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I regard him thoughtfully. ‘Are you sure you’re … If you wanted to stay up here, I could bring you something.’
He shakes his head. ‘No, I need to get out. The room is stifling. Tiny.’ He tugs at his collar. ‘Closing in.’
Eyeing him a little warily, I put on my boots and stifle another yawn. I leave the room, but as I walk down the stairs, I see that it’s already quite busy. There’s more than one group of mercenaries drinking despite the early hour. I suppose there’s not much else to do around here while they’re waiting for their next jobs. They stand in groups of their own kinds, green and grey orcs in one circle, lithe but no less dangerous goblins in another, and the rest are made up of demons in varying states of inebriation.
Dane is already at a table in the middle of the room, the last one that was free, by the looks of it. She’s on her knees on the floor again, and more than one pair of eyes in the room strays to her and notices what she is.
I look away, wishing that this night wasn’t going to go the way I think it will, but knowing it’s probably for the best. Hopefully, by the end of tonight, I’ll have killed two birds with one stone, but it’s not something I’m looking forward to.
We sit down with Dane, and I glance at her. She’s staring at the floor. There are dark rings around her eyes. She doesn’t look well. I frown. The sleep, the pain powder, and the salve should have helped at least a little.
The food brought to us is some kind of stew in a wooden bowl with a crust of hard bread. I prod at the thick, lumpy paste with my spoon, but even when I taste the meat, I’m not entirely sure what animal it came from.
I eat it quickly, though, eyeing the sellswords around us whose eyes haven’t left her. It’s going to happen soon, and I find myself almost wishing the others would finish so that we can go back up to the relative safety of our upstairs rooms before it does. I had a plan, but I don’t want to enact it anymore.
My knee bounces under the table where no one can see, and I almost stand up to tell them I’ll take her upstairs, but as I go to, one of the bigger demons approaches. He’s broad and tall, and a long sword hangs in a scabbard from his belt. I eye it, and then the dark scales line his jaw and continue down his throat. His blood-red eyes are fixed on the Harbinger as she makes herself small on the floor. The other sellswords in the room track his progress to our table, and when he gets to us, he prods her hard with his foot.
‘How much for her?’ he grates out, his long copper-plated horns gleaming in the candlelight.
Dane and Grey must have known this would happen just as I did, but neither of them speaks. They look at each other. Grey is the one who opens his mouth first, likely to tell the merc she’s not for sale, but I get there before him.
‘A silver for an hour,’ I drawl, and I watch her come out of her stupor at my words.
She stiffens and slowly looks up at me, her expression torn between fury and horror.
‘I don’t need an hour,’ the merc drawls, and I shrug.
‘Well, that’s how we rent her holes, so if you don’t want to pay it, someone else will,’ I say loudly and watch as she shrinks a little and shuffles closer to the table.
‘I’ll take her, then,’ he snarls, throwing a silver coin onto our table before he grabs the rope from Dane’s hand.
‘Up, female,’ he mutters, pulling at her.
She curls herself around the thick table leg, refusing to be moved, and half the inn begins to guffaw.
‘She’s heard how big your cock is, Fallow!’
‘Or about the pocks all over it!’
I make myself chuckle as I grab her arm and twist it to make her let go of the table. Dane and Grey just watch, neither of them seeming sure what to do and both more alarmed by my actions than they’d ever admit even to each other.
Her eyes look into mine, pleading silently, but I ignore her.
‘Go with him, slave,’ I say, pushing her into his arms that snake around her. He drags her away. ‘And make sure he’s well satisfied,’ I add. ‘I’m spending this silver now, so he’s not getting it back!’
I laugh loudly, though hearing her squeal as he pulls her out through the kitchens to the back of the inn makes my fists clench.
But instead of following and killing the cunt the way I yearn to, I force myself to sit and finish the last dregs of my drink before I yawn.
‘I’m going to bed,’ I announce. ‘Make sure he brings her back,’ I chuckle as I leave.
I make myself go up the stairs slowly as if I don’t have anywhere to be.
I open the door and make a show of yawning again as I go in. I shut it slowly, knowing I’m still in Dane’s line of sight, but as soon as it’s latched, I lunge across the room and open the wooden casement. I climb out onto the roof and down a drainpipe that looks like it’s seen better days, and I prey to all the gods I’ve ever heard of that it holds me.
I sprint for the alley behind the tavern as soon as my feet hit the ground, and at first, I don’t see them. The place looks deserted, and my heart leaps into my throat. Where the fuck did he take her? What have I done?!
Then, I hear a whimper, and I see his dark form by the side of the stable in the shadows.
