Kilon’s eyes went large with greed when he saw the bags of gold they had acquired, but that was only until he saw the cuff and realized what it could do. When he did, there was going to be trouble. She just knew it. To Dru’s and Doisy’s credit, they said nothing about it.
“Come on, we have to figure out where Maxum went and stop him before he goes to the citadel,” Airi said.
“He left via the west gate so I imagine he’ll come in the same way. He said he’d stop by here first. We could just wait—”
“We’ve just stolen half the city’s treasury,” Airi snapped, irritable because of her weariness. “Do you really want to wait where everyone knows we were staying?”
“Listen you, you watch your mouth when you’re talking to me or I’ll—”
“Enough!” she shouted into his face even though she was shorter than he was by half a head or more. “This is no time for your petty threats! We are in danger. Maxum is in danger! Let’s get out of this godsforsaken city before all the hells catch up with us!”
Kilon’s jaw worked a minute, as if he were gearing up to lambaste her. In the end all he did was hiss, “Your time is coming, little girl. You mark my words. He’ll get tired of you one day—one day soon—and then you’ll be getting what you deserve from yours truly.”
He grabbed up his saddlebags and left her presence.
Gods help her the day that man lost all restraint and came after her. She wasn’t fool enough not to know how dangerous he was.
Just as they stepped outside of the inn a loud horn and bells began to ring out over the city. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was the city alarm.
Airi dug the cuff out of her bag and said, “We better hurry before they close the city gates!”
She closed her eyes a moment and focused. When she opened them the city was once more frozen. She took Doisy’s and Dru’s hands in hers and nodded to Dru to touch Kilon.
When Kilon realized what was happening and how and why, his dark eyes narrowed on her and the cuff but he remained surprisingly silent. Airi knew full well he would be asking for his share of the fortune and he would exact a high price in exchange for his share of the cuff.
Together, linked, they made their way to the west gate. As they stepped through the gate they realized that Airi’s ability to freeze was more a matter of them moving faster than everyone else. At least this time it seemed to be. It seemed to take less effort for them to move at a hastened pace than it did to lock everyone in place. So she concentrated on doing just that and they headed off the road to a place where they could keep an eye on the gate yet remain hidden from view. If Maxum entered via this gate, they would be able to see him.
Juquil’s hour came and went, the city and Airi’s group now moving at normal speed. The gates to the city had been shut and locked and the guards at all the gates had been running around madly for the better part of a few hours. The city was clearly on guard and she imagined they were searching high and low for Airi and their group.
So much for them not caring what happened to their master. Or maybe it was because they had robbed the city vault. Whatever the reason, they had to keep an eye out for Maxum.
When he showed up on the road leading to the gate, Airi sighed in relief. She ran out of their hiding place and up to his horse. She had taken the time to change out of her women’s finery, and was back in her light, serviceable clothing with only a cloak to keep her warm. Maxum saw her coming and reined in. He flung himself from the horse’s back and Airi threw herself into his arms the minute they were on equal footing.
“What did you do?” he demanded of her.
“I had no choice! All it took was one small mistake and…here!”
She held the cuff out to him and he took it in stunned fingers. “You got it?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“Airi, that was damned stupid of you!” he roared in her face.
She smiled in reply. “Yeah. I know. But there’s no sense fighting about it now. It’s done and done for the best.”
Maxum was surprised. He would have expected her to get her back up and fight to defend her actions, but instead she simply admitted he was right and went to move on. The fact that she didn’t act defensively threw him and diffused his anger tremendously.
How could he be angry with her? She’d gotten the cuff.
She’d gotten the cuff.
Even though he knew she didn’t want him to fight Sabo, she had gotten it for him anyway. She was fighting for him when she could have fought against him. She could have sabotaged him at any point just to get her way and keep him with her. And yet…
Maxum threw his arms around Airi, scooped her up off the ground and spun about with her in his arms. He kissed her soundly, taking her breath away so that she came up for air with a gasp. She laughed at his joy and shared in it with him, even though her heart was breaking into millions of frightened pieces. She had made this possible. She had made it possible for him to do the thing that would destroy everything they had.
“Come on,” he said against her cheek, “let’s put distance between us and the city. There is another city about two days’ ride to the east. We’ll go there and find the temple of Meru.”
Two nights. That meant all she had of him was two nights and both of those nights would be spent camping in the cold and snow. She wanted her last night with him to be more memorable than that. So she turned his face toward hers, met his eyes and said, “You will give me my night first.”
Maxum brushed at the strand of hair that had escaped her mussed coiffure, pushing it back behind her small pointed ear.
“Yes, love,” he said softly, tenderly, “you will have your night.”
The words calmed the fire of fear inside her a great deal. She had resigned herself to his doing what he was going to do, now all she could do was support him and be with him until the bitter end. And he might not realize it, but she had every intention of watching this battle as it unfolded. She would make a special request of Meru and she believed Meru would grant it to her. She didn’t know why she believed that, but she did. She had to. The alternative was to wait in obscurity, never knowing what had become of him.
Now that they were clear on that, they separated after one quick kiss and mounted their horses. They began to ride for the city of Badu, leaving the open road and traveling through the woods in case search parties from Gorgun came down the roads.
They didn’t make camp until sunset the next day. They were all tired, but grateful they had escaped the city unscathed. Once Maxum had left the group to deal with his curse, Kilon said, “I want my share of that cuff.”
“You’ll get your share in gold, just as always,” Doisy said.
“There’s not enough gold in those sacks to even come close to what the power of that cuff can do!” Kilon said. “With that cuff we can walk into any bank, any vault, any city at any time! I want my share of that cuff and I’m going to have it.”
“You’ll take gold for it or you’ll get nothing, because you’re not touching that cuff. It belongs to Maxum,” Airi said coldly.
“It belongs to all of us. That’s the rules of the group,” Kilon spat. “He’s already got that talisman and that ring. Don’t think I don’t know there’s something special about them. I may not know what it is, but I’m not stupid. A man doesn’t risk his life against a ten-headed hydra for a simple gold ring unless it does something.”
“You got your share of compensation for those items. You got that crown you wanted so badly,” Doisy said.
“What’s a crown? It’s just gold and gems. I thought it was special somehow, to be guarded by that creature. But it doesn’t do a damn thing worth having it for. But that cuff…that’s worth having.”
“Put it out of your mind, Kilon,” Airi said hotly. “You’ll get that cuff over my cold corpse and then Maxum’s as well.”
“I’ve been wanting the first for a long while now,” he hissed in her face. “I’m itching to put an arrow r
ight through your pretty green eye, bitch, and don’t think I’m afraid to do it. I’ll get that cuff if it’s the last thing I do. Now, you can hunt your own fucking supper. I’m not feeding you anymore. I’d rather like to watch you starve.”
“You’d do that? Make yourself go hungry just to spite me?”
“In a heartbeat,” he sneered. “And I ain’t going hungry. I’m hunting my own and cooking my own. I’ll even feed the men besides. But you…not a single morsel.”
Kilon then hoisted his crossbow and walked out into the dark woods.
True to his word he hunted for himself, cooked for himself, and even offered to feed the others, but both Dru and Doisy declined and Airi felt her heart swell at the show of loyalty and solidarity. Still she felt guilty that they should suffer even in the slightest and tried to get them to take Kilon’s offered food, but they refused.
Airi had hunted her own food before, but never in the dark. So she sat near the fire on her and Maxum’s bedrolls and waited for juquil’s hour. She knew she was not safe without Maxum around to keep Kilon in check. Something needed to be done about him, and it needed to be done tonight.
Doisy and Dru waited up with her, the message clear. None of them trusted Kilon enough to sleep with him there any longer. It had been a long time coming, but it had finally reached a tipping point between Kilon and the group.
Kilon waited as well, whittling at an arrow he was making and whistling as if he hadn’t a care in the world. When there was the snap of a twig in the woods and Maxum suddenly appeared…
Everything happened so fast. Kilon lifted his crossbow and fired. The bolt hit Airi just inches away from her heart, imbedding itself into her shoulder. Kilon was on his feet in a flash, reloading and coming to stand over Airi, the crossbow aimed directly at her heart.
“Give me the cuff or she’s dead,” he said to Maxum. “I know I can’t hurt you because of that talisman, but I can hurt her. And don’t think of using the cuff. I can fire a lot faster than you can figure out how to use that thing.”
Maxum wanted to hurry to Airi’s side, but he was frozen in place because of the threat to her life. He hadn’t learned how the cuff worked. He had intended to practice with it that night. Now he regretted not doing so earlier.
“Quickly! Give it to me! My finger’s twitching!” Kilon hissed.
Maxum reached for the cuff on his biceps.
“No don’t!” Airi cried. She was clutching the bloody shaft sticking out of her shoulder.
“Shut up, cunt, or I’ll kill you anyway!”
The words infuriated Maxum. Right then he knew that giving up the cuff would not save Airi’s life. Nor any of them. Kilon had murder in his eyes and he wouldn’t be happy until someone or all of them were dead. Maxum could not be harmed, but Doisy…Dru…Airi…
Using all his mental will, he tried to freeze the tableau before him the way Airi had said she had done it.
To his shock and relief it worked. Everyone froze in place, their movements slowed to an infinitesimal rate of speed. He didn’t waste any time launching across the fire and tackling Kilon.
The moment he did, time returned to normal and Kilon’s crossbow shot wildly. But Maxum ripped the weapon out of his hands and then used it to clock him upside the head. Then, once he started, he couldn’t seem to stop. The strength given to him via the ring made it short work to beat Kilon to death with his own crossbow. The minute he was satisfied the man was dead, Maxum hurried over to Airi, gathering her up into his arms, his eyes imploring Doisy.
Doisy, who had been frozen in shock, suddenly came to life and hurried to Airi’s side.
“I can’t heal her until the arrow’s out.”
Maxum grabbed the arrow at the point where it had entered her body. “This is going to hurt,” he warned her grimly.
“It already does!” she gasped.
Then, without another thought, he snapped the fletching off the tail of the arrow and with a hard shove pushed the arrow the remainder of the way through her shoulder. Airi screamed out into the cold, dark night, her body convulsing in his arms with the agonizing pain. Blood came gushing out of the wound and Doisy’s hands immediately pressed against the rent in her flesh. Airi was cursing up a storm, her feet kicking out blindly.
“I’m going to fucking kill that bastard!” she screeched.
“He’s already dead, love. I’m so sorry,” he said, kissing her on her damp forehead. “I should have gotten rid of him ages ago. I just thought we would need him to get the cuff.”
“I know. It’s all right,” she said through teeth gritted against the pain of Doisy’s fingers pressing into her flesh.
“It’s not all right! Look at how close he came to your heart!”
“He missed on purpose. He would have had no leverage if I’d been dead.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” he asked tightly.
“A little,” she said with a wan laugh. The pain was beginning to subside as Doisy’s healing magic did its job. Soon the bleeding stopped and then, after about a half an hour, her flesh knitted together, leaving nothing but an ugly bruise and an angry looking scar behind. Doisy sat back with an exhausted sigh. Airi’s blood was all over his hands, they were both a mess, but she was healed.
“That’s all I can do for now. After I get some sleep I can finish the rest of the way. I’m just so tired…”
“It’s all right,” Airi said to him reaching out and grasping his hand. “I’m fine. Go to sleep.”
Doisy nodded and stood up and he made his way to the edge of their campsite and used snow to wash his hands. He then fell into his bedroll and lay back with an exhausted sigh. He was asleep within minutes.
Maxum took care of Airi. He cleaned her up, got her a fresh shirt from her belongings, and gently helped her out of the corset. Kilon had planned his attack on her carefully. He had known the corset would have potentially deflected any arrow he shot at her, so he had chosen the place where she was most vulnerable. Thinking of it made Maxum’s hands tighten on her. She seemed to know what he was thinking because she reached to squeeze his hand and said, “It’s over now.”
He nodded and dressed her, using Doisy’s trick to wash away the blood left on her body. Dru remained politely turned away as he did this, but when he had her dressed and had carried her to her bedroll, Maxum addressed the other man.
“Watch her while I clean up the campsite,” he said.
Dru nodded and they watched him haul Kilon’s body up off the ground. He carried it into the dark woods and, when he returned empty-handed, he set Kilon’s horse free with a smack on its rump.
Then Maxum settled down beside Airi, gathering her up close to his body, and giving her as much warmth as he could.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her ear.
“Do not feel guilty,” she told him. “You thought we needed him. You didn’t know it would come to this.”
“I did know. The way he treated you…a man with no respect for someone can easily discard that someone from their lives without a second thought. I should have seen this coming, but I was so focused on what I wanted…so let me feel guilty, as I should.”
“It will serve no good purpose if you do. You have other things you need to focus on. In two days’ time you will be facing the god of pain and suffering in a deadly battle. All of your focus must be on that if you intend to win. Practice using the cuff. That is what is most important. I will not have you unprepared.”
Maxum shook his head and held her tighter. “Not tonight.”
“Yes, tonight. Because tomorrow night will be ours and I will not have your focus split. You will make love to me with no distractions. For those hours I will be your only focus. Then, when you leave me, you can put me aside in your mind and focus on the battle to come.”
“Put you aside?” He laughed a hollow sounding laugh. “I do not see how that is possible. In so short a time, in such an absolute way, you have become part of my mind…and my heart and my soul.
I fear there is no separating you out any longer.”
Airi’s throat went tight and her heart soared to hear those words. It meant everything to her that she meant so much to him. It made facing the future somehow easier.
“Well then, hold me closer. Draw on the strength I can give you. Use the love you feel for me as your ultimate weapon in your fight against Sabo. Because he will not have that advantage. When he fights you, he will not have the knowledge that he is loved beyond all reason by someone. That will make all the difference.”
Maxum hoped it was true and, hearing her speak of her love for him made him feel it was true. He felt the strength of it in every fiber of his being.
“Now,” she said with soft encouragement, “practice using the cuff.”
He nodded his head and did so.
Airi had waited for him with anxiety crawling through her stomach and tension knotting up her shoulders. They had made it to the city unscathed and, as far as they knew, unhunted. After a trip to the bank they had found out which was the very best inn in the city and gone to stay there. Airi had carried her bags up to what would be her and Maxum’s room with a heavy heart. She had bathed while she waited, and even primped a little in the looking glass. She had looked down at the filmy nightgown Maxum so loved on her and in a moment of sheer panic thought she should have gone to buy something new…something exciting and fresh…something special for what could be their last night together.
She had started to dress to go out and look for something, knowing there would still be vendors open in a city like this and that she still had some time before Maxum returned, but in the end she decided it didn’t matter what she wore. The night was already tainted. She almost wished she hadn’t asked for it. Almost wished he would go to Meru’s temple and get it over with. The not knowing was killing her. But then in the very next thought she had felt tears threatening because she knew this one night would never be enough.
At juquil’s hour she called the tavern’s servants to her and had them change the bath for one with fresh hot water. He would be there soon and she knew he would be soiled. The lake they had passed on the way into town was frozen over, making it impossible for him to bathe the remnants of his curse away. So she would do it for him.
Bound in Darkness Page 27
