Page 42 of Steel & Thunder
“Hmm?” I look behind me at the cage, then back at him. “Ah, come with me.”
He leads us over to the cage where I can see Redwish talking to Adam inside the cell. He sees us on our approach—it’s hard to miss the Captain. My friends in the cell notice us too but don’t say anything. I don’t sense any animosity from the lawyer-orc, and I’m damn sure hiding my own. He smirks at me for a split-second before turning to Ironstorm.
“Captain Ironstorm.” He holds his hand out and the two exchange what I am just gonna call the “orc handshake” from now on. “It is good to see you and your new human. I trust you have helped him settle in well?”
“Advocate Redwish.” I can tell they know each other, but they don’t seem overly friendly. Just work associates, I guess. “It has been an interesting week, to say the least. I was wondering if he might have a chance to speak with his friends?”
“I see no problem with letting them speak.” I relax a little when he okays my visit. “I need to go confirm a few things with Councilman Bloodfield before we begin. I do not expect this to take very long.”
When he steps away, I move for the cage, not bothering to ask Ironstorm for permission. The less these guys see about our “relationship,” the better. Thankfully my leash is allowed to hang loosely without comment. I can already see Adam’s got a million questions, and so do I.
“David,” Adam says at my approach. The rest of the group sans-Nate crowds to one side of the cage, the dark-haired magician waving to me silently from a distance. He’s the worst.
“David! Are you okay?! I’ve been so worried!” Corrine cries and tries to hug me through the bars, the anti-magic bracers around her wrists cutting her off.
“I’ve been worried about you guys too.” I turn to Adam. “What about you? Are you and Liss still hurt?” I don’t see any signs of injury on them.
“No, we’re both okay,” Liss answers from Adam’s left. “You should see the other guys though.”
“The other guys are also fine.” Adam gives Elisabeth an exasperated look. “They took us all to a healer when we first got here. When they finally brought us back to the jail, you were already gone.”
“Yeah, what the hell, man?” Liss says maybe a little too loudly. “I mean, sure we’re in jail and that’s not great, but we heard you tried to fight one of those orcs one on one, and he made you his bitch.” Really hoping she meant that figuratively.
“That orc is standing right behind him, so maybe chill.” Adam cocks his head at Liss, and I turn to look at Ironstorm, who is politely pretending to not be listening to any of this. “Are you okay, David? What happened exactly? They told us you tried to fight the guy that arrested us and now he...owns you.” He looks somewhat nervously behind me and drops his voice to a whisper. “Is he hurting you or anything?”
“I’m okay, Adam. Really.” Now I’m whispering. “It hasn’t been that bad. He’s...alright.”
“What is he making you do?” Adam’s still whispering.
“Just things like taking care of chores and stuff around his house. It’s pretty boring.” Now I’m whispering and lying through my teeth.
“Is that a leash?” Liss cuts in with an oh-so important question.
“Is that your natural hair color?” I nod to her extremely visible roots.
“I missed you too, David.” She smiles.
“What’s going to happen to you all now? Any chance of still fighting this thing?” I ask even though I know the answer.
“We don’t really have a choice. We have to admit we did it and do our time.” Adam shrugs his shoulders.
“Really? There’s nothing else? Can’t we just give them Nate or something?” I ignore the indignant “hey!” shot in my direction. “It was just an accident.”
“An accident where people got hurt.” I know he’s right but booooo. “Even if they ignored that, the healer, repairing the damage to the temple, those things cost money. Money we don’t have. There’s nothing we can do.” He doesn’t sound dejected, but he’s definitely come to terms with things.
No one says anything for a moment before Adam starts again. “Look, however long it takes us to get out of here, just hold on. We’ll figure it out. We’re still a team, right?”
“Right.” It’s hard not to smile when Adam’s trying to cheer me up. I’m glad I’m in this with my best friend, but I wish I could be in there with them. Or that they could be in my place—never mind.
“Captain, we are about to begin, so you will need to take your seats.” Redwish comes up looking apologetic, or at least feigns it convincingly.
“Thank you again, advocate.” Ironstorm gives a short, polite bow, before turning to my friends in their cage. “Best of luck. Rumk’r Avon.”
“Bye guys.” I give a sad wave goodbye as we turn to walk away. “I’ll talk to you soon, somehow.”
“You know they are going to find out about the nature of our relationship sooner or later,” Ironstorm whispers softly as we walk away, so that only I can hear.
Yeah well, that’s something I’ll deal with later. We look at the long benches for an empty spot. For a moment, I hope we might be able to slip somewhere in the back, but of course the “Captain of the Rangers of V’rok’sh Tah’lj” (are you impressed I remembered all that?) sits us in the second row. The room isn’t too full, but I don’t know if that’s unusual or not. A few more people find their seats and then an orc in a uniform similar to the one next to me reaches the center of the room and announces something in Orcish.
