The Mercenary's Bounty

by Kristen Banet

  Luykas hadn’t been expecting to get harassed by Elvasi so quickly after they arrived back in Olost. He’d known it was going to happen eventually, but right before they made it back into the mountains? It was so fast. They had to be getting pushed hard by their backers to find more Andinna and capture them, to capture Mave.

  There’s no other reason. They’ve never been bold enough to put an ambush on the road for us like this. They had to be the reason the trees were down.

  It reminded him of when they once actively tried to free slaves and the Empress would retaliate. It disturbed him on a deep, resounding level that he couldn’t quite voice. Looking across camp at his brother, he knew Alchan felt the same. There was a tenseness to his brother, an anguish that couldn’t be helped. Alchan was looking back on the mission they just did to save Matesh and Rainev, how they took Mave along, and was thinking about all the mistakes they had made.

  And now, brother, we’re going to go pick a fight with them again. We can’t let this go unpunished. They need to know the Ivory Shadows aren’t victims.

  Then there was Mave. Luykas watched her now, seeing her help clean up as some of them ate. She was a solid warrior. She’d jumped into the fight without hesitation, as he and Alchan had expected of her. She hadn’t disobeyed orders or deviated. When they had taken her down, she’d trusted them enough to call for help and have backup.

  Seeing her work out the problem while the males argued? It was something her mother and father used to do. It was why those two had risen through the ranks to the power they had before the War. It wasn’t a particularly difficult solution to come to, but he had wanted her to have the time to come to it on her own. He wanted to see if she had the mind for it.

  “How do you feel about this?” Alchan asked, walking over. Together, they walked away from the Company for a private talk. They weren’t followed. “I’m not liking how fast we were attacked. I don’t like how big that bounty is.”

  “I was thinking the exact same thing.”

  “Freeing her changed everything, didn’t it?” Alchan sighed. “You know I don’t think this is her fault, right?”

  “I do. You think it’s mine.” Luykas crossed his arms, waiting for his brother to confirm his suspicion. “Since I was the one who said we should free her in exchange for the human and Elvasi’s help.” He hadn’t thought about those two in a long time, since they left the Empire that night. He knew they were both probably dead, and that was probably also a little of his fault.

  “Just a little. Too late now, and we can’t go back in time.” Alchan eyed the Company as they loaded everything up. “She’s a good addition, though. She probably saved Leshaun’s life tonight, getting to him when she did. She, Zayden, and Rain are the reasons that old male is alive.”

  “I agree.”

  “Here I am, giving her some credit, and you aren’t jumping for joy.” His brother snorted. “She’s not…so bad, I guess.”

  “What do you want me to say?” Luykas threw his arms up. “We both already knew she was a skilled warrior. We both already knew she would follow our orders if it came to it. She didn’t ask for any of this either, Alchan.” Luykas conceded one thing, though. “You’re right about Nevyn. He should have kept her identity more secret in Namur. They shouldn’t have bragged about it. He might not have taken her out fighting either. He gets rowdy in the fighting rings and with only Varon keeping him and Mave under control, something was bound to come of it.”

  “I’m glad you don’t think I was out of line there.” Alchan whistled. “Matesh, Brynec, come here.”

  “Well, all right then,” Luykas mumbled, shaking his head. “You need to do this right now?”

  “Yes. You really think I should put it off?”

  “No, but…” Luykas groaned, turning away to not look at the two males about to have their asses handed to them. Those two knew better than to pick a fight with Alchan, their damned King, like that. Luykas wasn’t in the mood to deal with it yet, but that didn’t change the facts. “Let’s get this done.”

  He didn’t call Rain over. He must want to take that to Zayden for a discussion.

  “You can soften it,” Alchan told him. “But only a little.”

  Luykas snorted. He didn’t really want to soften it, which was the problem. He normally played the good guy for the Company when Alchan needed to rail on them for something. Right now, he was feeling Alchan was going to go too soft on them, tired from the night. Luykas had an idea. Turning back around, he saw the two males in question were now closer; they came to a stop at attention in front of them.

  “You two know what you did wrong?” he asked softly.

  “Yes sir,” they answered in unison.

  “Good,” Alchan growled. “When we settle in the village for winter, you’ll be putting in three days a week on patrols each until the spring festival. Don’t bitch about it or I’ll make it the next three winters.”

  “Four days,” Luykas cut in. It was only proper. They argued with a commanding officer, and that was ignoring who Alchan was, not taking into consideration they had argued, then fought, with their King.

  “Three,” Alchan repeated. “Three, because I don’t want their female coming after me for not having any males.”

  “I’m not-” Bryn tried to back-talk and Luykas reached out, smacking his gut before he could finish.

  “Now isn’t the time,” Luykas growled out. “You acted like she was your female, and now you’re going to live with the consequences. But if you want four patrols a week, I’ll make it happen behind Alchan’s back.”

  “Yes sir,” Bryn muttered, looking down.

  “Get out of here, both of you,” Alchan ordered. Once their warriors were gone, his brother turned on him. “I said you could soften the punishment, not make it worse. What was that, Luykas?”

  “Sometimes, the Company needs to see you as the good guy,” Luykas whispered back, knowing only Varon would hear him. He knew his brother wanted an explanation, and Luykas knew what he had done. It was a solid plan, in his mind. “Because you can’t be the bad guy all the time, not in your position, especially not as we draw closer to the mountains. The other Andinna can’t see you as a dictator who judges harshly and needs an Elvasi mutt to pull you back from hurting your people.”

  Alchan nodded slowly. “I see your reasoning. I don’t like it, but I see it.” Alchan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m glad she’s still got a bite to her now that she knows.”

  “You said you were worried and I thought you didn’t need to be.” Luykas was sure not to add the classic ‘I told you so’ line, but it was there between his words.

  “I hate it, but yeah. I can’t trust you males to know when to fight against me. Look at today. Bryn and Mat knew we would have worked something out, but they picked a fight with me anyway.”

  “You were pretty upset.” He wasn’t going to let his brother live down his part in that.

  “It was a gut reaction. I wasn’t going to make a decision right at that moment.” His brother shoved his hands into his pockets. “But having a dominant female around, one who isn’t afraid to snap and snarl and be my equal, or close to it? It might make the other females and Andinna more comfortable with my position. I don’t want her to change.”

  “You’ve been thinking a lot about this.” Luykas was impressed.

  “I bitch and complain a lot, but that doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. I just like to vocalize my dislike for…everything.” Alchan smirked. “Think they’re ready to move out?”

  With that, the conversation dropped. Luykas was still feeling impressed with Alchan as they got the Company moving. He was giving himself a balance. Luykas had no aspirations that his brother and Mave would ever get along, not really, but it was a start. Alchan wanted her to frustrate him, and Luykas had a sneaking suspicion Mave was never going to give a damn about the title Alchan carried around. She looked at him like being King made him the dirt under her boot, really.

  “Has everyo
ne eaten?” Luykas asked loudly. He saw Mave scarfing down several bites, her mouth stuffed. He didn’t say anything, knowing she would never eat in front of them again if he did, but she still ate like a starving child. It was cute, in his opinion. He hated it, because of where it came from, but it was cute.

  She waved a hand and dumped the rest of her bowl. There was very little left in it. He nodded to Alchan the moment she did that. A signal it was time.

  “Move out!” Alchan roared. “Let’s get on the road! I want us at the village as fast as possible!”

  “The bodies?” Mave asked, seeming curious but not challenging. “Do we just leave them near the road?”

  Alchan nodded. “That’s exactly what we do. A very clear message to anyone else who wants to cause us trouble.”

  “Okay.” Luykas wanted to laugh as the female shrugged. He watched her go back to Bryn on the cart, jumping up and taking her seat gingerly.

  Something about her seemed a little different. Something seemed more confident, more secure. A little more like her parents, who were always so confident and secure in their decisions and how they walked through the world. He had seen her fear when the net was on her, but it was long gone now. Now there was a resolve in her eyes he’d seen when they were trying to escape.

  Then there was Bryn next to her, which made him want to laugh. The male looked like he was doomed, trying to shrink and hide from his fate. He subtly shifted closer to her so their knees touched, breaking Mave out of whatever thoughts she had. She pulled her knee away, looking like she thought it was her fault they touched.

  “He’s so into her,” Luykas muttered. Not like he could blame the lean rogue. Mave was something else, a female that demanded the attention of males, even without realizing it. He turned back to the tree and saw Bryn’s dagger still holding the bounty there.

  “Brynec, are you going to get this?” he asked mildly.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “So whoever finds this knows why it happened,” he growled out.

  Luykas couldn’t argue with that. They were going to get the Elvasi back for this. This was crossing an unspoken line they had maintained for a thousand years. No one tested the Company like this. They couldn’t allow it to continue.

  He swung onto his gelding and began the ride to the village with the rest of the Company.

  30

  Mave

  At midday, they were all still feeling the excitement of the night before. Mave listened to the males talk rapidly about their plans. The Elvasi thought they could take Mave back? Every one of them said the same thing. It was never going to happen. They would protect her to the death.

  She couldn’t help but think she truly belonged in those moments. They wanted to keep her, and they were going to fight with her to cripple the Elvasi organization in the area.

  “So why has the Company never attacked this guy before?” she asked Bryn next to her. He refused to leave her side now. She needed to take a piss at one point, and he’d followed her with Mat. It had been the most uncomfortable thing she’d ever been through, at least in her recent freedom.

  “We have.” Bryn shrugged. “We’ve hit him a few times, actually, but different places he owns. He’s easy to steal from. The thing is, hittin’ too hard means the Elvasi hit back harder. Right now, we’re willin’ to take that risk, where we weren’t before. They escalated, so we will.”

  “Oh.” She nodded, absorbing what he said.

  “We aren’t lettin’ ‘em take you back, Mave. Not in our lifetimes.” Bryn elbowed her. “You’re Company and we fight for Company, remember?”

  “I do,” she promised. She still wasn’t used to this idea of comradery. She was getting better with it every day.

  Her mind kept going back to that moment the net hit her. She had been fighting the Elvasi, who were trying to capture or kill her. When their enemies had asked for her, she’d been shocked. When Alchan had denied them, she’d been pleased, glad that her cranky leader was loyal to her. It reinforced that she needed to be loyal to him, even without the added pressure of him being their King.

  But all of that had been shadowed by the fear that took hold of her when the net hit her. The fucking net.

  There were very few times in her life when she had experienced being netted and trapped. The nets used by the Elvasi were designed to get the Andinna tangled and stuck. They were weighted around the edges, making them heavy enough to knock someone down when they were thrown.

  The first time in a net she could remember was when she tried to escape the pits and Elliar. The night she had tried to fly and failed. They had netted her then, and she had known in that moment that she had no hope of ever leaving.

  That one had been the worst. They had beaten her. They had nearly torn off her wings. By the strange mercy of the Empress, she was spared, but it had been thanks to a loophole. She hadn’t gotten off the ground. Her wings had been useless for her, so it wasn’t a problem for her to keep them.

  During the fight, she had been paralyzed for a moment by the fear, the old memories taking her back to that moment. She had screamed for the one male she knew she could trust. Matesh. She had hoped whatever they had was enough for him to risk everything to save her.

  He’d come for her.

  It had been enough for her to start trying to think of ways out.

  Then Bryn had come for her. She looked at him from the corner of her eye. He’d charged up and protected her as well.

  Then the Company had come. Every available male had put their bodies between her and capture. Alchan, of all the damned people, had been the one to pull her back closer to safety when she couldn’t free herself.

  The damned King of their people had protected and fought to keep her. Her, the reason they lost the War. The reason his entire family was dead and he was King and not one of his family. The reason they were all stuck in Olost and not in Anden, their home.

  They had protected her.

  She wasn’t sure she could find the words to express to them what that had meant to her. She had been too shocked by the bounty to think of it afterwards.

  But in the quiet morning the next day? She couldn’t stop thinking about it. Did they know and just didn’t want to say anything? Did they think she didn’t care and had expected it of them? They had saved her from going back to her hell, and her throat closed up every time she thought about it. Even thinking about the prospect of their mission made her realize she was one of them, not some outsider. They were going to get back at these Elvasi for coming after her, a member of the Company.

  It was quiet for the rest of the day, as the trip began to take its daily toll on them. The sun was dying, and the Company was exhausted. Mave knew how to trek on, having been this tired every day she lived in the pits. Was it frustrating? Of course, but she didn’t complain even as others started.

  Later in the day, Leshaun woke up and began bitching about how the cart hadn’t stopped bouncing for hours. It was Rainev who was bold enough to tell him what had happened after he was hurt and while he was in his healing sleep, causing Leshaun to try and get up.

  “They came after her? We’re going to get them for it, right?” he asked, demanding an answer with that old male tone that everyone winced at.

  “You need to heal, bodyra,” Mat replied. “Please lie back down and relax. We’ll explain more when we get to the village.”

  “Yeah, you’ve got it good,” Nevyn said, teasing and annoyed at the same time. “You’re back there all comfortable while we’re the ones who haven’t slept in a day. We haven’t had the chance for the healing sleep yet.”

  Soon, the entire caravan was loud again, like it had been all through the night and most of the day.

  “We’re damned near there. All of you-” Alchan had started up on another evening of telling everyone to shut up when he was cut off.

  “Well, I’ll be damned!” a male voice called out. “The mercenaries are back!”

  “Kian?” Mat sai
d the name like a hushed prayer.

  “Show yourself, you scoundrel!” Luykas called out.

  Mave sat up, even daring to stand up when no one told her to stop. Walking out of the woods around them, ahead of the caravan, was a male Andinna. He wore only a pair of leather breeches and boots. She could see he was a pureblood, with the massive black wings and matching horns, tail, and tatua. He was as broad as Zayden, but nearly as tall as Matesh.

  “That’s Kian?” she asked Bryn, who whooped in excitement. Suddenly, she was flung back into her seat on the cart’s front bench as it began to move again. The entire Company was pushing forward up the dirt road.

  “Aye, that’s Kian,” Bryn finally answered her.

  “Give me a status report! I’ve been sitting on my ass for weeks! We don’t even hear rumors down here in the mountains.” Kian jumped onto a cart and sat next to Nevyn, causing Mave to lose sight of him. “Why do you look like you’re all limping from a fight?”

  “We got Rain and Mat back from the Empire with no casualties other than Mat’s horn,” Nevyn told him loud enough for everyone to hear. “We also picked up a new member of the Company. We were attacked last night. The Elvasi set up an ambush. We’ll explain all of it when we get to the village. It’s a mess, oto ildan.”

  So, he’s a friend of Nevyn, an old friend. If he’s anything like Nevyn, I might get along with him.

  “A new member? Who? And precious, perfect Mat broke a horn? He’s probably still nursing his ego over it, I bet.”

  Mat groaned on his horse.

  She couldn’t see him, which meant he couldn’t see her. She was dying to introduce herself to this new male. It was a strange change from when she was avoiding the Company when she met most of them.