“Come on.” Tate stepped out from behind the table and clapped Yurik on the shoulder. “I think it’s time to go.”
“It’s…what?” Yurik blinked, then shook himself out of it and moved again. “Yep.”
Bhandi downed the last of her grog before dropping the tankard onto the table. She brushed pieces of ogre fist off the front of her shirt with a grimace of disgust, then joined the others on their way out.
Cheyenne stepped over the troll’s body and saw a glint of silver beneath his shirt. She dropped into a crouch and yanked on the chain to pull the whole thing out. Of course, it’s another bull’s head.
With a snort, she tossed the pendant back down and stood. The patrons stared at her, drumming metal wildly on metal. As the FRoE agents headed toward the door, she moved closer to the bar and nodded at Ogsa. “Want me to send someone in for cleanup, or…”
The orc woman stared at Cheyenne, thumping an empty tankard on the bar over and over with the rest of them. Her upper lip lifted in a twitching smile, and she leaned toward the drow halfling.
“Uh, did you hear me? Sorry about the mess.”
The bartender grunted and smiled even wider, forcing the halfling with the zeroing-in stare to keep moving.
“Okay.”
“Hey!” Tate waved her toward the front door, glancing at all the other magicals, who were still pounding on metal tables with fists and heavy metal tankards. “Time to move.”
“Yep.” Cheyenne turned away from the bar and headed toward the door. “Creepy.”
Every single patron was staring at her, following her with their gazes. She nodded, but the feeling of so many eyes on her made her shiver, and she picked up the pace.
Bhandi and Yurik were already out the door, and Tate settled a hand on the halfling’s back to usher her out onto the main avenue before the door swung shut behind them. The rhythmic, metallic clanging kept up briefly, then someone inside let out an earsplitting roar, and the rest of the Empty Barrel erupted with the same.
“Jesus.” Tate flinched and eyed the tavern over his shoulder. “You’d think they were the ones who just took those guys out.”
“Sounds like a goddamn battle cry to me,” Yurik added, rubbing his shaved head beside the yellow braid.
“I’ve seen it before,” Cheyenne muttered, shooting the tavern one more glance as the off-duty agents led her back toward the far side of Peridosh’s wide avenue.
“Seriously?” Bhandi swiped at a stain on her gray jacket and let out a little grunt of irritation. “I’ve never seen it, and I know I’ve been around a lot longer than you.”
“What happened the last time?” Tate asked.
“I, uh, took out a lunatic goblin at Rez 38. Everyone did the same thing there, too.”
Yurik puffed out a sigh. “Did they seem as happy about it as that bunch of drunks smashing in those tables?”
“Yeah, actually.” The halfling rolled her shoulders back and tilted her head from side to side. “This was a little weirder, though.”
“Weird isn’t the half of it, Cheyenne.” Tate shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and swerved around two goblin women carrying woven baskets of what looked like animal skins. When they caught sight of the drow halfling, they gave her matching stares of curiosity and approval.
Cheyenne stared right back until she passed them.
“What you did back there was…insane, honestly.” The troll looked at her over his shoulder. “That wasn’t even you going full-out, was it?”
“Not really.” When the halfling looked across the avenue, she found an orc couple, his arm around her shoulders, staring at her with the same intensity. She licked her lips and focused her attention on Tate’s back. “We’re getting outta here, right?”
“Hell yeah, we are.” Bhandi let out a sharp laugh, but she’d sobered up enough so it just sounded flat. “Christ, I thought I was the crazy one.”
“I’m not crazy.”
“Nah. Sure you’re not.” Bhandi just waved her off. “I mean the whole damn situation. Where’d you learn that little arm-exploding trick?”
Cheyenne shrugged. “It just came to me.” When I tried to blow up my legacy.
“I’ll tell you what, though, Cheyenne.” Yurik let out a surprised laugh and sniffed, rubbing his hand under the huge ring dangling from his nose. “Now we know the best way to take out an ogre. I mean, you saw the size of that fucker, right?”
The other operatives burst into tense chuckles.
“Would’ve loved to have you with us in the field two months ago. Took out a whole family of ogres up in Jersey trying to reenact The Godfather in real life.” Tate nudged her in the shoulder again, and the halfling stepped sideways, not bothering to resist the pressure this time. “Took us damn near half an hour and four fell cannons to whip all the fight out of them.”
“Hey, man. She doesn’t like to be touched.” Bhandi nodded at Cheyenne and raised her eyebrows. “Or hugged.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on huggin’ her before anyway.” The tattooed goblin laughed. “Now I’m definitely not.”
They reached the end of the underground magical bazaar and stopped in front of the elevator doors that didn’t have a call button down here. The doors opened, and the group filtered inside before they were closed back in and started moving up.
“Is this the only way down?” Cheyenne frowned at the metal walls again and shoved her hands into the pockets of her black canvas jacket.
“No, I think there are two other entrances. Maybe three.”
Bhandi snorted. “Ma’kdo told me last week he found one through the sewers.”
“What the hell was he doing in the sewers?”
“Beats me.”
Yurik nodded. “Yeah, there
