Chapter 4
Pinky’s eyes went wide and he glanced over his shoulder. “Shhh! Don’t let him hear you say that.”
“Or what?” I leaned close over the bar. “Is he gonna get mad?”
He gulped and took a step back, so I dialed it down. I knew I could be intimidating thanks to my height and build, but it wasn’t this lackey who had my back up.
“Can I just have five pints?” Pinky asked without any eye contact.
I rolled my eyes and went to grab glasses. Even though I wanted to ruin each pint, I didn’t do it. Pinky walked away with five of my best pulls.
My flare of temper had me thinking of a plan, though, so when there was a lull in patrons, I sidled up to Lars, who was having a grand old time counting the cash in his lockbox.
Keeping my voice low, I asked him, “Why is everyone okay with the prince sitting amongst them right now?”
“What else are they going to do?”
“Hold him for ransom?”
He slowly swiveled his head to look at me, a big grin on his face. “I like how you think, my boy.”
Literally every idea in my head right then was so wrong. I knew it. Lars probably knew it. But sometimes wrong was the only right thing to do.
“Any chance,” I said, “that I could get a change of clothes and some supplies for a trek to the castle? A nice length of rope or some handcuffs, too?”
Lars snickered. “Son, I’ll handle everything.”
He had one of the servers collect payments, while I went back to pouring pints.
I was in a foreign land and about to commit who knew how many crimes. But I wasn’t doing it out of revenge for getting left behind, or even for having to work for my meal instead of sitting at that table over there.
Though, yep, I was still pissed about both of those things.
No, my plans might benefit me in the long run if they got the fairy rings open again, but most of all, I was going to do what no one else would and teach their prince a few life lessons.
Maybe I was entirely delusional, but kidnapping Prince Solaris back to his castle felt like a hero move to me.
I kept an eye on the prince and his band of little idiots, hoping they’d stick around long enough for Lars to return.
And in watching them, I realized all the tape was gone from Solaris’s wing.
In fact, he looked healed. Had he gone to the apothecary?
If he was that fine now, going there must’ve been like visiting a wizard.
Someone made a psst sound outside the window. I turned to find Lars grinning in at me. “Ready when you are,” he said and passed me a sword.
Well, that was a first. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to do with a sword aside from emulating any number of swashbuckling or lightsabering movies I’d seen. And it looked sharp, too. This was not some dulled movie prop. I could do some damage with this thing, if I wasn’t careful.
And if I was going to snatch a prince, I’d need to make sure folks thought I would use this sword to do damage.
Oh, this is a bad idea.
I straightened my spine, held the sword down at my side, and walked around the bar directly toward their table. The chatter of the crowd changed almost instantly to a murmur, but no one ran for the door or sounded the alarm. They watched me, though.
Red and Blue noticed me coming. They drew daggers from their hips as they stood and, for a second there, I thought I’d have to fake some sword swinging moves against dudes who might be professionals.
But then the damndest thing happened.
A man at the table behind Blue pushed back in his chair and pinned Blue against the table in front of him. That distracted Pink and Purple as well as Red. One of the servers then whacked Red’s hand so hard with her tray that his dagger flew up and embedded itself in a ceiling beam.
Taking advantage of the assistance, I wrapped my arm around Solaris’s throat and hauled him up onto his feet. He hollered and tried to pry my arm off. I could feel his wings fluttering against my chest like he might be attempting to fly away.
I held the sword in front of him, pointy end aiming for his chest. He stilled immediately.
“So,” I said in his ear, “you’re the prince who needs to learn a lesson or two, huh?”
“No, I—”
I tightened my arm around his neck just enough to shut him up without making him faint. “Come now, Prince Sunshine. You’re the one who told me about how to break the curse.”
“Do your duty,” someone hollered nearby.
“See?” I said. “Your people would like it if you worked on yourself and got the curse broken instead of playing around with your boys.”
“We’re not playing,” he whispered.
Though Red was disarmed and Blue was busy cupping himself, Pink and Purple were finally cluing into what was happening. I made like I was going to stab Solaris, and both of them threw their hands up.
“No!”
“Don’t!”
While I wanted to cut off a button on Solaris’s shirt or something to show how sharp the sword actually was, I didn’t want to risk accidentally stabbing him, so I just kept pointing it at him instead.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear. “I’m taking Sol to the castle so he and anyone else who’s got the right mojo can work on breaking the curse properly. Anyone who tries to stop me will get themselves or ol’ Sol here killed. Got it?”
I was not a violent guy. I really wasn’t. Sure, I’d defended myself and others from time to time, but with my words or my fists and only until it was clear I’d been heard and understood. Stabbing? Killing? So not me.
But not a single one of these folks knew me.
Pinky was the first to move, stepping sideways to make room for me to get to the front door. Then a lot of other people stood and moved to clear a path for me. I started walking, keeping Solaris squashed against me and the sword point threatening his guts.
“You’ll never get away with this,” he practically snarled as he shuffled along with me.
“Get away with what exactly? Escorting you home? Putting you back on your throne? Oh, yes, I’m sure I’ll get life in prison for that.”
Right? Technically, that was all I was doing. The teeny tiny bit of threatening his life to make it happen was only a minor offense, really.
Solaris didn’t have anything to say to that as we made it to the door.
And right in front of us was a big wooden carriage with a pair of golden yellow horses ready to pull it.
Lars stood there beaming while holding a length of chain with manacles on either end.
I couldn’t help laughing. The man’s mind might not be all there, but what was available was as devious as mine.
I heard a tussle behind me, and turned enough to see a couple of people putting Red and Purple on the floor, while Pink and Blue had their hands up as they backed away. Folks were definitely taking sides in there.
Lars took advantage of my distraction to snap one of the cuffs on my ankle. A second later and Solaris bit my arm, the fucker, and instinct had me letting him go. I also swung the sword away so as not to cut him up when he flew into the air. With my right leg.
“Goddamnit,” I cursed as I grabbed the carriage and forced my leg back down until I had both feet on the ground. “Get down here!”
Solaris was up about six feet over my head and trying to pry the other cuff off his left ankle while wailing like an angry cat. As entertaining as that was, I had to put my full weight on my leg to keep myself from leaving the ground again.
Grabbing the chain, I started pulling him down hand over hand until I could grab his trouser leg. Even with the newly healed one, those wings of his were strong!
He growled and looked like he was about to kick me with his other leg.
I grabbed him by the knee with both hands. “You kick me, you’re hitting the ground a second later.” Or the building or the carriage, whichever way I could swing him.
That must’ve made an impression because he screamed his frustration but then came down to hover right in my face.
“Release me.”
“Get in the carriage.”
“Release me!”
I snatched the front of his shirt in both hands, while Lars very wisely opened the carriage door. I threw the prince inside. I couldn’t close the door on the further yelling because of the chain, which I pointed out to Lars.
“What the hell, man? Why’d you chain us together?”
“It’s perfect. Don’t worry.”
“You could’ve chained him to anything—”
“It’ll be brilliant.” He opened the door again. “Get in there.”
Solaris was crouched inside like he was just waiting to pounce and gouge my eyes out if I stepped inside. Maybe I could wrap the chain around him a few times.
“Are you going with us?” I asked Lars.
“Nope. Can’t.”
“Then who’s going to drive, hmm?”
He shrugged and gestured for me to get in. “I’ll have one of the boys do it. They’re just going to follow you anyway. Nothing else to do.”
Yeah, okay, I hadn’t considered fighting the color boys off during the entire journey, but it was possible they were that dedicated to their prince. I was going to have to keep the sword on him the whole time.
Or make them think I was.
“Pinky!” I hollered. I didn’t know the rest of them at all, but he seemed like the least problematic at the moment. “Get out here and drive the carriage.”
I pointed the sword in at Solaris, coming damn close to poking his nose with it. That took the snarl off his face.
“Please don’t hurt him,” Pinky said behind me. “He’s not so bad.”
“Not so bad?” I eyed him, my lip curled in disgust. “Those are not the words anyone should say to describe a leader.”
Pinky’s sigh was so loud as he walked over to the front of the carriage, like I’d taken away his favorite teddy bear.
“The rest of you,” Lars said, “go get your horses and follow along. Do anything to Mister Crowne here and he’ll slit your prince’s throat.”
Solaris groaned like a teenager and flopped onto the bench seat facing the back. Arms crossed and slouching, he looked pissed off but that bit of cooperation gave me hope that I wouldn’t spend the entire journey threatening him at sword point.
Lars shooed me up into the carriage, dropped a bundle of cloth on the floor by my foot, and closed the door with a final-sounding click.
I could hear him out there ordering the other colors around, while I watched Solaris frown-pout and stare out the window.
I got the feeling he was going to give me the silent treatment, thinking that was a punishment.
Silly Sol. I liked silence.