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It took two blows from Grog’s axe, but the manacle bar holding Percy’s hands to the wall above his head finally broke apart. He let his arms fall, biting back a curse as pain spiked up from his torn wrists at the movement.
“Easy, Love,” Vex whispered. She’d caught one of his arms and gently lowered it to his lap. “You’re all right.”
He leaned into her, forehead resting against the column of her neck. He didn’t want to look down, to see the skin as torn and bloody as his shirt, know the fresh scars that would be left behind.
“We need Pike for this,” Vax was saying to Grog, calloused fingers gentle with care as he sent a careful tendril of his own healing energy into Percival’s exhausted body.
“Got it.” The goliath paused long enough to rest an enormous hand on Percy’s shoulder—surprisingly gentle for its size. “Pike!”
His voice was not as gentle, though, and Percy flinched against Vex’s shoulder as the sound echoed through the stone walls of his cell. She murmured something comforting and pulled him closer, and he felt her body stiffen when she took a look over his shoulder to see the bloody strips of his shirt embedded in the mangled flesh of his back.
“Vax…”
“I know. He’ll be all right.”
Of course he would. He wanted to protest, to demand they stop talking over him as though he were insensate, but what little strength he’d been holding onto had broken away as soon as his rescuers had arrived. He knew what she was seeing; his captors had not been pleased with his refusal to detail Whitestone’s residuum shipments.
It had been many years since he felt the bite of a whip across his shoulders, but he was not proud of that first burst of blind panic when they’d started laying into him. Any sense of control over himself had fled and, as memories overcame his mind and fear seized his body, he’d been truly unable to answer them even if he had wanted to.
“Percy? Darling?”
He leaned back enough to look up at her. There were tears in her eyes, and much as he wanted to wipe them away he quite literally could not lift a finger. “I’m all right,” he croaked out, in a voice that sounded as abused as his body.
“You know damn well you’re not,” she replied, though there was a little glimpse of humor back in her voice. “We came for you as soon as we could. We never stopped looking, and—”
“I know,” he interrupted. He couldn’t bear for her to take any responsibility for this. In his own hubris, he’d declined any kind of escort for his meeting with a new merchant contact. Percy had lost any real sense of day or night as soon as they’d brought him to this accursed prison, but it had to have been at least six days since his capture.
Two days since he’d been left alone to die, chained to the wall, a collar around his neck to strangle out all but the faintest breath.
The thunder of footsteps heralded Grog’s return, and with him the others. The sudden movement and noise was suddenly overwhelming, and he cringed against Vex in some childish desire to hide away from it all.
“Trinket?”
At Vex’s call, the bear gave a low, affectionate moan and shuffled into the cell, planting his large body between Percy and his rescuers to grant him a little breathing space. “Thank you.”
“Take it slow,” she replied—though he couldn’t tell if it was to him or the rest of their friends. “Pike?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here.”
Vax backed off to let Pike take his place beside Percy. Small, gentle hands touched his arm, his side, as she peered at his wounds. “It’s not so bad,” Pike announced. The cheer in her voice sounded strained, so he knew she was lying. “You probably need some water to start with, though.”
“I got ale!”
Pike snorted. “Not yet, buddies. Why don’t you find us the fastest way out of here? I’m sure Percy wants to get some fresh air as soon as possible.”
“On it, Pikey!”
Someone else pressed a waterskin into Pike’s hand—from the scent of lilies and soil he suspected Keyleth—and she held it up to his lips. “Drink slowly, all right?”
He tried. His throat was dry, but he coughed up the first mouthful of water. Pike held the waterskin back, gentle fingers glowing with holy light against the worst of the bruises on his throat. “Slowly, Percy. We’ll let you have as much as you want, okay? Just drink it slowly.”
He tried again. She held the waterskin more firmly, only letting him have little sips at a time. He felt like he could’ve drained an ocean, but after a few seconds he slumped back against Vex’ahlia, exhausted.
The cell around them shook with a thunderous crash. Pike shot Vex an alarmed look, but the half-elf woman just shrugged. “You told him to find the fastest way out, remember?”
Pike grinned. Her smile was infectious, and even as the old stonework shook around them when Grog smashed through another wall, Percy couldn’t help but smile with her.
“Okay, let’s see what we can do. Your feet are pretty bad, but your hands are worse, I think. I can do more when we get somewhere safe to rest, but let me do something now.”
“No,” he tugged his arm away from her. Feeling was returning to the limb in painful spikes that ran up and down the muscle, but he wasn’t worried about those.
“Percy…”
“Get my feet.”
They’d burned the bottoms of his feet almost immediately upon his capture. They’d inflicted a new injury every day, be it a welt from a switch or burn from a brand. Anything to keep him unable to stand on his own. He’d been dragged through every damned inch of this prison, and gods help him if he was being dragged any further.
“I need to walk,” he admitted, when Pike still hesitated. “Please, Pike.”
She hesitated. Empathy and compassion radiated out from every fiber of her being as she gently took one of his torn hands in hers. “I understand, Percy, but that might not be possible even if I heal your feet. This is…this is pretty bad.”
Percy stared at her, imploringly. So much had been taken from him here, so much fear and pain inflicted on his body in place of the love and comfort he’d grown used to with Vox Machina. He had to leave this place with something of his own.
Vax knelt behind Pike, a hand on her shoulder. “Let him try, Pickle. We’ll catch him if he falls.”
Pike huffed out a sigh. “Okay, but on one condition!” she held a finger up in front of his face. “You take at least two days of bedrest after this—no complaining!”
“That won’t be a problem,” Vex replied, and Percy felt his face heating up at her suggestive tone.
“None of that either, Vex!”
“I was joking, Darling,” Vex teased. She pressed a kiss to Percy’s cheek and reached across him to squeeze Pike’s hand. “I don’t think either of us will be up for anything more adventurous than a good long nap after this.”
He looked back up at her, as Pike began to focus her healing efforts on his wounded feet. “I made you worry,” he murmured. There were dark shadows under her eyes, her face pinched from lack of sleep.
“You always make me worry,” she replied teasingly. Her eyes were still a little troubled, and she nestled in closer against him. “I thought we’d never find you.”
“And I knew you would.”
Her hand returned to stroke through his hair. He leaned into the touch, remembering a time when he’d been alone in this world. No comfort of a lover’s touch, no friends to save him from his darkness.
“All right,” Pike announced. “That’s the best I can do. Wanna give it a try, Percy?”
Vax nudged her aside and rose to a crouch, holding his hands out. When Percy reached for them, the half-elf reached a little further to seize him by the elbows and gently pull him to his feet, holding on while Percy regained his balance.
Vex slipped up to his side, tugging one of his arms over her shoulders for support. “Ready, Love?”
He nodded. He took a few shaky steps, and when he stumbled Trinket had already sidled up to his other side. One arm around Vex’ahlia, and one hand on the back of her bear, he slowly made his way in a rather direct line through broken walls to the outside world.
The sun was an hour or two from setting, the light rich and warm as he finally left his prison. He closed his eyes to bask in it, letting the sights and smells of the world banish the last of the shadows.
“Yo! Percy!” Scanlan waved to him from a doorway in the middle of the yard. “Got the mansion all set up, buddy. Let’s get you some R&R!”
“Give me a moment,” Percy asked when Vex started to move toward the mansion. “Please.”
“Of course,” she murmured, settling back next to him. “Take all the time you need.”