BloodLust (Rise of the Iliri Book 1) Page 15

  She held up her hand, stopping him mid-sentence, and shook her head. His face started to fall but she kept hers stoic. "Well, we need a couple of stablehands, too, but that's not what LT was thinking for you."

  "I see. Well, I'd still be willing to do what ya need, sir," he said hopefully.

  "Good, because we're in desperate need of a barn manager." For a moment the words didn't seem to register.

  Tilso had been working as a mere stall cleaner for the last six months, hoping to prove his skill in caring for the horses. Razor also learned that before the war, the kid had grown up on a border farm, one known for quality horses. His father had been killed in a skirmish out there, leaving Tilso, his mother, and two sisters to move further into the Conglomerate, abandoning their farm and all of his ties to horses.

  When he realized she meant the position of barn manager was for him, his face brightened, but he didn't dare believe it. "You want me to manage the Black Blades' barn, Ms. Luxx?"

  "Yes, Mr. Tilso," she answered, giving him the honorific that such a position would deserve. "Your family produced some of the best horses around here, and if I'm not mistaken, most of ours can trace their lines back to those from your family farm?"

  He nodded, his eyes wide but happy.

  "LT didn't realize we had such quality horsemen here at Stonewater Stables until you stood up today. Since you understand how important they are to the Blades, we'd like to offer you the position first. He's been unable to find anyone more suited to the position than himself or Zep, but most elite units have someone assigned to handle their mounts. I understand if you choose to decline, but," she passed him a piece of paper, "here's the wages we can offer you.

  "Unfortunately, the position would require you to move into the loft – naturally your family is welcome as well, if you have one – and you might be required to travel with us."

  The boy nodded and she continued, "You would also be responsible for obtaining our pack animals, arranging the training of our mounts around our schedules, adjusting their feeding rations as needed, and caring for any injuries they sustain in battle. We would expect you to hire an assistant manager, with the Lieutenant's approval, who would watch the barns during such times as we're deployed, and we will need at least two stablehands that can be trusted to care for the horses in the manner they require. Are you interested?"

  Tilso's eyes never left the paper. The figure was impressive for a barn manager and astronomical for a stablehand, but the Blades would make him earn every krit of it. "Ms. Luxx, am I required to hire an assistant from within the Stables already?"

  "No," she said, wondering where his mind was heading. "But you'll need to speak to the Lieutenant before making the offer. He wanted me to relay that if you're interested, he would appreciate you making sure the horses are settled, and then meeting with him in his cabin."

  "Yes, sir," he said, turning to the boys across the aisle. "And if you don't want to get fired, step away from my horse."

  "Tilso?" Sal asked when the boy turned for a halter to grab her mare from the stall. "Is that her name? Arden?"

  "Yes, sir. Ardent Dawn. She's the last foal bred from my da's farm. We always called her Arden."

  "It suits her, thank you. I'd been trying to find something that fit." She held out her hand, clean this time, to the horseman before her. He glanced at his own, covered in dirt, but reached up to clasp hers regardless. "I promise to treat her right, Mr. Tilso, and to listen when you tell me how to treat her better."

  "Thank you, Ms. Luxx," he said smiling. "Thank you very much, sir."

  Chapter 21

  Four weeks was not a lot of time to train a recruit, but the Lieutenant thought Sal had risen to the challenge. While Blaec worked her daily in her riding lessons, Cyno was as relentless each evening. Her free time had been a mess of intelligence meetings, extra riding practice with the new barn manager, and scuffles with humans who couldn't accept an iliri that out-ranked them. The girl had finally used her authority, firing two men on the spot and ordering a unit of infantry who had been watching the spectacle to escort them off the stable grounds. After that, the displays against her subsided.

  He was proud of her, but Blaec still couldn't be in the same room without noticing how she smelled or catching himself smiling like a fool. Most of his men seemed to ignore it when he acted like a teenager with a crush, except Shift. His Sergeant had always been straight to the point, and tonight was no different.

  "She's as ready as she's going to be, LT," Shift said, sitting across from him. "Let her have a night off before we head out in the morning. Cyno says she's already surpassed anything he can show her, her pure breeding making her faster, more agile, and more intuitive than any of us could hope. Zep said she's his equal with any weapon, so long as she can find its balance, and she discards those she's too small for. Even Risk said she has more control of her ability than he would expect."

  "I know, Shift, but this isn't exactly a good mission for her first one. It's too risky." He sighed. They'd already been around this argument twice, and Shift wasn't about to let him win. "I should scrap the assassination and have the Blades do a full on assault of the Chancery -"

  "Only if you want more of us to die and like telling the Empire that we're coming. There are too many guards stationed there for us to be sure we get them all. Our target is the Chancellor, and just the Chancellor. You know as well as I do that his appetite for women is the only way we're going to get in there, and Sal can slip in without a problem using her ability. You can't be that jealous. You know she's just there to kill him."

  "I'm not jealous, Shift, I'm worried about her lack of experience."

  "You've tested her yourself, you know she can take down a -"

  "But she's never dealt with that many guards before," Blaec interrupted.

  Shift continued without a pause. "She's gotten past all of us at some point this week, stop acting like her mother."

  "I'm not acting like her mother!"

  "You are. If you trust her, then just let her do this and stop trying to convince her that she'll have a problem."

  "But what if-"

  "What if nothing!" Shift's voice grew louder.

  "We can't replace her, damn it!" Blaec yelled back.

  "We won't need to."

  "It's an assassination, man. What if she gets caught up in it?"

  Shift shrugged, looking devious. "What if she does? Cyno deals with it well enough."

  "If you consider the hell he goes through as 'dealing with it'!"

  "Then sleep with her!"

  "I already have!"

  The words hung in the air between them for a second before Shift leaned back in his chair and smirked. "So that's what this is about, then?"

  "No, that's not what I meant."

  "LT, did you sleep with her?" Shift's tone was light, but demanded an answer. His deep breath proved he was expecting a lie.

  "It's not like that." Blaec sighed, but when Shift just stared, he continued, "She infiltrated me for the trials. She's the woman I spent the night with, that gave me the idea about the civilians."

  "I see... was she any good?" Shift asked wickedly.

  "Shift!"

  "Look, I can't even make a joke without you getting upset about it. You're not looking at her like her commanding officer but like a human. Stop it already and let us have the soldier she is. Let us all make use of her skills. Does she feel the same way about you as you do about her?"

  "I don't know. If she does or not, doesn't matter. I can't do anything about it. I'm her commanding officer."

  Shift grunted at that. "So, what if one of us was in your position, what would you tell us?"

  "You know what I'd say." Blaec tried to get out of answering the question.

  "No, we've never had a woman in the outfit before, so it's never come up. What would you tell one of us, Blaec?"

  Defeated, he answered, "That so long as it didn't cause any problems, you could accept it if things ended, and everything
looked respectable on the outside, then do what you want, you're adults."

  "So why are you different? Why doesn't that apply to you?"

  "My position. How many times do I have to say it? I'm her commanding officer, and yours, and all of theirs! It's against military regulations."

  "And?" Shift persisted. "When did human rules apply to us?"

  "What about Cyno? He's gotten very close to Sal over the last couple of weeks, what if he's set his sights on her? The disruption in the ranks could cripple us."

  "He thinks you're good for her." Shift brushed that off. "I asked. But that's not what you're worried about, is it?"

  "Look, if she's like him, he's the only one that can handle her."

  "Then figure that out when it comes, but don't let it stop you now."

  "Damn, man. This isn't something I can just give an order and make happen."

  "Blaec, we've known you're smitten with her since her first day in black. You suck at hiding it, and I'm pretty sure she knows, too. We can all smell it. Just sleep with her." Shift grinned at him. "Not sleeping with her doesn't seem to be working very well, so you'd best try something new before one of us kills you."

  "It still doesn't answer how I'm supposed to make sure she gets out of this alive." Blaec tried to bring the conversation back around to the point he'd started it with.

  "You're right. Nor does it tell you how you'll make sure Cyno, or Zep, or Risk, or Razor, or Arctic, or even I will. You just trust us. We trust her. So get your head out of your ass and deal with this problem before you do end up getting her killed by trying to be too protective." Shift stood and made to leave the room. "Give her the night off, let her know you're interested, and get your head back in the game, LT. She can probably kick your ass at anything besides mounted combat. Just keep her feet on the ground and she'll come home fine."

  "Thanks, Shift." Blaec sighed. "You sure the others are ok with this?"

  "That's not the word they'd use. Most of them are ready to beat you with a pike if you don't stop fawning over her. Blaec, she's the real deal, and you're our leader. It works."

  "Then do me one more favor?"

  "Depends."

  "Take her to the pub tonight? Give me a chance to do more than order her around?"

  "Now that, I think I can handle," Shift said while mentally calling out for Zep to meet him at Sal's.

  ***

  As Sal rinsed the lather from her body, she heard her door creak. Opening her mind, she felt Shift and Zep in her room. An unlikely pair, and one that never amounted to much good. She finished her bath, the dirt from her last lesson with Tilso and Blaec finally gone from her skin, and stepped out. Rubbing her long hair with the towel before wrapping it around her body, she walked into her sleeping chamber.

  Shift had his head in her wardrobe and Zep lay on her bed casually looking up at the ceiling. Her feet barely made a sound. She leaned against the wall, watching them, before either man noticed.

  "Uh, nice outfit there, Sal," Zep said, his complexion growing darker as she stared at him.

  "Mmhm, I think we've done this before. Why are you here?"

  "Same as before, actually. Pretty clothes and a good looking woman trying to get naked in front of me."

  "Eww." Shift glanced around the wardrobe door at Sal. "Damn, girl, put some clothes on or something. You'll catch a cold like that." He stepped back and held up pieces from her wardrobe, all in black.

  Zep nodded. "Yeah, that'll do. She'll look like a Blade and make the common men drool. Best way to keep up our reputation the night before we deploy. What do you think, demon?"

  She just raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

  "Hm," Shift said, staring at her throat. "You always wear that thing?"

  "Yeah, I do. Why?"

  "Where'd ya get it?" He side-stepped her question.

  "It was a gift when I became a Blade. Why?" she asked again, looking directly in his eyes.

  "Oh, no reason." He smiled at her knowingly as his focus returned to the clothing. "Oh yeah, and you've got the night off. We're escorting you to the pub, if you hadn't figured that out."

  "I'm scheduled to meet with Cyno for another run through of the mission plans, what changed?"

  "Well," Zep said, "we basically browbeat LT until he admitted that another night of training wouldn't do you any good and relaxing will. So he said to enjoy yourself in any way you desire. We desire you to accompany us to the pub, so thought we'd help you find something that wouldn't embarrass us."

  Sal finally smiled and gestured at the wardrobe. "Shift, put those pants back in there and find the black lace up boots? Zep, in the drawer beside you, pick out the pair of stocking you like the best."

  Both men complied. Zep raised his eyebrows when he opened Sal's lingerie drawer.

  "Don't think I've ever been in one of these..." he mumbled.

  "Stop pawing the silks and just pick a pair of stockings, Zep."

  "Ok, these? Oh, those are soft." He held up a pair of sheer black hose in his hands.

  "That works. Shift, on the far right, grab me the skirt? Yes, it's black, too." She could hear him moving clothes about. "Really? It's all the way to the right."

  "The belt?" he asked, pulling out a wide black piece of cloth.

  "Yeah, the belt." She snatched it from his hand, then stepped into it under the towel. "Now hand me that under-shirt."

  Reaching behind him without looking, Shift passed across the top he'd picked out earlier. Sal dropped the towel and laughed when Zep shifted his eyes to the floor. "Figured you'd be taking it in, Zep. When did you suddenly get shy?"

  He grumbled something under his breath, making Sal laugh. She straightened her skirt, tucked the under-shirt into it, grabbed the corset Shift had dropped on her bed, then began lacing herself into it.

  "Ok, Shift. Now, I need an overskirt for this. I have a few that are mostly black. Pick one."

  He rummaged for a few moments before pulling out two skirts, one with navy threading, the other a black on black pattern. Holding them up in the light, he passed her the darker of the two and returned the other to the wardrobe. Sal sat on her bed, her back to Zep, and pulled up her stockings, clipping them on, then buttoned the overskirt around her waist. Finished, she turned for their inspection.

  "You can both look, I'm decent now. And you're going to have to get over this if LT plans to use my abilities. Dressing the part is half of it, you know. So, will I make you proud enough?"

  "Except for the wet hair, yeah," Zep said.

  "No, she needs makeup. Not the red lips tonight, though," Shift said, making his way to her mirror and the cosmetics arranged neatly before it. "What else do you have?"

  "Pinks, purples, a few browns and golds... I don't tend to spend a lot of time painting my face before I'm going to end up sweating it off," she told him as she ran a brush through her hair.

  Shift rummaged through her cosmetics like he had her clothes, placing a few items to the side. "Zep, bring me that chair. Sal, sit." He then began painting her face with an expertise she never expected, talking the entire time.

  "I have sisters and figured out that their cosmetics could help me change my own look, too. A bit of stubble can be faked pretty easy, and they can add or take away years. It's a hazard of the elite forces, ya know," he explained while he worked. "Ok, look."

  Sal did. Staring at her from the mirror was a seductively beautiful woman. He'd managed to make her eyes piercing yet gentle, while accenting her smooth complexion and adding just a touch of color to her lips. The opal at her throat hung on its dark resin chain, blending with her skin and outfit. Sal adjusted her cleavage, pulling the edges of her under-shirt just enough to draw the eye.

  Zep turned away, a noise in his throat that she couldn't identify. "Sal, you're killing me over here. C'mon, you're lovely, let's go show you off now."

  "One more thing," she said, heading to the wardrobe and reaching inside. She grabbed something small and walked over to Zep. "Would you do me the hon
ors, if showing me off is really all you want?" An evil smile played at her lips.

  She handed him the crossed sword pin that she'd received with her commission. Zep ran his eyes over her outfit, trying to find enough material to attach it to, settling on a strap at her shoulder. Sal giggled at his discomfort, then grabbed her escorts and directed them from the room.

  "I don't think I've ever seen either of you quite so tongue-tied," she teased while they walked to the pub. "So why the sudden shyness?"

  "Sal," Zep said, "you've never just stripped in front of us before!"

  "You'll get used to it," she promised. "And I'm willing to bet we won't get fancy cabins after tonight, so I figure it's time to start being one of the guys."

  "Yeah," Shift muttered. "No. I don't think you can quite manage that. Trust me, we may accept you as one of our own, but you'll never be one of the guys. You're just going to have to get used to laughing at us, I think."

  "Fair enough. So which of you is buying me the first drink?"

  "I am," Arctic said behind her. "And nice color, Sal. You fit right in." The others were with him. All of them wore clothing in nothing but shades of black. Only the Lieutenant was missing, but Sal shrugged that off. With the morning's deployment, he'd be going over their intelligence reports one more time. She wished she could pull him away from it, though.

  The Blades made their entrance a spectacular one, with Sal leading them into the pub. Her alabaster skin shined under the lanterns, turning the men behind her into shadows trailing in her wake. The music died and all eyes turned to them as Arctic spoke up.

  "Tomorrow, we head out to save the Conglomerate again. But tonight, we celebrate!"

  Cheers went up around the pub and the musicians resumed. A waitress made her way to their table, a full tray of drinks balanced before her, and whispered in Shift's ear. He nodded to her once and kissed her hand before sending to them all, First round's on the house tonight, guys. Drink up!

  The mood of the men seemed somewhat desperate, like they wanted to savor everything they could before the night ended. Sal recognized the symptoms, having seen many soldiers act like this before battle. Men who might die always tried to live as much as possible the night before. When her friends began to mingle in the crowd, Sal made her way up to the second floor, remembering the last time she'd been here.