21. Lirion
Apirate. A rogue. A necromancer. And…a poisoner?
It sounded like Lirion had hired a group of villains to save his sister. Not what he’d expected when he first thought of finding help.
Of course, after his dealings with Gale Reeve and his band of heroic assholes, the idea of requesting the assistance of heroes to rescue his sister had also been thrown out the window. But villains? Nope, never crossed his mind. They were supposed to be worse, right?
Except when Fenric talked about his friends, it became clear this wasn’t going to be the most evil group of people Lirion had encountered. And he’d known some real dickbags in his time.
No, naughty seemed to be a better description for them.
As they reached the tall, narrow house on a crowded block, Fenric suddenly stopped and dragged in a deep, fortifying breath, his hand scrubbing through his windblown hair.
“So…these guys…they’re not all bad. I mean, we are villains, but we have our hard limits.
It’s not like we’re going to rescue your sister and then sell you both to a new ring of sex slavers.
There’s not enough profit in it. Not split five ways.
” He paused and furrowed his brow. “Shit. Six now.” He looked over at Lirion and winked.
“That was a joke. We don’t sell people under any circumstances. ”
Lirion’s heart squeezed at Fenric’s unexpected attempts to lighten some of the tension. “It’s okay. I’m not too bad at protecting myself. You wouldn’t want to end up like dear old Gale.”
Fenric shuddered. “No. Definitely not. I just want you aware that we can use some very unorthodox and illegal means to accomplish our goals.”
“Again, I remind you of Gale Reeve.” Lirion might have smirked when Fen grew a touch paler. Not that he wanted the sexy man afraid of him, but he needed Fen to understand he wasn’t helpless, either.
“True. True.”
Fenric seemed to hesitate a moment longer before finally shrugging and leading the way up the narrow path to the front door.
The very moment his hand touched the doorknob, there was a loud explosion within the house, followed by a bellowing roar similar to a war cry.
“My books!”
The rogue next to him groaned but didn’t seem surprised in the least. “Yeah. This is why I can’t leave them alone.”
Before Lirion could ask any follow-up questions, Fen shoved open the door, which led directly into a parlor and total chaos.
A huge blond barbarian type wrapped in brown and green leather stood in the middle of blackened, smoldering ruins, holding a pale red-haired man in long flame-orange robes covered in burnished gold starbursts over his head as he thrust him up into the ceiling.
Plaster and dust rained down on the other occupants of the room, who didn’t seem to be in any hurry to stop this destruction.
A man with pointed ears peeking through elegant long blond hair stood in the background looking bored, while an older, heavily scarred but still sexy dark-haired and bearded man cheered the barbarian on, thrusting a bottle of rum into the air.
The only one who looked even remotely anxious was the young man with curly golden-brown hair and ridiculously large eyes in his slender face.
“What the hell?!” Fenric shouted above the chaos.
In an instant, everyone froze, their wide eyes snapping to Fenric as he stood over the threshold with his hands on his hips.
“We’ve had this lease for barely more than a week, and you’re already losing our deposit!”
“He destroyed my books!” the barbarian cried out, hammering the other man into the ceiling again.
“I…was trying…to shrink them…for easy…transport,” the other man attempted to explain between thumps into the ceiling.
Fen groaned. “Bel, if you kill him, he can’t do the mending spell to fix your books.”
The one called Bel glared at Fen as he thrust the other man into the ceiling one last time, though with a touch less force, before placing him safely on the floor.
Wobbling on his feet, the man took a couple of steps before landing on his ass.
He glared at the barbarian, his short hair standing up in all directions.
“You know I didn’t mean to harm your precious books.
I would never do that to you. Besides, books are just as precious to me as they are to you because of all the priceless information and history they hold within their pages.
I will fix them right away, and you won’t be able to tell they were ever harmed, every word and punctuation mark will be put in its proper place.
I’ll even get that musty, old book smell back in the pages. ”
“Just fix them,” Bel growled.
“And the ceiling,” Fen threw in. “But later.”
“What?” The barbarian looked ready to charge and Lirion couldn’t stop himself from taking a judicious step behind Fenric, who had not moved a single muscle under the threat of that raging beast.
“We have a guest and a job.”
And just like that, Lirion was the center of attention. Not that he had a problem with attention. In his line of work, it was normal.
“Hello. Lirion Windstrum, professional bard and occasional troublemaker,” he said as he stepped out from behind Fenric. “My sweet Fen here believes we can be of mutual assistance to each other in our endeavors.”
“Well, well…” The dark-haired man with the beard drawled as he moseyed a couple of swaggering steps forward.
As he drew close, Lirion could make out a thick scar on his neck from what could possibly have been a hangman’s noose.
“Fen never told us he has such a gorgeous friend. How could you not introduce us sooner? Keepin’ this beauty all to yourself.
” He wagged a finger playfully at Fen before turning his attention fully back to Lirion.
“If I’d known you were stopping by, I would have put on my best.”
Lirion’s lips twitched under the exaggerated flirtation. “Unnecessary, but thank you.”
“Don’t be flattered,” Fen muttered. “He’s talking about walking around pantsless, and none of us need to see that again.”
The scarred man flipped Fen off and then raised his thick eyebrows at Lirion before giving him a wink.
“Interesting.”
Fen sighed. “No. That’s Dark Rain, though we all just call him Rain, and he’s a pirate.
” Fen pointed to the back of the room and continued with the introductions.
“The elf over there is Hapi. Don’t let his name fool you.
He’s actually quite grumpy. He’s our resident necromancer.
The ceiling battering ram is Malfas. He’s our warlock, assuming he’s got any brains left in his head.
The man with no sense would be our barbarian, Belstrom. ”
“I object to being feloniously labeled under such a demeaning nomenclature!”
“Then develop a little sense!” Fen snapped, but he instantly softened again when his gaze settled on the young man who hadn’t been named yet. “And this is our newest recruit, Maxie, but we all tend to call him Puppy.”
The young man practically bounced over, reminding Lirion of a golden retriever. “I’m ever so honored to make your acquaintance. I hope we can assist you with your quest. This team is very talented, and I’m learning so much from them.”
Fen ruffled Maxie’s curls, and an ache echoed through Lirion’s chest as he thought of his own sister. “I think we can give him a hand.”
“Fenric mentioned you needed some help dealing with some finfolk. I’m happy to offer my bard magic, but first, I need you to help me rescue my little sister from a devious sex trafficking ring.
I’ve tracked them down to Baza, but getting to Baza safely and getting her out of that situation is more than I can manage alone.
I thought the easiest way to handle it would be by ship—”
“Yes!” Rain exclaimed, thrusting a single finger into the air. “I’ll get my maps.”
Before anyone could raise a word of argument, Rain rushed out of the room and loudly clambered up to the second floor.
“He is verily proud of his maps,” Belstrom murmured. He shuffled closer and continued in a low voice. “I am very regretful my first impression was so poor and bewildering. Malfas was attempting to be helpful, but his magic is often…chaotic.”
“Understandable.” Lirion nodded, trying to hide his grin. These guys were villains? Other than the dark looks from the necromancer and the threat of a pantsless pirate, he couldn’t quite see the danger.
“Maybe we should move to the dining room if Rain is bringing maps. It’ll give us room to spread them out,” Fenric suggested, leading them all to tromp through the parlor and into a long, narrow dining room with a somewhat rickety table that looked as if it had been stabbed a few dozen times.
And not all of the marks were from this group.
The entire time, Fenric was shouting out orders or coaxing people to do this or that, like a mother hen clucking after all her little chicks. Lirion couldn’t take his eyes off the man. Who would have thought such a carefree, dashing rogue had such a tender side?
Just as Lirion was dropping into a chair next to Fen, Maxie hurried over with a plate of cookies.
“Would you like some? They were baked fresh this afternoon,” Maxie offered.
“Thank you.” Before Lirion could touch one, Fen’s hand zipped out and caught his wrist, stopping him.
“Who made them?” Fen demanded.
Maxie blinked wide eyes, reminding Lirion of a big puppy. “Malfas.”
“Did you help?”
“A little,” Maxie whimpered.
Fenric turned his gaze to Lirion and shook his head. “I wouldn’t.”
“I have the ability to poison people without even trying!” Maxie practically bounced on the balls of his feet, the plate of cookies still clutched in both hands before him.
But he came down again in the next instant, his shoulders drooping as if he were melting candle wax.
“But it also means I can’t help cook or feed people. ”
Fen released Lirion’s arm and smiled at Maxie. “Don’t worry, Puppy. There are plenty of other ways you can be useful.”