Paladins of the Storm Lord

by Barbara Ann Wright

  “I’m sorry to hear about your people. I wish I could change it.” She rubbed her forehead, certain this hadn’t been the kind of conversation Liam meant.

  Nettle squeezed her wrist. “Thank you for your grief. We gave them to the swamp, much as you did your people.”

  “Pool warned me that my captain might have known what happened, but I didn’t want to believe.”

  “Will the knowing help us?”

  Cordelia glanced at Reach. “I don’t know. I’ll leave the diplomacy to other people.”

  “But you are so good at it.” She wrinkled her nose. “When I told you of the scent, it was not to keep you away. I did not want a falsehood between us.”

  “Well, I wasn’t exactly truthful when I said you were the only one who was tempted.”

  Nettle turned, long legs crossing at the knee as her slow gaze traveled up Cordelia’s body, leaving Cordelia feeling quite naked, other people in the room be damned. She flushed from the heat radiating through her body and wanted nothing more than to slide her hand along Nettle’s thigh, to feel those muscles tighten.

  Nettle’s mouth parted slightly. “Perhaps there should be nothing between us, no clothing, no air.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  Brown cleared her throat loudly. “If everyone is pairing up, that leaves the sergeant and the ambassador together. That good with you guys?”

  Preston laughed. Higaroshi seemed to turn even paler. From the corner, Paul chuckled and muttered something about young people.

  Carmichael barged through the door and walked to the head of the table again. She stared at all of them as if trying to remember where she’d left things. “You’ve got your squads. We leave tomorrow. Any questions?”

  “Do you want any yafanai for the expedition?” Paul asked. “I mean, I don’t know if I can get you any now with—”

  “We’re good.” Carmichael gestured at Nettle and Shiv with her chin. “Can you take us to meet your people?”

  “Ahya,” Nettle said.

  “Good. Ambassador Reach, you should stay here in case any more drushka trickle in.”

  “Do not tell me my business,” Reach said.

  Carmichael lifted an eyebrow but didn’t respond. There was going to be bad blood there for a long time.

  “Captain?” Higaroshi said. “What should I do?”

  She shrugged. “Why are you asking me?”

  “I’m sorry.” He looked to Nettle. “I don’t think I can go back. Those creatures, their mouths…” He wiped his lips.

  Reach moved to stand behind him. “Rest with us. Let the warriors fight.”

  He nodded.

  “Dismissed.” Carmichael strode for the door.

  Liam gave Cordelia a pointed glance before he followed Carmichael out. Shiv stared after him.

  “It’s all right, Shiv,” Cordelia said. “You and Nettle stay with me.”

  Reach led Higaroshi out. Paul patted Cordelia’s shoulder before he followed. Preston left right after, but Brown lingered a moment, giving Cordelia a slow smile.

  “Shut up, Brown,” Cordelia said.

  She laughed and left with Lea on her heels.

  *

  Liam trailed his mother’s stomps, just as he’d done as a child. But instead of waiting in the hall for her to notice him, he pushed into her office behind her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’d like to talk to you.”

  Her face screwed up, and she leaned away. “About what?”

  “Nothing personal. Don’t worry.”

  “I don’t have time for—”

  “I’m not staying in the rear on this expedition.”

  She sat behind her desk, leaned back, and fixed him with a scrutinizing stare. “You want to lead a squad?”

  “No!”

  “Figures. You’re Ross’s problem. She’ll put you where she puts you.”

  “And I’ll ask her to put me up front. I just wanted you to know, in case you were surprised to see me there.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What are you up to?”

  He shrugged, tried to keep his expression neutral, but there was no hiding from her.

  “You’re trying to impress the drushka? Which one?”

  Another shrug.

  “I could order you left behind, give that pretty armor to someone else, and see if that gets your brain to overrule your dick for once.”

  “You haven’t given my armor away yet. Why start now?”

  “Don’t push me, boy.”

  But who was pushing whom here? She’d never throw him out of the paladins. He knew part of her wanted him to quit, to walk away so she could say she’d done all she could, but he wasn’t going to cave. “I just wanted you to know.”

  She continued to stare, and he had a flash of memory: he’d sneaked out of the house after she’d yelled the roof off one night. He’d gone to Cordelia, said he wished his mother was dead, and she’d punched him right in the mouth, telling him not to wish for things he knew nothing about.

  But had Cordelia’s parents ever looked at her like this?

  When he didn’t respond, his mother started shuffling papers. “Anything else?”

  “No.” He forced back his need for her approval and walked out. He couldn’t go to Shiv with this mommy shit clinging to him. Normally, he’d just go drinking with Cordelia and banish his ghosts, but they both had other things to think about.

  He opened the door to the meeting room slowly, wanting his third sight of Shiv to be as savory as possible. She turned toward the movement, and he bit his lip, remembering when she’d done the same.

  She stood, graceful, as if springing in slow motion. The look she gave him said she wanted more than just amorous glances, and she wanted it soon. Many people had looked at him with lust, but none had made him feel like prey before. He returned the look as best he could.

  “Any news?” Cordelia asked.

  He shook his head. “Everyone else is gone?”

  She gestured at the room. “Didn’t notice, huh? Come on. We have to figure out what to do with these two.”

  He was going to say he had a few good ideas, but as much as he wanted Shiv, he didn’t want to strain things between Nettle and Cordelia, not knowing what they’d agreed to. The glances they gave each other said they had some ideas, too.

  Shiv growled, and Liam’s gaze snapped back to her. Her predatory look had gotten even sharper, and though he still wanted her, he almost took a step back.

  Nettle hissed something in drushkan. Shiv responded in kind.

  “Well,” Cordelia said, “we can show you a bit of Gale.” As they went out the door, she asked, “What did you say to her, Nettle?”

  “I told her not to injure anyone.”

  “Don’t worry. Liam can take it.”

  He grinned over his shoulder. “And what did she say?”

  “That I promise nothing!” Shiv called from the hallway.

  They descended the stairs together, and Liam walked beside Shiv through the courtyard. She craned her neck, gawking. Liam glanced back to find that Nettle and Cordelia had followed, but where he hoped to see some touching, maybe a few kisses, they both had worried looks.

  “Great,” Liam muttered.

  Shiv followed his gaze. “Nettle is worried for our people.” She slapped her thighs. “I am as well. So many are dead.”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry about that.”

  She stood on tiptoe and put her palms to his cheeks. “But you are lovely. Your eyes are like mine.”

  “Thanks.” Though he had to wonder if she just called herself lovely, or if that was a language snafu. “I like to look at you, too.”

  She wrinkled her nose away. “I would very much like to be lovers with you.”

  It almost made him stutter. “I know where we can—”

  She stepped away and slapped her thighs again, looking to Nettle. When she stomped that way, Liam followed. He caught Nettle saying, “I would like to stay with you, Sa, but p
erhaps it would be better to be within the trees.”

  Cordelia chuckled. “I’ll be thinking about you whether I can smell you or not.” They both laughed and turned to Shiv with surprised looks.

  “I know your mind, hunt leader,” Shiv said. “You are thinking we should stay closer to the trees, where my mother can reach us if she needs us.”

  “Ahya, young one. Is that why you are angry?”

  “No, my thoughts are the same. I have been in your presence too long!”

  Both Cordelia and Nettle laughed. Liam opened his mouth to protest, but Cordelia shot him a warning look.

  “When the sun comes,” Nettle said, “we will meet you.”

  Liam gave Cordelia a look of his own. “You’d be safer in Gale.”

  “Two drushka can hide in the trees,” Nettle said. “The chanuka will not find us.”

  Shiv grabbed Liam’s neck and forced his head down. She kissed him hard, all greedy nibbles and probing tongue. When she released him, his head swam.

  “Do not forget me,” she said. And then she and Nettle were walking away, Nettle casting a smile over one shoulder.

  “Great,” Liam muttered. “That did wonders for my erection.”

  Cordelia sputtered a laugh. “Drinks?”

  “Yes, please.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Carmichael watched her troops with a glow of pride. The silver silhouettes of the armors glinted in the sunlight. The leathers marched in orderly rows, pure business—even with a bit of chatter—ready for anything. The powered armor felt good around her shoulders, one thing she could thank the Storm Lord for.

  Inside the forest, Nettle and Shiv led the squads to a host of waiting drushka. The tallest stepped forward, her hair as bright green as Shiv’s. It cascaded over her shoulders, but still seemed thicker than a human’s, each strand more like a plant stalk than a lock of hair.

  Ross pushed forward and pointed to her. “Captain Carmichael, this is Pool, the leader of the drushka.”

  Pool inclined her head, and Carmichael followed suit.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Carmichael said. “What kind of numbers are we looking at?”

  Pool spread her hands. “Difficult to count, both the chanuka and our dead.”

  Carmichael fought the urge to wince. Had Reach sent word? Did they all lay the blame for their dead at her feet? Most of the drushka stared with an intensity that could have been anger or anticipation for battle.

  “How many of your people are going in with us?” Carmichael asked. “We’ll need trackers.”

  “You will have them, but I will keep the bulk of my people with me.”

  Carmichael nodded, expecting that.

  Pool gestured Shiv forward. “My daughter will accompany you, to see what is to be seen.”

  “Will she stay in the rear where it’s safe?”

  “She will do as I say.”

  “Ross,” Carmichael said, nodding at the girl. Ross took Shiv and fell back with her squad. Scouts split off from the host of drushka and scattered. “We’ll be back,” Carmichael said. “Paladins, move out!”

  They headed for the drushkan home, where the attack had taken place, though Carmichael doubted the boggins were still there. She hoped for a trail. The troops kept up a good pace, the armors far outpacing the leathers; everyone had to slow to keep together. When the massive trees of the swamp began, the armors flitted through the branches with the ease of drushka, while the leathers were left to clamor along the lower routes.

  They camped for the night and continued their march the next morning, finding the drushkan home as abandoned as Carmichael thought it would be. She set the trackers on finding a trail, and they quickly sought one out. Broken branches and leaves marked a clear, obvious path, not in keeping with everything she’d heard about these new, smarter boggins.

  Unless they’d been sloppy on purpose. When the trackers found no other trail, Carmichael decided it didn’t matter. If they had one way to go, they had to go that way, but she reminded everyone to keep their eyes open. The squads fanned out, in earshot of each other but with enough distance that they couldn’t be surrounded.

  They kept quiet enough to listen, but the swamp was alive with sounds and tiny movements: the slurp of creatures slipping into the water, the buzz of insects, the waving of leaves and vegetation, and the rattle of many-legged things clattering over bark. The boggins could be on top of them, and they wouldn’t know, though Carmichael hoped the drushka could warn them. Of course, if that were true, a fourth of the drushka wouldn’t be dead.

  One of the trackers whistled. He knelt on a low branch, pointing into the distance. Carmichael leapt and landed at his side, her stabilizers keeping her balanced. She zoomed in on where he pointed and spotted a boggin standing in the open as if waiting. Not that smart, then.

  There were more beside him, standing casually as if for a surprise party. She scanned for others, looking up and down as well as around, but there were only a handful, under fifty, not the hordes the drushka had described. Of course, the drushkan fighters had killed more than a few. Maybe this was all that was left.

  As the paladins drew closer, the boggins formed ranks. Carmichael lifted a hand and dropped it, signaling the charge.

  *

  Liam tried not to laugh when Cordelia howled and darted for the pack of boggins. Most of the squad streaked forward with her, shrieking like the unquiet dead.

  She leapt without a seeming thought for her safety, but her armor kept her upright, though with the odd wobble that made Liam’s heart jump. He hung back and watched as her powered swings split boggins down the middle in a spray of blood and viscera. She sheared through weapons and limbs and lopped off heads as if mowing grain.

  In seconds, her shoulders sagged as if the urge to fight went out of her. As Liam skewered a boggin, he understood. There was no challenge here, no bite. There weren’t enough boggins to test the leathers, let alone those wearing powered armor. He’d expected scores of them, but it seemed only these few had survived. He wondered if the drushka would even thank them for this.

  A few of the boggins had climbed high, and the armors leapt after them. Liam followed and shoved a boggin off a higher limb. He leaned over and watched it fall, arms and legs flailing. He scanned the branches below for Shiv, wondering if she was staying away from the fighting. Nettle fought alongside a group of leathers, and Liam thought to make his way there, maybe find Shiv nearby.

  Something heavy dropped onto his shoulders. He lurched forward, his stabilizers whining, feet sliding. The faraway water loomed, but there were so many branches in the way. Would his armor save him if he hit every one on the way down?

  Long claws grated on his helmet. He dropped into a crouch and reached back. His head wrenched backward, threatening to send him over. He stood and tottered in a circle, flailing, reaching, and wondering if he could swing at it without clanging himself in the head.

  The crack of a gunshot echoed above the sounds of combat. Everyone, human and boggin, turned toward the noise. The weight fell from Liam’s shoulders, and he nearly followed it, but Cordelia grabbed his arm.

  “Thanks.” He clutched her shoulder and tried to smile through the panic still gripping his chest.

  “Wasn’t me.” She nodded into the resuming battle.

  His mother put her sidearm away as he looked. She hated wasting bullets, and she’d spent one on him. “Mom.”

  She turned away, and the fight was over soon after, everyone looking for a new target and not finding one. Liam’s mother marched toward him, her face grim. She’d saved him. She loved him. She couldn’t say it, but it had to be true.

  When she stalked toward him, he raised his visor and whispered, “Mom—”

  “Follow me.”

  When they were away from the others, she turned, her own visor up. “Why the fuck did you let your guard down?”

  “I wasn’t—”

  “You endangered your whole squad by letting a boggin get that close to
you. Do you think trained soldiers grow on trees?”

  He blinked. Trained soldiers?

  “I can’t lose a single blasted one of you!”

  “One of me?”

  She slapped him hard, sending him reeling for the second time that day. Ache vibrated through his skull from her armored swing. She had to have pulled it, could have broken his jaw. Her face was blotchy and crazed, and if she hadn’t been wearing her armor, he bet he would have seen her chest working like a bellows.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” she said. “If you can’t do the job right, you shouldn’t have come. I thought Ross could mind you, but no one can.”

  “It’s not my fault that—”

  She hit him again, and all he could think was that a normal person would be crying, but when had either of them been normal?

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She lifted her hand again, but Cordelia barked, “That’s enough, Captain.”

  Liam looked over his mother’s shoulder to see Cordelia standing a few feet away, hand not on her sidearm but close.

  His mother turned slowly. “What did you say to me, Ross?”

  Cordelia’s shoulders squared as if this was one fight she could get behind. “Respectfully, Captain, you should take a walk.”

  They stared each other down, and Liam got the impression they’d forgotten he was there. That was fine. He wanted to be forgotten. When he began to wonder if he should walk away, his mother marched back to the squads.

  Liam let out a breath. “My hero.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m always good for a punch.” But he couldn’t contain a warble in his voice.

  She clapped him on the shoulder, and the motion combined with the shock was enough to make him sit. “I’m fine.”

  She knelt beside him. “You’re not.”

  “Just leave it.”

  “I can listen.”

  He shook his head.

  “Look, Liam, um, lots of people like you.”

  He laughed, knew it was bitter, and hoped it had enough enthusiasm to put her off. “Just fuck off, please?” He said it with a smile, one she returned, but hers had a pitying tinge.

  “I’ll be right there if you need me.”

  She moved off, and he watched her go, all confidence, something he’d always admired, something he tried to copy when he could.