Solace

by Raven Dark

I followed her gaze to the bandage on my arm. The cloth Sinister had wrapped there was now almost completely red.

  It burned as if a hot poker had been stabbed through it. Perhaps the shock of everything that had happened had numbed the pain but now it was catching up with me.

  “Don’t worry about me, woman, I’m fine.” I refused to let her see differently.

  She nodded over at my second in command, chained to a wall in an otherwise empty cell beside the one my men and I were in, kept as far from us as possible.

  “Why did they put Hawk by himself, Master?” Setora asked quietly.

  “I think they’re scared of him.” I snorted with delight. “They want to keep an extra close eye on him, in case he tries to use his ‘Yantu magic’ to get himself out of those chains.”

  Far to my left, I saw Hawk’s lips twitch in a rare look of amusement.

  Setora gave a wistful smile.

  The Yantu did seem to have one foot in the metaphysical world when it came to their beliefs, and Hawk could do things in battle that sometimes seemed barely human. The truth was, sometimes I felt like I didn’t fully understand the limits of Hawk’s warrior abilities. But I did know that he was still bound by the laws of physics. He couldn’t just will himself free, even if a lot of people thought Yantu warriors had those kinds of powers.

  I looked at Setora again. “You shouldn’t be here, sweetheart.”

  Her throat worked hard. Then her chin lifted with determination. “Yes, I should. I should always be where my masters are.”

  Damn it. My fingers twitched with the urge to stroke her hair. Seeing the fear she tried so hard to hide, I wished I could have said something better, something that soothed her.

  “We’ll get out of this, Princess,” Pretty Boy said softly from beside me. “When we do, I’ll clock that Mikel upside that ugly head of his.”

  The guards were laughing and carousing, making enough noise that they wouldn’t have heard him.

  I held in a snort. Pretty Boy had the freedom to make threats like that, freedom a General like me didn’t.

  “Please don’t, Master. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “It’ll be worth it. He deserves worse for shackling you like that,” Pretty Boy hissed, glaring at the shackles on her wrists. “We’re pirates, but you’re not.”

  “Pretty Boy, knock it off,” I ordered. “When we’re out of here, you can do what you want, but for now, pipe the fuck down.”

  Hey, I had to at least appear to keep him in line.

  He sighed but said no more.

  “Sinister.” I looked across the cell to the left wall where the Brothers of Brimstone’s Under-General was cuffed.

  “Yeah, Sheriff.” Sinister’s head was back, his eyes closed. Cuffed beside him, his twin’s eyes fixed on Sinister, then on me, watching our mouths move as we spoke.

  “What the hell are you doing here, anyway, man?”

  “Huh?” Sinister lifted his head, his eyes opening.

  “I mean, why did you come back?”

  Sinister shook his head as if he was shaking a bug out of his shoulder-length curls. “Ash gave the go-ahead. He wanted us to go back to the Grotto with you to talk about merging our clubs. He loved the idea.”

  A warm satisfaction unfurled in my belly, quickly followed by a bite of regret. If we got out of this, I’d make it up to him. To all of them.

  “We would have come back sooner, but we ran into a problem,” Reaper said from Sinister’s other side.

  Picking up on the note of anger there, I leaned over to look at their club’s Captain of the Guard.

  Of the four Brothers of Brimstone, I found Reaper the most curious. That interesting reddish hair of his had mostly fallen out of its leather band, reaching nearly to his waist. The long, hooded robes that draped his frame made him look more like a sorcerer out of an Old World sword-tale than a biker, but he rode a chopper like death, and under all that cloth, he was a canvas of ink I would have killed to have designed.

  “A problem?” I asked. “What kind of problem?”

  “Those bloody Iron Wolves. They hit our clubhouse before we even met with General Ash.”

  Beast bared his teeth, growling low in his throat. Hatred for the Iron Wolves and protectiveness for his Brothers made his eyes look almost frightening in the dimly lit cell.

  “Shit. Did you lose anyone?”

  “Six men,” Sinister muttered, his voice soft with grief. “Good men. Friends.”

  I sighed and let my head fall back against the wall. “Listen, if Ash doesn’t want you guys to join with us after this, I get it. I mean if we…if…”

  I couldn’t make myself finish the words. Not in front of Setora and the other women.

  “Don’t even finish that sentence, Sheriff,” Sinister said. “We will make it out of this. All of us. And as for Ash. On the contrary, he was talking about speeding up the process to get us patched in before we even leave the Grotto, as long as everything checks out.”

  “For real?” Steel rumbled from the opposite side of our cell. “Mergers like this can take weeks of boring talks before anyone changes patches.”

  “I know. But he knows we’re in trouble. We all do. We had forty men before the Wolves took six more of us out. The next attack, we may not get off so easily. We have no women, no major source of revenue, now that the Wolves have taken our mining operation over. Ash said if we don’t merge with another crew now, we’re done, and he’s right.”

  The urge to help them made my fists clench. I hated seeing good MCs die out because of pricks like those Wolves. Besides, while old Ash’s men needed our cash flow to rebuild and our reputation to protect his people, we badly needed a foothold in their territory. A chapter in Devil’s Breath would give us better control over the area and those surrounding it, allowing us to deal with the gangs there in a way our isolation in the Grotto prevented us from doing.

  “He may change his mind when he hears what happened here,” I said finally.

  “Over this little skirmish?” Sinister grinned when I smirked at him. “Not a chance. We won’t let him change his mind, even if he was going to.”

  Pretty Boy gave a satisfied laugh. Reaper nodded in agreement with his superior. Beast grunted his, and Savage nodded as well.

  Little skirmish? Damn, I really liked these guys. They’d fit right in under the Legion’s patch. Suddenly I wanted them wearing my patch with an almost violent determination.

  “Sheriff…all of you…” Sinister met everyone’s eyes. “I’m sorry about Crash. I wish we could’ve gotten to know him.”

  My men and women murmured their agreement and respects along with me. In the women’s cell, Emmy sniffed.

  The group lapsed into silence. We were all exhausted, having been without sleep for well over twenty-four hours. With no windows in the dungeon, I had no idea how much time had passed. After a while, Setora, Diamond and Emmy began whispering among themselves. The three of them looked scared as fuck, though Diamond wore her usual tough look of resolve. She cast reassuring glances at Setora and Emmy now and again, as if to tell them everyone would be all right.

  When this trip had first gone to shit with Saketh’s appearance at Oasis Station, I’d started to wonder if bringing those two…whores…along with us had been a colossal mistake. Especially when Emmy had been kidnapped. Now, I knew it wasn’t. Diamond instilled Setora with a toughness she badly needed out here, while Emmy’s tenderness kept the three of them a cohesive whole.

  Whores—that’s what they were; that was the way I was supposed to think of them. It pissed me off a little that I caught myself wishing I had a better name for them. What the fuck was Setora doing to me?

  More time passed until Doc thumped the wall and yelled at the guards.

  “Are you fellas gonna get to interrogating us before we turn into corpses or what?” Doc shouted from beside Steel.

  “Doc,” I reproached halfheartedly.

  At the end of the hall, a chair scraped across the floor
and footsteps moved toward our cells before Mikel appeared in front of the bars. His sharp eyes flashed with contempt, focusing on Doc. “Are we going to have a problem, pirate?” He fingered the pommel of his sword.

  “How long are you gonna keep us in here?” Steel snapped. “I get any hungrier, and I’ll chew your face off.”

  “As long as it takes,” Mikel snapped. “Animals.”

  My jaw clenched. Maybe I’d let Pretty Boy bust a few heads after all.

  “Well, if you’re going to keep us all locked up in here, let me give him something for the pain.” Doc nodded over to me. “We’ve been in here at least three hours, and he’s been shot.”

  “He’ll live.”

  Not that I needed drugs—I could handle a little pain—but I had a feeling my men wouldn’t have gone without food or drink this long if Captain Braul had been in the dungeon, and he’d have ordered someone to dope me up. Just as well, I didn’t want drugs fucking with my judgment now.

  “Do you have a doctor?” Doc demanded. “Go ask him how long before that wound on Sheriff’s arm gets infected if that dressing isn’t changed.”

  “Doc, knock it off. I don’t need to be doped up like some fucking pussy.”

  “You need something, Sheriff. And that wound has to be redressed.”

  I dropped my head back again, shutting out the throb in my arm. My men were getting restless.

  Mikel took an apple out of the pocket of his trousers, polished it on his tunic, and bit into it. It made a crunching sound that made my stomach rumble.

  “Nice try, Doctor.” He gave the title a mocking sneer. “None of us are getting near you scum, and none of you are getting out of there until Lord Bain arrives and says so.”

  When we said nothing more, he returned to his men.

  Again, time wore on. Eventually, Setora shifted nervously on the wall of her cell.

  “Masters, do you know Lord Falnar’s son? Is he a good man?” She looked at all of us.

  The tremor in her voice nearly undid me. I hated not being able to protect her.

  “I have no idea,” Pretty Boy said. “We’ve never met him. Lord Falnar talked about him. From what he said about him, he’s fair. But he sure is taking his sweet ass time getting here.”

  Privately, I agreed with him.

  “We will get out of here.” I said coolly. “All of us. I promise.”

  No one said anything for a while.

  Then movement out of the corner of my eye made me look over at Pretty Boy. He was twitching his head and wriggling his nose.

  “Pretty Boy, what the hell are you doing?”

  He wrinkled his nose again.

  “Master?” Setora asked.

  “My nose itches. Anyone want to scratch it?”

  A broken sort of laugh shook out of me, the mundane words blowing the tension out of the room with explosive force. Setora gave one of her sweet little giggles.

  “Sure, PB.” Steel rattled his chains with a grin. “We’ll get right on that.”

  Around us, everyone else started laughing, including Pretty Boy.

  Fuck, I’d never felt so connected with everyone in these cells as I did right then.

  Somehow, we would make it out of this. Somehow, we would make it home.

  * * *

  Hours more must have crawled by at a damn snail’s pace before I heard the heavy door near the guards’ alcove creak open. Men’s voices drifted in, one of them Captain Braul’s, the other a voice I didn’t recognize.

  I snapped my head up, my skin tingling with adrenaline.

  “Gentlemen.” A large, wide man, almost as rotund as Lord Falnar had been, with a trimmed beard and thick grey hair came to stand in front of the bars to our cells. Captain Braul stood behind him.

  Everyone in the cells straightened a little and chains rattled.

  “House Falnar offers its apologies.” He nodded to Captain Braul, who took a set of keys off his belt and moved toward the lock on our cell first.

  “What?” My voice croaked. “That’s it? How…”

  Maybe I was becoming paranoid after all that had happened, but it seemed far too easy.

  “I am Lord Bain, true heir to House Falnar. You are free to leave. Guards, unshackle these gentlemen.” He signaled to the guards at the end of the hall. The guards entered our cell and started unlocking our shackles. “Give them back their women. Return their weapons. Give them anything they require. General, you and your men may stay at the castle as long as you need.”

  “Yes sir,” both guards said. As they worked to free us, none of their contempt showed on their faces now that their new lord was there.

  Dickheads.

  “How?” I demanded when Captain Braul crossed the room to free me. “Just like that, it’s… No. Unshackle the women first.”

  Braul raised a brow, apparently surprised at my wanting a slave set free before myself. Respect flashed in his eyes. Good, or I might have smacked him.

  “As you wish, General.” He went to the women’s cell, to Setora, and unlocked her chains while the other three guards freed my men and me. Mikel fired me a look of sheer contempt as he unlocked my chains, but clearly he didn’t dare say anything with Bain and Braul watching.

  “Just like that, it’s over?” Doc asked Lord Bain the same thing I’d meant to point out. “What did you find?”

  Once the women were free, Diamond massaged her back and Emmy shook cobwebs from her hair. Both women hugged Doc, and he kissed each of them on the foreheads as soon as he was close enough to them. Setora joined me in the hall and rubbed her wrists.

  “Come retrieve your weapons, and I’ll explain, gentlemen.” Lord Bain waved for us to follow him.

  I let the other men file out of the cell while I took Setora’s slender wrists and inspected them. Those fucking shackles had left behind bands of purple bruising on her otherwise smooth skin. I kissed the insides of her wrists and rubbed them, warming them with my palms. She gave me a relieved, grateful smile.

  Lord Bain led us all to a small storage room opposite the line of prison cells and held the doors open with his round frame while everyone who’d had their weapons seized went to the shelves and retrieved them. The women waited outside the room. I found Damien’s sword on a shelf and grabbed it for myself as I looked back at Lord Bain.

  “We found the files my father was preparing for you.” Grief darkened Bain’s bright face at the mention of his father. “Files that would have proved who was stealing from you. There was clear evidence that Matais Abernel was responsible.”

  “What evidence?” Pretty Boy’s voice was gruff with anger toward Matais as he strapped his scabbard to his back and sheathed his sword.

  “He had some of your gems in his warehouse in River Capital, a factory he owns not far from here. We questioned the castle guards. One of them confessed that he knew Matais was setting you up for the murder of my father.”

  “None of the guards here seemed like they’d betray us.” Hawk strapped his double scabbard onto his back, took up his twin swords, and sheathed both, one with each hand. “Goes to show you, you never really know anyone.”

  Reaper made a low empathetic sound in his throat while he slipped long, steel arm bands around his forearms, each one sheathed with rows of small, silvery throwing knives. He pulled the long sleeves of his cloak down, hiding the weapons from view. He grabbed his bow and arrows while Sinister wrapped that spiked whip around his waist like a belt.

  “Very true,” Bain rumbled. He stuck out his hand to me and I clasped it firmly.

  “I apologize for the inconvenience detaining you has caused you and your men, General. Sinister, you and yours as well. You all were good friends of my father’s, and that makes you friends of mine.”

  “Thank the Maker,” I heard Setora murmur to Diamond and Emmy. Outside the room, the women hugged, all of them clearly thrilled to be alive. I swore, when we got back to the Grotto, Setora was never setting foot outside of it again.

  Everyone followed Ba
in down the hall toward the door to the dungeon, Steel putting his arms around Setora from behind.

  Lord Bain opened the door and started up the stone steps, waving for us to follow him. I caught up to him.

  “So, I hear you have some trouble with your bikes, General.” Suddenly he sounded more like his father, casual and jovial, and nearly as boisterous. “That Vale and his men apparently left them all in pieces in the garage.”

  I growled in exasperation, walking with him into the main halls of the castle. After everything else, we didn’t need another damned delay.

  From the back of the line, T-Man swore, then muttered something about no one touching his girl. I held in a laugh. Setora snickered.

  “We’ll have them fixed up and get you on the road as soon as possible,” Bain said, clapping me on the back with a respectable strength that matched his father’s.

  “Thanks, but that could take days. We’ll need to find a way to be on the road sooner than that.”

  “I think we have a way we can get you home much faster, my friend. Meanwhile, all of you can get a bath, some rest, and a good meal.”

  I looked back at everyone, waiting for the inevitable response.

  “Food. We’re staying,” Steel grinned, squeezing Setora close.

  I smiled and shook my head. Trust Steel to think with his stomach.

  Everyone else agreed.

  Fine, we were getting cleaned up and stuffing ourselves, but then we were going the hell home before anything else went wrong.

  Chapter 9

  In the Shadow of Grief

  A few hours after we’d been released, everyone had a nice long bath, some of the men napping, before we gathered in the Grand Dining Hall for dinner. Diamond and Emmy had shared the pool with me while Diamond dyed my hair jet black once more. The eye-drops that had turned my eyes black would probably have lasted another few hours, so I wouldn’t be replacing them until we were ready to leave.

  Being in the giant pool in the harem quarters again felt wonderful, but I couldn’t find the same joy in it as I had before, not when I knew we’d been delayed getting home again.