37. Lirion #2
“—and then the entire group adopted him. He’s been with them ever since.
I can’t relay to you how patient, kind, and thoughtful they’ve been while teaching him how to survive in this world.
Trust me, Aria, as desperate as I was to come save you, I wouldn’t have grabbed just any group.
I made sure I had the right people for the job.
I’ll also say, everyone on this ship knows my true nature, and not one of them has propositioned me for sex.
They respect the arrangement I have with Fenric, and not one person has even said something inappropriate. ”
Aria let out a low whistle. “Well, I’m quite reassured now. Um, but what’s the plan from here? I know we’re sailing, but to where?”
“Yes,” another quickly chimed in, their lilting accent not one he could place. “They’ll let us off as soon as we ask, right? We don’t have to keep traveling with them?”
There were a couple more who echoed the sentiment and Lirion’s chest squeezed. He understood their need to be free, but they needed to be cautious about this lest they end up captured once again.
As if the question had summoned him, Rain descended, the lower half of him completely wet, of course, as he had likely just exited the tub.
He gave the group a wide berth, doffing his hat and then offering a very courtly bow.
“Hello, ladies, gentlemen. I need a brief word with all of you. Frankly speaking, I don’t know where to take you. ”
That was an excellent question. All their plans had been about getting Aria free. They hadn’t thought much about what came next. Of course, Lirion needed to go on to Lord Mire’s village to help with his matter, but there was nothing saying Aria had to accompany him.
One girl lifted a hand. “Um, my aunt runs a shop in Relos? I was heading there to work when I was kidnapped.”
“Which place?” one of the other girls asked.
“Wysalia’s.”
Lirion perked up. “I know the shop. She makes wonderful clothes and gloves.”
Rain thought on this for a second, rocking back on his heels.
“Relos is a night and two-day trip, essentially. Ladies and gentlemen, you’re all lovely and welcome on board the Dark Lady, of course, but the ship wasn’t designed to hold this many people.
I think it best to find you a place to go quickly.
Relos is close, but not so close you’ll be in danger from the same group again.
It’s a nice town. Not too big. Not too small.
You’re likely to find work there with relative ease.
That said, I’ll take you wherever you want to go. Who would like to go to Relos?”
A flurry of hands shot up. Most of the group, in fact.
“I’ve got family near Relos, farther inland, and I can stay with them. Anyone who needs a bed can go with me,” the raven-haired woman offered.
There was some discussion all around, which took a few minutes, but eventually it was concluded everyone would get off at Relos.
The exception was Aria, who declared she was headed for Loksi.
Which was fine by Lirion. He’d like to spend more time with his sister.
It had been a while since he’d seen her.
With that decided, Lirion stood and helped Malfas serve up a light late-night meal for everyone.
Conversation largely died off as people focused on the food in front of them and the new start to their lives.
As soon as dinner was done, everyone pitched in to clean up, and Maxie had found not only blankets and pillows, but several hammocks as well.
People separated. The newly rescued women settled in Rain’s room, the largest on the ship, while the four rescued men decided to bunk together down in the galley.
Aria approached him with a pillow in hand. She’d changed into the warmer clothes he’d picked out for her with Fenric, which made his heart do a flip-flop in his chest. She was warm and comfortable because of that sneaky rogue. “Um, Lirion, can we sit and talk for a moment?” she whispered.
“Of course. Let’s go topside so people can rest.”
“All right.”
On the way up to the deck, Lirion grabbed a blanket that had been set aside to air. They escaped to the prow of the ship, pulled up two barrels to sit on, and settled in for a chat. Lirion was grateful for this opportunity, as he wanted alone time with her.
“Truly, Aria, how are you?”
The strong, untouchable look on her face crumbled slowly, bit by bit.
He watched her try to push the smile back into place so she could reassure him, but the corner of her mouth she’d lifted dropped before she could properly shove the other side into place.
A quiet tear slipped free, quickly followed by a second.
They continued in a steady drip, drip, drip, never turning into a flood accompanied by broken sobs as if her soul was breaking, but he could feel her worn down to an ugly nub.
It was likely this was the first time she’d allowed herself to lower her guard in over two months.
The first time she’d faced the pain she’d kept bottled up, trying to be strong for others, trying to show they hadn’t broken her.
And there was nothing Lirion could do for her to make this pain easier to bear.
Gripping one corner of the blanket, Lirion lifted it, stretching out his arm to beckon her inside, welcoming her to lean on him for a little while.
A wobbly chuckle escaped her tight lips and she lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest. Lirion wrapped the blanket around them both so she was now almost completely hidden from the world.
Only the top of her head and her toes poked out.
“I’ve been better,” she mumbled against his chest.
Lirion huffed out a rough laugh. “That’s quite the understatement.”
Silence followed for several minutes. There was only the sound of the ship cutting through the crashing waves as they continued to flee south and the occasional flutter and snap of the sails in the wind.
Rain had told Malfas as he was cooking that he intended to man the helm all night to make sure they put a safe distance between them and Baza.
At dawn, he was going to hand the wheel over to Belstrom and Fenric to manage so he could catch up on sleep.
“I feel battered by the whole experience,” Aria suddenly admitted.
“I’ve never seen the likes of that place.
We were cattle, worse than dogs, only there to serve their pleasures.
I came out of it better than some of the others, though.
My appetite for sex helped me there, but also they saw me as prized goods.
They could get a higher price for me with clients, so I got better food and a bit of medical care.
The others…the ones who didn’t know…didn’t understand how it all worked fared the worst. If you didn’t please the customers or didn’t get enough requests, you didn’t get fed or were fed very little.
Any kind of medical treatment for injuries was rare.
I tried…” Her voice broke and disappeared.
She took a breath and started again in a shaky, breathless tone.
“I tried to help them. To give them tips on dealing with customers. I tried to share my food. But it wasn’t enough. Some just…”
She didn’t need to explain. There were some who couldn’t adapt enough to survive. Some she couldn’t save because their injuries were too severe. He could easily imagine that Aria had been forced to watch several of her fellow captives die from starvation or mistreatment.
“You can’t blame yourself,” he said gently. He placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. “You held them together, gave them hope, kept them fighting until I could save you. That was more than enough. We saved this many captives because of you.”
“I knew you’d come for me.” The arms wrapped around his waist tightened as if she was trying to fuse with his body. “I never doubted it for a second.”
“Good.” He would always come for his sister. She was his little light, his sunny smile.
“But how did you even know where I was? Or that I was in danger?” She lifted her head and loosened her grip on him so she could wipe away the tears still streaking her cheeks.
“Well, we’d set up our meetup in Hundager, remember?”
Her mouth dropped. “Fuck, I’d forgotten completely! I was so focused on surviving that place.”
“When you didn’t show, and still didn’t show for three days, I knew something was wrong.
I started going from town to town, asking for any information about you, trying to trace backward through the towns you might have gone through to reach Hundager.
I finally learned you were abducted and sold into a sex ring.
From there, I figured out it was one belonging to Count Pierres.
I’m sorry it took me so long; it was difficult to find information—”
She held up a hand, stopping him. “No, I’m grateful you came at all. No one else in our family would have. I haven’t even seen you in six years. You look so handsome now. You were such a scrawny teenager back then.”
He stuck his tongue out at her. “And you a child. Still, that’s what happened.”
“And you just grabbed this party and ran to my rescue?” A hint of her old mischievous spirit flashed in her eyes and pulled her full lips into a wicked grin. “How did you do it? Do you have them all wrapped in a sexual spell so they’ll do your bidding by just crooking your finger?”
Lirion tossed his head back on a loud bark of unexpected laughter. Gods, he’d missed her silliness. It was so good to see this experience hadn’t crushed it out of her. “No! Not at all. You’re ridiculous.”
Aria rolled her eyes, but she still smiled up at him. “That’s how I would have done it if I’d had to rescue you.”
“I’m sure, but no. Fenric actually approached me first. He has a job he needs my help with. We swapped jobs, I guess you could say.”
“Ahhh, so you’re still on the hook to help him?”