by Eric Vall
“Excellent,” Dragir said with a nod. “They are finished, and I had four hundred rockets prepared after I casted a few more while you were gone.”
“Hell yeah,” I said with a grin. “That’s the kind of news I needed to hear.”
“Wait a minute,” Aurora cut in. “Did you say you had them, or have them?”
I furrowed my brow, and Dragir sent me a pointed look.
“I had them,” he clarified. “Now, they are gone with all of the bazookas as well.”
Chapter 15
Cayla’s icy blue eyes narrowed, and she stepped forward as she leveled Dragir with an accusing look.
“Where is my bazooka?” she demanded in a tone that abruptly reminded me of her status back in Cedis.
The elf looked uneasy as the princess cornered him at the end of the jetty, and I placed a steadying hand on the woman’s elbow.
“She means what happened?” I clarified, but Cayla shook her head slowly.
“That is not what I mean,” she assured Dragir.
The elf sighed. “A lot has happened since you left,” he told us. “I did not intend for the bazookas to be taken, but I am not wholly surprised given the circumstances.”
Dragir mostly addressed Cayla as he said this, and the lethal woman crossed her arms stubbornly.
“Explain yourself,” she ordered.
“Rhys returned from the north this morning,” Dragir continued. “His son has been taken, and he suspects he was abducted by House Syru’s soldiers.”
Cayla’s jaw immediately went slack with shock as all of her anger dissipated, and we all stared for a minute as the words sank in.
“The little guy with the green hair?” I clarified blankly, and I recalled Rhys’ young and scowling son who’d led his own troops during the battle at House Quyn.
Dragir nodded. “His mother says he disappeared the day Rhys left to move his village to their fortress in Orebane. No one has seen him since.”
“Son of a bitch,” I cursed.
Aurora crinkled her brow. “But … I like Rhys’ son,” she mumbled sadly. “He told me I kill good.”
“He’s a remarkable warrior,” Dragir added. “His father has been training him since he was four. Now, he has likely been branded with the Master’s rune, and Rhys has decided he is going to attack House Syru.”
“With only his army?” I asked as my pulse quickened.
“And all of our bazookas,” Dragir replied. “However, Rhys does not know about the rune I added, so he will hand the bazookas to his soldiers and when the time comes … ”
“They won’t fucking work,” I finished and rifled my hair.
“Yes.”
“This day just keeps getting better,” I groaned. “How the hell did he manage to get them all anyway? Couldn’t you have fought him or threatened him or something?”
“I did,” Dragir scoffed in insult. “I did everything I could short of killing him, but then he cut my fucking hand off.” Dragir raised his right hand. “I had to go get it reattached.”
Deya gasped, and all of us cringed painfully as we noticed the heavy bandaging around the elf’s wrist, and the half-blue hand mounted on top.
“Will it heal?” Deya asked, and she gingerly tapped the only two fingers that weren’t discolored.
“I think so,” her brother said with a shrug. “The entire appendage was blue at first. Now, these two fingers function.”
He flexed his thumb and forefinger as a demonstration.
“Trigger finger works at least,” I pointed out.
Dragir grinned. “Exactly, but I couldn’t do much about Rhys while I was bleeding all over the place. So, he has all of our bazookas and the rockets, and you are coming with me to get them back.”
I nodded my agreement. “Not much of a choice. House Fehryn will be decimated if we don’t catch Rhys before he moves out. When is he planning to attack?”
“Today.”
“Of course,” I muttered.
“Is Luir going to lend his army, or has my sister’s stint ruined that?” Dragir asked, and Deya blushed lightly as she dropped her violet eyes to the rocks beneath her.
“I wouldn’t put any blame on her,” Aurora snorted. “I doubt Luir would have given you his army regardless. He’d much rather feed your sister to them these days.”
Dragir jaw locked furiously, and I quickly spoke up as I recognized the look in his eye.
“He wouldn’t have dropped her,” I assured him. “Luir was trying to get a reaction out of me.”
Dragir nodded tensely. “Then he knows about you two.”
“He thinks he knows,” I corrected. “I honestly don’t think he’s got any solid proof, but he suspects because … Aeris and Pyrs showed up trying to get Luir to murder me for them.”
“They did?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “It’s been a long day. Plus, I’m about ninety percent sure there’s a possessed mage running around, so just keep an eye on the water, alright?”
“The water?” the elf asked in confusion, and he eyed the thrashing ocean surrounding us.
“We think it’s a Flumen Mage,” I explained. “Their element is water.”
“We should probably get off this jetty,” Shoshanne murmured, and we all promptly agreed.
Before we made our way to the Mustang, though, I stopped off in the hidden fortress to gather a few more weapons.
Cayla and Aurora strapped glaives to their backs and slipped a couple extra daggers into their belts and thigh straps.
I grabbed another axe and a spare sword, and Dragir crossed his back with two glaives while sliding three daggers into the many sheaths along his belt to join both his Halcyan sword and serrated saber.
Then I turned to where Deya stood hovering in the arching doorway of the chamber. She was looking around with a distracted air, and when she caught my gaze, she quickly sent me a smile.
“I’ll stay here,” the beautiful elf decided.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea with all this water around,” I pointed out, but Deya shook her head fervently.
“I don’t want to go to House Quyn,” she insisted. “I will stay here and wait for you all to return.”
Dragir nodded his agreement without a word and left a light kiss on his sister’s cheek before he headed for the cove, and I pulled the beautiful elf into my arms.
“Be careful,” I warned, “and don’t go too deep into the caves. That tide was no joke, and without Shoshanne here--”
“Don’t worry about me,” Deya said. “I am safe here. Focus on Rhys’ son and House Syru. I’ll be waiting.”
The three women bid Deya farewell while she fussed over their weaponry to be sure they were armed well enough, and then we reluctantly left the beautiful elf beneath the ornate pillars of the fortress entrance.
She was still waving sweetly up at us with Ruela by her side when we mounted the cliff and looked back into the cove, and my gut gave a twitch as I eyed the rolling waves at her feet.
“She’ll be okay,” Shoshanne assured me as she wove her arm around mine. “The Flumen Mage is focused on you.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t so sure about this.
Still, the wolfish beast was standing guard with blood smattered all over her coat, and I tried to let this ease my mind as we turned away at last.
Dragir was already seated in the passenger’s seat of the Mustang kneading his bluish hand with his brow furrowed, and the three women slid into the back as I dropped into the driver’s seat.
“You really think she’ll be safe here?” I asked Dragir immediately.
“She’s determined to stay,” he told me as his third finger twitched slightly. “There is little you could do to change her mind. She says she had a dream about the place.”
I furrowed my brow. “You’d let her stay over a fucking dream?” I asked incredulously.
Considering how much of Dragir’s life had been devoted to protecting Deya at all cost, I was honestly floored he was takin
g this so lightly considering the several impending threats closing in around all of us.
“House Quyn respect the nature of dreams,” the elf said simply. “If Deya saw herself waiting here while we are fighting House Syru, then she should be here. Nemris wills it.”
I let out a sigh as Bobbie roared to life.
“You make no sense to me most of the time,” I mumbled, and I drove us into the tree line to make our way to House Fehryn.
Once we made it out of the denser growth of the far south, the jungle slowly became overrun with ferns once more, and when we came to the road that crossed between Rhoemir and Lyralus, we decided to take the quickest route west.
The dirt road skirted the jungle that surrounded the hall of the Elven Council, and I could barely make out the mottled stonework where the head of House Orrel had conducted our initial meeting with the ten Houses. The ancient corner of the armistice city was deserted, but as we neared the marketplace, every eye in the crowded square was turned toward the road.
The merchant huts of Rhoemir were all that separated us from the elves who watched with harried confusion as the Mustang sped past, and my eye immediately caught on a few turquoise clad elves from House Natyr.
Oryk’s silver hair shone starkly amongst them, and as he turned to the guards beside him, Luir’s warning about how many elves had a price on my head came to mind.
I tried to remind myself destroying the Master’s army and sparing House Fehryn was the only thing that mattered right now, but I did begin to wonder if I’d really make it out of Nalnora alive.
With three of the four Elite now thoroughly pissed, and Onym’s allies standing by, the jungles had become even less hospitable than they’d been when only the sphinxes and the Raxis were trying to kill us.
I let out a steadying breath as we left Rhoemir behind and turned north at the bank of the River East, and Aurora leaned over the seat near my shoulder.
“I think I saw Oryk back there,” she told me. “He gave some kind of order to his guards.”
“I know,” I sighed, and then I turned to Dragir. “How many allies do you think Onym had?”
“There’s no telling,” he replied. “Onym had his own plans for House Natyr’s future once he took his father’s place. I know he had many members from House Kylen on his side, and a few from House Syru and Ceres. The Master may have won a few of them over by now. If not, I would expect they are housed at House Natyr since their army have been so diluted, but those from House Ceres could be--”
“House Ceres is falling,” I informed him. “Luir’s been watching them for the last few days.”
There was a long moment of silence while Dragir processed this.
“Then the Master is prepared for attack,” the elf decided.
“Most likely,” I agreed. “By the way, Luir’s been watching you, too.”
“I know,” Dragir said with a shrug.
“You do?”
“Of course,” the elf said. “It’s hard to ignore his “eyes” when they’ve been trailing me for decades.”
“Decades?” Aurora clarified. “What could he possibly want with you that he’d waste decades scouting you at his age?”
Dragir scanned the canopy for a minute before he answered in a low voice that barely carried above the deep growl of the engine.
“Luir has witnessed many things over the years with his prying, and some have cost me greatly,” the elf admitted. “When I murdered a few of his guards over it, he was watching as well, and now he believes I may be in possession of runic knowledge which he is without.”
It took me less than two seconds to realize Luir’s eyes had been responsible for exposing Dragir’s relationship with the half-elf who had carried his child. The fact that Luir hadn’t killed Dragir after he’d delivered a torturous death in return to House Orrel’s guards almost made sense, though.
After meeting the leader myself, and witnessing the extent of his studies, his obsession with Dragir made complete sense if the leader’s suspicions were true.
I glanced over. “Is Luir right?” I asked. “Do you know something he doesn’t?”
“Of course I do,” Dragir replied. “Seventeen degrees worth, by my estimate. Luir’s been trying to get me to return to House Orrel and serve the greater good. Or rather, his greater good. He is desperate to know the elements of the degrees he lacks.”
“Holy shit,” I chuckled. “How did you manage to figure out seventeen unnamed degrees, though? I thought you needed to be able to identify their elements before you could harness them?”
“This is true,” Dragir allowed, “and Deya’s necklace solved this problem. My sister has spoken to me at great length about the runes on her pendant over the years, and I’ve been able to figure out a few things with a lot of trial and error. I still do not know all of the missing degrees, but I know a great deal more than Luir has managed, despite his endeavors at House Orrel.”
“He seems almost as dedicated to teaching as he does to getting his hands on you,” Aurora told the elf. “You and Deya should be careful. He’s getting impatient.”
“He is,” Dragir agreed, “but it doesn’t matter. I will replace my father as head of House Quyn, and then he will not be able to risk anything with regards to me. To remove a head of a House is an act of war in Nalnora. Killing my sister as well.”
I raised my brows. “So, when I killed the head of House Syru … ” I led.
“You were lucky,” Dragir snorted. “No Houses would ally with House Syru, but if my foolish sister had succeeded in killing Luir, we would all be fleeing the nation right now. I do not intend to let Luir’s army devour my entire household.”
Aurora and I exchanged a glance.
“Good thing you managed to shift Deya’s aim,” the half-elf mused.
“I didn’t,” I told her as I thought back. “Deya’s aim was firmly set when she pulled that trigger. I moved the bullet.”
“At that speed?” Aurora asked in shock.
I sent her half a grin over my shoulder. “I couldn’t believe it either,” I admitted. “I thought that was it for him.”
Dragir was staring at me from the passenger seat when I brought Bobbie to a stop just south of House Fehryn’s village, and he shook his head in disbelief as I unsealed the doors.
The three women came around the trunk to restock their ammunition, and Dragir and I considered our next move before we all decided on a plan.
“We’ll talk to Rhys and figure out where he’s keeping the bazookas,” I told the women, and then I looked at Aurora. “Keep your ears trained and be ready to get them back. We’ll keep him busy and try to convince him to stick with the original plan, but if things go south, I want those bazookas already posted in the west. The Master is probably nearly prepared by this point, and if they move out, we still need to be ready to fight.”
Cayla and Aurora nodded diligently, and Shoshanne filled her quiver with another set of serrated golden arrows.
“Try not to lose a hand,” the healer advised me with a smirk. “I won’t be able to reattach yours.”
I grinned and kissed the three deadly women. “I’ll meet you in the west,” I promised. “Help Shoshanne conceal herself in the trees, and I’ll select a few guards to be our loaders once Rhys is in hand.”
“You think he’ll listen?” Cayla asked.
“He doesn’t have a choice,” I said as I checked the cylinder of my revolver.
Dragir and I left the women at the Mustang to prepare their weapons while we carefully made our way toward the boundary of House Fehryn, and we crouched in the undergrowth as we looked out at the twisted structures of the village.
The winding vines that formed the teardrop shaped huts at the base of the trees were deserted, but the grounds were flooded with warriors in dirty white tunics and brown leather vambraces. They had their signature golden bands across their brows as they readied themselves for battle, and the majority wore my bows across their backs. I saw the head of House Fehryn c
onversing solemnly with a large troop on the other side of a few huts, but Rhys’s thick green braids were nowhere to be seen.
“Couldn’t we just talk to the head?” I whispered to Dragir as I gestured toward the leader.
Dragir shook his head. “Rhys leads the army of House Fehryn,” he told me quietly. “His father trusts him explicitly.”
I nodded. “Where can we find Rhys then?” I asked.
“He’s currently screaming at his wife,” Dragir answered. “This way.”
I furrowed my brow as I followed Dragir to sneak along the tree line that enclosed the village on all sides, and as we came to the furthest corner, I heard the heavy crash of what sounded like wood shattering.
Dragir crouched and waited as he peered through the dense undergrowth, and he kept his serpentine eyes trained on a hut not far into the clearing.
Torchlight illuminated the cutout windows between the twisting vines, and I could hear Rhys’ furious tirade echoing in Elvish from the hut. Then another crash rang out, and a woman’s voice cut over his.
I couldn’t imagine what was being said, but given that their son had been abducted, it seemed fair that tensions might be a bit high between Rhys and his wife.
I glanced sidelong at Dragir. “This sounds kind of personal,” I muttered. “Maybe we should hold off for a minute ‘til they finish.”
Dragir actually grinned. “It does sound personal,” he agreed, and he swiftly left the cover of the trees to stroll over.
I jogged to catch up to him, but as the screeching in the hut only became louder, I looked around uneasily to be sure no one saw us creeping over. Rhys was bellowing angrily at his wife, and I saw a chair shatter against the wall in response through a small opening in the vines.
Dragir looked completely at ease while he stood directly outside the door and listened in on the couple, and after a few more violent exchanges, he casually rapped on the planks of wood.
I stood beside him with my hand ready on my revolver, but when the door flew open, I kind of forgot what I was doing there.
A thin slip of leather barely concealed the ample breasts of the woman who glared at us, and her thighs were fully exposed from the joint of her hips down with only half a skirt in place. Her skin was warmed to a deep cinnamon from the strength of the jungle sun, and her exotic curves drew my eyes like a fucking magnet despite the threatening gaze she sent me.
