“You’re thinking too hard,” she said shortly.
“You’re all soft at heart, admit it!” He laughed.
“I’ll admit you’re an ass, how about that?” she said, unable to keep her cheeks from going hot.
“Don’t be like that. It’s a good thing, Airi. You’re a good person.”
“Good people get shit on. You know that,” she said bitterly.
“And yet you did it all the same. I’m proud of my little thief.”
“I’m not your anything. Now go away!”
“All right. Let’s get this journey started.”
With that they mounted their horses and rode out of the village, heading for the river.
“We have to figure out how far she went.”
“She followed the river until she encountered a road. That should help.”
“A road?” he asked.
“Yes. She encountered the man with the broken wheel on a road.”
“That’s right! So we just ride until we meet with a road.”
“There may be more than one,” she retorted.
“More than one with a village close by? Remember she took the wheel to a nearby village.”
“True. If the village is still there. This story is centuries old.”
“Corm was still there,” Maxum pointed out.
“True again. I guess we’ll see.”
“We have to judge how far it would take a young girl to walk in a day and a half. If the story is accurate, that’s how long it was before she hit that road.”
“Just how much treasure is there going to be in this temple?” Kilon asked gruffly.
Maxum was silent for a beat. “I am thinking none but what we’re looking for. But don’t worry. The treasure will come later.”
“It better. I’m not in this just so you can make off with the goods.”
“You don’t have to worry. I’ve never let you down before, have I?”
“No, just nearly gotten us killed a few times,” Doisy chirruped.
“That’s the price you pay,” Kyno said in his low, gruff voice. “Gotta pay to get the goods.”
Airi felt anxiety twisting in her stomach. What would these guys say or do when they realized there was no treasure to be had? It made her wonder why Maxum was traveling with them in the first place. Did he even need them any longer? Why hadn’t he gone his own way? The next stages of this journey would be best done alone, wouldn’t they? He was searching for a specific piece of straw in a pile of straw. It would take a miracle for him to find either weapon.
But she held her tongue. The men seemed to know what they had let themselves in for by following Maxum on his wild schemes and so far it had paid out for them. Who was she to argue with his apparent success?
Maybe Maxum just needed them so he wouldn’t be alone. He was a leader, and a leader needed followers to be complete, didn’t they? So for now she would be a follower. She would see where the journey took them.
They traveled down along the river at a steady pace, looking ahead for any signs of a road. It was a long shot that they would ever come across the right road and there was no telling how accurate the song had been.
Sunset approached and they made camp, Maxum going off into the woods as he always did, Airi’s eyes on him the entire time.
“Don’t do it.”
She looked at Doisy. “Do what?”
“Don’t follow him. It’s been tried. I tried. I followed him through the woods once and lost sight of him for a few moments and then he was gone, as if the ground had swallowed him whole. Besides, if he caught you at it there’d be the eight hells on your back.”
“I’m not afraid of him.”
“You should be. I know I am. You haven’t seen it yet…the way he fights. It’s like he becomes this madman. As if a demon has possessed him. He would have fought that dragon…and he would have won. I believe that with all of my soul.”
Airi looked back to the trees where he had disappeared. “I’d like to try following him all the same. I’m a thief. I know how to move quietly and without detection. He wouldn’t even know I was there.”
Doisy shrugged carelessly. “It’s your life. Do with it what you will. But I say you’re better off not knowing.”
She would be better off if the man would simply open up a little and tell her what it was he did every night.
“Hello, what’s this?” Kilon said suddenly, getting to his feet in a slow, crouching way, drawing his crossbow off his back. Airi looked in the direction Kilon was looking in and saw a magnificent white stag, its rack speaking of its great age and strength. It was standing at the edge of the clearing they had chosen for their campsite and was watching them without fear. It had probably never seen people before and didn’t realize it should be afraid. Very afraid.
Kilon drew his sights on the stag and Airi screamed out, “No! Ha! Run!” She crossed into Kilon’s sights, blocking his shot recklessly. The stag started and then leapt away in bounding leaps that crashed through the underbrush.
Kilon roared with fury and pointed the crossbow directly at her chest. “What’d you do that for, you stupid little twat!”
“There’s no need to kill it! Do you have any idea how rare those are?”
“I don’t give a fuck! That was our dinner!”
“We don’t need an entire stag for dinner. It would be a waste of meat because we’d have to leave behind what we don’t eat.”
“Why the fuck should I care about that? We eat or we starve…I don’t care if it’s the last stag in the world! We hunt it and we eat it. That’s the natural order of things. Now we’ll go hungry tonight because of you!”
“We won’t starve. We have plenty of supplies. And you can just as easily go hunt rabbits and other small animals just like you’ve done every other night we’ve been out here,” she snapped at him. “It’s done and I’m glad it’s done. So stop aiming that thing at me or you’ll find yourself with a dagger in your balls.”
“I have half a mind to pull this trigger. Then that’ll be done and I’ll be glad it’s done. You’ve been nothing but trouble since you came here. I’ve had just about more than I can take. You’re a problem. A problem that needs fixing. And I say I fix you right now!”
“Kilon, knock it off,” Doisy ground out. “Put the bow down. If you so much as scratch her, you’ll have to answer to Maxum for it.”
“I ain’t scared of Maxum. What’ll he do to me? Fight me? I can take him any day of the week.”
Doisy barked out a laugh. “No, you couldn’t. If you think otherwise you’re a bigger fool than I took you for. Drop the bow and go hunt something else for dinner.”
Kilon growled, but he dropped the bow. Airi didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until it left her in a gush of relief. She was no fool. She knew Kilon could have easily have pulled that trigger and thought nothing of it. She was less than nothing to him and he could not care less if she lived or died. Apparently he preferred her dead. She was really going to have to be careful around him. As it was it had been reckless of her to step in the way of his shot. She had no idea what had come over her. Kilon was right to a point. They were hungry and the stag was meat. It was the natural order of things that he be hunted. It was a matter of survival at times.
But they could survive without killing the magnificent beast and she wasn’t regretting what she had done. The idea of someone like Kilon ending its life was just too bitter to swallow.
As she had predicted, Kilon was able to kill a few pheasants for their dinner and she prepared them in silence. She had been cooking out in the open for quite some time and had learned how to make halfway decent meals over a campfire. The birds were big so it took some time before they were done. Once food was on his plate Doisy began to chat with everyone, trying to break the hard tension that had fallen over the group.
Dru and Kyno engaged him, but Kilon was his usual surly self and Airi didn’t feel much like chatting. Doisy tried to find out more things ab
out her, but she avoided his queries, not wanting to share any part of herself in front of a man who’d rather she were dead.
“I’m glad you did it,” Kyno said under his breath some time into their meal. He had come to sit closer to her. His remark took her by surprise.
“Did what?”
“Stopped him from killing the stag. It was beautiful.”
Airi gaped at him. Then she smiled. The big lumbering orc was a softy at heart. She hadn’t gotten to know him very well and this was a surprising insight into him.
“I’m glad too,” she said. “Although I’ve definitely given Kilon more reason to hate me.”
“Did he need a reason?” Kyno asked grimly. “But don’t you worry. I won’t let him touch you, my lady.”
Again he surprised her. She hadn’t realized Kyno was such a gentleman. Or perhaps he was just being that way with her. It made her feel special and definitely warmed her heart to him. Damn it. Despite her efforts to remain unattached to these men, they were starting to get under her skin. Doisy with his irreverent ways, Dru with his shy ones…and now Kyno whose heart appeared to be as big as the rest of him.
And then there was Maxum…
She shook her head and decided it was best not to delve into that hornet’s nest of emotion. Never had anyone frustrated and annoyed her as much as he did…and yet there was something so compelling about him…
“Where are you from, Kyno? The orclands?”
“On the border. That’s how my mum…well, she didn’t much like the way I came about. But she loved me in the end. I’m doing this for her, so she can live the way she deserves to live. It’s a hard life on the border of the orclands. So I moved her to a big city and I send her gold to keep her fed and content.”
“It sounds to me like you’re a good son.”
He shrugged one large shoulder. “My mum never asked for me, did nothing to deserve me other than to be too pretty and catch an orclord’s eye. She said when he took her against her will he took a little part of her with him…and when I was born it filled the hole that was left. So I loves her back best way I know how.”
“And is there any special woman in your life, Kyno? Other than your mum, I mean,” she said with a wink. He chuckled. It was a deep, rumbly sound and she liked it very much.
“No. Not as yet. I figure I’ll meet someone someday. Maybe if I goes to the orclands there be a nice big orc girl waiting for me. But I’m a halfbreed so…” He shrugged. He didn’t have to say anything else. The orcs were snobs in a way. Oh, it was fine for the men to get children on the women of the other races like Kyno’s father had, but when it came to marrying their daughters only purebreeds would do.
“What about a girl from the other races?”
“Don’t you think they’re too small?” He frowned as he thought on it. “I might break one.”
“Don’t you…I mean…surely you’ve…I saw you in the inn. You were…indulging in women.”
“I likes to touch and play with them in public like, but no, I don’t touch in private.”
He couldn’t mean…was Kyno still a virgin then? No, surely not. There had to have been someone. There were orc girls or even giantesses who roamed the world. He had to have met up with one.
“Kyno…have you ever…been with a woman?”
The giant man flushed. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and dipped his head in embarrassment. “Don’t tell the others,” he said.
“Oh, I won’t. Your secret is very safe with me,” she reassured him quickly. She put her arms around him, only reaching halfway around his back, and gave him the best hug she could manage.
“Thank you, my lady.”
“And what’s with the ‘my lady’?” she said teasingly. “I’m hardly anyone’s idea of a lady.”
“You’re mine,” he said with finality. “Best lady I knows.”
“Only lady you know,” she said laughingly.
“I know some others. But not many.” He paused a beat. “If you wasn’t so small…” He trailed off meaningfully.
This time it was her turn to blush.
“Besides…Maxum wants you.”
She frowned. “Well, Maxum isn’t going to get what he wants.”
“Maybe,” he said, giving her a knowing wink. It was the first time she realized how long his lashes were. And that he had very pretty blue eyes. No orc purebreed would have blue eyes. Theirs were either red or black.
They chatted like that until well after juquil’s hour. Maxum returned in silence and sat down on his bedroll which she had assiduously located across the way from her once again, the fire in between them. The amusement in his eyes told him the stubbornness of the act was not lost upon him. Still, she knew that if he put his mind to it one little campfire wouldn’t stand in his way.
Airi was tired, so she went to bed shortly after, snuggling down under her blanket against the chill night. It wasn’t lost on her that another warm body would have been a nice thing to have right then.
But it wasn’t worth the trouble.
It was mid afternoon of the next day when they finally came to a road. A stone bridge crossed the river and a dirt road crossed their paths. Airi and Maxum exchanged a look. Now all they had to see was if there was a village within walking distance.
“Over the bridge or the other way?” she asked him.
He thought about it a moment. “We’ll try over the bridge first. If we don’t come to it in an hour we’ll double back.”
She figured it was as sound a plan as any. They were on horseback. A girl pushing a broken wheel couldn’t have gotten all that far all that fast.
After an hour and a half of riding, they realized they had gone the wrong way and doubled back.
The village, when they came to it, was no longer a village. It was an abandoned collection of run-down and rotted cottages. There was an old smithy in the center of the town and Maxum’s eyes lit with hope.
“This is it!” he said triumphantly.
“This may be it,” she corrected him. “There could just as easily be a village with a smith down a road in the other direction.”
“This is it. I can feel it,” he said stubbornly.
She didn’t argue with him further. She was feeling the sense of excitement as well. Could they really be close to finding the temple? Somehow she knew it would not be so easy.
“Do we camp here?” she asked.
“No. We can go a little farther,” he said, clearly wanting to push on.
“Do we follow the road or the river?”
“The river. The story said she bathed. That means she was near water.”
“All right then, the river it is.” She kneed Hero’s sides and trotted off back down the road they had come on. When she reached the bridge she turned to Maxum. “Which side?”
“The same side I’m thinking.”
There was a lot of ifs and maybes to be had all around, but she was game for the experience, wherever it might lead them. They went on until just before sunset when, as usual, they stopped to make camp so Maxum could do his disappearance.
After they had built their fire and cooked their dinner, the group sat in silence for the most part. That was why they heard the twigs snapping as someone made their way to them through the trees. Kilon leapt up and pulled his crossbow first thing. Airi was on her feet a half second later holding out a placating hand to a man not prone to being placated.
“Let’s see who it is first before you start shooting,” she said to him through tight teeth.
They knew it wasn’t Maxum—it was too early yet. There was always the possibility he had come back early, but since he never had before there was little doubt that these were strangers approaching.
A young woman came out of the trees and into the clearing where they’d made their fire. She saw Kilon’s aggressive stance and immediately backpedaled toward the woods.
“Wait!” Airi cried out. “We won’t hurt you.”
“Won’t we?” Kilon growled.
“We won’t,” Airi said harshly.
“I-I-I saw the fire. I-I-I thought you might…h-have some food.”
“No. Now get lost, kid.”
“Of course we do,” Airi said, ignoring Kilon. The girl was obviously hungry enough to do the same. She stepped forward.
“I don’t eat much,” she insisted. “I smelled food and I thought…maybe…” She trailed off and shrugged.
“Sure. Come closer to the fire. You look cold.”
“Trusting bitch,” Kilon muttered under his breath.
“Ignore him. That’s what I do.”
“O-okay,” she said, sounding very unsure. But Airi’s bravery and the girl’s empty belly compelled her to believe her, it seemed.
“What’s your name?”
“Sarda.”
“Here, Sarda,” Airi said, handing her the leg and thigh of the rabbit Kilon had hunted earlier. The girl fell on it like a ravening wolf, stuffing as much of it into her mouth as she could get in one bite, as though she were afraid Airi would snatch it back away from her.
“There’s plenty. Take your time,” Airi assured her, handing a plate of wild potatoes to the girl. The girl popped a whole one in her mouth and said something through a garbling mouthful that sounded like “thank you.” The girl’s eyes rolled back in her head with pleasure every time she took a bite.
“That’s Maxum’s dinner you’re feeding her,” Kilon said. “He’s not going to take kindly to an empty belly.”
“There’s plenty here for everyone,” Airi said, nibbling on a potato herself so the girl didn’t feel like she was eating alone.
Sarda swallowed. “You don’t know how much this means to me,” she said before taking another bite.
“I think I have an idea. There’ve been days I’ve gone hungry. Once I didn’t eat for a whole week.”
“It’s been three days for me.”
“Where’s your coin? Where’re your people? You may be eating now but you’ll be starving again tomorrow,” Kilon barked. “Best to get it over with.”
“Get it over with?” she echoed.
“The business of starving to death,” he said before he kicked back and relaxed against the tree he’d laid his bedroll near. Airi wished there was a nice gnarled root right underneath it when he slept tonight.
Bound in Darkness Page 16