by Eric Vall
I groaned and pulled my shirt on, and as the fabric brushed against my shoulders, the cuts there began to burn once more. I’d have to remember to have Shoshanne take a look at them, but in the meantime, I shuffled to the door with my eyes still half closed.
“What?” I demanded as I opened the door.
Aeris looked down his nose at me from the hall. “I have arranged for you to begin your project,” he informed me. “Right this way.”
The leader turned and headed off down the hall, and I let out a long sigh. Then I snatched my boots from the plush carpet near the bed and closed the door behind me.
I stumbled and slammed into the wall while I struggled to pull my boots on, and my legs protested with every step. Then I registered the dim cast of the sky through the windows we passed.
“What time is it?” I mumbled.
“Time to begin your work,” Aeris responded. He was a good ten feet ahead of me, and I flipped him off even though his back was turned to me.
The leader of House Aelin continued to wind his way through his stately halls, and I was considering leaving him to himself when I turned a corner and saw Deya seated at a small table with Ruela curled around her bare feet.
“Godsdamnit,” I muttered under my breath.
Unfortunately, Deya looked up at the words.
I feigned a smile as I rubbed my eyes to get them working again, but as Aeris and I approached, I genuinely regretted bothering.
Now I could see the two handsome elves in the more shadowy corner of the table, and they looked oddly awake considering I could barely get my limbs to function.
Deya looked stunning, if a little irritated to be sharing the tiny table with the two prickish elves, and Ruela grumbled as she repositioned herself beneath the table.
I smirked. “Hey, baby.” Then I stooped down to scruff the wolf behind the ears, and her growls shifted to a happier tone until I stood up again.
I could tell Deya had her eyes on me, but I kept my sights on Ruela while Aeris spoke in Elvish to the group.
He carried on pleasantly for well over a minute before I cleared my throat.
“Look,” I interrupted, “are we doing this, or can I go back to sleep?”
Aeris sent me a livid glance, and then he turned to Deya. “Miss Deya,” he said smoothly, “I only wish to oblige you of course, however, I must inform you that we do not keep animals within House Aelin. I know you are accustomed to a different lifestyle, but I must insist you allow me to accommodate your … companion in a different way.”
“Oh,” Deya mumbled. “Actually, my father requires that--”
“Yes, but surely Qiran would respect the very expensive design of my home,” Aeris interrupted. “It is admittedly more well-kept than his own humble cottage. I’m certain you can trust your guard to look after the beast, yes?”
I furrowed my brow, and Deya let out a small sigh.
“I suppose … ” she relented.
Before my lazy mind could catch up, I was handed a thick rope, and Aeris led the way toward a door.
I followed him with a loud yawn, and as the light of the early morning broke over me, I finally began to wake up.
“Hold on,” I said and came to a stop. Aeris slowly turned around, and I handed the hefty rope to him. “If Deya can’t have Ruela with her, I’ll just escort her to her other guards before we continue.”
The head of House Aelin was clearly irritated that I’d clued into his little maneuver, but I left him standing there with the massive beast growling at his side.
Deya looked desperate to escape the table when I walked back in, and I noticed one of the sons abruptly straighten up at the sight of me. My teeth started grinding against themselves once more.
“Miss Deya,” I said as I came to the table and crossed my arms. “Cayla is waiting for you.”
The pink-haired elf immediately shot to her feet. “Yes, of course.”
She offered half a smile to the two sons, and then she made a beeline for the hall, and I eyed the handsome elves for a moment before I followed her.
“Thank you for coming back,” Deya said.
“No problem,” I muttered.
Neither of us said anything else as we made our way through the House, but I didn’t mind. I honestly couldn’t think of anything to say to her after what I’d learned the night before. So, we continued on in silence, and I watched her bare feet beneath the hem of her dress while I stared at the ground.
Finally, we came to my door, and I knocked so the women would dress themselves before Deya came in. “Anyone awake in there?” I called.
Shoshanne pulled the door open, and I raised my brows at the naked woman. Her lush curves were silhouetted in the dim room, and behind her, Cayla and Aurora still lay curled around each other as they slept.
“You always answer the door like that?” I asked with a wink.
Shoshanne blushed to her roots as she noticed Deya beside me. Then the caramel beauty wrapped an arm across her breasts so her nipples were at least covered.
“Good morning,” Shoshanne said with a nervous giggle, and Deya’s smile brightened as she giggled back.
“Alright, well get dressed,” I told the healer with a chuckle. “You’re on duty.” I hooked Shoshanne’s elbow and pulled her closer to leave a kiss on her cheek, and then I nodded to Deya before I left the women in the doorway.
I walked blindly through the halls as I fought the urge to turn around and curl up between Aurora and Cayla for the rest of the day. I could just leave Ruela to eat Aeris in the courtyard and let Shoshanne keep an eye on Deya for a bit. I’d tie myself to the bed and refuse to move until all of my women had worn themselves out completely and everything about Nalnora had finally left my mind.
This would probably be the next best move to making Aeris a hundred and fifty rifles, but when I came to this conclusion and finally looked up, I realized I was lost.
I’d been staring at the plush blue carpet as I wove through House Aelin, but at some point, the carpet had given way to dark green marble, and I was suddenly in a large round chamber with a domed ceiling. I let out a low whistle as I eyed the blue glass windows that stretched all the way to the heights of the room and encircled the chamber completely.
There were a few stray elves in elegant robes strolling around the quiet place at this hour, and their steps echoed lightly throughout the marble hall. They eyed me as they passed, but no one questioned what I was doing there, so I walked to the base of a long staircase against the wall.
As I began to follow the steps upward, I could see the staircase spiraled around half the room’s perimeter before it ended at a small balcony with a pair of wooden doors. I glanced over the stone railing of the balcony, and when the last few elves had exited the chamber below, I slipped behind one of the hefty doors.
Then a broad grin spread across my face at the sight of the giant oak shelving and the thousands of books they carried. The little round windows I’d seen from the gates of House Aelin dotted the ceiling above me, and they let in a murky glow of morning light in the silent library. I took a single step forward, but within a second, an old elven man with wiry grey hair and beady black eyes popped out from between two shelves and began screeching at me in Elvish. His voice split through the peaceful room like a freight train, and I quickly raised my arms to the side and began to apologize.
The elf only pointed his knobby finger at me as his voice became shriller, and his face flushed with fury while he stormed straight for me.
I stumbled back and through the doors, and as I jogged back down the long staircase, I could still hear the little old elf cursing me.
I didn’t slow down until I finally made it back to Aeris, and I tried not to smirk at the sight of him. He held the rope extended as far as possible from him, and Ruela’s growls had only gotten louder in my absence. I took the hefty rope, and Aeris dusted his fingers off while he continued out into the courtyard.
The air was heavy with moisture by now, and it
smelled like honeysuckle and oranges. I shuffled across the pale stonework with Ruela at my side and admired the dappled purple clouds that had begun to dissipate in the early morning heat.
Aeris led us a ways from the main house to a large building that reminded me of a mechanic’s garage I used to pass by in Chicago during my morning commute. It even had a heavy iron door that slid on rollers to open and close, and I nodded appreciatively as I found myself inside what was clearly a workshop.
Giant lumps of silver and steel were arranged on shelving along the longest wall, while a single worktable took up another side of the shop. It was already littered with discarded projects and scrap metal, and there were a few stools scattered along it. To the far right, there was a low-lying forge, and just beside it, a large vat for water.
“I’m sure this will be plenty of material to form the armory,” Aeris sneered. “I’ll have lunch brought out for you.”
With that, the hefty door slid shut, and I looked over to find Ruela staring up at me in the dim and silent building. There were only two small windows to let in the daylight, and the air was heavy with the stench of sweat and steel.
Ruela let out a long and pitiful whimper.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said. “You and me? Totally different situations.”
The wolfish beast snorted so hard her front paws left the ground.
“No,” I countered, “because you’re put out like a dog. I’m just … a work horse. There’s a difference.”
I sighed and dropped onto a stool beside the worktable.
My first day in Lyralus hadn’t gone remotely how I’d hoped, and my options had grossly diminished. From the looks of it, Aeris had me, and I could either work like a puppet for him and hope he delivered after I handed him a hundred and fifty rifles, or I could accept that working with the elves was a punchline. Considering he didn’t have any bat poop to offer for this arsenal, I was leaning toward the latter. Rifles were a bit useless without ammo, but I wasn’t in the mood to explain this to the head of House Aelin.
I scruffed my beard and scooped up a discarded lump of silver. It looked like someone meant to form one of the ornate doorknobs I’d seen on most of the suites in the main house, but an air bubble in the forge had wrecked half the design. Now it was oddly similar to a half-rotted pumpkin the week after Halloween, and I tossed it into a pile of similar failed attempts at the end of the table.
It didn’t matter if they were an Elite House. There was no way in hell I would hand so many rifles to any elf, even if I didn’t have a way to create the ammunition. The promise of Aeris’ knowledge wasn’t enough to convince me to change my mind at this point. I considered the fact that I could still use my time in Lyralus to approach the other two Elite Houses that resided in the capital as well, but I had a feeling they’d behave about the same as the head of House Aelin.
Unfortunately, all of the heads of Houses saw the strength of my weapons, and unless I delivered as much for their own selfish gains, I would most likely be left running in circles around the capital and have nothing to show for it. Much like I’d done in the south.
I’d been blissfully unaware in the south, though, and I almost missed battling Onym at every turn now. He’d been predictable enough, and even if he was as greedy as Aeris, I felt like he’d been more up front about it. Still, I wouldn’t bring him back for anything. At least this way, he wouldn’t be around when it came to be House Natyr’s turn with Deya.
I cringed and dropped my head into my arms. I didn’t want to think about the pink-haired beauty anymore. I’d already been tortured all night with dreams of her.
I’d seen her stroking her long pink hair while she looked up at me sadly. Her belly was swollen, and her cheeks had sunken in, and no matter how much I tried to reach out, I couldn’t seem to touch her. Then I’d seen her locked in a tower and watching from a window as a carriage rolled up with a velvet clad driver, and the next father stepped out to claim his turn. A baby was snatched from her arms, Deya was pulled from the room, and the next thing I knew, I’d woken up drenched in sweat and exhausted.
Seeing Deya in a dim corner with Aeris’ two sons and no one to guard her had been the cherry on top. The look on her face shot straight through me, and it’d taken every ounce of my willpower not to pull the ceiling down on all of us right there. I was already worn out on the bullshit of the elves, but this one did me in. They couldn’t even have a woman as remarkable as Deya around without behaving like a pack of fucking dogs.
I glanced at Ruela, and her stark green eyes had watched me steadily all this time.
“You’re right,” I told the wolf. “That’s an insult to dogs.”
The faint rattling of wooden wheels echoed from the courtyard, and I made my way over to slide the iron door open a crack. Three elves were wheeling a large wagon across the paved courtyard with several sloshing jugs stacked on top.
I opened the door all the way.
“Hey,” I called. “Lemme have one of those.”
The elves curled their lips in disgust, and I shuffled out of the workshop with Ruela close behind. Some snide comment was made in Elvish before the three pushed on with their wagon.
“No, seriously,” I assured them. “I’m gonna need one of those jugs.”
When they continued to walk on, I pulled the revolver from my hip, and the three heads turned at the sound of the hammer cocking.
“Here,” I said. “I’m gonna shoot this, and just imagine you’re on the other end of it.” I fired the revolver toward a stout tree, and a branch split off and crashed to the ground.
Ruela’s growls ripped through the quiet of the early morning almost as angrily as the revolver.
“There.” I smirked. “That whole situation, but it’s you. Now, give me the fucking wine.”
The elf closest to me eyed the revolver and then the wolf at my back before he hopped-to and grabbed a jug of wine from the top of the stack. He left it on the ground, and the three elves quickly wheeled their way toward the massive tower.
I slid the revolver back into my holster.
“Fucking elves,” I sighed, and then I scooped the jug up and popped the cork off.
I spent the better part of the morning drinking as I weighed my options, and after a while, I began to understand Dragir a little better. There wasn’t much else to do, it seemed, in Nalnora. You could either slaughter everyone, or you could drink and ignore literally everything you heard or saw.
Somewhere near noon, I took Ruela for a walk through the grounds and found Bobbie at the front of House Aelin. With a lot of coaxing, I got Ruela in the sidecar and drove the bike to the workshop. Once we were parked, I took a last glance at the sun-drenched courtyard and rolled my eyes as I slid the iron door shut.
The workshop was the least hot place I’d been in a while, so I made myself comfortable on the stone floor with my jug and propped my back against Bobbie.
I snorted as I glanced at Ruela laid out in front of me and recognized the wary cast of her eyes when she looked at the bike. “Not your favorite way to travel, huh?”
I chugged down a bit more wine.
“Yeah, it’s a little crowded these days,” I told the dog. “If you and that lady of yours stick around, we’re gonna need a bigger steed.”
I chuckled drunkenly even though I knew the dog wouldn’t get the joke, but my grin fell as I froze with the jug half raised to my lips.
Beside me, the shelves were piled with metal. Gleaming, beautiful, available metal. And here I was, exiled with the dog, and with no intention of playing along with Aeris anymore.
“Don’t do it,” I muttered to myself, but the idea had already taken over my drunken mind, and I had four different designs outlined by the time I finished my next swig.
I smirked. “Fuck it.”
Originally, I decided to sit down and sketch out the entire thing, but all of my drawings were incoherent messes, and I finally crumpled them up and clapped my hands together as I made my way t
o the shelves.
The metal fused with my powers as I held my palms extended, and the sensation immediately grounded me. Back on earth, my adopted father always worked on his 1967 Mustang when he was worried about the bills. Even though I knew he wouldn’t quite be able to relate to my current predicament, I felt like he’d be a little proud of me for bringing the tradition back.
“This is what I need,” I assured Ruela. “More metal, less elves, bigger steed.”
I brought the steel to the worktable, and as I separated it out into various portions to stretch my muscles a bit, I decided to get all of the parts formed and worry about assembly last. This way, if any nosy heads of House showed up, I could shrug and make like I was being productive, and Aeris could kiss my ass. So, I took another swig and thought back to the miniature model I’d created in my workshop in Serin when I first tested out the channeling gem before imbedding it in Bobbie.
I wouldn’t need nearly so many technical mechanics with the help of a gem, so the design of the chassis could be as minimal as I liked, but I would probably install an engine just to be sure it functioned as smoothly as Bobbie.
With the lumps of steel gathered on the table in front of me, I let my magic spark through my veins and watched as the metal fused together. Then I closed my eyes and eased into a deeper connection with the material in order to soften the metal completely. I kept the image of the frame I’d seen in my father’s garage in mind, and I reshaped the steel until I had the left side of the body fully formed with a cut out for the door and windows. It took a few failed attempts to get the frame thick enough to hold the shape well but still avoid making the car too heavy.
I practiced easing the metal into the curves of the framework little by little rather than trying to shape the whole piece in one go, and this gave me a better sense of what the metal needed to be able to hold the proper shape. When I’d finally settled into the right balance of shape and strength, I gave the panels of steel a thorough shake and was pleased nothing bowed or wobbled.