Lords Of The Dark Fall - Fabian (25 page)

Fabian stood for inspection and she nodded her approval, feeling suddenly a little in awe of him. He oozed sophistication and confidence in a way she hadn’t noticed when he’d worn the shabby old work clothes. Dressed as a king, he would be breathtaking and so completely out of her league she’d go blind looking at him.

“What’s wrong?” He glanced down at himself and then realised the problem was with her. He didn’t miss much.

“Nothing.” They should go down. Get this started. “Let’s go see what Hal has to say.”

“Is it the ensemble? What?”

“Yes, it’s the ensemble. It’s working, already making you look like someone else. I guess it just took me aback.”

“I am this man and more, Tig. In all this time I’ve been here, have you not seen who I am?”

“I guess I’ve been in denial. How do you want to play this? Want me in front or behind you?”

“You may announce me. I would appreciate that,” he added.

“Who do you want to be?”

“Fabian Lucimanticus will be sufficient, for now. And Tig,” he said when she made for the door. “I would have your respect, but never your fear. You have seen me naked and at my lowest ebb. Don’t let this put distance between us.”

With those few words, the hard man in the suit vanished, to be replaced once more by the Fabian she knew. The Fabian she’d grown to love.

And with those few words, he reminded her that the distance would soon consist of more than words.

“We’ll go down together. I want Hal to know exactly where my loyalty lies.”

“He will be in no doubt.”

Don’t do anything stupid
. Everything about Fabian’s demeanour told her he was done with hiding. And that he had no interest in playing the diplomat.

“My loyalty lies with you,” she whispered as they stepped out onto the porch. “But I’m coming in as equal partner, okay? I make my own terms.”

No response. Too intent on Hal watching their approach from the safety of the wagon. He didn't wait for a formal introduction.

“Going to invite me up? Might as well be comfortable while we talk.”

Hal addressed his comment to Fabian, as if it were his house, not hers.
Let it go
. No use in wasting energy over the small skirmishes when bigger battles were on the horizon.

“I would prefer to stand.” Fabian remained motionless, effectively blocking the entrance to the wooden porch. “And I would prefer that we say what is needed with as few words as possible. Do I make myself clear?”

Hal pushed off his wagon to straighten up. He flicked away the stick he’d been using to pick his teeth. “Any way you want to play it, I’m your man. Succinct enough?”

“And your guarantee?”

“You mean how do you know you can trust me?” Hal lifted his chin. “That’s my guarantee. She’s standing right behind you. She’s somehow become entangled with you and I have no choice but to do the same. I care for her.”

“I’m aware of that. As you must be that I am in need of an ally who will gain me access to Warrington’s camp. I would challenge the man.”

“Why?” Hal tilted his head. “If you don’t mind me asking. You’re a difficult man to read. I get that you’re an outsider, but I just can’t place you. Nothing about you makes any sense.”

“I wish to return home. And for that I will need power and means. That is all you need to know.”

“And you’re what? Taking Tig with you?”

“No, where I am going, she cannot follow.”

That statement seemed to cheer Hal considerably. “That’s as well since she’s promised to me. So, you don’t mean to stay once you’ve vanquished Warrington? In that case, why bother?”

“I need access to his mage.”

Hal’s eyes widened, as if he’d suddenly been offered a missing puzzle piece that made everything fall into place. “God in heaven, you’re Lucimanticus. The...” He slapped his forehead. Took a few paces back and forth. “Damnation, why won’t these mists clear.”

“Fabian, don’t listen to him.” Tig stepped forward, alarmed. A hand on Fabian’s arm. “You spoke your name, upstairs. That’s where he’s getting it from. He’s clever. A master of cold reading. Don’t let him play you.”

“You were deposed and displaced and need to reassert your power in order to reclaim what you lost. Am I right?”

The brief look of naked need on Fabian’s face made her want to weep. For all his strength and power of will, he would never match Hal for mental trickery. Hal knew how to play with a man’s mind, and that made him infinitely more dangerous than Warrington.

“I wish to mount a challenge. You will facilitate that.” Fabian regained control, clenched fists the only sign of his agitation.

Hal considered. “As I said. I’m your man because of her. But it leaves me with a big problem. Leaves both of us with a big problem. What about the power vacuum you’ll leave behind? A warlord can’t just up and leave because he has better things to do. Once in power, you’ll have responsibilities. To me, to her.”

“I won’t be here. You worry about yourself, Hal.”

“You will be here because you will be my wife.”

“She will not be your wife. That is not part of any deal.”

“The hell it isn’t. You can fuck her all you like while you’re here. But when you go, she’s mine.”

“Stop it!” Tig’s voice sliced through the rising tension. As a pissing contest, this was a good one. Neither men appeared to have heard her and by the look of deadly intent on Fabian’s face, Hal stood a couple of heartbeats away from a horrible death.

“Stop,” she said forcing down the indignity of being squabbled over like a bone between two rabid dogs. Hal was in the mix now and one way or another they would be forced to deal with him. Or kill him where he stood.

“No,” she whispered when Fabian tensed, ready to move. “He has a fail-safe, remember? Let’s talk this through.”

One of the dogs poked its head out of the barn, recognised Hal and raced across the yard with an excited bark. Watching the dog settle happily at the man’s feet reminded her they had a history between them that predated Fabian’s arrival. Without Hal she wouldn’t have survived this long.

Hal crouched to fondle the dog’s ears. “You can only turn your coat once in this game. Without your protection neither Tig nor I will live to tell the tale. All I ask is that you throw a few of Warrington’s coffers my way and I’m out of here. Taking my ladies and starting a new life somewhere else. Was a time we thought we could rebuild this province, but that’s never going to happen. I’m done with all this.”

Emboldened by Fabian’s silence, Hal pressed his luck. She wanted to shout him to shut the hell up before Fabian did it for him. Couldn’t he sense the rage simmering beneath the rock-like stance? The deceptively blank face?

Of course he could. Hal was no fool except perhaps when it came to her. And she was rapidly coming to the conclusion he wanted her now as a matter of principle more than anything else.

“As I said, Tig is not a part of any deal. Accept that or leave now.”

Hal rose, wiping the dust from the tails of his coat. “No sane man would show you their back. It’s deal or die for both of us now. Tig will do the right thing in the end. She would after all do anything for you.”

“Hal, shut up.” Those were words that should come from her lips. Hers to say, or not as she chose. How dare he even utter them?

He acknowledged her rebuke with a gracious nod of his head. Condescending bastard thought he already had her in the bag? Fabian’s voice cut through her anger.

“I know. But I would not ask her to. If neither of us has anything else to add, then this meeting is at an end.”

“Wait.” Hal raised a hand, thought the better of it and lowered it again. “We’ve started this now. Can’t leave without each putting something on the table. You’ll need stimulants, what they call roids, if you want to match crazy Warrington. I can get them for you.”

“And I will barter one quarter of the spoils. When can you bring the stimulants?”

“No time like the present.” Hal fished quickly into his pocket, bringing out a small glass vial which he held aloft, between forefinger and thumb. “Muscle, attitude and a drug habit, all in a few little pills. Can you handle this?”

Without warning, the vial spiralled through the space between them, twinkling like a tiny star in the morning light. Fabian’s large hand snatched it from the air, closing around it with a snap. Tig lowered her eyelids, unable to witness Fabian’s calm acceptance of his fate. He pocketed the pills and, without a further word, turned to stride back into the house.

It was always coming to this. She couldn’t begrudge him the edge he needed to get what he wanted. The thought of how it would change him made her unbearably sad. After all his penance, he was so determined to recapture a man he hardly seemed to like any more.

“Tig?” Hal stood on the bottom step, his expression one of real concern. “I had to. You know that. But once he’s into them, you can’t stay here. It won’t be safe.”

“He’d never hurt me.”

“Not intentionally, perhaps. Carson couldn’t hold on because he couldn’t handle the hard stuff. Warrington’s pumped up on them and Fabian will have to match him. Tig, this is our chance to really make something of ourselves. You heard him, one quarter of the spoils.”

“And you think you’ll be able to what? Just load up the wagons and rumble out of the camp? How far will we get? No, don’t come any closer,” she said when he took the second step. “This whole thing is madness. We’re all going to end up dead.”

“Or free. With money at our back we can be truly free, Tig. I will make you a good husband, I promise.”

“I’ve never doubted that.” At one time she might even have found if not happiness, then some contentment in the arrangement.

“You were right here,” he said cupping his hand. “About to say yes to me, and mean it. Have things changed so much?”

The look of naked yearning on his face was unbearable to witness. Her sympathy quickly turned to anger. She squashed it down, struggling to temper her voice and force her mouth into a semblance of a smile, wondering for how much longer she could play the empathic listener.

How fragile a man’s ego. Right now she was juggling two of them.

“Not so much,” she said. “But things are different now. You must be able to see that.”

“If they’ve changed, then they can change back. Come on, Tig. Give me something. If not for me, then do it for him.”

“Okay. I’ll think about it, Hal.”

But don’t count on it
, she muttered as she turned to follow Fabian into the house.

* * * *

Did the enhancements make him more or less of a man? He could not decide. The vial lay on the table before him. Three times Fabian pulled off the stopper and three times replaced the cork without disturbing the contents. His pride wanted to face the fight without resorting to artificial means. His good sense told him he would not survive the confrontation without their help.

“How permanent is the effect?”

“They’re addictive.” Tig jammed the kettle under the pump and grasped the handle, working it until the kettle overflowed. “If you’re asking me what you should do about them, the answer is I don’t know.”

“I must be assured of victory. These are my guarantee.”

“But what then?” She slapped the kettle down onto the range and then pulled out a chair opposite him. “Getting into power will be the easy part. Remaining in power? That will be a different story. Once you put on that armour you’ll never be able to take it off.”

“I will not be here long enough for that to be a problem.”

“But what if you are?”

He refused to think that. What would be the point of any of this if it could not get him home?

“I will not be.”

Tig shook her head. “Man, you are stubborn. From what I’ve heard, those pills aren’t something you can just pop when you need a bit extra and then stop when you don’t. Best case scenario would be that you fight and defeat Warrington using what you already have. That was Carson’s strategy.”

“And it got him killed.”

“Exactly. Which means there is no best case scenario. To win you have to be prepared to lose something.”

That seemed increasingly the way with humans. “Speak plainly, Tig. What are you trying to tell me?”

“That they’ll mess with your head as well as your body. Make you angrier, less predictable. Ahh, I shouldn’t be saying this.”

When she pushed back her chair, he reached across the table, catching her hand to keep her in place. The hint of anguish in her eyes worried him.

“Should not be saying what?”

“That you’ll be difficult to be around once those kick in.”

“You’re saying I might be a danger to you?”

Her thumb caressed the back of his hand. A gentle touch that spoke more eloquently than words. Once on these, he would never touch her like that again.

“Tig, I have witnessed warriors out of their heads on stimulants and hallucinogens. I know what it can do to a man. And what that man can do to others. But you need have no fear. If I take them, I will learn to control it. Can you trust me to do that?”

He felt compelled to rise and go to her, hating the way the morning’s events had dulled her shine. Last night’s dancing and laughter was already a distant memory.

“I would hold you while I still can. I had not reckoned on this being so difficult a decision to make.”

“Nor I.” Tig fitted herself to him, sliding her hands under the jacket. “I thought I could blithely walk away and leave you to your grand plans. That’s proving very difficult, too. It’s more than caring. I’ve kind of grown to like you.”

The words were muffled by the shirt. She liked him? What did that mean on her world? Was it the same as love?

“Do you…like me?”

She spoke hesitantly, almost nervously and without the teasing tone she used when fishing for compliments. A serious question, then, that deserved a considered answer. More than a simple,
yes I do and very much so.
The ease with which they’d stepped into each other’s arms spoke of the bond they’d forged. They could stand here all day without a word uttered and still, they’d know.

That knowing had complicated everything. He did not want to be parted from her and yet by staying, how could he achieve his goal?