by KM Merritt
The representative yelped and scurried away.
“She really does like her lightning, doesn’t she?” Sorrel said to no one in particular.
“Now go home,” Braydon told the crowd. “And let the paladin do her work.”
Vola half-expected a catch, but Braydon plopped back down on the bench and leaned his head against the wall with his eyes closed.
Becky touched Vola’s shoulder as the mob grumbled and glanced fearfully at the sky.
“My lady Cleavah certainly showed them, didn’t she?” Becky jerked her head at the tea room. “Come inside. If you’re going after Lord Arthorel, you don’t want to be on the streets. He’ll see you coming. You can have a cup of tea before you go up the hill. And maybe something a little stronger on the house for Miss Sorrel.”
“Aw, Becky, you remembered my favorite thing,” Sorrel said, trotting up the stairs to the tea room.
“Beer?” Vola said.
Sorrel held up a finger. “Free beer.”
Vola let the others file inside first while she waited at the corner of the porch where the swamp monster was tied. When she was alone, she bit her lip.
“Thank you,” she told the air. “For defending me.”
A whisper of breeze and the pressure of a body made it feel like someone stood right behind her shoulder. But she didn’t turn around to look.
“He deserved a lightning bolt up his butt,” Cleavah said out of the breeze.
“But I’ve been acting just like him,” Vola said. “Hiding who you are.”
“You are not perfect, Vola. But you’re a fool if you can’t see the differences.”
Vola glanced over at Braydon. Maybe, but even now she didn’t want anyone else to see exactly who she was talking to. Cleavah was just too hard to explain. Vola didn’t even know if she could explain the goddess everyone laughed at. Cleavah didn’t seem to mind, but Vola did.
“I chose you,” the Lesser Virtue said. “I chose you without any caveats. I chose you when you weren’t perfect. Nothing you do can change that.”
No, Vola thought as the pressure behind her fluttered and dissipated and she stood alone on the porch. But I can do better.
The swamp beast reached out to take a bite out of her, and she danced back.
Inside the Tea and Tap Room, Becky had left a cup of tea on the bar for Vola. Sorrel was already swigging her way through a mug of beer. Talon didn’t have a drink, but Gruff lapped at a bowl of water at their feet.
Vola turned to see where Lillie had gotten to and found her next to the door, speaking with Braydon’s wizard. Obron she thought his name was. The older man pressed a book into Lillie’s hands before he clasped her on the shoulder and left.
“What’d you get?” Sorrel asked as Lillie joined them at the bar.
“A new book,” Lillie said. “Obron said he didn’t need it anymore since he was giving up the adventuring life. Too much hanging upside down for his taste.”
“What is it?” Sorrel asked, lifting the corner of a page with two fingers.
“A book of spell techniques,” Lillie said. “This will help me refine my spell casting.”
“Will it keep you from setting fire to your party?” Vola asked and took a swig of tea.
Lillie brightened. “Maybe. Let me see.” She started flipping through pages.
“What would you like to drink, Miss Lillie?” Becky asked.
“A glass of port, please. A ten-year ruby,” she replied absently.
Becky’s brow furrowed. She bent to rummage under the counter for a while and came up with a dusty bottle.
Vola slugged back the rest of her tea and tapped her fingers on the bar. They needed to get going before word reached Arthorel that they were coming for him. But all their food was at the bottom of the swamp. If they were going into battle in the next hour, Vola wanted to do it with a full stomach.
Sorrel leaned forward as Becky poured Lillie’s drink. “Is that what she asked for?” Sorrel whispered.
Becky eyed the liquid with a rueful grimace. “Well, it’s red. And I’m pretty sure it’s been under my counter for ten years. So…yes?”
She slid the glass to Lillie who took a sip without looking up from her book.
Vola heard a cough in the corner and turned on her stool. There was a man in the corner desperately trying to hide under his ragged hat. His clothes were still stained green from algae.
Vola nudged Sorrel and nodded to him. Sorrel took one glance and her expression darkened.
“Him…” she said.
Vola raised an eyebrow.
“Yes,” Sorrel hissed as slid off her stool. “Corner him.”
Vola strode over to the swamp beast salesman and plopped down at his table so he had to look her in the eye.
Sorrel slipped up beside him and said, “Hi! Glad to see you got out of the swamp alive.”
He jumped. “Er, yes. Me, too?”
Vola leaned forward with a smile that deliberately showed off her tusks. “So, about that mount you gave us…”
“Oh, yeah. Splendid specimen, isn’t it? Think nothing of it.” His eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape.
“Yeah, splendid,” Vola said. “Take it back.”
“What?” He flinched. “No, no. It was a gift.”
“Please?” Sorrel said, rubbing her shoulder where she still had teeth marks.
“No?” he said.
Vola gripped the edge of the table. “That thing isn’t a mount. It’s a menace. And you knew it. Now take it back.”
“Fine, fine,” he said, sweat breaking out in tiny beads along his upper lip. “I will relieve you of my gift. For one hundred gold.”
“What?” Sorrel said.
“You’re expecting us to pay you to take back a faulty gift?”
The salesman began sliding out of his chair, inch by inch. “That’s the deal. One hundred gold for the swamp monst—I mean, specimen—and I will take it off your hands.”
“Pockets!” Lillie cried from the bar, her nose still buried in the book.
Vola’s brow furrowed as she glanced at the wizard.
That was enough of a distraction that the salesman bolted for the door.
Vola could not in good conscience run him down and demand justice. She groaned instead.
Sorrel planted her hands on her hips. “I can’t believe he swindled us twice. On something we didn’t even pay for.”
Vola sighed and stood up. “Maybe we can convince Becky to take it. We’ll call it a gift for all her hospitality.”
“That’s low, Vola,” Sorrel said.
“Would you rather take it along with us? We don’t even have a tent for it to carry anymore.”
“I didn’t say that.” Sorrel trotted to keep up as Vola strode back to the bar. “Surely someone as nice as Becky will have no trouble loving the swamp beast.”
Twenty-Two
When they climbed the hill to Lord Arthorel’s manor, they kept to the trees at the side of the road. Late afternoon light filtered down through the leaves, making Vola squint in the patchy light.
“So, this is it, right?” Sorrel whispered as they crouched, staring at the manor looming over the end of the road. “We know we’re heading into a fight. We’re not just going to scare little old ladies this time?”
“Right.” Vola tightened the straps of her armor and loosened her sword in its scabbard. “Hit them hard and fast.”
“We’ll…we’ll make sure they’re guilty first, right?” Lillie said.
Vola stopped to consider. “Okay, yes. No slaughtering innocent servants. But we have to go quickly and quietly. If Lord Arthorel knows we’re coming, he’ll kill Henri. Maybe even all the prisoners.”
“If they’re even in there,” Talon muttered.
Vola’s lips thinned.
Lillie glanced between them and put a soothing hand on Vola’s arm. “If they’re not,” she said quietly. “Then at least we’ll be able to look for clues to find where he took them.”
>
Talon peered through the trees. “Sorrel, want to go climbing?”
Sorrel scoffed. “Does a dragon like fried food?”
They all blinked at her.
“Um, I don’t know,” Lillie said. “Do they?”
Sorrel threw her hands in the air. “Yes. Duh. Come on. Dragons? Breathe fire? All their food is fried.”
“It’s a bit of a stretch,” Lillie said.
Vola shook her head. “Whatever. Talon take the left wall; Sorrel take the right. You guys flank while Lillie and I go up the middle.”
Lillie bit her lip. “It’s quite open.”
“Are we doing this or not?” Vola snapped.
“You can borrow Gruff.” Talon gestured to the big, black wolf before disappearing into the trees around the manor. Sorrel followed.
Vola jerked her head at Lillie and pushed out of the trees to step up to the gate.
The same gangly guard leaned against the wall, shuffling a deck of cards. Vola opened her mouth ready to distract the boy so she could knock him out, but Lillie marched straight up to the gate.
The guard straightened, but before he could say anything, Lillie had reached through the gate, grabbed hold of his breastplate, and hauled the boy against the iron bars.
“You remember who I am, peasant?” Lillie said, voice pleasant like she was ordering tea and biscuits.
“Yesh,” the boy said, face mashed against the gate. His eyes rolled between them, the whites showing all around.
“And you remember not to get in my way?”
“Yesh.”
“Then open this gate and let us through. We have business with your lord. Pray we don’t have business with you as well.”
She let the boy go with a little shove, and he landed on his butt in the dirt. Then he scrambled to his feet with a muttered “yes, ma’am” and fumbled for the key at his belt.
Vola glanced at Lillie out of the corner of her eye. “So is there a switch somewhere that you can just turn that on and off?”
Lillie gave her a rueful look. “No. It’s built-in.”
The boy yanked the gate open with a clang.
Over his shoulder, Vola caught movement. Captain Wiselyn came into the courtyard from the manor.
The last time they’d seen the man, he’d been getting away with an unconscious Henri. And somewhere around here, he was keeping Vola’s trainer imprisoned.
Vola rushed forward, smashing the gate guard out of the way.
“Wait—” Lillie started.
But Vola wasn’t waiting. If Wiselyn sounded the alarm, Henri was dead.
She charged. Red threatened to bleed into her vision, but she pushed it back. She didn’t need rage right now. She needed speed and strength.
Wiselyn saw her coming and smiled.
Vola’s heart leaped. She could kill this bastard easily. Strike him down in a moment before he managed to raise the alarm, and then they could just waltz inside and free Henri. Without his bodyguard, Lord Arthorel would be much easier to handle.
Vola drew her sword and swung it down in a perfect arc. In a fair world, it would have beheaded the man in one blow.
In this one, Captain Wiselyn turned his armored shoulder into Vola’s gut and spun her until she dropped harmlessly into the dirt.
An arrow whistled past his ear, but since he’d side stepped, it thunked into the column beside him.
Then he reached over to a bell that hung just outside the door and pulled the rope, sending a ringing peal through the air. The carillon tower above the manor took up the alarm.
Shit, shit, shit. That did not go the way she’d thought it would.
Vola glanced up to the opposite roof where Talon stood, hands out in a “what was that?” gesture.
Vola rolled to her feet while Captain Wiselyn drew his sword and more guards boiled from the barracks beside the manor.
Talon picked them off while Sorrel jumped down from the other roof.
Guards shouted and pointed at them, spreading out to cover both sides.
So much for the element of surprise.
Vola lunged for the captain. He raised his sword, locking their blades together. Vola’s blood beat in her ears as she leaned, using her height and weight against him. His feet slid against the dusty flagstones, but he held his own against her. He finally fetched up against the wall and used it to brace himself so he could fling off Vola’s attack.
Sorrel spun, her staff a blur as she fended off three guards. The rest were climbing to Talon’s perch while the ranger shot into the courtyard.
Back at the gate, Lillie flung spells, keeping the stray guards from getting too close.
Vola turned back to her opponent and swung. He danced back, but this time, she anticipated him and spun in a counterstrike, catching him by surprise. Her sword bit into the gap between his breastplate and shoulder guard.
He jerked free with a grunt and staggered back, his hand going to his bloody shoulder.
A sizzle and a blast of hot air made Vola leap out of the way as a fire bolt whizzed past her ear.
She turned to glare. “Lillie!”
Lillie danced from foot to foot, her hands covering her mouth. “I’m sorry, but you’re in the way.”
Vola growled and stood back up, brushing the dust from her knees. Captain Wiselyn staggered upright as well, bits of his armor blackened and his left arm hanging limply at his side as blood dripped from his shoulder.
“Where’s Henri?” she said.
He just smiled and shook his head.
Vola roared and charged. She bashed the captain into the wall and tried to kick his feet out from under him, but he shifted his weight and broke free so she had to grab him again.
“Miss Vola, move,” Lillie called.
Vola snarled under her breath. She didn’t have to move. She had him. He’d be dead in a moment.
A sharp pain broke through her anger, and she glanced down to see he’d dropped his sword and stabbed her with his belt knife, finding one of the many holes in her chain mail.
Lillie screamed.
Vola twisted to glance back and saw the guards advancing on the wizard. Sorrel was still pinned down on one side, and Talon was busy keeping the guards from flinging them off the roof. Lillie faced the enemy alone, fire bolts barely keeping them back. Gruff circled her feet, snarling and snapping at the men who surrounded them.
They were too spread out. Forces spread too thin and overwhelmed.
Vola clenched her jaw till her teeth creaked. Wiselyn squirmed under her grip, out of weapons. If she left him now, he’d regroup or worse, escape.
Hang on, Lillie. Just a few more seconds.
Vola growled, then roared. She thrust against Wiselyn, freed an arm just long enough to drive her elbow into his nose.
He reared back.
And Vola used the opportunity to slash her blade across his throat.
The captain fell.
Vola turned with a wince, her side stinging.
Sorrel planted her staff and kicked down her second to last opponent. Then snapped her weapon up to catch the final guard in the gut.
On the roof, Talon drew a knife to stab at the guards trying to pull them to the ground.
With a low snarl, Gruff leaped from Lillie’s side, and his teeth closed around the nearest guard’s sword hand. The man screamed as he was dragged under the giant wolf.
Lillie’s hands twisted, and she reached out to grab an enemy. Waves of lightning flashed through his body as he jerked and fell at her feet.
Vola sprinted for the last guard. Her feet felt like they moved through molasses as he raised his blade.
Lillie screamed and lunged to the side, but not quite quick enough.
Vola’s sword bit through the man, cleaving him in two even as Lillie fell to the ground.
Twenty-Three
Vola rolled bodies out of the way so she could get to Lillie. Sorrel skidded to a stop beside them.
They pulled the wizard out from the pile of singed, bl
oodied enemies. Lillie’s face was pasty white, a stark contrast to her normally flushed features, and she bit her lip, hard enough to make it bleed.
“I’m all right,” she said, breathlessly. “It’s…it’s just a scratch.”
“Are you saying that because you think you’re supposed to?” Sorrel asked.
Talon shoved the last dead attacker off the roof and then slid down a drainpipe. They stepped forward to lean over Sorrel’s shoulder. Gruff pressed against their hip.
Vola carefully pulled Lillie’s leg straight.
“It’s fine, Vola,” Lillie said. “I twisted it on the way down. I promise it’s fine.”
Vola’s lips thinned as she gazed at Lillie’s face, looking for the truth. She could take care of this right now. But…she could only heal so much in a day. And who knew what shape Henri would be in when they found him?
The leg looked fine. A scratch disappearing back under Lillie’s pants. That was it. And Vola wasn’t even considering healing her own wound. What was a little knife in the gut, anyway?
“We need to go after Henri,” Lillie said. “Don’t we?”
Vola nodded, letting out her breath. “Yeah. We haven’t exactly been stealthy.”
“I could have handled Wiselyn without a sound,” Talon said as Sorrel helped Lillie to stand. “If you hadn’t rushed in.”
Vola’s face grew hot. “I saw an opportunity, and I took it. I wanted to get to him before he raised the alarm.”
“Great job,” Talon said.
“Yeah, thanks,” Vola snapped. “I know how bad this is. Believe me. Henri’s probably already dead.”
Lillie balanced on one leg, her hand resting on Sorrel’s shoulder. “Don’t say that. Captain Wiselyn implied that Lord Arthorel needed living victims. Henri is probably worth more to him alive.”
“Is that better?” Sorrel said, cocking her head. “Seems ominous to me.”
“Alive is always better. Then there is the chance for rescue.”
Talon’s hood remained fixed on Vola, and she could practically feel the censure coming out from under it, but the ranger kept silent.
“Is it over?” a quavering voice called from behind them. The gate guard crawled out from behind the corner where Vola had flung him.