Bound in Darkness (17 page)

“We won't starve. We have plenty of supplies. And you can just as easily go hunt rabbits and other small animals just like you've done every other night we've been out here,” she snapped at him. “It's done and I'm glad it's done. So stop aiming that thing at me or you'll find yourself with a dagger in your balls.”

“I have half a mind to pull this trigger. Then that'll be done and I'll be glad it's done. You've been nothing but trouble since you came here. I've had just about more than I can take. You're a problem. A problem that needs fixing. And I say I fix you right now!”

“Kilon, knock it off,” Doisy ground out. “Put the bow down. If you so much as scratch her, you'll have to answer to Maxum for it.”

“I ain't scared of Maxum. What'll he do to me? Fight me? I can take him any day of the week.”

Doisy barked out a laugh. “No, you couldn't. If you think otherwise you're a bigger fool than I took you for. Drop the bow and go hunt something else for dinner.”

Kilon growled, but he dropped the bow. Airi didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until it left her in a gush of relief. She was no fool. She knew Kilon could have easily have pulled that trigger and thought nothing of it. She was less than nothing to him and he could not care less if she lived or died. Apparently he preferred her dead. She was really going to have to be careful around him. As it was it had been reckless of her to step in the way of his shot. She had no idea what had come over her. Kilon was right to a point. They were hungry and the stag was meat. It was the natural order of things that he be hunted. It was a matter of survival at times.

But they could survive without killing the magnificent beast and she wasn't regretting what she had done. The idea of someone like Kilon ending its life was just too bitter to swallow.

As she had predicted, Kilon was able to kill a few pheasants for their dinner and she prepared them in silence. She had been cooking out in the open for quite some time and had learned how to make halfway decent meals over a campfire. The birds were big so it took some time before they were done. Once food was on his plate Doisy began to chat with everyone, trying to break the hard tension that had fallen over the group.

Dru and Kyno engaged him, but Kilon was his usual surly self and Airi didn't feel much like chatting. Doisy tried to find out more things about her, but she avoided his queries, not wanting to share any part of herself in front of a man who'd rather she were dead.

“I'm glad you did it,” Kyno said under his breath some time into their meal. He had come to sit closer to her. His remark took her by surprise.

“Did what?”

“Stopped him from killing the stag. It was beautiful.”

Airi gaped at him. Then she smiled. The big lumbering orc was a softy at heart. She hadn't gotten to know him very well and this was a surprising insight into him.

“I'm glad too,” she said. “Although I've definitely given Kilon more reason to hate me.”

“Did he need a reason?” Kyno asked grimly. “But don't you worry. I won't let him touch you, my lady.”

Again he surprised her. She hadn't realized Kyno was such a gentleman. Or perhaps he was just being that way with her. It made her feel special and definitely warmed her heart to him. Damn it. Despite her efforts to remain unattached to these men, they were starting to get under her skin. Doisy with his irreverent ways, Dru with his shy ones…and now Kyno whose heart appeared to be as big as the rest of him.

And then there was Maxum…

She shook her head and decided it was best not to delve into that hornet's nest of emotion. Never had anyone frustrated and annoyed her as much as he did…and yet there was something so compelling about him…

“Where are you from, Kyno? The orclands?”

“On the border. That's how my mum…well, she didn't much like the way I came about. But she loved me in the end. I'm doing this for her, so she can live the way she deserves to live. It's a hard life on the border of the orclands. So I moved her to a big city and I send her gold to keep her fed and content.”

“It sounds to me like you're a good son.”

He shrugged one large shoulder. “My mum never asked for me, did nothing to deserve me other than to be too pretty and catch an orclord's eye. She said when he took her against her will he took a little part of her with him…and when I was born it filled the hole that was left. So I loves her back best way I know how.”

“And is there any special woman in your life, Kyno? Other than your mum, I mean,” she said with a wink. He chuckled. It was a deep, rumbly sound and she liked it very much.

“No. Not as yet. I figure I'll meet someone someday. Maybe if I goes to the orclands there be a nice big orc girl waiting for me. But I'm a halfbreed so…” He shrugged. He didn't have to say anything else. The orcs were snobs in a way. Oh, it was fine for the men to get children on the women of the other races like Kyno's father had, but when it came to marrying their daughters only purebreeds would do.

“What about a girl from the other races?”

“Don't you think they're too small?” He frowned as he thought on it. “I might break one.”

“Don't you…I mean…surely you've…I saw you in the inn. You were…indulging in women.”

“I likes to touch and play with them in public like, but no, I don't touch in private.”

He couldn't mean…was Kyno still a virgin then? No, surely not. There had to have been someone. There were orc girls or even giantesses who roamed the world. He had to have met up with one.

“Kyno…have you ever…been with a woman?”

The giant man flushed. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and dipped his head in embarrassment. “Don't tell the others,” he said.

“Oh, I won't. Your secret is very safe with me,” she reassured him quickly. She put her arms around him, only reaching halfway around his back, and gave him the best hug she could manage.

“Thank you, my lady.”

“And what's with the ‘my lady'?” she said teasingly. “I'm hardly anyone's idea of a lady.”

“You're mine,” he said with finality. “Best lady I knows.”

“Only lady you know,” she said laughingly.

“I know some others. But not many.” He paused a beat. “If you wasn't so small…” He trailed off meaningfully.

This time it was her turn to blush.

“Besides…Maxum wants you.”

She frowned. “Well, Maxum isn't going to get what he wants.”

“Maybe,” he said, giving her a knowing wink. It was the first time she realized how long his lashes were. And that he had very pretty blue eyes. No orc purebreed would have blue eyes. Theirs were either red or black.

They chatted like that until well after juquil's hour. Maxum returned in silence and sat down on his bedroll which she had assiduously located across the way from her once again, the fire in between them. The amusement in his eyes told him the stubbornness of the act was not lost upon him. Still, she knew that if he put his mind to it one little campfire wouldn't stand in his way.

Airi was tired, so she went to bed shortly after, snuggling down under her blanket against the chill night. It wasn't lost on her that another warm body would have been a nice thing to have right then.

But it wasn't worth the trouble.

I
t was mid afternoon of the next day when they finally came to a road. A stone bridge crossed the river and a dirt road crossed their paths. Airi and Maxum exchanged a look. Now all they had to see was if there was a village within walking distance.

“Over the bridge or the other way?” she asked him.

He thought about it a moment. “We'll try over the bridge first. If we don't come to it in an hour we'll double back.”

She figured it was as sound a plan as any. They were on horseback. A girl pushing a broken wheel couldn't have gotten all that far all that fast.

After an hour and a half of riding, they realized they had gone the wrong way and doubled back.

The village, when they came to it, was no longer a village. It was an abandoned collection of run-down and rotted cottages. There was an old smithy in the center of the town and Maxum's eyes lit with hope.

“This is it!” he said triumphantly.

“This
may
be it,” she corrected him. “There could just as easily be a village with a smith down a road in the other direction.”

“This is it. I can feel it,” he said stubbornly.

She didn't argue with him further. She was feeling the sense of excitement as well. Could they really be close to finding the temple? Somehow she knew it would not be so easy.

“Do we camp here?” she asked.

“No. We can go a little farther,” he said, clearly wanting to push on.

“Do we follow the road or the river?”

“The river. The story said she bathed. That means she was near water.”

“All right then, the river it is.” She kneed Hero's sides and trotted off back down the road they had come on. When she reached the bridge she turned to Maxum. “Which side?”

“The same side I'm thinking.”

There was a lot of ifs and maybes to be had all around, but she was game for the experience, wherever it might lead them. They went on until just before sunset when, as usual, they stopped to make camp so Maxum could do his disappearance.

After they had built their fire and cooked their dinner, the group sat in silence for the most part. That was why they heard the twigs snapping as someone made their way to them through the trees. Kilon leapt up and pulled his crossbow first thing. Airi was on her feet a half second later holding out a placating hand to a man not prone to being placated.

“Let's see who it is first before you start shooting,” she said to him through tight teeth.

They knew it wasn't Maxum—it was too early yet. There was always the possibility he had come back early, but since he never had before there was little doubt that these were strangers approaching.

A young woman came out of the trees and into the clearing where they'd made their fire. She saw Kilon's aggressive stance and immediately backpedaled toward the woods.

“Wait!” Airi cried out. “We won't hurt you.”

“Won't we?” Kilon growled.

“We won't,” Airi said harshly.

“I-I-I saw the fire. I-I-I thought you might…h-have some food.”

“No. Now get lost, kid.”

“Of course we do,” Airi said, ignoring Kilon. The girl was obviously hungry enough to do the same. She stepped forward.

“I don't eat much,” she insisted. “I smelled food and I thought…maybe…” She trailed off and shrugged.

“Sure. Come closer to the fire. You look cold.”

“Trusting bitch,” Kilon muttered under his breath.

“Ignore him. That's what I do.”

“O-okay,” she said, sounding very unsure. But Airi's bravery and the girl's empty belly compelled her to believe her, it seemed.

“What's your name?”

“Sarda.”

“Here, Sarda,” Airi said, handing her the leg and thigh of the rabbit Kilon had hunted earlier. The girl fell on it like a ravening wolf, stuffing as much of it into her mouth as she could get in one bite, as though she were afraid Airi would snatch it back away from her.

“There's plenty. Take your time,” Airi assured her, handing a plate of wild potatoes to the girl. The girl popped a whole one in her mouth and said something through a garbling mouthful that sounded like “thank you.” The girl's eyes rolled back in her head with pleasure every time she took a bite.

“That's Maxum's dinner you're feeding her,” Kilon said. “He's not going to take kindly to an empty belly.”

“There's plenty here for everyone,” Airi said, nibbling on a potato herself so the girl didn't feel like she was eating alone.

Sarda swallowed. “You don't know how much this means to me,” she said before taking another bite.

“I think I have an idea. There've been days I've gone hungry. Once I didn't eat for a whole week.”

“It's been three days for me.”

“Where's your coin? Where're your people? You may be eating now but you'll be starving again tomorrow,” Kilon barked. “Best to get it over with.”

“Get it over with?” she echoed.

“The business of starving to death,” he said before he kicked back and relaxed against the tree he'd laid his bedroll near. Airi wished there was a nice gnarled root right underneath it when he slept tonight.

“Best to take it one day at a time,” Airi said to Sarda, offering her some wine from her leather flask. She'd been saving it for some sort of special occasion, but the girl needed more than water to fortify her. The wine would help build up her strength…provided she didn't drink too much.

“How'd you come to be out here in the woods in the middle of nowhere?”

“Same as you, I reckon. Just traveling.”

“It's getting cold soon and you're going hungry. Don't you think its best you found a place to hole up for the winter? Make a little coin.”

“I'm going to…as soon as I find a place big enough where people are looking for hired help. I was told there was a village down the road a ways back, but it was abandoned. Someone's idea of a joke to send me all this way for nothing.”

Airi grimaced. It was a cruel thing to do. Poor kid. She needed a break.

“Well…you could travel with us to the next—”

“It ain't your place to say who travels with us!” Kilon belched out in sudden anger. He made as if he were going to get to his feet and smack Airi for her insolence. Sarda cringed and scurried back away from him. Airi stood up and went toe to toe with the bastard.

“I realize that,” she hissed. “If you'd let me finish my sentence I was going to say we just have to ask our leader if it is all right. Now sit down and shut up!”

Kilon backhanded her. Hard. She went flying back and slammed into a tree. Kyno was on his feet in an instant, his body blocking Kilon from following up on the strike. He grabbed Kilon by the front of his shirt and gave him a rattling shake.

“Don't you touch her again! You'll answer to me, Kilon! I'll pop your head like an overripe grape!”

There was really no way any sane man would argue with that terrible voice and that overwhelming, gigantic presence, but Kilon, apparently, was not a sane man. As Airi picked herself up from where she had fallen, wiping a hand across her bloodied mouth, she heard him say, “Then you teach that fucking cunt not to mouth off to me or I'll smack her again and I don't care what you think you can do to me!”

Fury blinded Airi. She lunged forward, reaching to claw out the bastard's eyes. She was jerked back just before she reached him, slamming backward into a thick, hard trunk of a body. Strong hands held her around her upper arms.

“All right, what the hell is going on here?” Maxum demanded. “I leave for a few hours and suddenly everyone's at each other's throats?”

“Suddenly?” Airi spat. “That man is an evil little serpent spitting poison into this group every moment of every day. Are you really so blind you can't see it?”

“All I see is my group acting like a bunch of unruly children and it is going to stop
now
!” His voice was just as terrible as Kyno's had been. Kyno dropped Kilon and he got his feet under him. He turned hate-filled eyes onto Airi.

“You just keep that little whore away from me. It's your group, you say you want her—although we all know it's your cock that wants her—so what you say goes. But I'm warning you, she mouths off to me again and I'll rip her tongue out!”

“If you touch her I'll—” Maxum began.

“I'll plunge a dagger in that black heart of yours so fast you'll be dead before you touch me! You get one free shot and that was just it. It'll never happen again,” she spat back at Kilon.

“One free shot?” Maxum asked. He quickly turned her around in his hands and got an eyeful of the blood running out of her nose and from between her lips. She'd been hit so hard it was a wonder she hadn't lost any teeth. As it was her teeth had cut the inside of her lip and it was beginning to swell painfully. “He
hit
you?”

“Well he didn't sing me a lullaby,” she said churlishly.

Maxum suddenly let go of her, pushed past her, and with two steps and a powerful drawback of his fist, punched Kilon in the face. Kilon went down and the other men quickly jumped in to keep Maxum from doing further damage. But apparently Maxum was done because he stepped back from the man.

“That's what'll happen if anyone raises a fist to anyone in this group! They'll get it mirrored back on them from me!”

Kilon was just about unconscious so he didn't have a reply. Maxum turned back to her, taking her arm almost gently into his hand, then he called Doisy over.

“Can you heal her for me?” he asked.

“Of course.”

Maxum grimaced. “When you're done you can do Kilon too.”

Doisy nodded. He didn't express any kind of resentment or partiality to the situation and Airi realized she felt a little hurt by that. She would have thought she'd at least earned a little friendship with Doisy. A little loyalty. But she should know better than to depend on anyone but herself.

“Now, does anyone want to tell me what started this?”

“I-I did,” Sarda stammered.

“No, you didn't,” Airi said firmly. “This was my fault. He got under my skin and I provoked him.”

“Provoked him how?”

“Does it matter?” she asked, her tone surly.

“It does. It'll tell me whether or not I should fine you for your behavior.”

“Fine me? Fine
me
? He's the one who hit me! He's the one who is always being so nasty it makes everyone's stomachs go sour!”

“I'm not arguing with you about whether or not he'll win any personality contests. I want to know what you did to start him up. And then I want you to tell me who in the eight hells she is,” he said, nodding to Sarda.

Sulkily, Airi told him word for word what had happened and how Sarda had happened upon them.

“This is
my
group. I will decide who stays
or
who goes for that matter. I'm going to get tired of you trying to manipulate things to your liking if you aren't careful.”

“Manipulate?” She stared at him aghast. “I wasn't trying to manipulate anything! I just wanted to suggest—”

“Just like you keep suggesting I get rid of him?” He jerked his head to Kilon.

Suddenly she could see it from his perspective. But damn it all, she hadn't meant to be manipulative. When she bit her battered lip, he softened toward her. “To be fair I don't think you are doing it with great machinations in mind. Just…be careful, all right?”

She nodded. “All right.” But after only a beat she said. “So can Sarda stay?”

He laughed incredulously. “You are unbelievable!”

“Just until we reach another town. Just to keep her safe until then. Please?”

Maxum sighed, shaking his head and a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. “Only to the next town. And I swear, if anything goes wrong I'm going to take it out of your hide.”