A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [70]
The young man went out and closed the door. Mace felt him on the other side, guarding, and he sighed. The boy’s emotions were a mess and he obviously didn’t want to talk anymore. Still, he’d left Mace alone, and that was a very welcome piece of stupidity—or perhaps intent.
Mace changed shape immediately, condensing his size and form and becoming a large black rat. He had to leave his clothes behind, but he didn’t worry about that as he scurried to the back of the stable, making his way through the stacks of goods. The building was old, not well maintained, and he was easily able to squeeze out through a gap between two wall panels.
Outside, the sky was lightening toward dawn, but Mace doubted anyone would notice a rat even in full daylight; he could certainly sense enough other rodents making their way through the camp in search of food. Mace was in search of something else. He ran immediately to where Jayden was being kept, racing across the top of the snow along the outskirts of the camp and hoping that Travish didn’t decide to head back in for a verbal rematch.
He might get blamed for this, Mace realized, but he put that thought aside. He would grab Jayden, get him out of the camp, and come back for Travish. If he had to follow his original, indifferent plan of throwing him over his shoulder and just leaving with him, he would. Travish would surely see the wisdom of not returning to a camp of bandits that the other battlers from the Valley were going to turn into a large crater.
Two brigands flanking him, Jayden sat in a lean-to by a fire, shivering and dozing in the early air. The men were drinking and laughing, waking the exhausted boy whenever they noticed him sleeping. Jayden looked to be too worn out to protest much, though Mace heard him swear at them when they jabbed his ribs, which only made them laugh. The guards were much taller than the boy, even sitting, and his slumped position lowered him even more.
Mace ran up behind the three, shifted into human form, grasped the heads of the two guards, and slammed them together. Jayden gave a gasp as they tumbled to either side, unconscious. Mace grabbed the boy, yanking him close before he could even turn. Changing shape, a moment later he was in his natural form, darting away from the camp through the trees, racing off in the hope of not being seen. He ached from his wounds, and this couldn’t be a comfortable ride for Jayden, but he felt the boy’s hysterical relief.
“Mace?” the youth gasped.
Mace couldn’t answer, not in this form. Jayden would have had to be his master for a telepathic link to be possible. He thought for a moment instead, and formed a tentacle inside the inner pocket in which he carried the boy, reaching out to squeeze Jayden’s shoulder.
The boy started to cry. He was sobbing, his breath hitching as he gasped out apologies and promises to never run away again. Mace really didn’t know how to deal with that, and finally just stroked the boy’s hair with the tentacle, just as he would have tried to comfort one of Lily’s female orphans. It worked much the same here, doing nothing to stop the crying but helping to ease the hysteria. Mace sighed and kept flying, well aware of his own guilt. It had been easier when he still didn’t care, but that was in the past. He stroked Jayden’s hair and carried him to safety, letting the boy weep.
He’d left Sally and Ruffles in the woods at the other end of the valley. Mace flew