thank the Maker that Mikel made no appearance. The guards Captain Braul had assigned to us stood at the doors, unobtrusive and professional, silent as statues.
Leaning my head against the side of the pool, I thrust aside the thoughts of my former master, but that only left me thinking of my Four, especially Sheriff. Having heard the exchange between him and Damien on that roof, so much of what I knew about Sheriff made sense now. The hatred he held for Damien, the connection between them I’d known was there, but never understood.
Now I knew why he refused to talk about Damien and what had happened between them. Damien had killed his mother. Because she wasn’t a Violet, according to Sheriff. I closed my eyes, listening to the other women laugh and splash each other. What had Damien done to her?
My thoughts turned to my own mother, the memory of seeing her and Dax dragged away by poachers while I hid. Helpless. Unable to do anything but watch in terror. My stomach clenched at the thought of what they’d done to her. To Dax. At what horrors Damien might have inflicted on Sheriff’s mother before he killed her.
My eyes stung with tears for him.
While Diamond, Emmy, and I were leaving the harem quarters a short while later, Serena put her hand on my shoulder. “Setora? A word with you before you go?”
I tensed. The last conversation with her wasn’t something I wanted repeat. Nonetheless, I promised Diamond and Emmy I’d meet them in the Grand Dining Hall and followed her out into the same garden we’d walked in before. We sat on the same bench, amid the pleasant scent of roses and fresh-cut grass.
The warmth of the late afternoon sunlight felt good on my face, after being in that dark, dingy cell. I guessed it was close to five. Despite not having slept since yesterday, I felt alert, not the slightest bit tired. But maybe it was because I knew we’d be leaving soon, and I was anxious to get back to the Grotto. I could just imagine how restless Sheriff was becoming at our still being here, especially when he usually preferred to travel at night when fewer gangs were on the road.
“Serena, I’m so sorry about Lord Falnar.” I reached for her hand and squeezed it. Just imagining not being able to see one of my masters ever again tore me in two.
“Oh, dear, don’t be. He always wanted to die in battle. Or in bed with a woman wrapped around him.” She winked. “Time takes us all, one way or another.” She plucked a rose from the bush near her and handed me the crimson bud.
Unsure what to say to that, I twirled the rose stem between my fingers. “What will happen to you now? Someone will take care of you and the other women now that Lord Falnar is gone, right?”
“Oh, yes. Lord Bain is a good man. We’ll be fine.”
“Serena.” I took her hand until she looked at me. “Will you tell me about the man in your dreams?”
She looked away.
“Serena.”
“I can’t talk about him. I can’t.”
Frustration bit into me, but so did a stab of sympathy for her. She wouldn’t tell me anything now. If I was lucky, Hawk would be able to send that letter to his tai dan in the Yantu order, and Master Leif would have answers.
“Anyway,” Serena said, patting my knee. “I wanted to tell you. I expect to hear from you every day after you leave here. Write to me. And I don’t want you and your men to worry about us. We will be fine here. Safe.”
“Yes, yes, I will write.” I was repeating a point that had previously been made, but I wasn’t about to remind her we’d had that conversation before.
She pulled me to my feet. Then she yanked me into a hug. “I will miss you so, so much.”
A nervous giggle tried to bubble up. I was about to step back, but a sudden wave of trepidation for her and the other women jolted through me, freezing me in place. The foreboding intensified until it almost became a painful slashing across my thoughts.
The rose slipped from my fingers, but I couldn’t make my limbs work enough to release her. Serena hugged me tighter, as if she thought I was letting the embrace linger.
As the feeling began to recede, I pulled back.
“Serena.” I clasped her hands until she looked at me. Until her eyes focused. “Serena, listen to me. Whatever happens after we go, you can’t let the women leave here.”
She blinked at me.
“Do you understand? You can’t leave. Keep them here. Keep them safe.”
She clasped my shoulders gently. “Of course I understand, dear. Don’t worry about us. I’ve known you were coming for a long time. A long time.” She smiled then, much too brightly.
I blinked at her. “What do you mean you’ve known I was coming?”
“You have a long journey ahead of you.” She fluffed my hair wistfully. “I wish that I was young again, so that I could go with you to meet them.”
Young again? She didn’t look a day past thirty. How old was she? And them, who?
“Now.” She took my hands and headed back toward the entrance to the garden. “Let’s go meet your men for dinner. They’ll be wanting to get on the road soon.”
I shook my head with a smile. Serena might be crazy, but she was my friend.
Maker, please, please keep them safe.
* * *
After what should have been a sumptuous feast of roast pig, the men sat and talked for a short while with Lord Bain. They seemed to enjoy the meal, but to me, the food tasted like ash. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to eat a good meal without thinking of the Legion’s one-time cook. Crash could have cooked up a meal every bit as good as the feast spread out before us.
Apparently when we’d been taken back to this castle, Captain Braul had his guards put Crash’s body in Lord Falnar’s basement morgue until we were ready to leave. I still didn’t know what was supposed to happen to him once we did leave. The thought made me too sad to ask.
Before dinner was done, we toasted to Crash, as well as Latch and Pup, the two fallen members of the Dark Legion we’d lost before reaching Delta. Light, my men had lost far too much on this trip.
Lord Bain offered for us to stay and rest, and I was relieved when Sheriff begrudgingly agreed, recognizing that everyone needed a good night’s sleep before we set off on the long road home.
Remembering what Bain had said about getting us home faster, I had to wonder what he had in mind. Early the next morning, after eight solid hours of sleep, I found out.
Following a large breakfast fit for an army of kings, the Legion and the Brothers of Brimstone headed toward the courtyard of the castle where Lord Bain had asked us to wait. Guardsmen had opened the doors, and early morning light flooded in. Since we’d already packed before Matais and Damien had showed up, we wouldn’t have to worry about doing that now.
“What’s going on, Master?” I asked Steel, leaning into him as we walked.
“Who knows? Bain said he had some way to help us get home, right? Whatever it is, if it gets us to the Grotto sooner, I’m in.”
I opened my mouth to agree, but something Hawk was saying to Sheriff down the hall in front of us caught my attention.
“…something we have to figure out before we leave, General.”
“Crash,” Sheriff muttered, looking toward a set of steps that led down to the castle basement.
“Yes, sir. What do you want to do, General?” Hawk’s voice was low.
Sheriff sighed and dry-washed his fa
ce with his palm. I caught sight of the bandage around his arm. The cloth was an almost pristine white, a fresh dressing. If the wound was hurting him, I couldn’t tell.
“Right.” Sheriff stopped in the foyer, letting the rest of us pass by to head outside. “I dunno yet. Crash needs to be taken home. He deserves to be with his Brothers in the Grotto. Lord Bain offered to hold him a funeral, but we can’t leave him here.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Hawk said.
“We’ll get him back to the Grotto somehow.”
Steel and I walked arm in arm to the doors, but the words drilled into my head, refusing to let me escape the truth. Crash was truly gone. Sheriff was right, he deserved to be taken back home. Knowing my men would make that happen provided a small comfort. An upsurge of affection and respect for Sheriff rose in me.
“Doc?” Sheriff called.
“General.” Doc raised a brow. When Sheriff waved him over, Doc let me and Steel pass him on the steps and joined Hawk and the General in the foyer.
“I want to get Crash back to the Grotto,” Sheriff said, leading the men toward the doors after us. “I’ll see if Lord Bain can lend us one of his carriages to transport him, but how… How much time do we have? Before…”
“Not enough,” Doc said quietly. “If we ride in eight hour stretches, stopping only for fuel, and with the Brothers of Brimstone taking shifts, we can get home in five days or so, if there are no surprises on the road. But one of those days will be entirely in hot desert. We need…”
“What, Doc? If we need it, we’ll get it.”
“We need a cold storage of some kind, otherwise...”
“Then we’ll find a way to get one. I’m not leaving him here—”
A cacophony of whines filled the air, and Sheriff cut off. Four of Lord Falnar’s large, vintage carriages dropped slowly onto the lawn. All had spacious back compartments. The way two of them were sitting, low to the ground, told me they were filled with something heavy.
Looking closer at the one in the back of the line as a guard climbed out of it, I noted it appeared much newer than the others, and its back compartment was slightly smaller. Still large in its own right, it was more like a truck. The vehicle clearly wouldn’t have been something Lord Falnar would have owned.
Lord Bain unfolded his bulk from inside a silvery solar-paneled carriage in the front and waddled over, beaming at us as we gathered around him. “Here you are, boys.”
“What’s this?” Sheriff grinned, nodding to the carriages.
“Consider them an apology for chaining all of you in a cell for hours.” He clasped Sheriff’s hand in a firm shake.
“You’re giving these to us?” He smiled back at his men.
Bain nodded. “The truth is, they were my father’s, inherited from an ancestor. Neither of us cared for them, but we kept them out of respect. I can’t abide anything that doesn’t stay on the ground. They are old, but they’ll get you to where you’re going twice as fast as any motorbike.”
Sheriff clapped him on the back in thanks. “And this one?” He nodded to the newer looking truck in the back of the line.
“It’s a meat packing truck. For cold storage. If you’re not going to bury your man here, you’ll need it. I bought it from a local merchant.” He waved Sheriff to the back of the truck. Steel and Pretty Boy followed, and so did I.
Guards opened the back doors.
“There’s lots of ice in there, and it will keep things cool for as long as you need it, as long as there’s power running to the back. It flies the same as the others, so it should get your fallen Brother home intact.”
My chest tightened. Grief for Crash, respect for Lord Bain, and empathy for my men who hugged each other and murmured their gratitude, all roiled in me, making for a strange mixture.
Sheriff looked around inside the truck and nodded. “Yeah, this’ll work.” His voice was husky with emotion. He nodded to Doc, and Doc and Steel hurried up to the castle to bring Crash out.
Sheriff clapped Lord Bain on his shoulder again, then took his hand in a hearty grip. “Thank you. The Legion’s loyalty is yours, my friend.”
Lord Bain squeezed his shoulder. “Oh, and one more thing.” He waved us to the back of two of the other carriages, where guards opened the rear doors.
My jaw dropped. Sheriff gave a delighted laugh.
In the backs of each carriage, the bikes from both crews stood on their kickstands, shining and whole.
“Baby!” T-Man shouted. He rushed up into one of the carriages and fell to his knees, putting his arms around the middle of his bike. He kissed the chrome on the side and gave us all a wide grin.
The men roared with laughter.
“How did you get them fixed so fast?” Sheriff hopped up and looked over his ride.
“I have a few MC friends in another club,” Bain said. “I had them working through the night while all of you slept.”
“You sly fox.” Sheriff chuckled.
Bain showed us the contents stowed in crates in front of the bikes. Although if Bain was right, we’d be home in three days using these carriages provided we traveled without stopping to camp, he’d loaded us up with enough food, water and other supplies for a week. There were cases of wine, Lord Falnar’s finest bottles.
And in a large chest, we found hundreds of the Grotto’s gems. I covered my mouth, whooping with delight that echoed the joy on Diamond and Emmy’s faces.
Bain might not have been his father, but right then, I liked him just as much as I had Falnar.
We said our goodbyes, and Sheriff waited with Hawk and me for everyone to mount up, or in this case, to climb in. All except for T-Man and Beast, who both insisted on riding their bikes. T-Man refused to ride anything but his baby, and Beast refused to travel in anything as confined as a carriage. It would put them days behind us, but neither of them cared, letting us know in no uncertain terms—Beast with a silent nod for T-Man’s every word—that they’d ride together.
Steel and Doc carried Crash out on a stretcher, his body covered in white cloth. They slid him into the back of the meat truck and locked the doors.
“I’ll drive this one,” Doc said, indicating the truck. When Sheriff nodded, he gave him a brotherly hug. “I’ll take care of him, General.”
“I know you will, Doc.” Sheriff’s voice cracked, and he cleared his throat roughly, looking at all of us. “All right, everyone. I want each driver with one partner, and you’ll switch after eight hours, no more. T-Man and Beast, don’t leave each other’s side until you’re home. Emmy and Diamond, you ride with Reaper and Steel. Pretty Boy, go with Doc. Sinister, Savage, why don’t you take this one.” He pointed to another carriage, and the twins started climbing in, Sinister in the driver’s seat, his brother in the passenger side. “Hawk, Setora, with me.”
Hawk climbed in behind the wheel of the carriage while Sheriff put his arm around me and walked me to the passenger’s door behind the driver’s seat.
A mix of grief and relief was etched on his chiseled features, making my chest constrict for him all over again. Grief over all we’d lost and relief that the journey was almost over washed over me in a wave.
I leaned my head on Sheriff’s shoulder.
“It’s almost over, sweetheart.” He kissed the top of my head before we climbed into the vehicle. “We’re almost home.”
Home. The Grotto. Light, I hoped he was right.
* * *
The journey home should have been the happiest of our lives. Not only mine and Diamond and Emmy’s, but for my Four and Doc as well. Instead, every hour, my stomach was tied in knots. I couldn’t stop thinking about the entire messed up trip we’d had coming out to Delta.
The whole way to Delta, each time I began to think everything would go smoothly and the danger had passed, some new threat had reared its ugly head, and we’d found ourselves having to scramble out of its path or deal with the aftermath of its havoc.
Saketh and his Hellhounds. Matais, and now Damien. W
e’d witnessed the demise and murder of a generous nobleman. We’d lost three of our crew, one of whom had been as close to a brother to me as I’d ever had since my real brother Dax.
And now here we were, heading home, and I kept expecting us to run headlong into more trouble, like waiting for a storm to wipe us all into oblivion.
The men said little on the trip back. With each stop, we’d change who rode with whom, depending on sleep and boredom. Half the time, I sat on one of the Four’s laps, snuggled in one of my master’s arms. When I wasn’t, I played Bluff with Steel to pass the time while Reaper drove. Or I sat holding Diamond and Emmy under each arm, tucked under warm blankets against the carriage’s back compartment wall while Hawk or Sheriff drove on.
It surprised me to realize Hawk had to teach Sheriff to drive. Apparently, much like Lord Bain, he hated anything that didn’t stay on the ground, and normally refused to ride anything but his bike. He’d had to convince Hawk to sleep while he took over, which he did, only after Sheriff had a handle on the vehicle, and Hawk had meditated with me in the back.
We stopped only when we had no choice, for fuel, or to stretch and relieve ourselves. The supplies Lord Bain had given us meant we didn’t have to stop for supplies at all. While on the ground, we spoke to no one, and anyone we passed gave us a wide berth.
At every station, I expected Damien’s J’nai to come flying out of the darkness and ambush us. Or a pack of Dregs, even Saketh himself, to materialize out of the shadows like demons and catch us before we took to the skies again. Our carriages were filled with valuables and supplies any pirates would kill to get their hands on. Moreover, my men had with them three healthy women any poacher would love to sell at auction.
I was careful to replenish the drops in my eyes to keep them black. Those drops and the dye in my hair kept anyone who crossed our path from knowing I was a Violet, but even so, my stomach clenched every time we had to deal with other people, waiting for someone to somehow figure out what I was and accost us.
My men were obviously aware of the same danger, since they avoided human interaction where they could and tried to keep me hidden.
