“Isabella, can you gather your people so that Lord Jax can make the offer to them, please? Whoever is interested?” Cai said, shooting me a significant glance.
“Yes! Thank you! Thank you!” With that, she tore off, heading back to the group she’d just left, while I turned to Cai.
“Okay, first off, when the hell did you have time to not only meet her, but to get on friendly enough standing to be using a term of endearment like that? Damn, man, that’s fast work!” I grinned, getting an eye roll in return.
“It’s not like that, Jax. I met her last night at the party; she and her friends were feeling us out about life here, and…” Cai said quickly.
“And this silver-tongued devil had her fair near into his bed before I’d finished ma beer!” Oren laughed, elbowing Cai in the thigh, nearly sending him flying.
“It’s not like that! Honestly, Oren, you only see what you want to! She’s a lovely woman, and she’s well thought of by her people. I was trying to get her to join us!”
“Oh aye, ye were tryin’ t’ get her t’ join ye alright, in a wee moonlit stroll!” Oren grinned at Cai, before winking at me as Cai looked away. For a second, I’d been worried Cai was taking advantage of things before I realized that he was actually mortified by Oren’s accusations. I could see that Oren was winding him up, or at least I thought so, so I did what any friend would do.
I jumped in as well.
“Really, Cai? I thought better of you! Taking advantage of that poor girl…” I didn’t even finish my sentence before Cai had spun around and was waving his hands in negation.
“No! Honestly, Lord Jax! Please, I would never do such a thing…please believe me!”
“Hmmm. Well, there is one way I could give you one more chance, I suppose… but there’d be conditions…” I said, as though serious, squinting at his imploring face. “Okay, first, you stop calling me ‘Lord Jax’ when we’re alone like this. Just call me Jax! I’ve told you before, after all!”
“Oh…why, you…” he growled, taking a deep breath, and glaring at both Oren and me. “Okay, Jax, I agree. What’s the second condition?”
“Well, she seemed pretty interested in you; all I’m saying is she’s pretty, so relax, man. If you don’t use your position in any underhanded ways, have fun! The second condition is…you see what’s going on there, mate!” I grinned at him and turned around, making my way back to the stairwell as Oren casually spoke up from behind.
“One other wee point as well, Cai; ye just told her to get everyone together to meet the ‘great Lord Jax’, aye? Well, only thing is, ye did’na tell her where!”
Cai spun around and started swearing under his breath as he set off jogging along the corridor in the direction Isabella had gone.
“Tell them to make it the ground floor outside!” I shouted after him, having already decided that I’d need to be in the makeshift ‘command center’ I’d been using up to now.
“Yes, Jax!” Cai shouted back as he disappeared into the mess of rooms in pursuit of Isabella.
“Oh, he’s got it bad fer her!” Oren muttered, shaking his head in mock sorrow. “Barely known her a night, and already…”
“Give it a rest, man, he can’t hear you.” I replied, grinning.
“Aye, but ye see how quick he bit?” Oren let loose with a belly laugh as we headed downstairs. “Oh, I’m gonna have some fun wit’ this!”
Chapter Two
Oren and I set off jogging down the stairs, and despite the poor show he’d put on only a few days ago, he actually managed to keep up for a few more floors this time. When I asked him about it, he just winked and told me that he’d leveled after the battle and sunk a few points into stamina, as ‘All the ladies love a dwarf wi’ stamina!’
Cai caught up with us a few minutes later, and we continued as a group, people jumping aside as we passed. The occasional bow, curtsey, or wave from people, depending on their preferences, struck me as weird enough that I still flinched when it happened.
“How do we get people to stop doing that?” I asked after a particularly rowdy fight between two children had been cowed into fearful silence by their parents at the sight of me. We’d run on past, as I’d figured it was better to give them some room rather than telling the kids to get back to fighting.
“Stop doing what?” Cai responded, his feline grace being brought into even more prominence by Oren’s huffing and puffing as the dwarf’s short legs tried to keep up with us.
“The whole bowing and scraping thing. The look that woman gave us was as if she thought I’d kick the kids out of the window if they made noise, for fuck’s sake!” I replied, the exercise doing wonders for my hangover as I got my blood pumping.
“She probably thinks you might,” Cai responded sadly. “The simple truth is that we were slaves. She wasn’t one of my party, just one of the villagers that we freed yesterday, but in these lands, the strong do as they want. For all she knows, her children are in danger here; it’s just slightly less than elsewhere. It may seem unfair that they’re afraid of you but think of what they’ve seen of you so far. They were captured by a warship, made slaves, and their village stripped by a dozen or more soldiers. They then land at a Tower that they’ve either never known about before, or only heard of through dark tales. They fully expected to be sold as slaves, probably assaulted, and the best she
