16. Elric
16
ELRIC
D espite setting off before dawn, they do not make it to Lunatum by evening as Lukas said they might. The sun is falling low in the sky when they crest a hill and finally see the Mortingale Sea. Elric gets his first glimpse of Lunatum bathed in golden light. A sprawl of a city crouching on the sea’s edge. But still some distance away.
“We’ll stop here,” Inga announces, slowing the cart. “Camp for one more night and arrive in the morning. The Lunatum gates close at dusk and I don’t want to camp outside the walls of that filthy port.”
Lukas looks around. “We’re near the falls here,” he says.
Elric can hear the water. A low and steady rumble, like distant thunder. Lukas beckons him and Elric climbs down from the cart. He follows Lukas through some trees with Marko sniffing eagerly behind them. Little Lamb and Inga follow. After a short distance, the trees thin out again and they find themselves at a large pool. They are on the edge of the Mortingale Ravine. Here the sound is much louder, crashing as the water from the pool falls down to the Mortingale river far below. They can’t see the waterfall from this side of the pool, just the mist it throws up into the air. The pool is shallow. Its black rocky bottom clearly visible.
They stand and look at it. “Zhilvar pool,” says Inga.
Elric has heard of Zhilvar Pool, one of the Empire’s great wonders. The shallow water that sits atop Luna Falls, the great waterfall that plunges from it into the Mortingale ravine. They must be less than half a day’s walk from Lunatum here.
“We should bathe,” says Inga.
“Bathe in that?” says Little Lamb. “And be pulled over the falls to die on the rocks?”
“It’s safe enough,” says Inga. “If you stay away from the edge. It's so shallow. Artemian acolytes used to make pilgrimage here from the mountains. Just to bathe in these waters. They’re the purest in the world. All your filth and sin are washed away into the depths of the ravine.”
Little Lamb laughs, “If you say so. But you first.”
“Very well,” says Inga. She pulls off her shirt and breeches and wades naked into the pool. The water only comes up to her knees. She turns around, body on show. Her ribs visible below her small breasts. “See. There’s a pull towards the edge but it’s not strong. It’s safe to bathe. Let’s arrive in the city cleansed in the eyes of the Lord Lucent the Golden Ram.”
Elric twitches. The afternoon sun is warm and the water looks cool and clean. His body still aches from a night spent in Little Lamb’s cruel ropes. The idea of washing away the filth of his journey is appealing if not necessarily his sins. The sins he has committed lately are ones he is rather fond of. But he doesn’t want to strip himself in front of all these Mortingales and wade into such dangerous waters, despite Lukas’s assurances. It might not be rational to kill him, but he isn’t certain Inga and Little Lamb can be counted upon to be rational. The thought of it makes his heart beat a little too hard. What if they plan to cast him over the edge in vengeance for Red Wolf?
But neither of them seem interested in him right now. Little Lamb is already pulling off his clothes to join Inga in the water.
Lukas stands and looks at Elric. Elric takes a step closer to Lukas. “Are you sure this is safe?” he says.
Lukas nods. “Absolutely. People come here to bathe all the time. It’s less than half a day’s travel from Lunatum. I knew many who visited. I swear they always returned.”
“I’m not scared of the waterfall,” Elric says, annoyed that Lukas might think so.
“Then what?”
“Little Lamb and Inga pushing me over the edge for bringing Imperial soldiers down on you.”
“They can’t hurt you. They need you.” Lukas shakes his head. “I’ll watch them. Don’t fret, Lordling.”
Elric smiles a small smile at this, but he wonders if that is enough. It is clear Lukas is no match for Little Lamb in a fight. If Little Lamb wanted to do something would Lukas truly be able to stop him?
But the cool, clear water looks so inviting. And if Little Lamb wants him dead, Elric rationalises, he’s dead whether he bathes or not. “Thank you,” he says, sounding quite demure.
Lukas turns away and starts to strip himself to join the others in the pool. Elric pauses, watching as Lukas takes off his shirt and breeches, looking idly at his strong body. Fully revealed to him in daylight for the first time. Elric looks at Lukas’s muscular thighs and flat, hairy belly, with a jolt of lust.
But if Lukas is aware of Elric staring at him, he does not react to it. Naked, he removes his silver mirror pendant and sets about unstrapping the brace that holds his hook in place. Lukas glances up at Elric as he works the buckles across his chest open with his single hand. His expression is dark, although he is quite adept at the task.
“You don’t like removing that, do you?” Elric says. “You only take it off to sleep.”
Lukas shakes his head. “I don’t. Want to wash, though.” He slides off the sleeve section, revealing his bare stump of an arm. He looks so oddly, extraordinarily naked, so vulnerable with it gone that Elric has to swallow hard.
Lukas is no match for Little Lamb with his hook. And without it…? Elric pushes that thought away. They will be in Lunatum tomorrow. He has survived this far.
Lukas puts the harness, the sleeve, pauldron and the hook down on top of his clothes and slips into the water. Elric pulls off his own clothes and follows.
On the bank, Marko comes close to the edge of the water, dipping a paw into it before changing her mind about following them in and choosing instead to scamper about on the edge chasing butterflies.
The water is so brilliantly cold it takes Elric’s breath. He can feel a small tug from the current, pulling towards the waterfall, but the pool is shallow and it feels quite safe. He dips under the surface and comes up shaking his head from side to side to flick out the cold water. He feels good.
He gets every part of himself wet and lies back in the water to soak. He can see Lukas doing the same. Drifting on his back. Maybe when Elric is done washing he’ll swim over to Lukas and see if he can be persuaded to kiss him again. Lukas had kissed him last night as if possessed by a demon. As they had travelled today, Elric sitting in the cart, but unbound, things had been much as they were before, despite the heavy weight of Red Wolf’s death carried on all their shoulders. Lukas had been growling and sullen, but, in moments, strangely affable. He is the oddest man Elric has ever met. Changeable as the wind. And so attractive it makes Elric’s mouth dry.
Elric had begun this journey thinking how thrilling it would be to bed one of Prince Rafus’s bastard sons, the notorious Rebel Prince. He never considered he’d get to do that and only end up wanting more. Wanting something else. To explore this connection and find out how deep it goes.
And it’s a shame, Elric thinks, a real shame, that Lukas Darekul is the last man in the world Elric should consider falling for. Even if Red Wolf died without betraying Elric’s part in the ruination of Lukas’s life. His part in it means he really ought to stay away from Lukas if he cares about him at all. Keep both their hearts safe. They’ll be in Lunatum tomorrow. And then Elric will have to run or die. Without Red Wolf, it will be more difficult to find a way to run. But he will find one, he is sure, in the chaos of a city as wild as Lukas described. He will run as soon as they reach Lunatum. He will not look back. He will not think about Lukas Darekul the Bastard Prince. He’ll have a new life.
That was always his plan.
Elric goes back to washing, pushing these thoughts from his mind. The cool clear water feels good against his torn wrists. Perhaps when he has bathed Lukas will dress them again. Open that tin with his teeth and rub salve into Elric’s skin with that expression of concentration on his handsome face.
One last night with his charming outlaw. And then he will put it all behind him.
Elric looks around, Lukas floats some distance away. Little Lamb, is standing up in the water, staring at Inga who is on the grass beside the pool, sunning herself dry. Elric looks at her too for a moment, her small tits and the dark tangle of hair over her sex.
She sits up and looks over, seeing Elric watching her. “What are you looking at, cocksucker?” she says, shading her eyes with one hand. “I don’t have a cock for you to suck so turn your eyes away.”
“I’m just washing myself,” Elric says.
“Not forgotten my brother,” Inga says. “In case you were thinking you’d got away with that.”
“That was nothing to do with me,” Elric calls back. “I am sorry you lost him. I liked him.”
“Did you now?” Inga’s clipped tone is distinctly threatening.
Elric glances over his shoulder for Lukas. He’s a small distance away, still floating on his back in the water. Elric is nowhere near the edge of the pool here. If Inga rushed into the water now, hoping to drag him over into the ravine, she’d never get him there before he could alert Lukas.
But that’s not what they’re planning, is it? Elric is certain. They’re planning something else. They can’t kill him.
Inga says, “I remember the day we left, do you?”
Elric shrugs. He puts his hands on his hips and tries to sound bold. “Yes. Of course. I don’t find it a challenge to remember the events of five days ago.”
Inga smiles nastily. “You were flirting with Silverhand, all over him. He’s a stupid slut for it, of course. But I remember what you said. Your voice carries like a fucking temple bell. You said you were glad it wasn’t Little Lamb in charge of you, because if he fucked you, he’d split you in half.”
“Just a turn of phrase.” Elric squares his shoulders. He can brazen this out without screaming for Lukas, he is certain. He says, “I am sure I can accommodate Little Lamb if he wishes to sample the joys of luxoli.”
Inga smiles nastily. “Let’s find out, shall we?” she says.
It happens fast. There’s a loud splashing noise at Elric’s back, which he realises is Little Lamb coming up behind him, but it’s too late. Before Elric finishes his thought, Little Lamb is grabbing him in meaty arms and dragging him towards the bank.
Elric screams out, “Silverhand!”
He struggles, wet and slippery in Little Lamb’s arms, but Little Lamb is ludicrously strong.
Marko comes shooting out of the trees, barking furiously. She jumps up at Little Lamb with a snarl. Little Lamb kicks her out of his way.
“Don’t,” Elric screams, still struggling. “Leave her alone.” He looks down at Marko, who is snarling at Little Lamb, but keeping her distance.
He hears Lukas shout something. He’s standing up in the water, then splashing towards them. He hears Inga saying, “Stay out of this, Silverhand. The brat needs a lesson after yesterday. He practically offered anyway.”
Little Lamb has Elric half out of the water now. Elric screams, “No, no, get off me.” One of Little Lamb’s arms is around Elric’s neck. He tries to bite it.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Lukas bellows, storming towards Inga, who has moved to stand on the water’s edge, blocking Lukas from getting to Elric and Little Lamb. “Put him down. Right the fuck now. I told you no one is to touch him.”
Little Lamb drags Elric across the grass, away from the bank of the pool. “Now, now, Silverhand,” he says, pulling Elric up hard in front of his naked body, forearm choke-tight to Elric’s throat, “You’ve had your taste. I’ve seen you. My turn now.”
“What?” Lukas spits. “What the fuck, Little Lamb? You don’t even like cock.”
Little Lamb grunts in response. “A hole is a hole. What’s the fucking difference?”
Inga puts a hand on Lukas’s chest. Lukas looks back at her. He’s so much more defenceless like this, naked, without his hook. Did they wait for this moment? Did they wait for Lukas to remove his hook to attack so they’d have their biggest advantage? It had been Inga’s idea to bathe in Zhilvar pool.
Inga’s burn scar catches the corner of her mouth as she smiles at Lukas. It holds that corner of her mouth down giving her face a strangely confusing expression. “What can I say, Silvercock? You must have convinced him.”
Lukas lifts his left hand. He takes hold of Inga’s wrist. “Let him go, Inga,” he says, low and threatening. “Call off your beast. Or you will answer to me.”
Inga looks quite shocked. “You’d fight me? What are you going to do? Hit me with that maimed excuse for an arm? Everyone knows you are not the fighter you were, Silverhand. Are you so cockstruck for this whore that you’d try? He’s ours. We caught him. We can use him as we wish. So long as he is breathing when we reach Lunatum and deliver him to the Plumians it matters not. Run along Silverhand and I’ll call you when Little Lamb’s done. He’ll open him up for you, how about that?”
“No,” Lukas says, levelly. “Let him go right now and walk away. Or I kill you both.”
Inga looks shocked. She opens her mouth to say something, but Lukas doesn’t let her. He hits Inga in the face with his handless forearm, following up with a punch from his good hand. It throws her down onto the ground where she lands with a shocked grunt. Lukas turns and kicks her hard in the ribs. Inga gasps and Lukas falls on her, dropping to his knees and punching Inga in the face. Hard. Inga splutters, “Possessive luxorite, aren’t we?” Lukas hits her again.
Elric can’t look away. But Elric realises Lukas knows just what he’s doing. Lukas isn’t simply fighting Inga out of rage. Lukas is distracting Little Lamb. Little Lamb will not be able to stop himself going to help Inga. Which means…
Elric feels Little Lamb throw him forward onto the grass.
“That’s enough, Silverhand,” Little Lamb grunts, racing over and pulling Lukas off Inga. He drags Lukas back and slams a big fist into his gut. Lukas doubles over, wind shot out of him. He staggers to stay on his feet.
Marko starts barking ferociously at Little Lamb.
Elric sits up and screams out, “No. No!” as Little Lamb’s fist comes up, connecting with Lukas’s chin hard enough that he sends Lukas down on his ass. When he’s down, Little Lamb kicks him between his legs.
Lukas groans. Elric remembers the last time Little Lamb fought Lukas. He’d had his hook then and he’d still taken a beating.
Inga stands watching as Little Lamb keeps on pounding Lukas as he lies on the ground, helpless. “The Lordling might be too valuable to kill, Silverhand,” she sneers, “but I wonder if you are.”
Lukas seems barely conscious.
Little Lamb looks around, “Fetch my axe,” he says. “Let’s take his other hand off.”
Inga laughs. “No. I have a better idea. What if we threw him in the water right over by the edge now?” says Inga. “See if he can stop himself being dragged over.”
Little Lamb laughs. He bends down and scoops Lukas up in his arms. Lukas is limp as a sack of rags. Not exactly unconscious, but certainly in no state to save himself if they threw him into the pool near where the water crashes down into the ravine.
Elric looks around. He scrambles to his feet and rushes over towards Lukas’s pile of clothes. He grabs the hook set on top of it. Deadly sharp.
Last time, he ran into a fight and jumped onto Little Lamb’s back. He’d had no idea what he was doing. Should he try that again? Charge into this now, armed with Lukas’s hook in his fist? If he did that he is sure he’d end up going over the edge too.
But Elric wonders if there is another way. One that doesn’t mean he needs to run into the pool at all. “Inga!” he shouts. “Don’t!”
Inga looks at him. Elric stands naked on the bank, next to Lukas’s belongings. He holds the hook to his own throat.
Inga looks at him, bemused. “What the fuck are you doing, Lordling?”
“I’m too valuable to kill, right? You need me for your deal with the Plumians. They’re not going to make an alliance with you if all you have is my body.” He pricks at the skin of his neck with the hook. Its vicious point ready to rip his throat open.
Inga looks furious. “You’re fucking bluffing,” she says, but she sounds genuinely vexed.
Elric lets the point of the hook prick the skin of his throat. “I’m fucking not. You think I want to be in the custody of the two of you without him? Put him down or I will slit my own throat with this fucking hook.”
Inga stares at Elric. She looks as if she is deciding whether or not to let him do it.
There is a long pause. Elric feels like he wants to vomit. There is bile in his mouth. He tries to figure out if he has the strength to slice his own throat.
He can hear birds calling, the wind in the trees, the endless crashing of the water. Is this how he dies?
Marko is at his feet, looking up at him. She whines. “Don’t fret, dearheart,” he whispers down at her. “I know what I’m doing.” He prays that he does.
Eventually, Inga says, “Very well. Drop him, Little Lamb. Bitch has learnt its lesson.”
Little Lamb turns around. He carries Lukas back to the bank and drops him down into the shallow water, looking extremely disappointed about it.
Lukas groans. Little Lamb spits on him.
Inga says, “Let’s make a fire. Get dry and make camp for the night.” She walks past Elric not looking at him and picks up her clothes before walking into the trees. Little Lamb follows, blowing Elric a brief kiss as he walks past. But they don’t resume their attack. Perhaps they never meant to, only meant to scare him.
Elric puts the hook down and wades back into the water towards Lukas. He helps him up, onto his feet and out of the water to the bank, where Marko comes over and nuzzles at Lukas’s bare thigh. Elric pulls on his shirt and breeches, then picks up Lukas’s belongings and walks back over to him on the ground. Lukas groans. Elric tears a piece of his silk shirt and uses it as a rag to wipe the blood from Lukas’s face.
“Thank you,” Lukas says, thickly.
Elric picks up the brace that holds Lukas’s hook. “Do you want this back on?”
Lukas nods. Elric shakes out the leather straps and wraps the thing carefully around Lukas’s bruised body. Lukas winces as Elric fastens the buckles clumsily, struggling to understand how the brace works. “Let me,” Lukas says, pushing Elric’s hands away. Elric watches, unspeaking, as Lukas tightens the straps across his upper body until everything is firm and much tighter than Elric would have strapped it. Lukas picks up the pauldron and straps that in place too. Then the sleeve. He inserts his stump into it and straps that to the pauldron. He seems to sigh as he slots the hook into place. Then, as if remembering what happened, he reaches up. He touches the place on Elric’s neck where his skin was broken with the hook. “Thank you,” says Lukas, “but you didn’t have to do that.”
“I did,” says Elric. “They were going to kill you. It was for my good as much as for yours.”
“Oh, so you are fond of me,” Lukas says with a grin. There’s thin pink blood all over his teeth.
Elric laughs. “Only because I think I will survive the last day of this journey better with you alive.”
“They wouldn’t have killed me,” says Lukas.
“I’m not so sure about that,” says Elric.
Lukas shakes his head. He puts his pendant back on and gets dressed as he speaks, “It’s like you said. If Little Lamb ever thought he could get away with killing me, I’d be dead. And Inga’s not stupid. Her blood might be up because of what happened yesterday, but she would have come to her senses before Lamb tossed me over the edge. They need me to make the deal with the Plumians too. I’m the one who knows where to meet the envoy. Until that deal is struck they cannot kill either of us. I am sure Abul made that clear to her before we began this cursed mission.” He tests his hook with his hand, making sure it’s firmly in place. “It’s funny, I suppose, but your men killed the only one of us we could complete this mission without. Red Wolf’s role was to negotiate with the Plumians. And we can do that without him.”
“Not my men,” Elric says sternly.
“I know,” Lukas says, then he looks up at Elric. He looks into his eyes. “I know. Truly.”
Gingerly, they both walk towards the camp Inga and Little Lamb have set up. They can smell the smoke and they round a clump of rocks to find Inga and Little Lamb boiling a pot of broth on a small fire. It smells good. Inga is shirtless. She has a dark bruise blooming on her face.
Lukas bends and takes some of the bread, cheese and ale laid out beside the fire. Then moves around to the far side away from Inga and Little Lamb. Elric follows and sits beside Lukas. Little Lamb is watching them, looking ready to spin into violent action if Lukas tries anything.
They eat in heavy silence, Inga passing out bowls of the broth. It’s made with the last of the mushrooms Elric picked with Lukas days ago. Elric dips his bread into the hot liquid. He’d had no food the night before and his belly growls to be satisfied. Lukas shares his part of the meal with Marko, who seems unwilling to leave his side. He looks a state, face bruised and mouth swollen.
Elric listens to the distant roar of Zhilvar Falls. As Lukas finishes his bread, Inga gets up. Little Lamb too. They both walk over to stand in front of Lukas.
As Lukas looks up at them, Inga says, “Silverhand, about earlier we have a job to do. Let’s not let that happen again.”
Lukas gives her a sour look, but he nods. “Let’s not.”
“How about we settle our differences for once and for all after we’ve delivered your slut to the Plumians. Deal?” She holds out a hand.
Lukas takes it, awkwardly, with his left hand, gripping Inga’s forearm. “Very well.”
Little Lamb holds out his meaty fist. Lukas takes his arm too. As he does, Little Lamb says, “This isn’t fucking over, Silverhand. After we hand over your whore to the Plumians, you’re a fucking dead man.”
“I look forward to it,” Lukas says.
Inga and Little Lamb stalk off to return to their spots on the other side of the fire.
Elric shuffles a little closer to Lukas on the ground.
“I want to see the waterfall again,” Elric whispers.
Lukas nods. He drinks the last of the ale from his cup. They both stand. “Going to take a walk,” Lukas says.
“A walk, Silverhand?” says Inga, who has returned to her spot some distance away on the other side of the fire. “We’ve been walking all day.”
“Nevertheless,” says Lukas, “I think a little distance might be in order. Tonight, I intend to commit a series of sins of the body with my captive here, before we hand him over to the Plumians and you two finally make good on your promises to execute me. I think that would be more pleasurable in private.”
Despite everything, Elric feels his heart soar with delight.
Lukas takes Elric’s hand and leads him through the trees. Marko zips about at their feet, chasing rodents in the undergrowth, yipping happily. As they walk, the roaring of the falls gets louder. In a few more moments they reach a spot on the edge, further up the ravine from Zhilvar pool. Here they can see the water thundering down. They both stand and watch it for a moment. The sun is going down and the sky above the falls is turning pink, red and orange.
“It’s very beautiful,” Elric says. “The orange sky.”
Lukas says, “I am sorry about what happened with Inga and Little Lamb. That should never have happened. I should have made sure you were safe.”
“Is it your job to keep me safe?”
“In some ways,” says Lukas, turning. He lifts his hook and puts the curve of it under Elric’s chin. “But it’s also something I want to do. For myself.” He looks into Elric’s eyes. “We’ll be in Lunatum tomorrow morning,” he says.
Elric knows what he means. This is their last night together. He says, “Let’s sit.”
They both sit down beside some rocks a short distance from the ravine. They can still see the falls, the misty spray and the sunset colours. Elric leans back against the rocks. They are smooth and dry, warm from the day’s heat. Tomorrow this ends, Elric thinks. When they get to Lunatum, he will take his first chance to run. He has to run.
But not tonight. Tonight he wants something good. Something chosen for himself.
He wants…
He leans closer to Lukas and kisses him.