by Cait Ashwood
She grimaced, taking a sip of her tea to cover the action. It was too late; he’d seen it.
He’d never been good at words. He’d never had to deal with the fairer sex when it came to military endeavors. Like it or not, she was needed, and like it or not, he wasn’t. But, once again, she’d changed that, hadn’t she?
A half-smile tugged at his lips. “Look at you, always giving me something to do when I’d otherwise have nothing.”
Her eyes widened and she sputtered into her tea. “That’s…I mean, that wasn’t my intention.”
Hound chuckled, shaking his head and rising to his feet. She rose and stepped closer to him. He checked their surroundings once more and leaned so his mouth was next to her ear, though his gaze was ever outward. “I’ll protect them with my life.”
Her eyes were watery when he withdrew and she pressed her lips into a thin line, nodding fervently. She crossed her arms over her chest and took a few shaky breaths. “Thank you. It means—”
“Hey.” He put his hand on her shoulder. If there was one thing that would send him running to the hills faster than anything else, it was a crying woman. “It’s an honor.” He patted her shoulder awkwardly and lifted his chin at Quad, who made his way back to her side. Hound left her as soon as Quad was close enough, unable to stand being near her much longer.
Women and their feelings. And the worst part? They were in his chest now, too.
16
The sun was barely above the horizon and already sweat beaded on Audrey’s brow. She wiped at it with her sleeve, then fidgeted with the fit of her armor some more. It didn’t quite feel comfortable. Ace insisted a tight fit was necessary, but as far as she was concerned, so was breathing. Might as well be wearing a corset.
The humped mound of the compound was scarcely visible in the weak light, but most eyes were trained on it anyway. Four Chosen stood near the front of the group. Audrey had been told they were all animal seers, and four rats scurried around at their feet. Apparently the tunnels for the explosives had already been dug. The rats would be delivering the payload and getting out of dodge.
The men around her shifted about, silent but edgy. They had a bit of waiting to do yet, and Audrey wasn’t sure they’d survive the incredible tension before the attack. She needed something to do with her hands, but a stray arrow could reveal their position of the compound had scouts on the surface.
“Got the jitters?” The quiet voice next to her startled her and she jumped, hand reaching for the dagger on her waist before realizing it was just Zeche.
Heart racing, she grinned sheepishly. “I guess so.” Her gaze returned to the lump of the compound, her smile fading. “So much rides on this single day…” she trailed off, sighing. It was too early to be feeling this tired. I hope the adrenaline will keep me awake.
“We risk much, that is true. But Lily is safe, and so our future is relatively assured, regardless of the outcome.”
Audrey gave him a sidelong glance. “Your vote of confidence is inspiring. Thanks.”
Movement at the front of the ranks distracted her. The Chosen had stepped forward, flanked by guards. The sun had risen just enough that Audrey was able to make out the four dark shapes that rushed forward, soon visible only as rustling in the grasses. Tops, Blaise, and Ace stood behind them, arms crossed in near-identical poses.
“It’ll be a while, yet.” Zeche didn’t seem concerned, standing easily at her side.
They stood in silence, the sun rising around them the only noticeable change. Eventually, she couldn’t take it any longer. “How do you deal with the pressure?”
“Hmm?” His artisan accent caressed the sound as he turned to face her.
“Those men could live or die by how well I protect them.” Not to mention the whole ‘get out alive’ concept, or ‘save imprisoned women’. Thankfully, Gwyn was taking the latter assignment. Audrey’s job was to guide a group of fighters to the areas of strongest resistance and keep them safe while they fought their way clear. They were to engage the foe long enough to give Gwyn’s team time to extricate the women, and then cover their retreat. Ace, of course, had argued vehemently against Audrey being in the more dangerous position, but the fact remained that Gwyn had spent her entire life with those women. If anyone could convince them to trust the Seekers, it was her.
“Is there a threat to them now?” Zeche seemed lazy, relaxed, nonchalant, but she saw his eyes flick to the Ravens around her. They all wore gray, as did she. They were her personal guard, and while she didn’t know all of them, the color would help her see what was going on around her as the battle waged on.
“Well…no.” She felt her brow wrinkle, unsure of where he was going with the conversation.
“Then there’s no pressure right now.”
She thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. He has a point. A few of her guards were sitting on the ground, playing a game of cards. “Mind if I join you?”
The dealer glanced at the others, shrugging. “I’ll deal you in next hand.”
Audrey glanced up at Zeche in time to see a smile on his face before he headed up towards the front, doubtless to check in on their progress.
Her guards were a unique bunch. Griff didn’t talk much; he was the dealer. Two girls who looked nearly identical spoke mostly only to each other in guarded whispers, though it seemed to be more from shyness than any intent to exclude the others. Audrey wasn’t able to catch their names. Two brothers were the more jubilant in the bunch, making fun of each other and everyone else in equal measures. The girls froze the first time one of the brothers made a crack at Audrey, but she just rolled with it and gave them as good as she got. After that, everyone seemed to relax.
They played through two hands before Zeche came back to them, his relaxed saunter replaced with a more vigorous stride. Heads whipped up and Griff gathered up the cards without anyone saying a word.
“The blasts should be going off momentarily.”
Audrey knew what that meant. Her eyes drifted to the team of waiting Seekers, goggles over their eyes and bandannas over their noses and mouths to protect them from the flying dirt and dust. The explosions would collapse the tunnels, and these men were going to be the first on the scene, trying to find them a way in.
“Audrey!”
She glanced up, surprised to see Ace striding towards her. He’d been running himself ragged the past few days, finishing up all the last-minute preparations. There were dark bags under his eyes, but he was somehow alert and attentive.
“We’re going to be moving in a few minutes.” Ace glanced at her guards, his gaze narrowed and skeptical. Never mind that Zeche had single handedly kept her alive at the Battle of the Institute until backup arrived. Audrey didn’t appreciate his skepticism. He’d been an overprotective mess recently, and she had no idea why.
“We’re ready. Right, team?” Audrey glanced at the people who’d only known her through two rounds of cards, but were nonetheless putting themselves in harm’s way for her.
One of the girls whispered to the other, who nodded curtly. “We’re the A Squad.”
One of the brothers picked up the idea. “And we’re always ready.”
Audrey smiled at their enthusiasm as Zeche sauntered over. “We’ve got her, Seeker. Your own men need you.”
Ace glanced over his shoulder, distracted. When he turned back to her, his gaze was narrowed, his shoulders stiff. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was annoyed with her. He put a hand on her shoulder, stepping in closer.
He keeps doing that. It’s weird. She shifted, slightly uncomfortable, but they were in public. Happy couple persona, and all that.
“You be careful in there. Don’t take any unnecessary risks.” His eyes bored earnestly into her own and she blinked, taken aback by his intensity.
“I’ve got two very good reasons to play it as safe as possible.”
He flinched, and pulled his hand off her shoulder. He shook his head as he turned and walked away, not saying
another word.
Audrey stared after him, bewildered. She glanced over at Zeche, who had a serious expression etched on his face. “Was it something I said?”
Zeche clucked his tongue. “We all make it out of this alive, I’ll tell you after the—”
Explosions rocked the ground beneath her feet and she spread out her stance, arms out to the side to keep her balance. Her ears rang and the sound seemed to echo in her skull, blotting out all other sounds. When the second round of blasts went off, she fell to her knees and decided staying down was best until the ground stilled.
Sounds near her had an odd, disjointed feeling to them, like she was hearing everything through water. She shook her head violently, rubbing at one ear with her hand. For blasts occurring a story or two underground, she hadn’t expected them to be so loud. Griff’s hand appeared in front of her face and the man helped her back up to her feet. She dusted her hands off on her pants and took stock of the situation.
The engineers were headed in, searching for a clear route for infiltration. This is it. No turning back, now.
Deuce had been in bed maybe twenty minutes when clods of dirt fell on his face and his ears were assaulted with a horrendous series of booms. Across the room on her pallet, Amelina screamed. He had no clue what was going on, but he leapt out of bed and crossed the room to her side, curling his body over hers in an attempt to protect her. A few moments of silence, then another boom, followed by more tremors.
His hearing was a high-pitched whine; he couldn’t make anything else out. When the shaking stopped, he tapped her on the shoulder. She twisted, staring up at him with wide, panicked eyes.
He mouthed the words, “You okay?” at her. Hell, he might have spoken them, he didn’t know.
She swallowed, then nodded.
He slowly peeled himself off her, pain erupting in his back from the multiple impacts. He stretched gingerly; didn’t seem to be anything broken. He’d be sore as hell for a while, probably had some scrapes, but was otherwise sound. Clods of dirt and dislodged stones littered the room, and he closed his eyes and shook his hand through his hair, knocking free all the dirt. He wiped his face. He still couldn’t hear. He walked to the door to his chambers and turned, holding a hand out in a ‘stop’ gesture to Amelina.
She shook her head violently and ran to him, clinging to his arm. One look in her pleading eyes and he was done. He nodded, reaching for his sword. He strapped it to his belt and drew the blade, cracking the door open. He was able to get it open a few inches, then it jammed on the ceiling, part of which had collapsed.
“Damn it.” Not that he could hear himself curse, but expelling the air felt good. He abandoned the blade, searching around for anything he could use to pry the door open. The fire poker looked promising and he wedged it in the small opening, using it as a lever. The door budged inch by inch, the poker bending a little at each effort, until it snapped in half. Deuce frowned at the opening. Amelina might be able to make it out, but he couldn’t.
She seemed to realize the same thing and slipped out of the room, pushing on the door from the outside. He braced himself on the inside and pulled, and with a lot of grunting and cursing, they finally managed to get the door open enough for him to exit. He grabbed his blade and emerged into the hallway, and total chaos. Men stumbled around, many of them holding their heads. They were all higher-ups; commanders, squad leaders, men who had earned private quarters out of the Pit. That was where they were all headed, in whatever shape they managed to be in.
This has to be it. They’ve finally come. He’d started to lose hope that they would, after a while. It had been almost two months since his meeting with Hound, and he hadn’t expected them to delay this long. But if this was truly it…he was in a unique position to do some good.
Instead of heading toward the Pit, he went the other way. There were only a few rooms farther down the hallway than his, but he could always check them for occupants. Amelina followed him, her confusion evident on her face. She kept looking towards the Pit, towards an exit, and imagined safety. She’d just have to bear with him a while longer.
The first two rooms were empty, and as he exited the second to head on to the last, a loud popping sound in his right ear made him cup his hand over the ear, moaning in agony. He half fell sideways against the wall, and his hand came away wet. He knew without looking it was blood. He might never hear out of that ear, again. The whine had left the other one, however, and he could vaguely hear Amelina fussing about something. He tried waving her off, but the next thing he knew she’d torn the hem of her dress and was wrapping it around his head. If this isn’t ironic…
His balance was horribly off, and he couldn’t do much about removing her at the moment, anyway. He let her finish; it would make her feel better, at least. Keeping one hand against the wall, he pushed off enough to start making his way slowly to the last room. Being left handed, it felt awkward holding his blade in his right hand, but he’d switch if he had a need to use the blade.
The last room wasn’t empty, instead holding a man tugging desperately at his leg, which was pinned beneath a large pile of rubble. Deuce turned, waving at Amelina to leave the room, but she shook her head. Deuce gritted his teeth but shrugged, approaching the man with a grim expression.
“Help me. You’ve got to help me.” The man pulled fervently at his leg, but it wasn’t budging. Deuce got within point blank range and spread his feet, using his eyes to orient himself. He lifted the sword with two hands and brought it down, one clean strike against the back of the neck. The man was likely dead before he could feel any pain.
Deuce glanced up at Amelina, who had gone white in the face. Deuce cleaned his blade on the corpse and moved to shuffle past her. He paused when she put her hand on his arm, staring up at him with a strange expression.
“He was a bad man.” Her words still sounded garbled, and it took him longer to piece together their meaning, but he eventually got it. He nodded, and made for the door. He’d do the same thing all the way to the Pit if he could keep it up. The fewer men his brothers had to fight, the happier he was going to be.
17
Her guards surrounded her, the only patch of gray in a sea of black. Blaise and the engineer stood by a yawning hole in the ground, their entrance to the compound. From here on out, silence was their greatest ally. Audrey had the men shielded as best she could, but still felt her stomach lurch as the first of the black shapes descended into the darkness. Their lives were quite literally in her hands.
Chin up. Back straight. Project confidence. One foot in front of the other. Follow Zeche. Don’t trip. The litany fell into a rhythm, eventually able to fall to the back of her conscious thoughts. Her hands itched for a blade, even though she’d never had much skill with them. She had a dagger on her belt, but she’d be more likely to stab herself than an enemy at this point.
It was her turn. The black chasm was only slightly lit from a single torch held near the opening. Audrey wavered on her feet, unable to force herself forward. Her mind took her to a different time, the smell of moist earth nearly identical to the dungeon she’d been tortured in. She remembered the grit against her face, the way it clumped around her fingernails. Her hands shook at the memory.
“I’ll go down first, Leaf. I’ll catch you.”
Audrey barely heard Zeche’s words, but his accent cut through her fog. Kendrick hadn’t had an accent.
I can do this. Instead of an assertion, it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself. With feeling, woman. I can DO this. She bounced on the balls of her feet for a moment, spontaneously turning one of the bounces into a leap. She clapped her hand over her mouth as she fell to keep in the scream threatening to burst forth from her lips.
Except it wasn’t all that far down, and Zeche caught her just as he’d promised. She’d broken out in a cold sweat and was panting as if she’d just run a marathon.
A frown pulled at the corners of his mouth and his eyebrows nearly met in the middle of his f
orehead. “Focus, Leaf. These men are depending on you.”
Panicked, Audrey felt for her protective shield over the men. It was still intact. She took a deep breath, then another, forcing herself to calm down. Just because I’m underground doesn’t mean I’m going to die here. Convincing her body of that was an entirely other matter.
She managed to stumble clear of the entrance, making room for the rest of the men to come down behind them. Their advance force was nearly a hundred strong of mixed Seekers and Ravens. Her mission was to engage the main body of the enemy as a distraction, while Gwyn and her team extracted the Order. Quad was in command up front, as several of the veteran weapons masters had died in the Battle of the Institute. He would lead, unless she found convincing reasons to countermand his orders.
The last of the men hit the ground behind her and the light from many pairs of eyes going green lit the tunnel with an eerie glow. Dirt and silt still fell from the blasted areas, and more than a few pairs of eyes were focused upwards for impending threats. Audrey forced her eyes to make the switch as well and could see Quad’s hand commands despite the nearly pitch darkness.
The path twisted and turned, leading them ever deeper. They remained undetected until the tunnel began widening, coming up on the central spoke of the wheel-like compound. Shouts and groans met their ears and several hands gripped weapons, the entire procession drawing their steel sounding like the hiss of a large serpent.
A man burst forth from a side passage, blood bathing the side of his head, screaming. The sound was quickly silenced. Quad sent a group of men down to investigate, the main column holding position. Audrey struggled to adjust, putting a hand on Zeche’s shoulder as she forced the mental barrier outward. It took intense concentration, and she would be extremely vulnerable to physical attack during complex maneuvers. She exhaled as the men returned a few minutes later, their weapons wet with blood.