“Some, but there are a few quarries inside our borders,” Niadra said, looking at Cecilia as she asked. “Did everything go well, otherwise?”
“Yes, of course. Master Uvreth was a little surprised by your requests, but happy to take the project,” Cecilia said, looking like she’d caught her breath at last. “She did say she hadn’t thought about the problem, but that it did explain why her furniture wasn’t as popular with some of the other species with tails.”
“I hadn’t thought about that possibility… well, it’ll help Master Uvreth, so that’s good,” Niadra said, smiling. “We’re going to the Red Pavilion for lunch, assuming you’re ready to go.”
“Of course, Your Highness. Whenever you’re ready,” Cecilia said, fully straightening once again.
“Excellent,” Niadra said, and nodded to the guards, who took up positions around them as they started to move.
At the same time, Kitania glanced at Cecilia curiously. She’d noticed that while Niadra’s lady in waiting didn’t seem to like her, Cecilia also took pains to ensure that Kitania and Niadra had plenty of time together. It always struck her as a little odd, but she wasn’t about to argue about it. Instead, she focused on Niadra as the princess spoke.
“So, what’s been your favorite thing in the city so far?” Niadra asked, laying a hand on Kitania’s arm as well. “I’ve noticed that you’ve enjoyed the meals quite a bit.”
“Food here in the mortal world is, by and large, enormously better than in the hells,” Kitania explained, grinning in anticipation. “Why, oats are something of a luxury item there, and I bought a jar of preserved tomatoes for more than I care to think about a few months ago. As for what I liked the most, I think…”
As Kitania spoke, they wound their way through the streets of the elven city, and she felt herself growing more at ease as they moved. A tiny part of Kitania even idly wished she could live here, though she knew it wasn’t likely to ever happen.
Adrian pulled off his cloak, partially extending his wings as they reappeared, now that the cloak wasn’t hiding them. He hated hiding his wings, since he was proud of them, but it was impossible to move through an elven city without being noticed with them. Once he was sure his wings weren’t damaged, he moved deeper into the hidden cavern.
“Ah, you’ve returned.” Haral’s voice was quiet, and Adrian felt a hint of excitement as the beautiful woman smiled at him. He knew that Haral was far closer to having the ear of the Lord of Light than anyone else he’d met, so serving her was an honor. Just like the opportunity to help punish unbelievers and heathens was an honor.
“I have, Lady Haral,” Adrian said, falling to a knee before her and lowering his head, ignoring the dirt across the ground, along with the presence of Ilvon and the others. “I’ve also gathered the information you’ve requested.”
“Excellent,” Haral said, looking at the other members of their team with a smile. “Rise, then let’s hear what you’ve learned for us.”
“The elven princess, her maidservant, and the demon are still in Mist. Last I saw them, they were preparing to have a meal in the city, and it will likely take them some time before they’re ready to leave. I couldn’t safely approach to overhear what they were saying, as they have four guards with them, and two with the carriage,” Adrian said, standing up and brushing off his trousers as he continued his report. “While they appear to be skilled soldiers, they’re not the best of the palace guard, and their armor has minor enchantments at best. The carriage appears to be no better, and most of its defenses are focused on keeping the wheels intact and reinforcing the cabin itself. I believe the easiest targets would be the wheel mounts and the section connecting the horses to the carriage itself.”
“Excellent work. I’m surprised that they didn’t enchant the wheel mounts, but it’s possible they simply didn’t believe it worth the time. No matter,” Haral said, smiling thinly. “What of the princess? Are the rumors true, that she’s infatuated with the demon?”
“I’m not absolutely certain, but everything I saw indicated that she is. They often walked arm in arm, and she frequently smiled at the demon. None of the guards were trying to stop her, either,” Adrian said, disgust surging through him at the memory, and making him almost want to spit on the floor. “If she isn’t, I’d be shocked beyond measure. I can’t believe that anyone would taint themselves by associating with such a monster.”
“I see. Well, that being the case, I suppose there’s no reason to hold back,” Haral said, her gaze hardening as she shook her head. “We’ll proceed as planned. Eliminate the guards and take the others alive, at least briefly. You’ll be allowed to teach the princess the error of her ways once we’ve brought them back here.”
“Yes, Lady Haral,” Ilvon said, the leader’s voice quiet, and his hand on the hilt of his sword.
“May I join the ambush, Lady Haral?” Adrian asked eagerly, hoping she’d give him permission.
“Of course. You’ll need to move quickly, since we need to get into position soon,” Haral replied, smiling brightly at him. “Don’t take your time.”
“Yes, milady!” Adrian said eagerly, and he quickly darted toward the room where they’d been staying the last couple of days. He’d have to put his armor on quickly, but he wasn’t going to miss the chance to help eliminate the hellspawn. He’d been living his entire life for a chance like this.
Chapter 32
Haral looked down at her whip, examining its length carefully for a moment. It was beautiful, covered in the golden scales of a sunviper, a rare flying serpent of the heavens, and she loved the weapon. She had it coiled for the moment, and she felt much like that herself, like she was coiled and ready to strike. She wasn’t impatient, though. Impatience was a good way to cause even more problems, and she wasn’t willing to fail yet again. Enough failures would bring the wrath of her superiors down on her, even with as many successes as she’d had over the years.
So she watched and waited patiently. The demon and princess pretty much had to come along the road they were watching, and it wasn’t heavily patrolled. That would likely change in the future, but the future wasn’t now. Besides, it was amazing how much scouting angels could get away with in the north. Most of the common folk trusted angels implicitly, which was only appropriate in Haral’s opinion.
The others with Haral weren’t nearly as patient, though, and she saw those on her side of the road occasionally shift in place. Their hiding places were good enough that they wouldn’t stand out, so it didn’t really matter, but it still slightly vexed her. She ignored the impulse to snap at the angels and focused on the road. Snapping would only make them more anxious, and they weren’t hurting their odds of success yet.
The sound of hoofbeats in the distance caught Haral’s attention, and she smiled as Ilvon straightened slightly, then hissed a warning at the other four on this side of the road. The men and women quickly prepared themselves, and Haral settled down, feeling even more at ease as she prepared herself for the exact moment to strike.
A minute later, the carriage came into sight, and she frowned slightly. Aside from the driver and a footman, there were the six soldiers on horses around the carriage. Haral mostly felt bad about the driver and footman, but there was no helping what was coming. For the greater good, sacrifices had to be made.
“What do you have planned for this evening?” Kitania asked, looking across at Niadra and Cecilia curiously.
“Hm… I’m not entirely certain,” Niadra murmured, tapping her lips with one finger thoughtfully as Cecilia surreptitiously plucked a couple of strands of stray thread from Niadra’s dress. Kitania suppressed a smile at the young woman’s attempts to keep Niadra looking as perfect as possible while the princess spoke. “I was invited to tea, and I suspect that it’s an attempt to try to get information out of me. I haven’t been associating with most of my usual acquaintances, so I’m sure they’re almost dying of curiosity at this point.”
“Really? I hope that it isn’t quite th
at bad,” Kitania replied, grinning at the thought. “I don’t know what sort of deaths are common in an elven court, though.”
“Believe me, the court would probably implode if all the gossip stopped at once,” Niadra assured her, the princess’s eyes twinkling with mischief. “Since there isn’t a war or any other major threat lately, it’s always different nobles maneuvering against one another, gossip, and more gossip. And people trying to romance one another, I suppose. Isn’t that right, Cecilia?”
“While I might say that there’s also a little trade and the like, I can’t say that you’re wrong, Your Highness,” Cecilia replied, tossing the threads aside. “It often seems like there isn’t much else to do in the palace.”
Kitania laughed, shaking her head in disbelief as she replied. “I see. That’s far different than the palace I grew up in, but I suppose that—”
She was interrupted when a cracking sound echoed through the air and the carriage gave a sudden, sickening lurch to the left. Then there was another crack, and Kitania lunged forward to help the others brace themselves as the horses outside screamed and the carriage began tilting.
Haral’s first strike was impeccable. As the arrows loosed by the others struck the guards, and a single stray one hit a horse, she lashed out with her whip. The length of it ripped through the air with immense force as it extended even longer than it normally was and struck the center of the carriage’s wheel. The hubcap shattered at the whip’s touch, and the axle within burst instantly under the force of the blow. The carriage lurched, but the attack wasn’t done yet.
Ilvon was the one mage who’d accompanied Haral, and his spell was slightly delayed behind the initial attacks, due to the chance of his incantation tipping off their opponents. As the guards began toppling from their mounts, his own spell struck, and a reverberation echoed through Haral’s bones as the other axle of the carriage exploded and sent the carriage toppling onto its side as the horses panicked.
The driver tried to retain control, but she didn’t last long, and as the carriage twisted onto its side, the woman was thrown to the ground a moment before the panicking horses dragged the carriage over her. Haral winced in pity but hoped that it was a quick end.
The footman had jumped off the back of the carriage and was standing up, an expression of horror on his face, and regretfully Haral lashed out again, even as the first whip-crack was echoing through the air. The force of her attack all but beheaded the man instantly, and he clutched at his throat, blood spilling through his fingers as he fell to his knees.
Haral’s archers were shooting the horses now, and one person was rushing forward from the other side of the road, Haral noted approvingly. It was the eager infiltrator, Adrian, and she knew that he’d be dealing with the princess and demon quickly enough.
She did love it when a plan came together properly.
Kitania let out a gasp of pain as she hit the door at the bottom of the carriage, the other two still in her arms. They’d come to a lurching stop, and the two weren’t reacting yet, though she knew they were awake from the way they were moving. A moment later, they began to push away, though.
“What happened?” Cecilia demanded, sounding panicked as she tried to wave the dust out of her face and pushed back her hair. It looked like she’d been cut on the arm, but she didn’t seem to notice as she tried to regain her feet but toppled due to one of the heels having broken off, barely catching herself against the side of the carriage. No, it was the roof, Kitania realized, a little dazed as well.
“I don’t—” Niadra began, pushing herself up, but Kitania cut her off as her mind began moving again.
“We were attacked! I can’t hear the soldiers, and we need to get out of here quickly!” Kitania interrupted, pushing herself upward as well. If she could get to one of the guards, she’d be able to get a sword, and with her magic she might have a chance.
Before they could say anything more, though, Kitania saw a flash of white, feathered wings from the door opposite them, then a gauntleted fist punched through the window, showering glass over them as the other women yelped and cowered. Kitania flinched, her eyes half-closing, but when the fist opened, it dropped a glowing white ball into the carriage, and her eyes widened involuntarily at the sight of the prism orb.
“Close your eyes!” Kitania warned, trying to close her eyes fully, but she was just a bit too late.
A riot of colors burst from the orb in patterns that played hell with Kitania’s eyes, and she felt herself hit the ground again, spasming slightly as the mind-bending aspects of the enchanted item hit her, trying to drill into her mind and drive her unconscious. She heard the cries of the other two as it blasted them as well, but Kitania was largely focused on fighting the effects herself.
Pain ripped through Kitania, and a part of her wanted nothing more than to succumb to the relief of unconsciousness. That would be giving up, though, and the flicker of white wings flashed through Kitania’s memory, which was more than enough motivation for her. Those were the wings of an angel, and if they were attacking her… that truly enraged the demoness, with how many times angels had ruined her life of late, so she fought back against the torrent of magic attacking her mind.
It was like being assaulted by battering rams, even if they didn’t cause physical pain, and Kitania’s teeth were grinding together so hard that she thought they might break. The torment seemed like it went on for several minutes, but at long last it came to an almost jarring end.
When it did, Kitania found herself on the ground again, the two elven women splayed across her body, neither of them moving, and she could see a little bloody drool dripping from Niadra’s mouth. For an instant, Kitania had the urge to try to push them off and try to fight back, but at the glimpse of movement from above she changed plans and did her best to pretend she’d been affected as well.
Without a weapon or armor, trapped in the confines of the carriage and facing an unknown number of opponents, her chances of fighting off the attackers were poor at best. If she could make them underestimate her, though, she might be able to gather information and engineer an escape. It would have been far easier to simply drop an item to explode into the carriage, after all.
“They’re all here and unconscious, Lady Haral,” the man on top of the carriage called out. An instant later, someone else replied in a rough voice, sounding irritated.
“No names, you half-wit!” the other man barked. “Did the fact this was supposed to be covert slip your mind?”
“I… my apologies, sir. It just slipped my mind,” the man replied in embarrassment.
“No harm done. We’ve dealt with all the others, so it isn’t as though anyone is able to speak of it. Though you should be more careful in the future,” a woman replied, her voice cool and calm.
The woman’s voice sent a chill down Kitania’s spine, along with more than a little anger. Haral… the name was familiar, after Isalla’s tale, and if it was her Kitania would love nothing more than to tear her wings off. Especially if she was planning something horrible for Niadra.
“Get them out of the carriage and restrained. The road may not be heavily patrolled, but there’s no telling how soon someone will come around the corner,” the man with the rougher voice ordered, his voice low. “Get them back to the hideout quickly. The sooner we start, the sooner we’re done.”
“Yes, sir,” several others agreed, and Kitania heard the carriage door above her open.
She did her best to go fully limp, and kept her eyes slightly cracked open. The more Kitania could see, the more likely it was that she’d be able to find a way out of this disaster.
Chapter 33
The angels had pulled Kitania and the others out of the carriage, then tied them up and took flight. Kitania couldn’t get a good look at the guards with her eyes barely cracked open, but she saw that they, the horses, and even the other servants had all been slain in the assault. Or most of them had, at least. Why the angels would’ve gone so far as to kill the horses w
as beyond her, and it made Kitania even angrier, if that was possible. No, it was quite possible, she realized. It was bad enough that they killed people who could have been witnesses, but to kill even animals? That upset her.
Still, Kitania had stifled her anger and waited, since there were enough angels that she doubted that she’d be able to kill more than one or two of them before falling, and that would be useless in the end.
They’d flown through the forest for about fifteen minutes, keeping low to avoid being spotted, she thought, before descending toward what looked like an old bear cave in a hillside. Kitania had almost flinched when they’d tossed her through the wall, which proved an illusion, and had mentally cursed as she bounced across the packed dirt floor. Her quick glance made her think someone had excavated a tunnel and reinforced the sides via magic, and it led into a modestly sized complex.
A few moments later, the angels roughly dragged Kitania down the hall and into a room to the left, and what she could see instantly caused another chill to run down Kitania’s spine. Around her were a variety of tools that looked like torture equipment to her, though none of it was terribly bulky. The biggest items were the portable shelves which held the pliers, hammers, and other devices, as well as the chair in the center of the room with its restraints on the arms and legs.
“Strap the princess in,” Haral said, and Kitania watched her feet as the woman stepped into the room, pacing almost calmly. “Then wake her and the demon. We’ll have a little chat, then can proceed. We don’t have an enormous amount of time before we have to move, after all.”
Mortal Gods (Mantles of Power Book 2) Page 27
