Page 50 of On A Rift's Edge
The human’s eyes widened as he spotted Lyall. He had bondage worms wrapped around each wrist, but they weren’t connected. The rift tech could be used merely to immobilize someone, like handcuffs, but they could also be instructed to stretch around Kat’s neck. Lyall could try to fight both Arimanius and Teo, but they could easily kill Kat with the devices.
“Take those off him.” Lyall pointed to the bondage worms. “You know he’s not a threat to you.”
“Sign the contract first.” Arimanius held out a clawed palm, and the collar Teo had tried to place around Lyall’s neck appeared. In his other hand he held a twisted ball of sticks. The indenture contract was traditionally enforced with a seymour. Lyall’s stomach clenched at the sight, but he kept his gaze focused on the mafia boss.
“No.” Kat tried to stumble forward, but Teo grabbed his shoulder. “This is all my fault. Please, Lyall doesn’t want to work for you. You can keep me instead.”
Arimanius chuckled. “My dear Kat, you have an inflated sense of your own worth, even for a human.”
“The worms come off first.” Lyall didn’t make eye contact with Kat. He couldn’t. The guilt of putting him into this awful situation was unbearable.
Arimanius nodded at Teo, and the worms activated and slid off Kat’s wrists. The hopper put an arm around Kat’s chest, holding him tight.
Lyall moved as well, shifting his position to stand in the fading light of early evening streaming in through the balcony doors. A flicker of annoyance passed over the mafia’s boss’s features, but he walked over to face Lyall. Teo moved closer as well, dragging Kat with him.
Arimanius held out the shriveled ball of sticks. A thorned vine wound its way around the mafia boss’s index finger, and blood dripped into the plant as it contracted. “No portals, now that I’ve learned you have that ability, no transformation into your Riftworld form, and no killing my other servants.” Arimanius gave Teo a cool look before turning his attention back to Lyall. “Unless I order you to do any of those things.”
Lyall had hoped Arimanius might have missed the detail about his mini-hellmouths, but the mafia boss’s intelligence gathering was legendary, and Lyall had scarcely been discreet. “Only if you agree not to keep Kat to use as leverage against me or threaten any member of his family.”
Arimanius nodded, his eyes holding a gleam of triumph Lyall knew too well. “Fifteen years.” He held out the plant, and Lyall felt the sting of the thorns bite into the flesh of his palm.
The mafia boss cinched the collar around Lyall’s neck and stepped back to admire the results. “You’ll find this is an upgrade from your old one. Oh, and Teo, what was it you wanted to ask me earlier?”
“I want to keep the human.” Teo had all the enthusiasm of a human child asking for extra candy and two ice cream cones. “I know you don’t think he’s all that special, but he knows so much about Earth culture and customs.” He arched an eyebrow at Lyall. “And he’s nice to look at.”
Lyall threw his arms up and lunged at Arimanius, but his muscles froze him into place a second later. Arimanius didn’t even blink. He knew that the contract, above all, protected his safety. Not only could Lyall not hurt or kill the mafia boss, he’d have to fight to the death anyone who tried it.
“Very well, Teo, that’s allowed in the details of the contract.” Arimanius continued to watch, eyes intent, as Lyall struggled to keep his arms raised.
There was a loud pop, and Teo cried out in pain. Arimanius whirled around to see Teo on the floor, his face scored with bloody scratches. Kat stood, stunned, with Flutterberry wrapped around his chest. With another pop, she and Kat disappeared from the room.
Lyall lowered his arms, walked over to Teo, and kicked him as hard as he could in the ribs. “Since you’re looking for education, hopper, let’s start out with knowing your place in this organization.”
Arimanius let out a low laugh. “Nice to have you back, Lyall.”
19
Kat sat on the sofa in Kaveh and Remi’s living room, as he had a day earlier, an untouched glass of lemonade in front of him. Kaveh and Remi sat across from him.
But Lyall wasn’t next to him, and Kat would never see him again. And it was all his fault. He hadn’t believed Lyall when the hellhound had warned him that Paul Cicero was a ratkind mafia boss in disguise. That had made it simple for Arimanius to lure him into a trap meant for Lyall, not him. Lyall had tried to explain why they needed to leave, but Kat had refused to listen.
Worst of all, Kat hadn’t told Lyall that he was in love with him.
Both Remi and Kaveh had fallen silent after Kat had stammered through an account of his sheer idiocy in walking into Arimanius’s clutches. It had been even more difficult to describe how Lyall had given up his freedom for Kat, even tricking the mafia boss at the end.
Would Arimanius punish Lyall for using Flutterberry to whisk Kat away? He had horrible thoughts of what the mafia boss might do to him.
The control object made an unsettled rattling noise, and the misty substance inside darkened to the color of storm clouds.
“Well.” Kaveh broke the silence. “I’m not going to stand for this.”
Remi started to object, but Kaveh interrupted him, which never happened.
“Lyall was my guest. Kat is my closest friend. Arimanius and his criminal companions had no right to enter drakone territory and do this.”
Remi buried his head in hands. Behind him, the control object lightened to a pale shade of blue and made a humming noise of comfort.
“He has a plan for you.” Remi uncovered his face, and his eyes were wet. “He has a plan for everything. If you threaten my father in any way, he’ll tell Lyall to attack you. That’s the most binding part of the indenture—ensuring the safety of whoever holds the contract. The only way that will end is with you or Lyall dead.”
