by Dark, Raven
My eyes were riveted to him, so much that I hadn’t even noticed Ali’san had gone back up the steps until she leaned in, whispering something to him I didn’t catch.
Master Leif looked over the crowd and gave her a nod. Ali’san clasped her hands behind her back, taking a place among the men behind him. The warrior didn’t say a word, seemingly waiting for something.
Hawk gestured for all of us to remain where we were and walked up the steps. He knelt quickly and pressed his lips to the back of his master’s hand.
Master Leif gently placed his hand on the top of Hawk’s head. The smile that touched his lips reminded me of a father with a long-lost son.
“You have not changed at all since you were last here, Si’an Hawk. It is good to see you again.”
“Thank you, Master Leif.”
His eyes roamed over Hawk’s cut and leathers, and I thought I saw him shake his head with amusement, but I couldn’t be sure. Master Leif nodded to the bottom of the steps where we waited. “Go. We will speak later.” His tone was warm.
When Hawk returned to stand with the rest of us, he quickly drew me back in line with the others. I flushed, not having realized I’d still been standing in front of the men.
Apparently, now that Ali’san was no longer speaking to me, I was expected to be subordinate to them.
“Si’an Hawk, is it not time you introduce me to your friends?” Master Leif’s tone suggested he was teasing.
Hawk cleared his throat. “My apologies, Master. These are the men of the Dark Legion. General Sheriff, Pretty Boy, Steel, and Doc.”
He didn’t introduce me, probably out of custom, but I could feel in the way he touched my shoulder that he wanted to.
Master Leif looked right at me. For all that Hawk had made it sound like he would completely ignore me, he looked at me so intently I felt the weight of his stare all the way to my soul. What did he see in me?
Then his eyes scanned the men. A muscle ticked in his jaw, but otherwise his face was impassive and unreadable. His gaze settled on Sheriff for just long enough that I couldn’t miss it, then went right over him and back to me.
“Welcome, Worldmaker. Si’an Ali’san has told me much about you. I must confess, I have been eager to meet the woman who has had so much influence over so many.”
I swallowed hard and shot a look up at Hawk before I could stop myself. He’d assured me this powerful Yantu warrior would all but ignore me, that he wouldn’t address me. That Master Leif did so made me feel a little panicky.
Hawk said nothing, but his shoulders lifted helplessly, as if to tell me he didn’t see this coming.
I cleared my throat and looked up at Hawk’s tai dan, wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole. “Thank you, sir, but, influence?”
“Yes. Are you not the woman who tried to sacrifice yourself to the Dreg Saketh to save your masters and your friend? Are you not the one who rescued the Lone Rebels? The one they call Liberator?”
Liberator!
Marna, what have you done?
That was the name the slaves used at Lord Falnar’s, the name Marna used.
“Master Leif, forgive me,” Hawk said slowly. “We have come for your help. She and Sheriff—”
“Yes.” He gave a shake of his head, as if to clear a fog. “Forgive an old warrior his fascination.”
“Of course, Master. Does this mean you will help her? There is a man who seems to have connected himself with—”
“Julian.” His voice was suddenly tight with disgust. “Yes. This connection she has with the Gin Gatai is troubling.”
Hawk took in a sharp breath. I glanced up at him, my brow furrowing. I didn’t know that name, but it sounded dangerous. Powerful. Especially if Hawk was familiar with it.
“Other Violets are becoming linked to him, drawn to him in increasing numbers.” Master Leif’s eyes went to me again. “But your connection is deeper, is it not?”
“Yes, sir. But I…” I was starting to get a sinking feeling he was ignoring Sheriff’s need for help on purpose, but why? “Sir, forgive me for overstepping but—”
“Do you know why your link to him is deeper?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, we will try to help you. We will try.”
I felt a sigh leave me and thought I heard the others do the same.
Hawk visibly relaxed. “And Sheriff? My General needs your help just as much as Setora.”
Master Leif looked over Sheriff carefully. Then his amber eyes closed. When he opened them again, he shook his head. “I can do nothing for him, Si’an Hawk.” For some reason, his tone was tight again, and his eyes were hard on Hawk.
My mouth fell open in horror. If Master Leif noticed, he gave no sign. Helplessness threatened to swallow me, along with a bolt of anger with Hawk’s master.
“What?” Pretty Boy snapped. He and the others had been so silent since we’d first seen Ali’san, I’d almost forgotten he was there. Pretty Boy stomped to the steps. “Don’t you see what’s—”
“Pretty Boy,” Hawk growled.
“No, Hawk.” Pretty Boy’s ire was rising like an avenging angel. “Master Leif, if Ali’san told you why we’re here, then you know he needs your help.”
“Hawk knows the rules,” Master Leif said coolly. “We do not allow ourselves to entangle our Order with the affairs of the outside world.”
“Why would you help Setora, and not him? Is it because we wear cuts, is that it?”
Master Leif shook his head. “What and who you are makes no difference, young pirate. You are not of this Order. There—”
“Listen here, you pompous, stuck up son of a—”
“Pretty Boy, be silent!” Hawk snapped.
Pretty Boy’s gaze shot to Hawk, and the look that crossed his face was one I thought I’d never see. He looked…betrayed. Then his fists tightened. “No, Hawk, I—”
“Pretty Boy, back the fuck off.” Sheriff spoke for the first time, and the bitter defeat in his tone nearly undid me. “I don’t need or want his help.”
“You may not want it, Sheriff, but you do need it,” Hawk said calmly. “Master Leif, please hear me out.” Hawk stepped forward a little. “I know you have never approved of my choice to wear a cut. I know you don’t agree with their being my friends.”
“The path you are on is your choice and yours alone, Si’an,” Master Leif told Hawk gently. “My love for you, as the boy I took in all those years ago, will never change.”
Hawk blew out a breath. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought it sounded impatient. “Yes, Master. But I also know how you feel about the patch. Master, like it or not, these—”
“What I like or do not like is irrelevant, Si’an.”
“Yes, Master, I know. Master Leif, these men are my friends. My family. Sheriff is my best friend. If you do not help him, he may never see again. Surely, if you can see the wisdom in helping Setora, then you must see the wisdom in helping him.”
“They are not the same, Si’an Hawk.” Master Leif spread his hands. “The Worldmaker’s connection to the Gin Gatai places all in danger, far beyond the reaches of this temple and deep within its walls. Anything that concerns Julian, as he is called, is our affair as much as anyone’s. It has been since time without end, young Hawk. He puts the safety of the entire world in jeopardy, and he places Ali’san in danger every moment he lives.”
“And Sheriff? Do you know what it means for a man like him to be without sight?”
“Yes. I do.” He shook his head. “It changes nothing.”
“Wow.” Steel’s voice was livid. “Hawk, you said they were stuck in their ways. You didn’t tell me he was an ass.”
Pretty Boy smirked and folded his arms.
Hawk’s back tensed, but he didn’t react to either.
“Aiding the Worldmaker,” Master Leif said slowly, “severing her connection to Julian is based in logic, Si’an. If we can, we shall. I understand your pain. And I understand Sheriff’s, but the pro
blems of a single man are not our affair. Helping your general would be a strict violation of custom, Captain Hawk. That he wears a patch only makes it more so.”
“Why?” Doc snapped, stepping forward. Everyone stared at him, including me. “Hawk said this was a place of peace. Is it not also a place of healing?”
Master Leif raised a brow at him in surprised interest. I could see him taking in his cut as if he’d never seen one before. “It is…Doctor.”
Doc’s lips pulled tight at the pause. “For doctors who aren’t Yantu, anyone who comes to them in need of medical help must be given aid. Trust me, I get the whole isolationist thing. MC’s have a similar rule. We don’t allow others to know club business, and anyone who doesn’t wear our cut isn’t allowed inside our walls. But if I found someone in need of medical attention, or if someone found their way into our domain, I would help them. I’d—any self-respecting healer—
would have to, whether they are MC or not.”
Master Leif gave a regretful sigh. “Si’an Hawk, Legion, I know you think we are heartless. And perhaps prejudiced, but it is not that simple.”
“Isn’t it, though?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Everyone stared at me now. Guilt stabbed at me for overstepping so hugely, especially when Hawk’s eyes bored into me, but I couldn’t let this happen. I couldn’t just walk away with my men leaving Sheriff with no hope. Leaving one of the men I cared for with his life in shambles.
Master Leif glanced at me, and his expression was impassive. Except for the slight way his brows lifted.
I sighed. “It is simple, Master Leif. Your help may be the only hope my master has left. If you have a way, you can’t just turn us away. How can your customs be more important than watching a man lose who and what he is?”
“Setora,” Sheriff rumbled softly. I swore I heard something else there, something rough and shaken.
“Kitten.” Hawk’s voice was near my ear.
“Hawk, no. Let me—”
“Kitten.” He placed his hand on my arm, and the compassion in the warmth of his touch mixed with the depth of his loyalty to his customs made my throat constrict. “Enough.” He turned to his tai dan and his shoulders sagged as if a huge weight was pressing on them. When he spoke, the words sounded dragged out of him. “Is there nothing we can do to change your mind?”
“I am sorry, Si’an. I feel your pain, I do.” He shook his head. “What is and has always been since the beginning of time may not be altered. A few of my si’an will show you to your lodgings, if you require. They will be out to assess the Worldmaker tomorrow when the bell tolls. Plenty of food and rest are essential for her before the examination. Si’an Hawk, I would see you in my chambers as soon as you and your friends are settled. We have much to discuss. Go in peace.”
Without another word, Master Leif and his entourage of warriors turned and walked back through the temple gates and disappeared inside.
For all that the doors scraped heavily and then thudded shut with a sound like a clap of soft thunder, their closing, final and absolute, sounded like a death knell to my ears.
Chapter 6
A Question of Loyalty
It was over.
After all this club had been through, all that we’d done to get here, and after all the pain I knew Sheriff was going through, with a single shake of Master Leif’s Yantu head, it was all over.
As soon as the doors on the temple had closed, shutting us out, it had felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. Out from all of us, but especially Sheriff. Helplessness clawed at me, sinking its talons in deep and leaving long, jagged scratches that felt like they would never heal.
Sadness and anger hit me like a wave, both emotions so raw and deep there didn’t seem to be words to fit how deep they went. The look on Hawk’s face as he dropped his shoulders and murmured his apology echoed my own sense of helplessness.
I turned to find Sheriff, needing to give him comfort, to let him know I was there, but he and Doc had already gone. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through Sheriff’s head.
I turned and looked helplessly up at Hawk, pleading.
He heaved a sigh and raised his hands over the babble of angry voices that rose from the men. “Everyone, calm down. Just… This isn’t over yet. I’ll talk to him myself as soon as we get set up with lodgings. I’ll get him to change his mind somehow.”
I snapped my eyes up to his, a flicker of hope daring to burn through the helplessness that ate at me. “Hawk, what can you say to him? He sounded awfully resolute.”
He rubbed my arms. “I’ll do whatever I have to. Master Leif is a stubborn man, but he is not made of stone. Come on. I’ll get everyone set up before I talk to him.”
I blinked at him. How in the Maker’s name was he so calm? His smooth face was as stoic as ever. And yet knowing him as I did, he wasn’t calm at all. His amber eyes were pools of quiet pain, and when he put his hand on the small of my back to lead me after the others, his fingers felt hot. I swore they were shaking.
I wanted so badly to take away his pain, just as much as Sheriff’s, and it killed me that I couldn’t. “What happens if you can’t talk him into helping Sheriff?” I said softly.
“Let’s worry about that if and when it happens, Kitten.”
It took everything I had to put aside my growing fear and nod.
Especially when I thought I could hear real worry in his tone.
The huts we were staying in were beautiful, in a primitive, simplistic way. Apparently, our lodgings were far enough away from any villagers, situated closer to the woods than the village proper. Each hut offered several rooms separated by thin clay walls. It surprised me that every sound from passersby outside didn’t filter through. Tables and chairs, all beautifully crafted with minimal designs of leaves and flowers, and those bed mats like Hawk used in his room at the Grotto were laid out in each. The windows had no glass, and torches lit the rooms from sconces on the walls.
“Seriously?” Pretty Boy called out from the hut next door to the one Hawk and I took. I heard what sounded like a chair falling over. “How the hell do these people live like this?”
I gave a broken sort of laugh, affection for him spiking in me. Accustomed to his finery and comfort, Pretty Boy couldn’t be expected to take this kind of rustic living well.
I helped each of the men unpack. Steel and Pretty Boy shared one hut, Hawk’s guards in another. Blade, Grim, Bear, and Doc took another. Doc set up another for Sheriff a few hundred feet from the rest of us. He’d have that one all to himself. Hawk and I took one on the end of a row.
When we were finished unpacking, Hawk drew me close and pressed a kiss to my forehead, rubbing my arms. “You stay with Pretty Boy and Steel. I’ll be back soon.”
When we stepped into the hut next door, Pretty Boy stood up from the couch. “Hawk, you’d better get that high and mighty master of yours off his damn high horse. If he has a way to help Sheriff and he doesn’t, I’m liable to punch him in the teeth.”
“I’ll help,” Steel growled.
“No, you won’t.” Hawk shook his head. He sounded tired and looked exhausted.
“Why the fuck not?” Pretty Boy challenged.
“Because, Pretty Boy, you wouldn’t do anything to risk losing the only help we may have for Setora.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “Both of you stay here with her and cool down. I’ll be back. Try not to kill anyone.”
He was gone before either of them could argue.
Steel sat down heavily onto the thinly cushioned couch. It almost toppled under his weight. “Well, that was fun.” He snagged my arm and pulled me into his lap. “Come here, Petal.”
I snuggled into him, suddenly feeling as if I couldn’t get close enough. I wanted to cry, but I was too numb, too shell-shocked, and the tears wouldn’t come. So instead, I wrapped myself around him and buried my head in his chest.
Steel kissed my temple and wrapped his giant arms around me. “You
all right?”
Sometimes it astounded me that a man capable of such bone crushing strength could be so gentle.
I shook my head.
He drew a deep breath and held me tighter.
A sudden clattering made me turn my head. Pretty Boy had slammed his fist on top of the table in front of us. “Fuck.” His fists were so tight and white I thought they’d break. “I don’t understand these Yantu fucks. How can they refuse to help a blind man? What do they have to lose? It would be nothing to them, nothing!” He shook his head and let out a long growl, pulling on his blond ponytail. He kicked over a chair.
I knew what he was asking. How could the Yantu, people who claimed to be a people of peace and wisdom, tear a man’s only hope sway? How could Master Leif look at Sheriff and just dismiss him?
“Pretty Boy, please don’t do this to yourself,” I whispered. “It won’t help anyone.”
I must have sounded more scared than I meant to, because he whipped around, and his angry face crumbled. He crossed the room and knelt in front of us, squeezing my knees. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just…” He closed his eyes, seeming to rein in the wildness that clawed savagely to get out.
“I know.” I leaned in and squeezed him close. “Me too. But it’s not over, Hawk said. Don’t give up. Let him try.”
Pretty Boy sighed and flopped down beside Steel. I snuggled in between both of them and curled my hands around each of theirs, but I wasn’t sure if I was comforting them, or if I was seeking it from them.
“You both must be tired.” I glanced up at my two masters. “Try to get some sleep.”
“Not tired.” Pretty Boy brushed my hair back from my forehead. “You do need sleep, though. Close your eyes, Princess. Hawk’ll be back before you know it.”
“I’m not tired either, Master.”
“Sleep anyway,” Steel grunted. “I’ll drug you up. The last thing we need is that fucking Julian making an appearance here.” He started to get up, but I grabbed his hand.
