Chapter 14 The Complicated’s Only Just Getting Started
The Complicated’s Only Just Getting Started
Alobaz and his comrades had ridden their sh?dreads over from the castle. The beasts—equal part dragon, pegasus, and shadow—were large and muscled, brutal and vicious. As much as Alobaz, as any of his crew, they were soldiers, hardened to the ways of battle.
“Please tell me we ain’t ridin’ one o’ those,” said the prettiest of the feeders, Jaeda, one of many who doubled as a whore. She sidled up to him but didn’t touch him. “Though I’ll give you the ride o’ yer life.”
She’d made the identical promise to Alobaz every time they’d hired her company over the past several weeks. She hadn’t yet fulfilled that lofty promise. But at least she had learned not to touch him without his express permission.
The beasts huddled together in the shadows off to the side of the inn slash tavern slash brothel slash feeder den. They never tied up their sh?dreads.
Lev laughed. “Definitely not. No one rides our sh?dreads but us.”
“Can I get that in writing?” Aziza said with pursed lips that somehow managed to point at him. “And signed in blood?”
Last week, Lev had tried to mount her sh?dread, a female as feisty as her rider. He was still working out the resulting limp from his failed attempt.
“Nope. But I’ll let you bleed on me any ol’ time you want.”
“We’ll have to walk,” Alobaz said before Aziza could react—and she would; she always did.
Lev was the only one to groan, even though behind Félix, he was their fastest runner. Alobaz was third.
Besides Jaeda, the rest of the feeders and prostitutes were silent, watchful. Word must have gotten around quickly about the deal that was taking place in the tavern section of the establishment. The numbers of companions had rapidly and quietly swelled to sixteen, plus the young boy and girl.
With their present company, the walk would take them a couple of hours. Alobaz began down the dirt street, which had cooled since the sun set. The moon was high in the sky, the Fuerin Star trailing behind, her own faithful companion.
The emperor never gave Alobaz all the funds he needed.
Even so, Alobaz allotted some of their budget for a wizard whose job it was to maintain the streets of Galmeen.
Only now was the city’s former stench finally fading.
It had been a constant assault since their arrival at the castle nearly six months before.
Félix and Night walked with Alobaz, far enough ahead that even those with fae hearing couldn’t eavesdrop.
Without discussion, Ed, Aziza, Lev, and Moncho walked alongside their new charges—charges Alobaz sure as dragonshit didn’t need.
The sh?dreads took up the rear. Their hulking frames, spiky teeth, and lethal claws guaranteed no one would approach them.
Before Félix could comment—and he would—Alobaz ran both hands along his face with a huff.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
Night nodded stoically.
“We don’t need any more complications.”
Night grunted.
“Tell me I’ll be flying back later,” Félix said.
“No choice now.” Alobaz had kept that same pair of rubies on him—always deep in his pocket—since his father stationed him at the castle. It was the emergency fund, in case any of his crew were in urgent need. He couldn’t be without it.
“No choice unless you want to hit up dearest daddy,” Félix said.
Night shook his head fervently. His short hair was so thick and wiry, it didn’t so much as quiver.
“That’s obviously not an option,” Alobaz muttered.
“So I get them back,” Félix said. “The delightful lady of the establishment?”
“Only if you have to. Don’t want it getting back that it was you.”
“It won’t. And the mate?”
“Same. Kill him only if you must.”
Night grunted, this time with a frown.
“Don’t worry, Night,” Félix said, leaning forward to look at him around Alobaz. “If I do get to kill them, I’ll make sure it sends a message to anyone else wanting to peddle kids.”
“Subtle, Félix,” Alobaz said. “We need subtle right now or we might never get to leave this Fuerin-cursed place.”
Félix didn’t respond.
“I’m serious.”
“I heard you.”
“Hearing and obeying are vastly different things.”
The elf tipped his head with a discreetly hiked brow. “Oh, is it obedience you want now?”
“You know it isn’t.”
“Then let’s discuss what we’re going to do with a troupe of harlots and children once we get them to the castle. We are taking them to the castle?”
We’d rented booths or rooms by the hour before. “We are.”
“That will be … interesting.”
“I’m still working it all out.”
“Then maybe I should work on it too.”
“Feel free.”
“How are we going to get them onto the island?”
“Working on that too.”
“Hm.”
“I know.”
“How about I just go ahead and get the rubies back now? Make sure she doesn’t spend them or make a run for it. I’ll follow shortly. At this rate, I might catch up before you even reach the abyss.”
Alobaz frowned, at himself more than at the elf, before nodding. “Go. Take Mistlene.”
“I’ll be back before you start missing me.”
Mid-step, the elf stopped walking. Within the span of a single breath, he vanished into dark pools between lumoons. His sh?dread Mistlene similarly faded with him, like the very mist she was named after.
“Night, you have any ideas how to get them all across?”
He shook his head.
“Didn’t think so.”
The castle was once the seat of the Lingdon Dynasty, precisely because flying was the only way in—after that, the real challenges to entry began.
Originally named an unimaginative yet accurate Abysmal Fortress, it hunkered on a floating island that was encircled by a sheer drop that had no end he’d ever seen.
Despite its many rooms, the castle didn’t accept guests.
It only begrudgingly tolerated Alobaz and his friends.
“The whole damn point of drinking from feeders and fucking whores is to keep things simple. Scratch that itch so we stay sharp but with no problems.”
“Right on.”
“You know it’s no good to be strung tight.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Things are supposed to be simple now. No entanglements.”
“Yup.”
“So why does it feel like the complicated’s only just getting started?”
Night looked at him.
Alobaz scratched the slight beard that had grown in over the previous week, padded quietly along hard-packed dirt. The night was pleasantly cool after the hot day. “Yeah, yeah, I know. If it feels like it, may as well prepare for it, ’cause if I feel it, then sure as dragonshit it’s coming.”
“Yup.”
“What could possibly be coming on the wind that’s more complicated than sixteen hookers and a pair of kids I bought us?”
For that, neither Alobaz nor Night had an answer.