“You aren’t that much older than me.”
“Zayden, with the way you behave, I’m not even sure Leshaun is as old as you.” He snorted, shaking his head.
“Take that back! I’m a male in my prime! I could have any female out there if I wanted any of them.” Zayden tossed the broom to the side.
Luykas shrugged. “If they could get over that they’re with a grouch, maybe. I don’t exactly see any females trying to crawl on your lap. They like Rain’s more and he’s not even interested in them.”
“Says the man who has the only female who talks to him running in the other direction.” Zayden smirked. “At least I’ve been married and had a kid.”
He growled. That wasn’t the retort he was expecting. For that, he made his suggestion an order. “Go help with the damned horses.”
“Before I leave, do you know what Alchan’s punishment for Rain will be?” Zayden picked his broom back up and put it away in a small closet.
“No. He hasn’t shared that with me. Maybe since Rain’s staying here, that’s punishment enough. Patrols under Senri.”
“Senri is too easy on him. Won’t be good enough for Alchan. Well, I just have to hope Alchan has a shred of mercy.”
Luykas wasn’t worried. He knew Zayden would be, and he knew Matesh was as well, but he trusted his brother to have an appropriate punishment for the first-time offender. Rain wasn’t a troublemaker, not like Bryn or Mat could be.
“Put it out of your mind. It’ll be okay.” Luykas waved Zayden to follow him. “I’ll help with the horses too.” The bond was still scratching him, but the soothing tea had him in a good place to deal with seeing the other males fawn all over Mave. He wasn’t sure why that had started bothering him. It was probably because they got all the attention he wanted. He’d never wanted a female to look his way, not like he wanted her. It wasn’t sexual. He just wanted her acknowledgement.
“You know, I haven’t felt this good about going on a mission in a long time. I’m tired, bruised from the road, and worried about things, but we’re about to bring some good shit back to the village and kick some Elvasi ass where it hurts.” Zayden walked out onto the front platform.
“You agree with it?” Luykas hadn’t known that.
“Who doesn’t? We’re mercenaries. Stealing, killing, and having professional grudges is what we do.” Zayden jumped off without him, just falling off the platform and spreading his wings to catch the air.
35
Mave
“We’re moving out!” Alchan called loudly, sitting on his massive gelding.
Mave swung herself up on her new blue roan mare. It was a big horse, bigger than the ones she had seen in the Empire. She had learned it was a specific type of horse the Company bred just for their use. They looked for size, stamina, and strength. They weren’t the fastest horses, but they could run all day and carry a heavy load.
Like the Andinna. Bigger than the other races, with wings included, they needed bigger horses.
“What do you think of her?” Matesh asked her, pulling his bay gelding alongside her mare.
“She’s gorgeous,” Mave answered softly, reaching to rub the mare’s neck. “Let’s go.” She gently tapped her heels to the side of the mare, who jumped into action. She held on tightly, swallowing her discomfort. She had to ride for the mission. She could ride a stolen cart on the way back, but she had to ride the mare there.
It was scarier than the mission. A few hours a day of training while they were on the road had helped her get all the basics down, but this was just her and the mare now. There was no other option for her if it didn’t work.
She followed the Company out, in the middle of the pack. In front of her, Luykas and Alchan were leading with Kian, Nevyn, and Varon right behind them. Bryn and Zayden were behind her. Bryn, who had barely left her side since the stables, was so close behind her that his horse was getting hit by her mare’s tail. The gelding nickered, annoyed.
“Good luck!” Rainev called. “Bring glory back to the Company!”
At that, the Company roared, lifting fists. She joined in, feeling the adrenaline of going off on a mission. It was a heady feeling. She felt indestructible as they rode out, the cheers and watchful eyes of the free Andinna on them.
“Does it always feel this way?” she asked Mat, wondering if this was normal. She didn’t expect fanfare as they rode out.
“Yeah, they’re always like that. It’s an honor to be a warrior of the Andinna. We’re a mercenary company, sure. We get our paychecks and we cause trouble, but most of what we do is to help them. We bring back money and supplies so no other Andinna need to leave the mountains and risk capture.”
“Are all the free Andinna in these mountains?” She looked back to see that many of the young Andinna had followed them as they left, still hooting and cheering them on. It felt like they were riding off to war.
“No. There’s a small mountain range in northern Olost where a small portion of our population ended up. They protect those mountains fiercely. We don’t have a lot of trouble happen in that area, so they don’t need us looking out for them. Not as much, anyway.” Matesh chuckled. “You get used to it. You’re a mercenary now, and this is just how we treat our warriors.”
“But we aren’t heroes,” she reminded him, smiling.
“No, we’re not heroes. We do what we can when we can, but we’re not out sowing rebellion or anything.” He nodded slowly, agreeing with her.
She could see it and she disagreed. Weren’t heroes. They kept telling her that, and sometimes, their actions proved otherwise. They were mercenaries who helped the free Andinna how they could, but they weren’t heroes. She was beginning to believe they were wrong. They didn’t try to be heroes, but here was the Company, out to get supplies to keep their people fed - and in the process, get revenge on the Elvasi for coming after them. They were going out to hit the Empire in a way that hurt, to show that coming after Mave was coming after all of them.
She didn’t say anything more to Mat. She had a feeling they were more heroic than they wanted to admit, but she wasn’t going to burst their bubble.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice Kian slow and fall in next to her, on the opposite side of Mat. “So, now that I know the whole story, I think we should talk.”
She sighed. “How much did Alchan and Luykas tell you?”
“Everything they know. We don’t keep secrets in the Ivory Shadows. I was curious, too.” Kian watched her with interest as they rode through the thick woods of the mountains.
“Well, if you know everything, I’m not sure what there is to talk about.” She wasn’t sure how to feel about Kian’s curiosity, so she’d been avoiding it since the day before. This wasn’t the first time he’d tried to talk to her, and each time, she found something to do. Now they were riding and she had nowhere to run, no excuse to get out of it.
“He’s trying to get a feel for you. Stop avoiding him or he’ll get continuously worse,” Mat said, cutting in before Kian could continue to speak. She wanted to snap at her male for opening his mouth. He’d teased about how she ran from Kian, but not Senri or her other husbands.
“That,” the older male said, nodding to her bodanra. “Just wanted to get to know the newest Company member. We have to work together, ya know.”
“It’s hard for me to open up to people,” she said, starting it off. “I spent over nine hundred years with males who would rather kill me than talk to me, so it’s been an adjustment to work with a group of males. I’ve never had much time with other females, so I’m at a complete loss there. I can butcher Andena fairly well, but I’m still trying to catch up. I can’t fly. I know who I am and what role I played at the end of the War, so I’m not completely ignorant.” She rambled it all off, hoping she got most of his questions answered before he could even ask them.
“You don’t like me!” he accused, beginning to laugh. Suddenly, she wasn’t looking at the older male with a family to protect an
d fight for. She was looking at a boy, complaining to a friend. “Nevyn, she doesn’t like me!”
“She doesn’t like anyone except Matesh and Rain,” Nevyn called back. She couldn’t see his face, but she heard the teasing note in his words. “Get over it.”
“I had fun in Namur with you and Varon,” she pointed out. She didn’t dislike any of them. It wasn’t like that. “I’m just not used to people trying to know me. It’s been strange to deal with.”
“What did you do with them in Namur?” he asked, his eyes lightened with curiosity again. She pulled her mare away from his, riding closer to Mat, who needed to pull away himself so their wings weren’t hitting each other.
“We took her to the fighting ring,” Nevyn answered before she could. “Did I forget to tell you that?”
“Oh, that’s right. That’s where you all pissed off some Elvasi and exposed Mave’s identity to them.” Kian’s booming laugh rolled over them again. “Skies, there’s always trouble with you all. You know, I worked with Nevyn and Varon with your mother. She used to get into trouble like this too. We would all hear your father complaining about how she went out and got into a fight and brought home trouble.”
She considered him. “Tell me more.” It wasn’t a request. Many Andinna only spoke of her parents with the utmost respect, even though her father had lost them the War. Kian sounded like he saw them differently.
“Well, your mother’s warriors…We were very good at what we did. Very good, but we were rowdier than most of the other warriors. When the army fell, and Anden with it, those of us left immediately joined up with Alchan and Luykas because we still needed the action.” Kian shook his head. “Not the point. Your mother. Nevyn, what’s a good story about her? I have a few ideas.”
Now she was engrossed in every word that came out of his mouth. So many of the males in the Company had known her family. At her current count, Luykas, Alchan, Varon, Nevyn, and now Kian had known her parents personally. Matesh, Leshaun, and Zayden had stories of them from afar, how they inspired the Andinna to keep fighting, were great military commanders, but nothing personal. Rainev and Bryn knew nothing about them.
So she had found someone else who could tell her more.
“Tell her about the time her mother got everyone drunk and the impromptu mission we went on.” Nevyn was chuckling. “That’s a good one.”
So he did. Kian launched into the story, and she couldn’t stop from laughing at the idea of some female leading a band of bumbling, drunk warriors into an Elvasi scouting camp they knew about. How they flipped the Elvasi out of their beds and wrecked the camp. They didn’t even kill anyone. They just had a bit of fun and chased the scouts back out of the mountain.
“Why didn’t you take them all out?” she asked when he was done.
“Ah, well, your parents were of the mind that we shouldn’t slaughter people. We’re warriors, aye, but many were just soldiers who wanted to go home. We never were the best of friends with the Elvasi, but the War came out of nowhere. In the beginning, we tried a lot of ways to show we didn’t want it. That was one of them. We let a lot of people go home.” Kian shrugged. “I didn’t initially agree, but I saw the point. Mercy is sometimes harder than anything, and they didn’t want us living up to the vicious reputation the Elvasi were trying to spread.”
“Oh.” She nodded, seeing the point. She was a vicious fighter, and mercy in her world would have gotten her killed. If she had the choice, would she be capable of showing a bit of kindness to a future opponent? Would she be able to do the unexpected and free an enemy soldier to go home? She put the thought aside to ask him for more. “Do you remember anything else?”
“Have I found a way to make the newest member of the Company my friend?” he asked back, grinning. “Senri would kill me if I made the newest female of our band dislike me. She’s trained me better than that.”
She couldn’t resist smiling. Senri must want to kill this male on a regular basis. “I think you might have.”
“Good! Maybe I’ll tell you about an old mission I went on with this group. It was in-”
“We don’t talk about that mission, Kian!” Alchan roared from the front.
Kian went back to laughing hysterically and launched into another fun tale of her mother.
When the Company bedded down for their first night on the road, Mave curled into Matesh, but couldn’t sleep. This was her first real mission with them. She was nervous and knew sleep wasn’t going to take her any time soon.
With that on her mind, she left her bedroll and walked away from the Company’s campsite. She could stretch and exercise her wings. She had stayed in the habit while on the road, but it had been a couple of days. She didn’t want to fall out of it. She could be in the air by the end of winter if she continued to work for it.
She stretched them with extensions on her own, then flapped them twice until a hand landed on one.
“Go to sleep,” Bryn told her, walking around her. “Ya need to rest while we’re on the road.”
“I’ll be fine,” she replied. They had been on the road for what seemed like ages now. “I want to exercise. It might help.”
“Mave-”
“Bryn, don’t order me around.” She raised an eyebrow. “I’m not hurting anyone.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Stubborn female.”
“Know-it-all male,” she retorted. He was turning into Matesh. She could see it. He really wanted her to listen to him. “Why are you awake?”
“I’m first watch, like always.” He shrugged, sitting down on a nearby tree stump. “I don’t sleep easy. Ya know that by now.”
“I do.” She watched him, continuing her exercises. She wasn’t going to stop because he was acting male. “I understand.”
“Oh, I know ya do,” he muttered, looking away.
She frowned. They had been growing closer, so what was this? She liked her daily time with Bryn when they worked on her wings. She enjoyed talking to him, listening to his stories. She enjoyed just being near the quiet, leaner male. It helped he was easy on the eyes in ways she never expected.
But now he seemed put out by her or something she couldn’t see.
“Have you been drowning?” she asked softly. Over two weeks ago, she’d described her memories and the pain they brought in a way only they would know and understand. Drowning.
“A little, aye,” he answered. “The more we talk about yer pain, the more they remind me of mine.”
“And Rain’s,” she added, nodding. “Every time I think of what they did to him…” She had never felt so much rage as she had that day. Now, she could remember old pain with it. Old memories, ones she worked very hard to bury. While they were moving around, it was easier. She knew one day they would all come back and attempt to ruin her. She just needed to keep fighting it. “Talk to me?”
“I was raped by my owner. Ya know that,” Bryn said suddenly. “I killed him for it, but that didn’t mean it all stopped. I was smaller than the other males in the buildin’, so I was constantly protectin’ myself. I never got a private space. I got used to it. I never slept in a room where I couldn’t escape. I would get cornered too often, so I had to change.” Bryn shook his head. “Now, I barely sleep.”
She wasn’t sure what to say except her own story. “I would find places only I could get into, where only one or two Andinna would fit if they found me. I liked the tight spaces more since I had the advantage. I feel more comfortable sleeping in a small room.”
“We all find our own ways to survive,” he said quietly. His eyes searched her face now, looking for some solidarity.
“We do,” she agreed. “It’s easier with others, though. I’ve learned that.” Finally.
“Isn’t it? I learned that too. Varon and Nevyn taught me.”
“Rain and Mat, but you know that.” She fiddled with her hands now. There in the dark, they were standing so close now.
“And each other, I think?” Bryn’s words sounded strangely hopeful. “We’r
e friends. Ya’ve got me and I’ve got ya.” He emphasized friends.
“Of course.” She looked up to him, taking in the details of his face in the red light of the moon. “You haven’t gone far in the last couple of days. You’ve been right beside me, really.” It was the truth. He had barely left her side.
Not that it’s a problem…I hope he doesn’t think it’s a problem.
“I don’t like how they tried to take ya,” he whispered, leaning down, making their eyes level. “As we get closer to this, I find myself worryin’ they might actually succeed.”
I’ll be fine. That’s what she wanted to say, but instead she found herself drifting a little closer to him and his full lips. A strong hand took her waist, and she was certain they were going to kiss. Her mind was warring with this idea that she already had Matesh and did she want to handle a second male? Did Bryn want her, or something more?
Then he was gone, his hand off her. “I need to get to work,” he said softly. He walked into the dark, out of her line of sight.
She didn’t know what else to do except lay back down next to Matesh in camp. Her mind stayed on Bryn the entire time, even as she laid her head on the big chest of her lover.
I like him.
The thought was quick and fleeting. It took her a moment to realize she had even thought it.
I want him.
That thought was more natural. She wanted Bryn with her. She wanted him with her and Mat. She wanted the long, deep conversations, the knowledge, and yes, the lean form she found attractive on no one else.
She still felt all the normal things for Mat, curled up next to him, engulfed by his spicy scent. She still felt the deep well of emotion when she saw his eyes. The heat between them. It was all there. She couldn’t imagine a life without Matesh in it anymore. She needed him to be her rock as she stumbled through her new freedom.
The Mercenary's Bounty Page 34