Skulduggery

by Logan Jacobs

  We finally made it to the back of the theater, and Dar parked the cart next to the elephant stables and then sprang out of his seat like a jack in the box.

  “I’ll go get Cimarra!” he said.

  “Tell her Penny is hurt,” I said. “Ask her to bring her potion.”

  “Her potion?” Dar asked.

  “Just go!” I growled, and my friend nodded before he spun on his short legs and sprinted away.

  “I got you,” I whispered to Penny as I lifted her back up in my arms and carried her down from the cart. Her entire leather vest was covered in blood, and her creamy skin looked white as a sheet. Her eyes were still open, but she licked her lips with a dry tongue before opening her mouth.

  “Don’t say anything,” I warned her as I backed my ass into the stable door and forced it open. “You are going to be fine.”

  “But I have to tell you something,” she whispered.

  “It can wait,” I said as I carried her through my darkened base of operations and set her on our planning table. Her body weighed nothing in my arms, and I felt my stomach twist into cold knots when I realized Cimarra might not get here in time.

  “No,” she groaned as Azure jumped on the table and started licking her neck. “I’m … I don’t feel good, and it’s getting hard to keep my eyes open. I’m so tired Wade.”

  “You better fucking stay awake,” I growled at her as I clutched her hand. “I can’t do any of this without you.”

  “Yes you can,” she sighed as the baby dragon nuzzled her. “You already did all this without me.”

  My throat started to close, and I shook my head. “No. I did it with you. I did it for you. I did it for us.”

  “Wade,” she said as she started to blink away tears. “I would do this night over again if it meant that Hagan wouldn’t come after you anymore.”

  “Shut up,” I muttered.

  “I kept calling you stupid. My whole life. I didn’t think I deser--”

  “Shut up,” I repeated desperately. “Stop talking.”

  But like always, Penny didn’t listen to me.

  “I didn’t think I was allowed to be happy,” she murmured as her eyes fluttered. “I didn’t want you to end up like my pa. I thought if I forced you away that--”

  “I’m going to put my hand over your mouth if you don’t shut up,” I said, and then I rested my forehead against hers and gently pressed my lips to her mouth. “Whatever the fuck you are trying to tell me, I don’t want to hear it until you are healed. You’re just going to break both of our hearts. Got it?”

  She blinked back more tears and then nodded.

  “I’m here!” Cimarra shouted behind me, and I turned to see her glide like a sparrow into the stable with Dar behind her. The beautiful dancer held the blue tinted bottle in her hands, and I felt my stomach jump into my chest when I saw it.

  “She’s hurt,” I said like an idiot as I pointed to the dagger coming out of Penny’s stomach, but then again, there wasn’t any better way to explain it.

  “Can you cut away the clothes from her stomach?” Cimarra asked me as she uncorked the bottle and set it on the table next to me.

  “Why are you helping?” Penny wheezed as she looked at the dark-haired beauty, but Cimarra just smiled at the other woman and then gestured for Dar and I to get to work on her clothes.

  The halfling and I took our sharp daggers to Penny’s leather jerkin and vest. Our blades were sharp, but the material was slippery because of her blood, and the redhead let out a few gasps of agony when we accidentally jostled her too much. After a few minutes, we’d removed the leather, and we could see where the dagger sank into the pale skin of her tummy.

  “Now comes the hard part,” Cimarra said. “One of you needs to pull out the dagger, and the other one of you needs to hold open her wound.”

  “Hold it open?” Dar gasped. “But--”

  “The potion heals whatever it touches,” the dancer explained. “If it heals the abdominal muscles and skin first, then her stomach will still have a hole in it.”

  “Gotcha,” Dar said shakily, and then he looked at me. “Uhhh. You’re her boyfriend. I think you should hold open her stomach.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” Penny groaned as Azure hissed at us. “But hurry the fuck up, you two idiots, or I’m gonna fucking die on this table.”

  I nodded to Dar, and then we each moved our hands into position while Cimarra grabbed the potion and angled it so she was ready to pour.

  Then the three of us looked at each other and moved.

  Penny hissed when Dar yanked the dagger free, and then she cried out when I forced her wound open. Blood poured out like a river, and then Cimarra leveled the mouth of the potion so it would drip right onto the red tide coming out of Penny’s ruined stomach.

  The blue liquid fell free of the bottle, touched Penny’s blood, and began to glow.

  Then Penny really started screaming.

  “Hold her!” Cimarra shouted at Dar, and the halfling grabbed onto Penny’s hip while I leaned my elbows on her and continued to pry open her wound.

  The blue liquid began to glow, and it seemed to permeate Penny’s blood, but Cimarra kept pouring, and some of it started to spill across her stomach.

  “I think that’s good, force the wound together,” the dancer said, and I gently pushed the edges of Penny’s cut together and watched in awe as it began to mend together like a satin sheet being perfectly stitched up.

  Then Penny was healed, and the three of us sat and stared at the pale skin that was taut over her muscular stomach. There was still a bunch of blood, of course, but it wasn’t flowing or moving anywhere.

  “I think she’s going to be okay,” Cimarra finally said, and both Dar and I let out long exhales.

  “You saved me?” Penny whispered, and I looked up to see she had her green eyes fixed on Cimarra. “Why?”

  “Why?” the dancer laughed. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  Penny didn’t answer, but her eyes shifted to me, and then she bit her cracked lip.

  “I think we both want the same thing,” the dancer said as she set down the now empty bottle. “Don’t we?”

  “You are clever,” Penny sighed as she laid her head back on the table and smiled.

  “Some have said that,” Cimarra replied with a grin. “You should get some rest. Wade, you’ll need to feed her some eggs, peppermint tea, and some cuts of beef tomorrow. She needs to get her iron back.”

  “Okay,” I said as I grabbed Penny, lifted her off the table, and then carried her over to the pile of straw we were all using as a bed.

  Azure followed at my heels, and he curled around the woman’s neck to warm her as soon as I laid her down.

  “Damn,” Dar groaned. “What a night. We still haven’t even looked in the chest.”

  “Yeah,” I laughed as I realized Penny was already asleep, and then I ran the tips of my fingers along her cheeks where her dried tears were. “Something more important came up.”

  “For sure,” Dar chuckled, “but what do you say we open ‘er up and take a look at our loot.”

  “Sounds good,” I said, and then I looked back to catch Cimarra walking out of the stable doors and into the night. “Wait. Hold on.”

  I ran across the stable, out through the door, and caught up with the dancer. My hand grabbed hers, and then I spun her around so she faced me.

  “Where are you going?” I asked as I rested my fingers on the smooth skin of her arms.

  “Oh,” she said as she gave me a slight smile. “I thought you were done with me.”

  “Done with you?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

  “I used my potion,” she said. “Isn’t that--”

  “You are worth more to me than just a damn potion,” I interrupted her. “Don’t you remember what I said I felt about you?”

  “That was while we were making lo--”

  “I still meant it,” I interrupted her again as I pulled her closer to me.

  “Wha
t about Penny?” the dancer asked as her blue eyes stared into mine.

  “I love her, too,” I whispered. “Is that a problem? If I can kill the boss of the Thief’s Guild, double cross the Dwarven Mob Boss, sell twenty barrels of whiskey, and evade the elves the whole time, I think I can love two women at once.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Cimarra whispered as she reached up a hand so she could run her fingers across my cheek. “I just want a place by your side.”

  “You have it,” I answered. “You are beautiful, clever, and brave. I need you, Cimarra. Will you help us make some whiskey and get rich?”

  “Yes,” she answered without a moment of hesitation. “I will, Wade, and I will return your love a hundredfold.”

  Our lips met, and she moaned delightfully into my mouth as our tongues explored the inside of each other’s mouths. I wanted the kiss to last forever, and my body wanted to reward her for always being there for me. But Dar was waiting, and I figured Cimarra would probably appreciate me cleaning myself up a bit before I made love to her for the rest of the night, so I pulled away and cupped her cheek.

  “Let’s go see what we stole from Hagan, who stole it from a bunch of rich halflings.” I pulled on her hand, and we both returned to the stables.

  “Think I’m gonna need you to pop this.” Dar gestured to the lock as soon as he saw us walk back in. “One of those fancy elf ones.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem.” I grabbed my picks from my vest pocket, and then the three of us gathered around the chest.

  My pick slid into the hole with ease, and my tension rod gave just the right amount of torque as I rotated it. The lock was an eight-pin, which didn’t surprise me much because it was a nice elf one, but the pins were all really well crafted, and that sometimes didn’t help locks since I was able to hang up the edges of the pins a bit easier. It only took me a few rakes with my pick, and then the piece of gold plated security popped open just as easy as Cimarra’s chastity belt had.

  “Now it’s my turn,” Dar said, and I gestured for the dancer to stand back a bit behind me while my friend looked for traps.

  The halfling carefully inspected the edges of the locking clasp, and then he grabbed one of the wash stirring rods, stood about arm’s length away from the chest, raised himself up on his toes, and carefully lifted the lid as slowly as he could.

  There was no explosion, or outpouring of toxic gasses. There was a sparkle of colored lights, though, so the three of us crept forward so we could see what the chest held for us.

  We have been waiting for you, Wade.

  It sounded like more than a half dozen voices in my head, and I let out a gasp when I realized there were seven keys sitting inside of the chest. Each was cradled in a white velvet indent, and they glittered with a different color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. I blinked my eyes, and the keys seemed to alternate between gold and their respective color as the light from Dar’s lamp caught them.

  What shall you open with us, Wade?

  “The Rainbow Keys!” Cimarra gasped.

  “By the ancients,” Dar said, and his mouth hung open as he stared inside of the chest.

  “What are the Rainbow Keys?” I asked.

  We are your hopes and dreams, Wade.

  We will give you whatever you want, Wade.

  Riches? Women? Power? All is within your grasp, Wade.

  “They are said to open the chests that contain the relics of the elven gods,” Cimarra explained. “Red, orange, and yellow for the day elves, and blue, indigo, and violet for the night elves.”

  “But what about the green one?” I asked as my eyes focused on it.

  Just wait and see, Wade. Just wait and see.

  “The legends say that one opens up the chest for the most powerful relic of them all,” Cimarra said. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of this.”

  “Country bumpkin,” I murmured as I pointed my thumb at myself, but neither Dar nor Cimarra laughed.

  We just stared at the keys in awe.

  Of course, my friends couldn’t hear them whispering to me.

  “You know what this means?” Dar finally said.

  “That we are going to be rich?” I asked through numb lips.

  “Well,” he sighed, “maybe. What it really means is every damn elf in the entire fucking world is going to want these keys, so now we have to worry about the whiskey business and keeping these sparkly treasures hidden.”

  “That will be easy,” I laughed. “No one knows we have them.”

  “Naw, Wade,” Dar sighed. “Didn’t you hear what Hagan said? The Guild leader herself told him to fetch the chest. She told him where to look. She’s gonna know someone killed him and stole it, and you pretty much stole it from her.”

  “I take it the Guild leader is not someone you steal from?” Cimarra sighed.

  “No,” I said and pursed my lips. “No one even knows who she is.”

  “Can you give it back to her?” the dancer asked.

  “Maybe,” I said as I stared at the keys, “but I’m not going to.”

  I closed the lid of the chest and then turned to the both of them. “We are going to do our whiskey business. We are going to make a ton of money. We are going to figure out where to use these keys, and then we are going to get even richer. The Guild leader and the elves aren’t going to stop us. You know why?”

  “Why?” Cimarra asked as she smiled at me.

  I grinned back. “Because I have a plan.”

  End of book 1

  End Notes

  Thanks for reading Skulduggery! If you want to see a book 2, please leave me a nice review here.

  So here is the deal: Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book… UNLESS you follow that author on the store. Click here to go to my author page, and then click on the “FOLLOW” button on the left side.

  You should also join my Facebook Fan page or follow my Facebook Author page. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted when my next book is out. So do it now!

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Logan Jacobs