44. Vesper #3
He gestures to Locke and my eyes trail over to him again.
His clothes are gone. Instead, he’s dressed in barely anything at all, a small metal and cloth cage for his privates and literally nothing else except for what looks like a collar around his neck.
Connected from the collar to the throne is a chain, as if preventing him from running, something I notice isn’t on the other players lounging at her feet.
He’s mostly clean, almost pristine despite the general grime of the sewers.
There are a few scrapes on his knees where it looks like he was forced to them, but .
. . most of his scars are old ones. He meets my eyes and there’s a haunted-ness to him that makes me bristle.
Small puncture wounds pepper his shoulders and his ribs, and one long scratch cuts down his chest.
“What did you do to him?” I snarl, taking a step forward.
The rat guards around the room immediately tense, their weapons at the ready. Havoc’s hand wraps around my forearm and squeezes tight enough to hurt, stopping me.
“My apologies,” he says, making the rat queen giggle. “This player has yet to be trained.”
The rat queen rolls her eyes. “You always did have a soft spot for the idiots, Legend,” she purrs. “Unfortunately for you, I have a soft spot for this Bone Breaker. Any trading will have to be very, very persuasive.”
Her eyes trail down his body and it’s clear she wants Havoc more than Locke, but I doubt the legend is planning on trading himself for someone he doesn’t know. Which means this is going to fail.
“I can give you a hundred Harrow Coins,” Havoc offers.
She laughs again. “Do I look like I need Harrow Coins, Legend? I am a queen.”
Cipher, I whisper in my mind.
“Yes?”
What is the probability of us getting out of here without a fight? I ask. The statistics.
He pauses for a moment. “The Rat Queen currently has chosen Locke as her favorite concubine. It would take a monumental trade that Havoc is not willing to offer to work. The chances of you escaping without a fight is less than one percent.”
So, there’s no point for all this formality then?
“I would say no”, he agrees. “Beware. The Rat Kingdom is made up of very resilient fighters.”
I nod and set my poodle on the ground. “Get ready to fight,” I tell it, hoping that it can at least serve as a distraction.
“Wait for my call.” Havoc glances at my movement, but doesn’t say anything as him and the queen continue to discuss whatever it is that they’re discussing.
She’s declined three different offers so far, indicating that she’ll only accept him fucking her in place of Locke.
It doesn’t matter. She won’t accept a trade we’re willing to give and Havoc isn’t going to offer himself in Locke’s place.
I’m not leaving here without the Bone Breaker.
I open my inventory. I don’t have much that will help with this situation, but I do have my Fang and a bauble bomb I still have yet to use.
Pulling my blade from my inventory, the air in the room shifts. I meet the Queen’s eyes and grin. “Sorry, rat bitch,” I tell her, “but I’m not leaving without him and you’re standing in the way of that.”
She claps her claws together. “I was just yearning for a fight!”
“What the fuck?” Havoc snarls, pulling his large sword from his back sheath. “I told you not to talk!”
“Cipher said there was less than a one percent chance of walking out of here without a fight. So, unless you were about to trade your body for Locke’s, we were going to end up here anyway.” I slash at the first guard that appears and cut off a sharp finger.
Havoc snarls, pissed that I’m right, and starts slashing.
The poodle yips at my feet, lunging at the rats, but not attacking. Mostly, it just fucking barks, annoying the fuck out of me and generally being under my feet.
“Do not worry,” Svetlana spits. “I am much more useful.”
Her wings flare wide and she leaps off my shoulder with a battle cry. She chops off the head of the nearest guard and then flutters to the next one, hacking with her tibial spines while she cuts pieces from him.
I’ve never liked rats. Mostly because the ones back in Dross are little disease carriers and will eat you if given the opportunity. It isn’t unheard of for rats to feast on a live baby if the parents aren’t vigilant enough. It’s happened too many times for me to like the creatures.
Somehow, these one makes me hate them more.
The guards are a variety of patchwork furs and festering disease, their horrifying screeches echoing loud against the concrete around us as Havoc, Svetlana, and I cut them down.
I try not to think about the diseases I could be getting as their blood splatters across me.
I’m grateful that disease doesn’t seem to spread here, but still, it grosses me out.
Some of them are growing mold on their faces!
I make a mental note to find a healing potion sooner rather than later as I hack and hack, causing blood to splatter the poodle’s white fur when it gets caught up beneath my legs.
Havoc, surprisingly, cuts down plenty of guards around us, chopping his way through pretty thoroughly. Svetlana keeps up with him.
“Get the female!” the Rat Queen shouts.
I look at her and grin. “I told you,” I say as I rush toward her throne. “I’m not leaving without him.”
Locke starts to yank at his chain, trying to free himself. Whatever she’s done to him, he can’t seem to break it, as if his strength is gone. It doesn’t matter. I’ll make sure this bitch chokes on the chain.
Harrow, I hope she hasn’t touched him yet. I hope I wasn’t too late.
The queen flies off the throne toward me in anger.
The chain is connected to her, I realize, when Locke is jerked after her with a grunt.
He fights against her pull, slowing her down just barely, but she still meets me with her sharp claws and just narrowly misses swiping me across the face.
I dive out of the way and slash upward with my Fang, but she’s fast. What should have been a crippling hit only cuts her across the arm, only serving to piss her off more.
I move to the right, nearly tripping over the fucking poodle again as it rushes forward and starts to bark at the rat queen. She hisses at it and tries to kick it.
“Don’t fucking touch my poodle!” I snarl, swiping my blade at her.
Without waiting for another reply, I drag my Bauble Bomb from my inventory and slam it into the ground before me.
I’d thought it was an explosive, had been prepared for that.
Instead, it explodes in a wall of green glitter and the rat queen stumbles back, hacking on the glitter cloud as it fills her lungs.
I cough too, covering my mouth quickly to try and keep it from affecting me.
Stevie bounces beside me. “Oh, so pretty,” he coos. “Look at all the glitter. Like, how magical!”