Page 31 of Dishonor Among Thieves
“We need to go, Brex. Now.” Neo held out a hand to help me up, but I refused.
“I don’t think I can carry him,” I said.
“Carry him?” Neo shook his head. “No.”
I glared at him. “You can’t possibly mean to leave him.”
“Brex.” His eyes had lost their crimson glow, but even if they had been red, I would not have seen it. He tilted his chin and knelt beside the goblin. He laid a hand on the barely moving chest and whispered a prayer. “His soul is destined for Forráheim now, Brex. We cannot stop that journey.”
I reluctantly released Elgit’s hand and rose to my feet. The torch I’d stuck in the ground flickered with my sudden movements.
“You cannot be serious. If that were me lying there, or your brother, would you whisper your prayers and leave him to pass into Forráheim alone?”
He stared at me, his scarred lips a tight, thin line.
“Would you!” I demanded.
“What would you have me do? If we’re caught with a goblin, Brex… By the gods. Do you have any idea what would become of us? How quickly we’d be drawn and quartered by the common people? That’s if they even waited until they found two horses! We’d be staked alive and strung up faster than we could say the word goblin!”
“We will not be discovered,” I seethed. “No one has to know he’s a goblin. Look.” I pointed to my cloak. “Wrap him in it. Carry him like a child.”
“That will never work!” Neo pinched his brows between two fingers. “He is dying, Brex. If we’d never come tonight, if we’d spent our wedding night like man and wife should…” He trailed off, his hands clenched into fists, the goblin dagger still in one hand. “Elgit would have made the journey alone. We cannot intervene with destiny.”
“But he’s not alone,” I insisted. “And people intervene with destiny every day! Just last week you did not know that I even existed, and now…”
He closed his eyes but appeared unpersuaded.
“You dare to speak to me of dishonor!” I exclaimed, reminding him of the one term he’d cared enough but to demand, but not to ink into our marriage contract. “Do as you will. I will not leave him. Go, if you must. Abandon us both here, and be certain to tell your family the truth about my demise.”
“How do you expect to do this!” Neo demanded. “Do you know the pain we’ll cause him? The suffering he’ll endure just by being moved? The ride on horseback alone might finish him.”
I started walking through the mess of the sanctum, lifting anything that wasn’t a body, looking for wine, ale, anything. “We can give him something to ease the pain,” I said, panic edging my words. “There must be something here that will help him!”
A pair of strong hands on my shoulders stopped me from rooting through the stinking, bloody mess.
“Stop.” Neo turned me to face him, peering down at me. “Why are you so fixed on the impossible? Odile cannot save him. The gods will not spare him. Not with an injury this severe. The kindest path is to say a final prayer and leave him to the journey.”
“No!” I nearly screamed, wriggling to free myself from his grip. “No one should die alone. Ever. I will not leave him!”
Neo studied me as I returned to Elgit’s form and hovered a hand over his shoulder.
“We’re going to get you help,” I vowed, my tears wetting the poor goblin’s gray cheeks. “We will not leave you.”
Neo kneeled beside me, this time resting a hand gently on my shoulder. “Who was it?” he asked. “Your mother? Did she leave you at the foundling home and then…”
I nodded, suppressing full-body sobs. I would not let my mind return there. I would not indulge memory and grief when the room was full of lives that had been viciously cut short. And I would not fall apart while this vampire lord stood and watched.
“She died alone,” I admitted. “You asked me to do nothing to dishonor you, myself, or your family.” I strained to keep my words clear, my voice steady. “Is there anything more honorable than risking our own safety on even the slightest possibility that we might save a life?”
Neo didn’t bother to reply. He sighed but knelt beside me. He peered into the silent goblin’s face and gently moved my cloak from behind Elgit’s head. “Grab the torch,” he said, “and keep hold of these.” He handed me the goblin dagger and the death mask. “You’ll need to lead the way.”
He covered Elgit with my cloak like a blanket, tucked his arms gingerly under the goblin’s knees, and lifted the limp body into his arms. The goblin wailed like an infant at the movement, but he quieted once Neo settled him.
“Take the hood and the rest of the garment,” he instructed, “wrap him so his face cannot be seen. We cannot risk even a hint of his body being seen by anyone who dares be on the road.”
I set the mask and dagger down and stuck the torch back into the ground. I gently wrapped Elgit’s face beneath the cloak and tucked his hands on his bleeding belly so his skin and claws would not immediately mark him as not one of the common folk. Then I grabbed everything and pointed toward the torches that were still lit. “Should I extinguish them?” I asked.
“No time.” Neo motioned for me to lead the way up the stairs. “They’ll burn out. And if not, let the place burn. That’s a kinder fate for these bodies than what the corpse rats have planned.”
