Chapter Seventeen

Deyro

I'd enjoyed sharing the experience of flight with Alex. I'd enjoyed it quite a bit, actually. I knew it could be terrifying for a human to be so far above the world without a safety net of some sort. But I also knew that once I got her up in the air, she'd like it.

And she had.

But now, it was time to get down to the business of why were there. We were a short walk through the dense forest to the River Clan's castle. This was where things would start getting a little bit dangerous.

Once she'd climbed down off my back, I took my pack from her and got dressed again. The forest around us was quiet. Dark. Foreboding. I had a feeling the River Dragons would have sentries out in the woods, but I didn't think they'd come out that far. I just hoped my instincts were right. The last thing we needed was for the alarm to be sounded before we got to the castle.

As well trained as Alex was, I needed to give her a quick lesson in fighting the Dragonborn. She was used to fighting all manner of dark beings, but there was a world of difference between those creatures and my kind.

“You've not gone up against the Dragonborn before,” I said. “There are a few things you need to know.”

She nodded and waited patiently for my instruction. “We don't want to kill anybody unless we have no other choice,” he said. “Most of the fighters we're going to encounter likely don't know their King is a traitor.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“The arrows in your quiver,” I said. “They're tipped with a special arrowhead. Once it bites into the flesh, it will release a silver solution that will prevent them from shifting and will act as a paralytic. The effects are temporary, but it will take them out of the fight.”

“That's if they're in their human form,” she replied. “What do I do if they've already shifted?”

I gave her a tight smile. “If that happens, then we may have no other choice but to put them down,” I said. “The arrows won't have the intended effect on a dragon. If that's the case though, our armor is weakest in the throat and under the arms. If you can strike a blow in those places, you may be able to kill a dragon. But you need to strike quickly and strike hard. You may not get a second shot.”

She nodded, but I could see the fear flicker across her face. To her credit though, she managed to stifle it and keep it under control. She gave me a look of pure determination. Alex was a fighter. A warrior. And I realized in that moment, there were very few others I would have wanted by my side in that fight.

“What happens if I take my shot and miss?” she asked.

I gave her a toothy smile. “Then, I certainly hope you can run very fast.”

She laughed softly and punched me in the arm. She settled her swords on her hips and checked her daggers. After that, she tightened the strap of the quiver that hung on her back and the string on her bow. She was nervous and I recognized the fact that her weapons were her touchstones. They were the things that calmed her when she was stressed.

While I looked at her, I realized that I was doing the exact same thing she was. We were more alike than I probably ever realized.

“Okay, we've got about a mile hike through these woods ahead of us,” I said. “We should head out. We need to move quickly, but quietly.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Oh, thanks for the reminder,” she said. “Because my plan was to run through the woods singing at the top of my lungs.”

I gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry,” I said. “I don't mean to talk to you like you're a rookie.”

“You do that a lot, you know.”

“Do I?”

She nodded. “Yeah. And I want to smack you upside the head every single time.”

I laughed softly. “Well, if we survive this, I'll gladly let you smack me upside the head.”

“Don't think I won't take you up on that.”

I shrugged. “I would expect nothing less.”

We checked our weapons one last time and stood together in that clearing, a soft wind blowing, beneath the light of Chondelai's twin moons. It was peaceful. In another circumstance, it might have been romantic to spread a blanket out, pour some wine, and enjoy a beautiful evening.

But this wasn't another circumstance. We were here to do a job – and hopefully survive it.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

“About as ready as I think I can be,” she replied. “Which is to say not very ready at all. But the longer I stand here, the more I think about what we're walking into – and I want to back out. So, let's just get moving and stop the thinking.”

“I'm with you there,” I said. “Let's go.”

We started off into the darkness of the forest. The sound of a rushing river off to our right filled the air of the woods around us. Which was good and bad. While the sound of the rushing water would help mask our own footsteps, it would also prevent us from hearing anybody else's. Given that my senses in the dark were a lot sharper than Alex's, it was my responsibility to make sure we didn't stumble into any of King Nepar's sentries.

Because we were moving so deliberately to eliminate the noise, it took us about thirty minutes to reach our destination. Thankfully though, we reached it without incident. There were no sentries patrolling the woods, which I found a little odd. But then, maybe Nepar didn't think he had anything to worry about and didn't feel the need to send patrols out. I couldn't pretend to understand the mind of a King or their motivations for the things they did – or didn't do.

We stopped at the base of a tree – exactly where Quint – by way of King Shango – had told us we'd find our point of entry into Nepar's castle. The whole trip through the woods, there was a part of me that didn't actually expect to find it. Thought that maybe, he had bad intel and was wrong about it. So, when I saw the small, round steel hatch set into the ground at the base of the tree, I'd breathed out a sigh of relief.

Alex was clearing away the leaves and debris that had accumulated on top of the hatch. It was an old passageway meant for evacuation in case of invasion or siege. But it had been built ages ago and Nepar, who hadn't been on the River Clan throne all that long, likely didn't even know it was there. Which, in theory, gave us an unguarded way into the castle. In theory. I only hoped that nobody remembered the old passageway or that in their arrogance, they didn't think it important enough to station sentries.

And in one, darker part of my mind, I hoped that Shango wasn't using us for some nefarious, political purpose. I hoped that he wasn't using us to justify touching off another war for rule of Chondelai – one in which he ended up ruling over all the clans.

It was conspiracy theory thinking, of course. Seeing plots and schemes where perhaps, they didn't exist. Quint vouched for Shango and that should be good enough for me. But when asked to do something so outside our norm – like assassinating a King – my mind immediately started to ponder all of the dark, frightening possibilities.

“You're going to have to open this,” Alex said.

I'd been so been so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't been paying attention and hadn't realized that she'd been struggling to open the hatch. With all of the years of dirt and rust that had accumulated on the hinges, it was probably sealed pretty tight.

I looked at her and gave her a wide smile. “Is Alexis Vargas actually asking a man for help doing something? And not just any man, is she actually asking me?”

“Don't forget, you gave me the arrows with the paralytic, jerk,” she said, giving me the finger. “I'd hate to accidentally shoot you and leave you behind.”

“You'd never leave me behind.”

“Don't tempt me.”

“You don't know where the Door is that's going to get us home,” I said and flashed her a grin.

She sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically. “Yeah, there's that, I suppose,” she said. “I guess you lucked out.”

I reached down and took the handle of the hatch, giving it a good, hard yank. I strained hard and it took some doing, but eventually, the dirt and rust broke free and the hatch came open with a loud squeal that made me wince.

I quickly looked to the ramparts of the castle to see if we'd been heard. We were screened behind some trees and bushes at the edge of the forest, so I knew that whoever was up there likely wouldn't be able to see us in the dark. But that noise could have very easily drawn some attention.

There were torches lit and I could see the silhouettes of the guards moving about, but nobody seemed especially concerned about the noise. If they'd even heard it.

“For guards, they certainly don't seem to be very good at their jobs,” Alex said.

I laughed softly. “Better for us that they're not.”

It was probably because Chondelai, for all intents and purposes, was in an age of peace. There were no wars being fought. No running battles between clans. There really was nothing to guard against – which made the lack of vigilance a bit unsurprising, truth be told.

And if Quint and Shango were correct, most people were unaware that the Shadow Clan was moving behind the scenes to ruin it all and plunge Chondelai back into a state of war, death, and chaos.

“Okay, let's do this,” Alex said.

Without waiting for me, she dropped down through the hatch. I looked down into the darkness and heard her land softly. A moment later, her flashlight came on and swept around, cutting a beam through the darkness of the tunnel below.

“Clear,” her voice drifted up to me.

I dropped down after her and landed softly onto the dirt floor of the tunnel. I took an arrow out of my quiver and strung it in my bow, bringing it to the ready position.

“Ready?” I asked softly.

“Let's go,” she replied.

I led the way, but Alex stayed close behind, sweeping the tunnel in front of us with her light. I didn't think that we were going to run into Nepar's sentries in the dark – especially given how lax they were up near the gates of the castle. But still, I wasn't going to take chances.

The walk was a little bit longer than I'd anticipated, but we finally found ourselves standing at the doorway that would lead into the castle.

“I have no idea what is going to be on the other side of that door,” I said quietly. “But be ready.”

Alex nodded and shut off her light, tucking it away. She strung an arrow into her bow and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

“Ready.”

I grasped the handle of the doorway and pulled. Unlike the hatch, this door opened fairly easily. As it silently swung inward, I raised my bow and prepared to fight. But there was no fight coming as the door opened up into what looked like a pantry in the castle's kitchens – which were currently silent and dark.

“Looks like we caught a break,” I whispered.

“Let's hope our luck holds.”

Keeping our bows at the ready, we made our way through the kitchens and stepped through a doorway, entering what looked like a giant feast hall. It was ornately decorated – I'd go so far as to call it gaudy. Dominating one wall and overlooking the long feasting table was a painted portrait of King Nepar. I'd only seen him a few times, but I recognized his pale, craggy face.

“You don't even have a picture of yourself that big. That guy might be more into himself than you are,” Alex said, laughing softly.

“Funny,” I replied. “Stay sharp.”

“Hit a little too close to home, huh?”

I fought back the smile that was threatening to spread across my face. Now was not the time for jokes – one lapse in concentration and we were as good as dead. Even knowing that though, the break in the tension felt nice.

“Smartass,” I said. “Keep your head on a swivel.”

Nepar's chambers were on the second floor, meaning we needed to find a staircase. We exited the feasting hall and stepped into a corridor. Still empty. Our luck was holding. For the moment, anyway. I was under no illusion that we were going to be able to slip through the entire castle completely undetected.

And sure enough, the moment we turned the corner, I proved myself right. Two men were walking toward us and the minute they saw Alex and I, they drew their swords. Without waiting, we both loosed our arrows. They both found their marks and the two Dragonborn men fell to the ground with arrows sticking out of their bodies, the silver paralytic solution doing its job quickly.

“We can't leave them here,” Alex said. “If somebody finds them, they'll put the whole castle on alert.”

I nodded. “I know,” I said. “Stay here and stand guard. Be ready for anything.”

I strung my bow across my back and picked up the first of the two men. Carrying him back to the feasting hall, I laid him under the long table as best as I could, trying to obscure him from view. I moved quickly back out into the corridor and retrieved the second man, hiding him along with the other.

Moving quickly, I pulled my bow off my shoulder as I re-joined Alex in the corridor.

“Done,” I said. “And hopefully, nobody is going to find them until we're long gone.”

We made our way down the corridor again, searching for a way to the second floor. We made right turns and left turns through what seemed like an endless warren of corridors. Luckily for us, we didn't run into anybody, but the longer we went without finding the stairway, the likelier it was that we were going to run into trouble. About the only thing going for us was that it was late and most of the castle's inhabitants were probably already asleep.

Everybody except for the guards, anyway.

After walking around aimlessly for several more minutes, we finally found what we were looking for – the staircase leading to the second floor. We hurried toward it, a palpable sense of relief coming from the both of us.

“Hey!” called a voice from behind us.

Alex spun around and loosed an arrow in one, smooth motion. I turned and looked in time to see the arrow strike the guard in the stomach. He dropped to the floor like a stone and was immediately still. Unfortunately, our problems only multiplied from there.

From around a corner came half a dozen more guards. They saw their man on the floor, looked at us, and immediately put two and two together. They drew swords and began to shout. I watched in horror as one of the guards turned and ran the other way – no doubt, running to get reinforcements.

“Go,” Alex said. “Finish the job.”

I watched as the other five were advancing on us quickly. “I'm not going to leave you here.”

Alex turned, aiming her arrow straight at my face. “Get out of here and do the job. Nothing matters but finishing it,” she hissed. “So go, or I'll shoot you right here and right now.”

I looked into her eyes and saw a steely determination – it was the look of a warrior. I gave her a small, curt nod and then bounded up the stairs, two at a time.

Stopping on the second-floor landing, I paused and listened to the sound of raised voices and steel clashing on steel. These weren't recruits she was fighting. These were battle-hardened Dragonborn soldiers. I feared for her life, but she was right – the only thing that mattered was finishing the job.

Trying to put my thoughts and fears for her aside, I hurried down the hallway, heading for the royal bedchamber.