A/N -- Mild proofread. Just wanted to get it out here for you guys!
Cane stepped into a tent, running his hands through his hair. A guardian captain, Brawler, and Iris followed. Everything was happening all at once. They had lost. In a shadow of a second, they had lost everything. Even with their very clear advantage, the victory had turned to dust. Rhalla Gwenneth had been taken into the lair of the monster.
There were few people at the sanctuary that had known Rhalla as long as Cane. He'd been there nearly since the beginning. He could recalled how fearful she used to be of men. He remembered the days when she was more fragile than she was now. Smaller. Younger. There was a time when she was more girlish, and far more terrified. He couldn't stop seeing it in his mind's eye.
They'd become friends when she'd had a nightmare one night.
Until that point, she had been intimidating -almost mean. She'd been distant with just about everyone but Master Dyran and her mentor. But then, that night had happened. He'd walked down to the common room to find her, hands shaking like mad. Her shoulder-length curls had been bed-tousled, and there had been a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. For the first time, she'd looked over at him with soft eyes and apologized, as if her terror had somehow woken him. Even though he'd been terrified by her before, he'd comforted her that night as best he could, from a distance of course. After her nightmare, she was far too skittish to let him come close. With a few exceptions, that was a mostly quiet night. Still, something about the look on her face moved something in him.
After that night, he'd checked the common room every night for her, in case she needed someone to talk to. Someone to be there. Sometimes, she did. At the beginning, it had been frequent --two, three times a week. On those nights, he'd talk with her for hours. That was how she'd gotten to know him. That was where he thought he'd truly gotten to know her. Or so he thought. Lately, her story... was madness. Until recently, he thought he knew Rhalla Gwenneth well. But he hadn't. No one had. From the crimes committed against her, to her betrothal, to her son, she had proved herself a mystery.
On another note, the nightmares had eventually near ceased --or she'd stopped leaving her room when they'd happened. It went from multiple times a week to once a week. And then once a month. The last time came, two months apart from her last episode. And after that, Cane had checked every night for a whole year for her to come back down before he finally stopped coming.
Even though that was years ago, that very first broken night was an image he'd never remove from his mind. And to think of her there... again. The place that had broken her to have so many terrors. It made Cane sick.
"What are we goin' ta do?" Brawler was the first to speak, breaking his train of thought. "Ye have to make the decision, friend. An' fast. We can't be leavin' Rhalla there."
Cane turned to face them. Suddenly, his expression was full of emotion. "I would never ever, in this life --in any life, leave her there."
Brawler threw his hands up at the sudden intensity. It wasn't often Cane, or Frederick, was anything less than poised. "I wasn't sayin' otherwise, lad. Jus' statin' a fact. There's no tellin' wha' he'll do to her."
"There is telling," Cane said, quickly trying to pull together a plan of action. "She's a woman. But she's more than that --she's a woman that brought destruction and death to his fortress. I imagine he'll bring her in to... serve again. I'm sure, to him, that it would feel like justice. Sick, sick justice."
"You're sayin' tha' he'll have her raped?" Brawler asked. "But she's not a' all like the other woman. She's big an' muscly. She isn't... 'beautiful'." There was a desperation in his voice, like he was giving any reason his friend might not suffer. He didn't want to believe she was back in the situation that had leeched so much happiness from her.
Cane's eyes narrowed, despite Brawler's better intentions. "Rape isn't about bedding a beautiful woman, Thomas. It's about power. They'll rape her to make her feel low --so they might feel powerful." The secretary shook his head, almost in disbelief. By this point, he was just speaking without thinking. "And what world do you live in? Rhalla is and has always been an entirely gorgeous wom--." He stopped himself mid-sentence. "I digress. We need to save her. Somehow. I wish we could just... throw down the doors and lay waste to all of them. I wish..."
"He made it clear. We can't do tha'. We make a move on tha' estate, an' Rhalla suffers. They all die. We need somethin' else. Think o' somethin' else." Brawler then shook his head, suddenly looking very confused and completely caught off guard. "Ye think she's beautiful, do ye?"
Cane blew out a breath. "It hardly matters what I think." When Brawler kept staring at him, Cane grit his teeth. "Oh, for gods' fucking sakes, of course I think she's beautiful. Maybe not so conventionally anymore, to be true, but she is. Have you ever even looked at her?" He groaned. "Oh, we don't have time for this. Not when her life is at stake. Not when more than her life is at stake."
That quickly brought Brawler back to the situation at hand. "So what'll we do?"
"I don't know yet. You're right, we can't just go in and get her." Cane muttered under his breath. "Do you think they'd make an exchange? A life for a life?" Small formulations began, leading to ultimately nothing.
"Are ye offerin' to go yourself?" Brawler raised a brow.
"It's better than nothing," Cane sighed, exasperated. Suddenly, he realized he sounded foolish. The next words were more spoken to himself rather than her friend. "But what use would they even have for me? I'm nameless. I'm a male, guardian secretary that means nothing to him. Even without her gender and even without their past, she's still the newly minted guardian master. She holds more power than me. And we've already lost. Why would he need any other captives?"
"No one is being taken prisoner," came Iris's voice, causing everyone to turn to look at her.
Earlier, Iris had been detained by Eldian soldiers until she'd calmed down. Next, she'd went to the person in charge of saving her sister. Now, there was something about her voice --the way she looked at everyone. The times Cane had seen her before, she'd been a joyful spirit. She'd stayed at Rhalla's side and always served to inspire those around her. She had passion. Cane had already heard that Kayde Vorantis had met a horrible fate in front of her. He'd also heard that Kayde had been her lover. It would have been understandable if she were sobbing, or sad. But that wasn't the case right now.
Her eyes were figuratively darker than they were before. They almost looked dead at first glance. But Cane could see the venom bleeding in her stare. Something had changed in her, but it was far too soon to tell exactly what.
"I beg your pardon?" he asked.
Her voice was a near hiss. "I have had enough of bartering pain and sadness between ourselves. Lives for lives, and self-sacrifice. No one goes into that estate for a trade-out. No one goes in to suffer. He will not taste another drop of our sorrow."
"You suggest we let him win out?" Cane looked incredulous. "There's no other way I can fathom to get her back."
"I never said that we let him win. I only said that no one else of us will suffer at his hands." Iris said, "But he should. The baron should suffer for what he's done. He should feel my sister's agony, my mother's loss, my father's heartbreak. He should feel the pain and shame of the hundreds of women he's taken away, and then their mother's grief. He should hurt as fathers, and siblings, and husbands, and children did. He should feel it all tenfold and all at once. More than once. He should want to die --beg to die, and live anyway to feel pieces of himself cut away. He should feel the skin stripped like clothes from his bones. He should suffer the pain of a thousand deaths --a thousand stolen lives." Iris choked on her rage. "And he will."
"You have an idea?" Cane asked.
"Call the full retreat." Suddenly, her eyes were empty again --deplete of emotion. "Have everyone fall back to the woods and wait for my arrival. I will do what needs to be done."
Cane had to admit he was spooked. Still, if Iris had a plan... it was more than he had. So he nodded and said. "Don't get caught. You understand the price of failure."
She said nothing else, just turned away to walk out. Her steps stopped when Cane said. "I heard what happened. I'm sorry about Kayde Vorantis. I am." He spoke to the back of her head with sad eyes. "He was a good man. If there's anything I can do to help..."
"There isn't," Iris said without looking. "Nothing can be done for dead men."
"But something can still be done for you." Silence. "Have you visited him? Surely, they've brought him back to camp by now."
"He's no longer there to visit." Finally, Iris turned her head enough to meet his gaze with one eye. "But thank you."
And then she left.
"Shall I inform the guardians of your decision?" the guardian captain asked a minute later.
"Indeed. Spread word of the retreat."
With a nod, the guardian captain followed Iris's path out of the tent, leaving Brawler and Cane, both Rhalla's best mates, by themselves. It was quiet for a very long minute. A hefty sigh from the secretary broke the silence. "I hope this works. Whatever Iris has planned, I hope to all the gods that it works."
"Did ye see the look in her eyes?" Brawler asked.
"I did," Cane admitted. "It was unnerving. But that's what happens when so much is taken from you. I only hope a little of her remains."
"And then there was yerself. Ye didn't see the look in yours." Brawler said. "But I did."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cane replied. It was true. He had no idea what in the world his friend referred to.
"Ye wanna know something? We met Rhalla's family not to terribly long past. Dane an' Azabela came an' visited her after she had tha' episode at the sanctuary. An' ye had this look in yer eyes tha' I could tell somethin' bothered ye. At first, I thought it might be tha' two ladies were gettin' married to each other. But then I didn't pin ye for judgmental. Then, I thought it might be because ye found Miss Azabela to be a pretty lass. After all, tha' girl is a little goddess if I've ever seen one. Rhalla's one lucky bitch for tha'. But then it bothered ye too long. I saw tha' in the passin' couple o' weeks, even if Rhalla didn't. Ye'd frown after seein' them together --or at the mention o' their names. It bothered ye too long fer it to be jus' simple lost attraction." Brawler raised an eyebrow. "An' after tha', I couldn't figure it out. So I let it go. But after tha' look in your eyes jus' a minute past... now I understand."
Cane grit his teeth. "I don't know what you're talking about." That time was a lie.
"Did ye ever tell her?" Brawler asked. "Did ye ever tell Rhalla? I don't imagine ye did, if ye never told me."
"I'm not angry with anyone," Cane refuted. "You're reading into it too much."
"No, ye're not angry. Ye're sad." Brawler pinned him. "And ye're sad because ye love her. Ye love Miss Rhalla, don't ye? For how long?"
Cane took a breath. "It's not even worth talking about."
"Ye know she's..." Brawler flexed all his muscles and puffed up his chest. It was a joke to ease the tension.
"Obviously," Cane rolled his eyes. "I'm not blind."
"Then ye're into beef," there was a wicked glint hiding in Brawler's eyes. "She could throw ye right over her lap, grease yer ass, and spank it all sore and pink if she was so inclined, ye know?"
"I'm not into beef," Cane argued. "Do you not realize how terrible of a situation we are in right now?"
Brawler's look softened. "Better to laugh than to cry, innit? We can't do anythin' but pray she comes back in one piece. Other than tha', we'd only torture ourselves." There was a moment of silence before he added. "An' I believe she'll come back. She's too tough an' Iris is too angry for her not to. Hell, if even tha' fails, we'll come up with somethin'. Rhalla will live out the day an' return. An' when she does, ye should be honest with her. Do ye hear me?"
"Tell Rhalla that I'm in love with her?" Cane looked incredulous. "No, she'd never let me live that down. She'd tease me to no end."
"Do ye really think tha' of her? Ye really think she'll take yer bleedin' heart and tear into it further. Ye think her, out of all people, will make a joke of somethin' like tha'?" Brawler shook his head. "No, I think ye're thinkin' of me."
"There's no point in saying anything. There's no point to this discussion."
"There is a point, whether ye're thinkin' so or not. I can tell ye that it'd probably feel good to get it off yer chest. An' Rhalla has always appreciated honesty," Brawler said. "I can't promise ye she's gonna run an' jump in yer arms, were that even possible with the sizes an' whatnot. In fact, I know for a fact she'll never let go of tha' archer. But even so, ye'll have some closure, at least. Maybe ye'll move on with yer life, give another lass a real effort."
"Mm," was all Cane said. "Nice talk."
"How long has this been goin?" Brawler had to ask.
There was a sigh. Cane met his friend's eyes. "Since the first time she actually, honest to gods, smiled at me. Nearly thirteen years ago now." There was the honest answer. "You said earlier that Rhalla wasn't beautiful. But I dare you to really look at her smile, and see if you ever think she's anything less for the rest of your life."
"Damn, tha's some romantic shit," Brawler chuckled. "I'm gonna have to use tha'."
Cane pursed his mouth. "Yes, well. That's enough." Suddenly, he looked very forlorn.
"She'll come back," Brawler promised. "Just ye wait. For now, let's march out an' let Iris unleash what's sure to be the fires of hell and burn them all to the ground."
Cane chuckled. "Maybe she'll be more subtle than that."
A/N-- Kind of a breather chapter, setting up for some scenes to come. :P After the last two, maybe it lets you take a breath. Hope you liked regardless.