After The Rabbit (Waldo Rabbit Series) Read online

  Daring sent his friend a furious look. “I am going to make her my woman, no matter what it takes. I want her more than any girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

  Markus raised is hands. “Fine, you’re the boss.”

  “Damn right.”

  A few minutes later one of his men came in to tell him they were coming.

  “Bring the chest in here and get the lads ready. Make sure everyone knows not to be too rough with my lady.”

  XXX

  “Do you hear something?” Alice asked.

  “No,” Waldo said.

  “Yes,” Gronk said.

  Alice stopped and peered ahead. “Darling, could you put your wand out?”

  “If I do that I won’t be able to see anything.”

  “Just for a bit.”

  With a frown Waldo negated the spell. Once he did so they could all clearly see a flicker of light coming from twenty feet down the tunnel. The three of them made their way towards it as quietly as they could. The light framed a doorway carved into the wall. Gronk reached out and gave a slight push. The door silently swung open.

  “Well that’s not suspicious at all,” Alice muttered.

  “Come on,” Waldo held his wand in hand and entered. “It’s better than being lost.”

  They found themselves in an antechamber with another door. Waldo nodded to Gronk. This door too was unlocked. It opened wide to reveal a large room with four tables and multiple chairs. There was a single torch and its light was not enough to reveal the entire room. At one of the tables sat Cleptus Daring with a large wooden chest.

  Alice urgently leaned close and whispered in Waldo’s ear. He listened and gave a nod.

  “Did you enjoy wandering around the sewers, lord wizard? Are you willing to make a deal now? Come sit down and we can talk.”

  Waldo spoke in a soft voice, just loud enough for his familiars to hear. Alice shut the door behind them, while Gronk took a couple steps to get between Waldo and Daring.

  “You’re not going to be rude and refuse are you?” Daring popped open the lid to the chest. He grabbed a fistful of coins and let them slip away. Most had the reddish tint of copper, but a few shined of gold and silver. “Come, sit, we’ll work something out over a few mugs.”

  “Didn’t I already tell you thief?” Waldo said. “I won’t bargain with you. Ventus.”

  A strong burst of wind blew the sole torch out and plunged the room into pitch blackness. Waldo, Daring, and the thieves who’d been hiding in the shadows were now completely blind. Gronk and Alice could still see perfectly.

  XXX

  Daring’s plan had been simple. To allow Waldo and the others to sit and relax, perhaps drink some ale. Then, when their guard was down, he would signal the boys and the wizard and savage would die under a hail of thrown daggers, while Alice would not be touched. The instant things went dark the plan got tossed aside.

  He and his boys were used to the darkness. They were all experts at hiding in the shadows and moving about in silence. But human beings needed some light to be able to see. With all the hidden doors shut the darkness was total. Not only could they not see, they were trapped in a room with a wizard. His boys were tough, but they were thieves not soldiers, they had only agreed to the original plan because as risky as it was it seemed less dangerous than letting the wizard go. The idea of fighting a White Mage they couldn’t see was more than a little bowel loosening.

  The lads all started to panic.

  “Someone light a torch!”

  “No! Don’t!”

  “What do we do?”

  “I say light it!”

  “Kill ‘em before they kill us!”

  “Let’s get out!”

  “Can anybody see ‘em?”

  “Run! Run! We have to run!”

  “What do we do? What do we do?”

  “We got to kill ‘em!”

  “Where are they?”

  “Gronk smash!” There was the unmistakable sound of a table being tossed aside.

  Beneath all the shouts Daring heard a sound like something tearing.

  “I want Cleptus alive!” the wizard cried. “You can kill the others.”

  “Got it, Master.”

  Daring was on his feet with a dagger in each hand, he wished he’d drunk less. “Calm down! There are just three of them and we can kill a mage like any other man. They’re as blind as we are.”

  “Really?” Alice’s voice called out. “Then how do we know there are exactly twenty of you?”

  Those words made his blood run cold. The wizard’s magic let him see in the dark. Daring had badly underestimated him. He was trying to decide what to tell the lads when he felt the floor shake. Then something like a brick smashed into the side of his face and all his thoughts vanished.

  XXX

  Alice enjoyed seeing Gronk knock that damned thief out. If she had her way she would do a lot worse.

  Time for that later.

  Alice was fully transformed, angry, and ready to do murder. She had no sympathy whatsoever for the men standing before her. When the three of them had arrived they had been skulking in the shadows with their weapons drawn, intentions obvious. Now that they were helpless she didn’t feel any pity for them.

  The first one she came up to was holding a short sword in one hand and a carving knife in the other. He was facing the wrong direction and saying something about needing to get out. He had no idea she was even there.

  One swipe of her left hand and her claws sliced open his throat as neatly as a kitchen knife would have a rabbit’s. Blood pumped into the air. He dropped his weapons and clutched at his ruined neck.

  It was her first time killing a man. Alice was surprised at just how little she felt. It was no different to her than killing that goblin. He’d been an enemy and she’d dealt with him, it was as simple as that. She remembered telling her husband once that she would do absolutely anything to protect him. Those words had been true. The idea that these men had wanted to kill Waldo infuriated her even more than the fact they’d wanted to kill her. Anyone who tried to hurt her husband was dead so far as she was concerned.

  Alice didn’t so much as spare her first victim a second glance. She ran up to the next one and stabbed him through the chest with the claws of her right hand. This one let out a scream as he died and she got a face full of warm blood for her trouble. Number three she gutted just like a fish.

  On the other side of the room Gronk was just as busy. He caved heads in with his fists and she watched as he literally tore another man in half. The ones who were still alive were screaming, trying to find out what was going on. Only a couple had stumbled away, frantically searching for what she assumed was a hidden door.

  Waldo was sitting on the floor, at the same spot where he’d cast his spell. Without light he could not safely direct his magic, so he would leave the fighting to them. That was fine with her as she and Gronk could deal with this lot easily enough.

  Number four got his head chopped clean off.

  After just a few minutes it was over. Not one of them had gotten away.

  XXX

  It turned out the meeting room had, had five torches. Waldo lit them all and got a clear view of the carnage. The floors and walls were splattered with blood and there were mangled bodies tossed about the room. The sight didn’t particularly bother Waldo. He’d seen worse.

  In one corner Gronk had peeled the skin off the back of one of the corpses. He was happily snacking on it and drinking a keg of ale. Waldo approved, after such good service he’d certainly earned a treat.

  Alice, meanwhile, had dumped out the contents of the treasure chest and was sorting through them. All the gold and silver coins got separated out and counted. That took longer than the fight had.

  “We got all our gold back,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. “We also have seventy five more silver coins, and I am guessing at least twenty thousand copper ones. For all our trouble we wound up way ahead.”

  Waldo noted the gol
d and silver was put in a purse which Alice promptly tied back around her waist. The copper coins she began shoveling back into the chest.

  Waldo stood over the unconscious form of Cleptus.

  “What do you want to do with him, darling?”

  “Take his shirt off and tie him to one of the posts,” Waldo picked up a dagger that was lying on the floor. He noted the blade was quite sharp. “I have something very specific in mind for him.”

  Chapter 23

  A Morio Seal

  He was choking, gasping for air.

  “Wake up thief. The night grows short and I have miles to go before I sleep.”

  Daring opened his eyes and spat out what was in his mouth. It took a moment to adjust to the light. When he finally did so he found himself staring into a very young, very smug face with yellow hair and eyes. He was on the floor and his arms tied to a beam. He swung his head around to either side.

  Blood.

  Blood everywhere.

  He saw legs and arms and mangled corpses. There was Markus ripped in two. His guild, his friends, who’d been drinking and talking with him just an hour ago were nothing but meat now. Sitting among the dead there was a gigantic green skinned beast with tusks. In one hand it had a keg and in the other what looked like a hunk of skin. As he watched the monster brought the still bleeding flesh to its lips and hungrily devoured it.

  Daring turned away and fought the urge to vomit.

  “Is that an ogre?”

  “Yes. His name is Gronk. I used my magic to make him appear as a female barbarian and as a male tough when we were in the tavern.”

  “He’s eating one of my men!”

  “He does that,” the White Mage said with sickening calm. “He normally eats whatever he kills. After tonight he has earned himself a reward.”

  That was too much. Daring turned his face to the side and threw up on the floor.

  When he was done and there was nothing left in his stomach he turned back. His mouth tasted of puke and his throat felt raw.

  “Damn you, how could you have an ogre and let him do that to my boys?”

  “I did tell you my attitudes were a bit more liberal, didn’t I?”

  Daring then said something he hoped was the greatest possible insult to a white. “You’re a complete monster.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Do you not like monsters? What a terrible surprise.”

  Those words were from his beautiful lady. She had been standing behind the wizard, and so he hadn’t noticed her. Now she walked out to allow a clear view.

  His eyes widened and he started gagging. If there had been anything left in his belly he would have thrown it up. His beautiful lady was drenched in blood, her face, her hands, her arms, her clothes, she might as well been wearing red. But that was nothing. She had wings! Like some sort of monstrous bat, they stretched and contracted with her every step. On each of her fingers was a claw, there were horns sticking out the side of her head, and the fangs he thought he’d imagined were back. He even noticed a tail lashing back and forth.

  Yet the beautiful face was still there. Those exotic eyes and magnificent breasts and curves were all in place. When she moved there was the same sensual roll to her hips. It was as if the gods were mocking him by leaving so much of her beauty in place, while attaching all of these hideous features.

  She was disgusting.

  Alice gave a knowing nod. “I can tell by the way you’re looking at me just what you think.”

  “It can’t be, you’re a… a…”

  She tilted her head ever so slightly. “Goddess?”

  “Monster,” the word came out in a sorrowful moan. This was what he had lost everything for? This horror? He’d been cheated. If he had known the truth he would have never come near her.

  “Does this change things for you?” she took three slow steps towards him. “Didn’t you say you loved me? Surely your feelings haven’t changed so quickly.” She leaned down towards him and reached out a hand with those long claws. “Don’t you still want my touch?”

  “No, please,” he shut his eyes and turned away from her as much as the ropes would allow. Daring could feel the tip of one claw press against his cheek.

  “Alice,” the wizard spoke.

  The pressure vanished.

  “I was just teasing him a bit, darling. I wasn’t actually going to hurt him.”

  “I don’t care if you hurt him, just don’t kill or maim him until I’ve made my offer.”

  He opened his eyes and focused on the young wizard. As incredible as it might be he was the least frightening one. No matter how bad the situation he was still alive. As long as you were alive there was hope. He would say and do whatever it took to get out of this.

  Daring grinned and did his best to actually sound composed.

  “Don’t tell me after all this you’re actually going to bargain with me?”

  “No,” the wizard told him. “I will give you a choice to make, but there won’t be any bargaining. First, when we leave here you’re going to show us the way out. Don’t think you have any say there, you don’t need fingers or hands to give us directions.”

  He thought of the ogre munching on his friend and shuddered.

  “Right you are, lord wizard, I’ll be right proud to lead you out of here.”

  “I am not a lord and I don’t care to be called a wizard. My proper title is Master Rabbit.”

  He bent his neck. “As you say, Mater Rabbit.”

  It was at this point the wizard brought out a dagger and began to slowly turn it in his hands.

  “After we are outside the question will be what to do with you. The simplest option would be just to kill you. Since you’ve tried to murder me, executing you would only be proper.”

  “I can already tell you I’m leaning strongly towards option two.”

  He continued to twirl the dagger. “You were able to rob Alice without her noticing. You were also able to escape her on the roof tops and all of us in the sewers. The fact you could get so many men to fight for you when you have no rank or authority is also impressive. You are a man of some skill, and a good thief could be very useful to me on my journeys. I would be willing to take you as my servant.”

  Daring let out a relieved breath. His luck was still in. He was actually going to live through this. He would play along and do whatever he was told. Then, when the moment was right, he would disappear. If things played out a certain way maybe he would even get the chance to cut the wizard’s throat before he left.

  Daring bent his neck once more and tried to sound as sincere as possible. “I would be most happy to be your faithful servant.”

  “Delightful,” the wizard began to tap the side of the blade against his palm. “Of course, that leaves the question of just how I can ensure you are a faithful servant. You’re human, which means I can’t form a Contract with you and make you a familiar.”

  “Thank goodness,” Alice muttered.

  “I could create a Death Seal, but that would seem a waste as I can only use the seal once.”

  “I am not sure what that is, but I want to avoid anything with, “death’” in it. I will swear an oath in Wotal’s name to you. No man would dare break that oath.” Well at least no one who actually cared about pissing off the gods.

  “Oh please, as if I would trust any promise coming out of your mouth.”

  “Wotal is a vengeful one, you don’t swear oaths in his name lightly.”

  “I have more faith in my magic than I do in any foreign god,” the wizard then sat down in front of him and placed the blade against his chest. “Now, hold still, this won’t take long.”

  “What are you doing?” he asked nervously.

  “I am going to carve a morio seal into your chest, just above your heart.”

  “What?!” He didn’t dare move with a dagger hovering over him.

  “It’s a very special seal, it places a curse on your heart. Unless I chant a warding once every three days, your heart w
ill tear itself into pieces. So should you betray me or run away I simply won’t speak the chant and wherever you are you will fall dead within three days. Obviously, the same will occur if you should kill me. I think this will do to ensure your loyalty.”

  Daring stared at him in horror.

  “Feel free to scream as much as you like, but try not to move or we will be here all night.”