Page 317 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Eoin

Descending into the mines was not easy; the path was steep, and the traversability was made worse by the deep ruts dug by the vehicles the guards used.

I kept my eyes on Tori while we walked, worried she’d stumble and tumble straight into the steep drop-off on my left.

I knew it was a little irrational to fear, since I kept my body between her and the fall.

On top of that, she was doing well, her footing steady, her focus on the climb.

She was not a risk taker, contrary to what it had felt like when she insisted on coming.

She’d had good reason to be here; I was pretty certain the human male had only started making noise when he recognized a fellow human speaking.

We might not have had enough time to locate him if she hadn’t been there.

A life-sign detector like the one Mitnick was using was a fairly imprecise tool at best. It could indicate a general area and, in the case of some scanners, might even differentiate between species.

That barn area had been as specific as he could get.

Now we were looking for a human in a mine shaft somewhere to our left.

I thought I’d deciphered the readings enough to know it was going to be that third tunnel coming up on us.

Except… I had no idea what the tunnels were like inside.

We could still get lost in a maze, or just not find the tunnel this human was actually in.

On top of that, it looked like this mining camp was almost depleted, with mine shafts boarded up and some even showing signs of collapse. The towering spear of the surveying spike rose above us, casting a shadow over everything.

Despite the circumstances, I was hopeful this second human would be in better shape.

He was down here working, that had to be a good sign.

I was also quite sure it had to be a he; they wouldn’t have brought female slaves to work in the mines, considering that the one we had already found was male. It was a safe bet.

“Almost there,” I said, and the four of us—since the Asrai twins were still with us—kicked it up another gear.

I could hear the noise of fighting on the edge of the quarry; the mercenaries had located the warehouse where they likely stored the valuable ore mined from this place.

From what I’d overheard from the comms specialist, they were working on getting through the thick walls of a safe inside.

By his estimate, we had a small ten-minute window to get what we came for; any longer, and troops from the other mining camps would start arriving, and things would get hairy.

“It has to be that tunnel,” Tori said, and her short legs agilely leapt from the edge of one of the wheel furrows onto a big boulder nearby.

She pointed into the dark shaft, eyes narrowed to try to penetrate the darkness.

She looked fierce with her dual-colored hair up in a high ponytail, her dark eyes intent.

She was single-minded in her purpose; I knew she wasn’t going to accept leaving without that last human.

I flicked on the light setting on my com as we ducked into the shaft, and my Tally quickly followed my example.

From the depths of the darkness, we could hear the sound of workers hacking at the stone with primitive pickaxes.

I wasn’t sure how Tori was going to manage to rescue just one human from that group, I was pretty sure I couldn’t, though I didn’t know how I could pay the mercs for transportation for all of them.

Just thinking of that reminded me that I needed to hoard precious metals, and I’d used up some of my reserves to help with our first rescue a few minutes ago.

Putting one hand on the tunnel wall, I let my senses expand through the stone.

It was a sense I couldn’t put into words in any appropriate way, nothing fit.

It was like I could simply feel what was there.

Copper felt different from iron, and iron was very different from something as heavy as uranium.

This particular rock was filled with all kinds of good stuff, and I greedily sucked it in through my skin.

This was once a rich mine, though I sensed very few big veins of anything remained.

It was going to make sensor readings even trickier, but it worked to my advantage, too.

I didn’t need rich veins; I could talk to all the scattered stuff.

Loading up with the richest minerals and ores, and refining them with my body, was happening at a rapid pace.

All I needed to do was keep my hand on the wall.

In my wake, the rock became a pale gray in a wide band, soft and crumbly to the touch.

Tori didn’t pay any attention to that, her focus on the sounds coming from deeper inside the dark mine shaft.

It was Solear, the quieter of the two brothers, who touched the crumbled wall with a little whistle.

“What the fuck?” I wasn’t going to explain myself to him; I didn’t care what they thought of me anyway.

My com beeped, a channel opening before I’d even reached over to answer the call.

“Metallurgist, if you don’t want to end up in debt to us, I suggest you leave the rescuing to your mate and come up here to help secure our payment.

” That was the communications specialist, and he’d done something to make sure I couldn’t block his call.

I was starting to understand why the Varakartom was such a feared mercenary vessel: they had some extremely skilled people.

My first instinct to his demand was to tell him to go fuck himself.

I wasn’t about to leave Tori behind in here.

Opening my mouth to snap at the male, I drew in a deep breath instead.

Forcing myself to assess the situation in a less emotional manner was hard, but I needed to do it.

This mission meant everything to my Tally, and I had to make sure she had every opportunity to complete it.

“Alright, I’ll be there quickly,” I said through gritted teeth to the male on the line.

It wasn’t exactly Mitnick’s fault, but I didn’t care if he heard my annoyance.

Tori froze ahead of me, her slender shoulders slumping.

When she turned around, her expression was resigned, it tore at my heart, that look.

She thought I was going to make her come with me, that I was making her forsake rescuing this last one.

Turning to look at the two Asrai males, I pointed at them. “You stay close to her, no idiotic hare-brained ideas! You listen to her orders.” Aramon was grinning as he nodded, but his brother gave me a very serious look. Without words, I knew I could count on him to protect Tori.

When I looked back at my Tally, I saw that she had a look of confusion on her face, her dark brown eyes wide in her pale features.

“What are you saying, Eoin?” she asked. Stepping closer, she pressed her hands to the middle of my chest. I could feel her fingers against my skin, soft and delicate.

These weren’t the hands of a warrior, I had always thought.

But that wasn’t true. She was soft and quiet, but she was also strong and smart.

I had to show her that I had faith in her skills and that I trusted her.

The risk was minimal here in these mine shafts; this was the best division of our attention.

“You focus on rescuing those slaves, on locating that human,” I said to her. “I trust you. I know you can do it, my Tally.” The radiant look in her eyes was blinding, and it made me realize just how much she wanted that kind of approval—how much my vote of confidence in her was appreciated.

“Really?” she said, and then, with a firm nod and an even more determined set to her jaw, “I’ll take care of this.

Don’t worry.” My eyes were good enough in the gloom of this mine shaft to notice that her face never reddened in a blush.

She’d come so far and grown so much, how could I not be proud of that?

I understood it better now: what she wanted, why she’d pushed me away that first time.

“I love you. I know you can do it,” I said.

Dipping down, I pressed my mouth to hers, delving inside with my tongue when she immediately welcomed me.

Her taste flooded my senses and derailed my train of thought.

I had her in my arms, aligning her body with mine, forgetting all about our audience and the bad timing.

When I tasted my mate, I could never get enough.

It was the polite coughing noise that drew me back to the here and now.

Tori was a little dazed, her lips red and moist from mine.

Sliding her back to her feet, she stumbled before finding her footing.

Noticing the almost identical grins on the faces of the Asrai twins, I shot them each a glare before I turned around and jogged out of the cave.

I had a job to do, and so did Tori, and we had less than ten minutes to do them. There was no more time to waste.

*

Tori

Watching Eoin leave was actually harder than I’d thought it would be.

I was on my own now—kinda—but I was in charge, and that was such a strange feeling.

I’d never been in charge of anything in my life, except maybe the galley aboard the Vagabond.

Even that had always felt less like my domain and more like a shared space that I just happened to use the most.

That he’d left after saying what he had had my heart soaring.

He’d actually set aside his protectiveness during this mission so that we could each do our own task.

He said he had faith in me, said I was in charge, and then he’d left after that mind-blowing kiss without a backward glance.

I was feeling a little giddy about it and hopeful for the first time that we could make this relationship work.