The Mercenary's Bounty

by Kristen Banet

  For the rest of the day, there was joking and laughing about what they would all do on their return. She gave Mat a look. They had plans, but not ones they vocalized for the group. Some of it was out in the open, but it was the Bryn situation they hadn’t let anyone know about.

  “We’re going to see our new place and sleep in real beds tonight,” Mat answered when Kian pulled closer to them. Kian, who spent the entire trip teasing about wanting to have sex but not being able to, didn’t this time.

  “Ah, yeah. A new home for a family. A good thing to see.” He had a soft smile on his face. “I’m really happy for you, Matesh.” Before Mat could pull away, the older male reached out and grabbed the back of his head. They headbutted just hard enough that she wondered if one of them was dizzy. They were both fine, though, smiling at each other. The older male turned on her in his saddle. “And you. I’m glad to have you with us, Mave. I hope you and I get to know each other better over the winter. Senri’s not here, but she would want me to tell you both that if you need anything to help set up your household, you are more than welcome to ask us. We will do everything we can to make sure you’re in a nice place with all the little things handled.”

  “Well, Leshaun has probably been working on it while we’ve been gone.” Mat rubbed the back of his neck. “Mave, is there anything you want? We can make a list, and if it’s not handled, we can do it in the next few days.”

  “No, I think I’ll be fine.” Really, she didn’t believe yet that she had this new home. She had a room in the pits with a bathing pool in what amounted to a closet. It didn’t have a fireplace, and she was never truly dry due to the dampness of her old hell.

  Dry, warm, comfortable. Those were the only things she could possibly want and she was certain that her expectations for those were lower than others.

  “Are you sure?” he pressed, leaning. He took on that caring tone she knew well, making sure this wasn’t a problem.

  “I’ve never had a real home,” she reminded him, reaching out to pat his thigh. “How do I know what I want?”

  He looked taken aback, then sadly nodded without saying anything. There wasn’t much of a response he could have given her, really.

  Kian watched her oddly. “I hope your new home is everything you never dreamed of,” he said, pulling his horse beside hers instead of Mat’s.

  “There’s no need for all of that,” she replied with a huff. “Just don’t know what to expect. I’ve only even seen the inside of Alchan’s and I have a feeling he does nothing normally.”

  “He keeps his a little barren, that’s certain.” Kian tapped his chin. “Rugs are important. Cold stone floors in the winter aren’t pleasant. The main bedroom should be mostly covered, but that’s not up to you; it’s the responsibility of Mat and whoever else you want in your family.”

  She knew the importance of the bed thing, so kept her comments to herself.

  He continued without missing a beat. “We use a lot of low sitting furniture, things that won’t get in the way with our wings and tails. That will all be there for you. Since you can’t fly yet, they probably put you in a ground-level house, something like Alchan’s, with a staircase. It’s not going to be on the ground, but close to it. Actually, it would be a good bit of training as you start learning to get in the air. A short hop, really.”

  “I have to wait a few weeks, but I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Don’t let Kian go into dad-mode. If you think Zayden is bad…Well, Zayden is bad, but Kian is over-caring to younger Andinna. It’s because his family doesn’t have children,” Mat whispered loudly on her other side. Kian tried to reach over her and whack him. She grabbed the hand before it messed her up on her horse. “I’m just messing with you!” Mat laughed, pulling away and out of reach.

  “How are they made?” she asked, turning the conversation away from that. “How does someone dig out and carve the stone?”

  “Well, in Anden, we didn’t have to make nearly as many. We often expanded and refurbished the older ones with every passing generation. Here in Olost? We traded for digging tools. We had some dwarves help us. The homes were all very small at the time, but there are some dwarf communities in the mountains and we still work with them, bartering to expand.”

  “Yeah, but how do we make them on our own? We didn’t always have dwarves, right?”

  Kian frowned, thoughtful. “Anyone want to help me with this? I’ve never really…”

  It was Alchan who spoke up. “Some Andinna become miners and builders, which means about the same thing in our society. To do one is to do the other. It’s a well-paying job as well. Many find themselves needed members of their communities. A builder will begin digging out the door size, once a front platform is made. Once they made enough of a dent, they normally hire strong, single, and unemployed males to help with the grunt work. It can take three months to get into a mountain deep enough to have the first main room, the community room in our homes. Humans and Elvasi call them sitting rooms or parlors. After that, they make sure they aren’t going to run into other homes and begin building out the bedrooms and storage rooms or whatever else the family needs. There’s a lot of numbers and math involved in that. It’s slow, back-breaking work, but there aren’t enough caves to live in, and none of us like the idea of living on the dirt like the other races. Fireplaces are especially tricky, but the builders came up with some special tools for those to make sure smoke left the home out the side of the mountain. You can look for the smokestacks in the winter, coming out.” He never looked at them as he spoke, just rattling it off like it was a lesson from his childhood.

  “Remember the summer we spent working on our own place?” Luykas asked, chuckling.

  “Yes…General Lorren and our grandmother said we could have one if we were the grunt work. It would teach us to respect the physical laborers, like we didn’t already.” Their king snorted, shaking his head. “I miss that home, though. We were the only members of the royal family allowed to live outside the palace.”

  “We were.” Luykas sighed wistfully.

  “Your grandmother?” She didn’t like prying about their family, but she remembered hearing something, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on what. Something about their grandmother.

  “The queen at the time.” Mat was the one who answered.

  “Oh.” That had been it. They had a general and a queen telling them what to do with their summer, to make their own home. “How old were you both?”

  “Three hundred?” Luykas sounded like he didn’t really remember.

  “Two hundred. We were starting to get into trouble with the rest of the family. We’d both been cooped up for a century. We left the capital completely by four hundred.” Alchan sounded like he was reliving it, a strange smile on his face. “Better times.”

  “Much better times,” Luykas agreed.

  The conversation dropped as nostalgia took over the older members of the Company. She was silent as the males all began laughing and telling stories about their first places, how it felt good to get away from family for the first time and all the things they did. Many stayed in large ground-level buildings for young males unless they were going home with a female for a night or joined a mayara. Alchan and Luykas having their own home was actually a privilege many of them never had. They both knew it too, quick to remind everyone that it was only because they had gotten in just a little too much trouble with the family and were too dominant for the other males.

  She could see that, honestly. She couldn’t see them living comfortably around other males too long, having to share space like that. She knew in the village, they both kept private homes.

  It was reaching late afternoon when they finally saw a familiar face. There was a patrol on the road in the distance, standing between them and the village. Andinna were talking, some sitting on logs and laughing.

  But one stood out to her.

  “RAIN!” she cried out, pushing her mare forward. She was happy not to be on the car
t that day.

  The deep blue of those wings was unmistakable. He turned and grinned as she raced towards him, others calling for her to slow down.

  She yanked the reins, pulling her mare to a hard stop right before she made it to the patrol. She jumped off, and by the time her feet were on the ground, he was right beside her.

  They met in a hug fiercer than any she could remember. She held him tight.

  “It’s good to see you, illo amyr.”

  “And you, illi bodyr,” she replied, holding him still, refusing to let go. “I’ve been missing you.”

  “And I you,” he said, pulling back to see her better. “Is everyone okay?”

  “Better than okay,” she promised, looking back down the road to the Company. “We’re bringing home a lot.”

  “And the other part of the mission?”

  “The hit is dead. Along with a sorcerer he had in his employment.”

  “Shit.” Rain huffed. He turned back to the others, waving them on. “One of you go home and tell the village the Company is back. Tell Senri I’ll be with them as an escort.”

  “Sure.” One of the Andinna jumped up and flew fast. Another glared at Rain.

  “Oh, the Company is back so the raki is too good for us.”

  Mave snarled. “He’s mine and you’ll watch your tongue.”

  Rain grabbed her, shaking his head. “Leave it, amyr. There’s been no trouble. Senri put me in charge of this unit, over their ranking male. They have some right to be annoyed. As of this moment, you have control of your males again, Lenyc. My apologies for Senri’s decision.”

  “Sure,” the acidic male growled. The rest of the patrol just watched the interaction.

  “I’ve missed a lot,” she mumbled, grabbing her horse to move to the side of the road. “We’ll wait here. Your father is driving one of the carts. I was the only one seriously injured, but I’m feeling fine now. Ready to put my feet up, though.”

  “I bet. The Company has been moving a lot recently.” Rain chuckled. “Yeah, let’s wait here for them.”

  She threw an arm over his shoulder, happy to have him next to her again.

  They waited together as she caught him up on the entire mission. It didn’t take very long. She didn’t tell him about Bryn yet. She didn’t want to hope for anything, not yet. He’d kissed her; she’d liked it. She wanted another.

  He wasn’t easy like Mat was, though. She and Mat just fell into it all together. Bryn was something new. She had to ask him, where she never had to ask Mat. She was pretty sure Matesh was in her mayara long before she even knew it.

  When the Company got to them, she jumped on her horse while he greeted everyone else.

  “Father,” he said softly, hugging his bodra tightly. Zayden visibly relaxed, holding his son to him like it was the first and last time he would ever be able to.

  “I missed you, boy,” Zayden mumbled, running his hand through Rain’s black hair, ruffling it at the end.

  “I missed you too,” Rain said. “I’ll sit with you.”

  “Thank you.”

  Together, those two rode into the village. Mave took in the sight of the homes of the cliff again, smiling. This time, she didn’t feel nervous about coming to the village. She knew that if she needed anyone or anything, she could ask the Company. She didn’t need to make friends with the free Andinna. She had her community, and they had her.

  There were already tons of villagers waiting on their arrival, cheering as the Company rode in. This time, she felt like she earned the fanfare. Jesvena spoke with Alchan first as Luykas told the Company to fall out. Free Andinna took their horses and the carts. Luykas had to repeat to the Company to fall out.

  It was time for them to hand it all off. They were done.

  “Don’t worry. It’s all going to be put away into community storage, and we get first choice for any of the fine stuff,” Mat told her as they started walking away from the crowd. He looked up and away from her, his face lighting up. “Uncle!”

  “Come here, my boy,” Leshaun called back. The old male was using his cane, but looking much healthier since the last time she had seen him, which felt like ages ago. “And you, my girl.” He added the next words kindly, waving her to join as well as his nephew hugged him. She was slower, but also wrapped her arms around him when Mat was out of the way. She hadn’t realized how grateful she was to see him until they hugged. “I’m glad to see my family back. I finished furnishing your home just a few days ago. Here’s the key.” He held it out to her. “We don’t normally lock our homes, but I figured you would want the privacy and contacted a dwarf to come over and set it up.”

  “Thank you.” She took the key slowly, hugging the old male again, this time meaning it. He was treating her like family now because she was with Matesh, but even with that reason, she still appreciated it as if it came from the old male’s heart. They were family now.

  “Thank you, uncle.” Mat dipped his head respectfully.

  “It was an honor to do it for you both and whoever comes next.” Leshaun said, smiling. “You’re on the end, a bit away from the main bustle of the village. They gave me three choices and I thought that one would suit you most, Maevana.”

  “Thank you for being so thoughtful.” She didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t want to give him a hard time over her full name now. In that moment, it sounded like he meant it respectfully, as a sign of change. Mave the gladiator had no homes, but Maevana, the free Andinna, did.

  “I’ll leave you both to it. Mat, you should know the place. On the east end, bottom home with nothing above it.” With that, Leshaun patted their shoulders and went to greet the others.

  Mave was nervous now and what Mat said next didn’t help.

  “If you want to do this, inviting him now would be best. You could put it off, but it might make him feel like his attentions didn’t pay off.” Mat ran a hand over her lower back. “I’ll wait here. No worries.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, looking up into those emerald eyes. “I’ve never…had people, not one like you, much less two. Are you okay with this, though?”

  “I’m sure. Mave, I promised you…everything an Andinna gets from freedom, and this is part of it. This is our world. Go. If you want him, go and get him. I’ll be right here. Tell me what he answers with. He says no and you still want him, I’ll go get him for you. Promise.” He pushed her away gently now. “I love you, Maevana Lorren, and this is the best way I’ll ever have to prove it, by accepting who you want in our family and making it their family too.”

  She caught her breath. Those were words she had never thought to hear in her long life. She wasn’t sure how to respond and something must have given her away. He leaned down to kiss her slowly.

  “Mat-” She was so lost for a second. He loved her. And she knew she felt the same, but the words didn’t come. Never had she wanted to say them, and now they seemed lost to her.

  “You don’t need to say anything. I know I’m in this for the long haul. Go talk to your rogue.”

  She went, looking back at him one more time. As she left, other Andinna crowded him, talking about things.

  Finally, she looked for her target.

  Bryn was sitting on the front of a cart still, laughing with Nevyn and Leshaun. Oh, she had to do this in front of her other lover’s uncle, who just gave her a home. Who had put his time and care into it.

  And she was going to invite another male into it without ever enjoying it with just Matesh.

  Bryn caught her walking up, ignoring the conversation as she grew closer. She knew she was nervous by the way her palms were sweating. She would rather face legions of Elvasi. She would rather be back in the pits with her steel as her only companion. She would rather be anywhere else. This felt vulnerable.

  “What do you need?” Bryn asked when she stopped in front of him.

  “I was hoping…” She took a deep breath. Why couldn’t she find any of her normal courage? If he said no, he said no. She was used t
o rejection. She had been rejected for a thousand years.

  She didn’t want to be rejected anymore.

  “Mave?” Nevyn turned on her now and Leshaun raised an eyebrow. Varon slid closer to the group.

  “Brynec, Mat and I were hoping you would come over tonight and uh…stay with us?” The words flew out of her mouth. She realized she didn’t even know his last name, but she could learn. She just knew she was praying he would say yes. She also realized the invitation wasn’t to her home. That was the polite public thing to say. No, everyone around her knew it was an invite to her bed.

  Oh shit. What have I done?

  “And where is your home?” he asked, smiling as his face turned pink. She quickly answered, with Leshaun stepping in to help her explain since she had never seen it. She just kept talking. She was about to head there with Mat, and he didn’t need to rush or anything. He was free to say no. He reached out and touched her hand, stopping it from shaking. “I’ll bring something for dinner.”

  “Thank you.” She hadn’t even considered food.

  “We’ll talk when I get there?” He seemed so hopeful and nervous now as well.

  “We will.” She smiled now, her fears fading. He was coming to her. Everyone else was silent, letting the exchange happen.

  She felt like running away. Instead, she turned slowly, keeping her composure and walked away like a normal individual would. When she had enough distance, she heard Nevyn scream out in excitement for Bryn, ribbing him, saying he knew it was bound to happen. Other voices joined the mix, congratulating him. She had a feeling that it wasn’t settled yet, though. She still needed to have that talk with him. This was just step one of the evening.

  She met with Mat again, updating him on what just happened.

  “Oh, I could see,” her lover said, laughing as they began to walk to their new home. “He’ll come and it’ll work out. If we need to take things slow, we will. This is however you want this to happen, Mave. This could be temporary - you two might decide it won’t work. This isn’t signing up for forever, just a commitment to try to be together in a family, together as lovers.”