21. Lirion #2
“But I didn’t touch any of the ingredients with these cookies. I just washed dishes after Malfas was done,” Maxie reassured him.
“You can eat one,” Hapi said. “Belstrom ate one and didn’t die.”
“What?” the barbarian gasped. “You didn’t tell me Puppy helped Malfas in the kitchen when he made those.”
A slow, cold smile slithered across the elf’s thin lips. “I know. You were annoying and I wanted to test if Maxie simply being in the kitchen was enough to make the cookies poisonous. Apparently not.”
Belstrom’s face flushed bright red, but he didn’t otherwise attack Hapi.
Lirion didn’t want to test his luck. “Um…I ate a late lunch recently. I’m still quite full,” he lied.
Maxie nodded and scampered off with the dangerous cookies. Hopefully to destroy them.
Despite being unexpectedly deadly, there was something so sweet and eager in the boy, reminding Lirion of his sister, Aria.
While his sister was definitely older than Maxie, it had been years since he’d last seen her.
His memory of the girl echoed Maxie now, and he couldn’t help but want to coddle and protect them, but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous in their own right.
Lirion dropped his hand back to his lap and cleared his throat. “So, do you have to raise each other often?”
“Only when Puppy cooks,” the group of villains said in unison.
Before Lirion could pursue that line of thought any further, the pirate returned with an armful of rolled maps and scraps of paper.
He shimmied and shoved his way to the center of the room and dumped his bounty on the table.
With an almost frantic fervor, he shoved the papers around, opening maps, checking, and then tossing them aside before checking another.
From what Lirion could glimpse, each map had a variety of strange notes in several languages.
“It doesn’t need to be a perfect map of the route,” Hapi grumbled.
“Shut your gob, you bloody tree-hugging corpse fucker! This is my time to shine!”
Lirion tensed, waiting for the necromancer to strike the pirate dead, but all Hapi did was lift one of his slender brows at the man.
“There!” Rain finally announced. He shoved the other papers and maps aside to spread out one that focused on the western portion of Moorwood. He stabbed his finger at the town of Bjornkill. “We’re here, which means we’ll have to go through Dead Man’s Curve to get to the northern cities and Baza.”
“Would it not be safer to simply circumvent Cotra?” Belstrom inquired.
Lirion bit the inside of his cheek to keep from arguing. It would be a hell of a lot safer, but it would make the trip ridiculously longer. He needed to get to Aria now.
“Goofy bastard! I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.” Rain slapped his hand on the map.
“Going around means this trip would take months. Nobody wants to be on a ship that long with you! We’re going through Dead Man’s Curve.
I’ve done it dozens of times and the skelebabies can handle it fine.
We’ve just got to slip past the beasties and we’ll be okay.
Worst-case scenario, we can limp into the Pirate Isles to do some repair work. ”
“Isn’t Strandby closer than the Pirate Isles? Could we not stop there to resupply?” Maxie suggested.
Lirion braced himself for another explosion from Rain, but the pirate just cleared his throat, a faint blush staining his dark cheeks. “I might have run into a wee bit o’ problems at Strandby not that long ago and it’s better if I don’t step foot there.”
“What?” Maxie pressed, seeming oblivious to Rain’s sudden discomfort.
“The governor of Strandby caught Rain fucking his wife,” Hapi stated in a slightly weary tone. “He threatened to cut off Rain’s dick and feed it to his chickens if he ever stepped foot in the town again.”
“I think there were a few other infractions that resulted in bounties,” Fenric added.
Rain waved a dismissive hand at them all, as if they were talking about mere trifles. “But after Dead Man’s Curve, it’s a straight shot up to Baza. It shouldn’t take more than a week to get up there. Less if the summer winds remain in our favor.”
“Excellent!” Lirion leaned forward, his fingers digging into the edge of the table. “When can we set sail?”
Rain straightened and rubbed his jaw. “Shouldn’t take more than two days to set off. We need to take on some supplies, shore up our defenses a bit since people like to get feisty through the Pirate Isles. Won’t take long at all.”
“Wonderful!” Lirion nearly vibrated in his seat.
He wanted to reach over and pull Fenric in for a deep, drugging kiss to celebrate.
After fighting and struggling for so long to save his sister, he finally felt like he was making good progress in finding her.
Hugging her in his arms was now only a week away.
Fenric rose to his feet and planted both hands on the table.
“All right. Time to get ready for this mission. Rain, rally the skelebabies and get them working on repairs. If you have to steal provisions, wait for the last day. We can’t risk being run off early.
Rest of you, pack your gear. Plus, put the house to rights and pack up.
I’ll see about getting some of our rent back, along with the deposit.
That’ll be easier to do if he doesn’t find the ceiling damaged.
” He directed that last part at Belstrom.
The somewhat gentle giant hung his head, his broad shoulders slumped.
“Malfas, fix Bel’s books and the ceiling. Bel, you’re on cooking duty tonight.”
“What can I do?” Maxie asked.
“How about you head to the ship with Rain tonight? Help him make a list of supplies we’ll need before we set sail.”
Rain threw an arm around Maxie’s shoulders, pulling him in close. “Don’t worry, I’ll turn you into a fine pirate.”
Fen looked over at Lirion. “Are you set for supplies?”
Lirion licked his lips. “Aren’t you the only supply I’ll need?”
Fen snorted, his perfect mouth twisting in a wicked smirk. “I think you’re going to require more than just sex on this voyage.”
“What? He needs sex?” Rain gasped.
Lirion turned his smile on the pirate. “Fen forgot to mention. I’m an incubus. For this voyage, I needed more than a ship. I also needed someone to provide me with a regular hot meal.”
“Me!” Rain’s arm shot into the air so fast, it was a wonder he didn’t dislocate his shoulder. “I volunteer. I am very happy to supply you with—”
“Not a chance!” Fen snarled, cutting him off. “I’ve got that part of the provisions covered for Lirion. You worry about getting us through Dead Man’s Curve alive.” The most delicious frisson of tingles swept through Lirion at Fen’s sharp words.
Wasn’t that interesting?
Was the thief feeling possessive? And why did the thought excite Lirion so much?