Author's Nightmare: Chapter 132 (Patreon)

Shango POV: Day 104

Current Wealth: 222 gold 0 silver 37 copper

Alora was drenched in sweat, and Magnus looked barely better. Both of them were littered by bruises, pale skin already darkening and bleeding to blue where impacts had landed too hard and too frequently. Neither one was meeting my eye. It only made my nerves more jagged. 

“What happened?” I asked, keeping my voice under control only through a great deal of effort. 

It was Alora who told me, while Magnus kept his eyes on the ground. Shame, I noted. He considered this his own failure. I tucked the knowledge away for later use while I listened. 

She spoke quickly enough, hitting all the important facts and making me stop her for elaboration on a point only once or twice. By the time she was done, the full gravity of the situation had hit me. 

“Were you able to figure out where Solitaire and Phelia were taken?”

“Byror’s mansion.” Alora told me, looking away as she said it. “We would’ve gone in after them but…”

She didn’t need to finish. Doubtless the place had been prepared ahead of time to hold them, and if they could send out dozens on a capture-run there were likely scores sticking around the prison itself. We wouldn’t be getting in there. Not by force. 

“I need to think.” I told her, and turned. Someone called after me as I headed off to my room, but nobody stopped myself from locking the door behind me. I took a seat at my desk, hands resting down beside me, and thought. The quiet helped, but the isolation helped more. 

There was a sense of shock needling me, obviously, but it didn’t sink deep. I was almost surprised, but it made sense. Solitaire was gone, so was Phelia. Beam was being told even as I sat there, but he was still in recovery and too weak to even win a fight against Argar for certain. This was all on me. The pressure hardened my thoughts, instead of softening them, and I emerged again after only a few minutes. With a plan. 

Everyone was waiting for me, of course. Beam included. They seemed…Put out. It must have been how calm I was. People tended to be unnerved by that, and any other time I’d have considered hiding it for their sake. But now wasn’t the time to be focusing on other people’s comfort. 

“Our first priority is food.”

The stares were like sledgehammers against me, and I watched as the seconds ticked by while everyone tried to make sense of what I’d said. Alora was the first to protest. 

“That’s what Solitaire and your wife were grabbed getting.” She snapped. “Why the hell would that be your first thought?”

“Because we still need food.” I told her. “And, more to the point, from what you told me Solitaire already bloodied their noses in being captured, which means they’ll be hesitant for another engagement. If we let them recover our odds of getting attacked on a food run, that we have no choice but to make eventually, are much higher than they are now.”

She hesitated, and Beam spoke up.

“I can go on the next run.” He said, and now it was his turn to be stared at. 

“No, we need you resting and healing as fast as you can. Corvan, however tired you are, power through and speed up his recovery. How fast can you have him fighting?”

Corvan paused, considering it. 

“Fighting? A few days. He won’t be in peak condition for over a week though.”

It wasn’t ideal, not at all, but if we played for time…It might be enough. 

“Then Arthur, we’re going to need you to be ready for anything. If things escalate you’re our main line of defence for a while.”

By the look on his face, I could tell Sir Nightne was planning on packing up and fucking off that very night. I’d need to find a way to keep that from happening.

“Understood.” He replied, blandly courageous and unflappable as ever. On the outside. It seemed to instil a bit of confidence in everyone else at least. 

“I say we charge in and smash the bastards’ heads open.” Argar growled, and I only sighed. 

“We can do that in the future, if we live through this. We’re getting stronger and they know it- that’s why they attacked when they did. But for now we can’t afford that sort of recklessness.”

Argar was not happy. He’d never been one to take defeat easily, but you could’ve cooked bacon on his face with how hot the blood seemed to be pooling under its skin. I made sure to keep a gentle tone while contradicting him. It barely worked. 

“What do we do then?” He croaked. This was killing him, and I felt for the big guy. But barely. My emotions were distant right now, as they needed to be. It was just me. No Solitaire, whatever plan we went with would come out of my own mind. So I hardened it. 

“We’ve already had some of us captured, but we have nothing to worry about now. An offer will come soon and I have a plan for it.” I turned to Elizabeth. “Everyone, mind giving us a word alone?”

She seemed more disturbed than surprised, though that was hardly an atypical reaction from her. The room soon cleared and the two of us were speaking together. 

Elizabeth didn’t like what I had to say, but I’d figured as much. The important thing- the only important thing- was that she agreed to it. After seeing to that, I made my way out too. I wasn’t at all surprised to find Beam waiting for me beyond the door. 

“We’re getting him back.” He said. It wasn’t a question, which was fair enough. 

“Both of them.” I replied, feeling a strange tugging in my gut at the thought of Phelia. I buried it. 

“Good.” Beam nodded. “It’s just that you seem quite calm about all this.”

I could see the frustration in his eyes, he hated how little he could contribute to this. No doubt if he wasn’t hurt he’d already be trying to barge his way into wherever Solitaire was and spearhead an assault right for him. No doubt, he’d have a fair chance of managing it. 

But there was no point in dwelling on hypotheticals. 

“What do you want me to do?” I asked him. “I’m focused on getting our friend back, sorry if I can’t be a bleeding heart while I do that. I’ll make sure to cry a river when Solitaire’s home safe.”

Beam eyed me for a moment, then nodded. We got to work. 

It may come as a surprise to you, given the success rate of our operations at the time, but we actually managed to get the food. I know, our competence truly does know no bounds. The hitch did come of course, but not until we’d already started on our way back to the mansion. 

We’d gotten to keep the carriage after the first ambush, which meant we were in it for the next one. The enemy was polite enough not to open up with an attempted assassination this time, though, and settled for merely encircling us. We were forced to stop as the row of men halted ahead, spears outstretched, formation tight. Like a giant hedgehog with bristling steel quills.

The carriage stopped, and we all got ready. Argar was compressed into the back, axe quivering in his hand and two hundred kilo body coiled up like a spring. Alora and Magnus were squeezed in beside him. Corvan was hidden, tucked behind a thin wooden compartment we’d had hastily made to give whoever attacked us a nasty surprise when the magus came out hurling fireballs. We had Arthur sitting in front of it, to draw the eyes of anyone facing them disastrously away right before surprise jumped out. 

In the front, shielded by plates of thin iron, was just me. My gun was beside me, and that was company enough. 

Ahead, the men parted slightly to let a newcomer stride out from among them. I recognised him instantly of course, his face as smug and infuriating as ever. Lord Byror cut a rage-inducing figure, standing there in the setting sun. I did not shoot him on sight. Sometimes one must play the grown-up, after all. 

“Lord Velaharo.” He called out, speaking as if he could read my mind and knew for a fact he wasn’t going to die. Maybe he just hadn’t heard much about how my gun worked. “Might I have an audience? Seeing as how I have you so splendidly surrounded.”

Elizabeth wasn’t here, and in her absence Alora was the best set of eyes we had. She leaned up from the back, keeping herself obscured from the men ahead as she whispered to me through the pannelling. 

“They have us at the back, too, almost as many men as at the front. Archers on roofs, and Corvan says he senses someone using magic. Maybe forty men in total.”

Forty was…Too many. Particularly when I saw Aja the Pithound step out among them. Without him and the magus we might’ve managed it, depending on their skill and level of superhuman abilities. As things stood I wasn’t going to risk it. Not with all the chainmail I saw covering them. 

“Stand ready, but don’t escalate.” I whispered back. “I’m going to head off with him, it’s a plan.”

“A stupid on-” I got up and got down just as Alora started speaking, leaving my gun where it was. Wouldn’t do me much good, anyway, so I’d rather avoid it catching their eye. I headed over to Byror and waited for the fear to bubble up inside me. 

It didn’t. I felt just as hollow as before, just as clear.

“It’s been a while.” He said as I came in, resisting the urge to hover just out of spear range and stepping in deliberately close. If they wanted me dead there wasn’t much to do about it, so I might as well look unfucked. 

“Not really.” I told him. “Can we get this over with? You obviously have some reason in being here personally.”

His eye twitched, not one to take being disrespected well? No, he’d been fine enough with that when Solitaire mouthed off in our first meeting. He didn’t like being underestimated. Didn’t like the idea that someone didn’t fear him. I tucked that information away for later. 

“I’m here to ensure that you don’t give us any trouble as my men escort you elsewhere.” He said at last. I considered that. 

Lying, I knew it. But he seemed…Defensive, even annoyed by the question. Why? I’d have to find out later. 

“And you’ll kill my associates and brother if I do.” I said, earning a smile from him. 

“How astute you are, my Lord.”

“Just get it over with.”