Chapter 97
Ellery
Indon and Mr. Fletcher had already divided up which amsirah would go to which estate. If, when they arrived at a castle, that family wasn’t home, they would continue to the next one.
There was a good chance some of the gargoyles would be seen tonight, but we couldn’t help that. It was inevitable, but if we managed to sever the tail tonight, it would be worth it.
Besides, we weren’t going to stop after this. Once we’d visited all the estates, we’d meet back here, regroup, and go to the palace. I wasn’t sure if that’s where Ryker was, but it was the most likely place.
We hadn’t planned to visit the duke’s castle tonight, as he’d taken over the palace after Ivan’s death. However, if Ryker wasn’t at the palace, we’d go there next. The problem would be getting to the dungeons in both before alerting the duke we were there.
That was one part of the plan we hadn’t successfully worked out. I hated putting Ryker at risk, but we had to do something. Doing nothing would only ensure more suffering and inevitable death for him and the others.
I didn’t know how we’d get to them without being detected, but we could only carry out one part of the plan at a time. Right now, our focus was on the nobles.
If all went well, the duke would never know we were slicing his defenses to pieces and already inside his palace, but I wasn’t counting on that. Far too much had already gone wrong in Tempest for me not to be apprehensive about the worst possible outcome.
I would go with Luna and Scarlet to the Earl of Oakley’s castle. Once there, we’d follow Luna’s directions about the layout of the structure.
I’d been there before, but as a past servant within the estate, Luna knew where the earl and his two sons slept. Their mother probably wouldn’t be there, as the countess and the earl never married, but we would visit her home tonight.
Last night, we’d contemplated keeping them alive and rounding them up to imprison them, but they’d never be so merciful to us. Not only that, we didn’t have anywhere safe to keep them, and they’d be a constant liability.
Would we be expected to house and feed them for an eternity? They might eventually agree to open a portal for us to leave Tempest, but until then, they’d have to be under constant supervision.
We’d try to keep someone alive who could get us out, but we couldn’t have that holding us back from our mission tonight…
which was death. And we had to deliver it with a ruthlessness that wouldn’t allow for survivors.
If even one of those assholes got their hands on me, they’d make me regret keeping them alive, and because of that, I’d agreed to this.
Sometimes to destroy a monster, you have to become a monster.
While that was proving to be true in Tempest, I was aware this might not be the right thing to do. However, I wasn’t sure what was right or wrong anymore.
If Ryker wasn’t captured, the gargoyles would still be imprisoned. And I’d come to learn we’d made a terrible decision by leaving them there, but it was a decision I’d agreed to.
This plan had also risen from the depths of our fear. I was terrified about what would happen to us if we continued to let these rulers guide us.
While I was sure some of them weren’t as supportive of the duke as they pretended to be, they still didn’t stand against him. They’d chosen him over the amsirah they were supposed to be guiding.
Because of that, they’d allowed Tempest to turn into a prison where they stole everything from us. They were the thieves, and we were the ones in a giant cage.
It was time to put a stop to that.
I released Ryker’s ring and removed my hand from my pocket. In the flickering torchlight, I lifted my hands to examine them. By the end of tonight, blood would coat them.