Wyvern’s Gold (The Ruins Of Men Book 1)

Chapter 23

Twenty-Three

Zasen

L eaving the hospital, Rymar and I headed back to our home and cleaned ourselves up. The orin girl would be getting treatment for a while, so we had time. Then, once the pair of us were presentable, we left again, this time heading for City Hall. As we passed the market, however, people had to call out.

"Zasen, did you really bring a Mole back?"

"Rymar, why are you letting one of their kind come here?"

"Why didn't you two just kill the bitch?"

And more. So much more, but it was all about the same. Beside me, Rymar smiled at the people in that way he had. I wasn't sure if he'd misheard what they'd said or simply didn't care. Probably the latter, knowing him. The asshole was too good at his job, but it worked.

Thankfully, no one stopped us. Once we reached the building where most things in town were run, we aimed for the Mayor's office. Unfortunately, when we walked in, we weren't the first ones there. Wearing loose and light pants, proving he'd also cleaned himself up, Drozel was sitting across from Jerlis, the Mayor.

"Hey, Jerlis," Rymar said as he entered the room first. "Drozel."

"I'm assuming this is a discussion we need to be here for?" I asked, looking at Drozel instead of the red-and-black man who ran our town.

Drozel just cracked a smile. "We were waiting, Zasen. Don't get testy yet."

"Sit," the Mayor said, gesturing to chairs. "I've already had three different runners bring me three different letters of complaint. They all mention a Mole."

"A Mole girl ," I corrected. "Well, a woman, and the first female of any age we've seen."

"Who doesn't speak Vestrian," Drozel added. "That's an important fact he'll likely leave out."

I took the chair beside him with a weary sigh. "No, she doesn't speak our language, but she has been communicating. Gestures, mostly. Enough to make me think she can learn our words."

"And then?" Jerlis asked.

"Until then," I corrected, "we'll convince her that working with us is to her benefit, so that once she knows our words, she'll tell us everything we want to know about their base."

"Like how to get in," Rymar added.

"And you approved this?" Jerlis asked.

Rymar grunted before waving that away. "We were passing the Mole base, coming back from our trade talks with the Reapers, when the base opened. My four bodyguards pulled me down into the grass. While we watched, two Mole men dragged that woman to the tree and chained her there."

"As a sacrifice?" Jerlis asked.

All three of us nodded, but it was Drozel who spoke up next. "I was sure it was a trap. At first, Zasen agreed with me. We waited, refusing to move while they might be watching. It took the entire night."

"Not a fun night," Rymar grumbled.

"But," I said, taking over, "the girl managed to free herself. Drozel stood up and she bolted. Rather than risking her telling the Moles we'd come so close, I intercepted her. The idiot was running straight for a coyote den!"

"Because it wasn't a trap," Drozel admitted.

Jerlis just nodded his head slowly. "And why is she here again? You dragged a Mole all the way back from their base because why?"

"A Mole woman ," I reminded him. "A weak, underfed, possibly abused woman. One who has clearly lived underground with them, so likely knows all the things we've been trying to figure out. From the layout of their base to the methods to get inside, she has the information. Unless we want to keep waiting for them to show up again randomly, this is the best chance we have of stopping them forever."

"Uh-huh..." The Mayor didn't look like I was convincing him. "So what do you plan to do with her now that she's here?"

"I thought we could put her in a jail cell," I explained.

Drozel's head snapped over. "And risk the people beside her?"

"Never mind the riots that's likely to cause," Jerlis pointed out. "I think not."

"We need to keep her someplace secure," I insisted. "Someplace comfortable enough I can interrogate her while convincing her it's a friendly visit."

A laugh burst from the Mayor's lips. "You?"

"Me."

"After you spent the last ten years doing everything in your power to make sure all Moles know your name?" he went on. "Stamping your sign on their dead skin! Zasen, there's a reason you're the head of city defenses. It's not because you're a nice guy who is easy to talk to."

"I am," Rymar offered. "Let Zasen be the bad cop. I'll play the good one."

"And your other roommate?" Jerlis asked.

I waved that off. "Kanik's going to be busy with school again soon. If he has time to help, we'll find a way to use him - or anyone else willing to befriend her."

"It's a bad idea," Drozel said. "If she's a spy, all he'll be doing is feeding her information."

"And if she's a spy, then why did she try to run away last night?" I asked. "Why has she fought back?"

"To convince us!" Drozel snapped. "Fuck, Zasen. You know how this works. She ran while we were all still awake and talking. She fought us, but never hit hard enough to hurt. What if all of her resistance was carefully designed to make her look weak and non-threatening?"

I just gave him a weary look. "Drozel, you saw her. She is weak and non-threatening."

"She's thin," Drozel explained to Jerlis.

"And has almost no muscles," Rymar added. "Very malnourished, uncalloused skin, and covered in bruises."

"She's also young and cute," Drozel said. "Twenty, maybe twenty-five at the most. I'm guessing she's about five and a half feet tall, possibly a bit less. Orin-colored, of course, but with an attractive face. You know, exactly the type of lure that should appeal to men. A pretty little victim who needs to be saved."

Closing my eyes, I groaned. "What do you want to do with her, Drozel?"

"I wanted to kill her before she got her chain unhooked," he reminded me. "Fuck the Moles. The men, the women, and anything else they have down there."

"And now she's here," Jerlis said. "We can't turn her loose, because Drozel is probably right. She'd just run back to her people and tell them everything she's learned."

"Like what?" I snapped. "Where we are? They know that. How many of us there are? It's not hard to guess, considering they've seen our houses. When we move, how we move?"

"Where we move," Drozel countered. "We have so many vulnerable places. The market, as an example. Our library, schools, or even the docks!"

At the side, Rymar leaned over his knees and began to scrub at his face. "She wouldn't see any of that from a cell, Drozel."

"And I don't want the riots," Jerlis reminded him. "Yes, Drozel told me all about the reaction when you passed the market. A mob? Really? What do you think our citizens will do if a Mole is left in a cell for weeks on end? Months even! Who knows how long it would take before the damned thing could learn our language!" He shook his head. "No. The last thing we need is for someone to not be arrested because she's taking up needed space. Worse, for another prisoner to be harmed when the mob tries to break in and kill her."

"So what?" I asked, lifting my eyes to his. "What exactly should we do then? Do you really want to let a chance this good go to waste? Because if I kill her, that's exactly what will happen. There is no way to get the information out of her head after I break her neck."

"So have them watch her," Drozel suggested.

That made all of us look over at him. "What?" I snapped.

Drozel gave me a smug look. "You think she's so helpless? Then move her into your house. There's three of you."

"We'd have to set a sentry every night!" I shot back. "No."

"Thought she was weak and non-threatening?" he taunted.

Clenching my jaw, I pulled in a hard breath. "That's not the same as harmless."

"Ah, and now we get to the part you were trying to avoid, hm?"

Rymar flailed both hands at Drozel. "Because you already laid it out!"

"Enough!" the Mayor snapped. Then he lifted a hand to rub at the bridge of his striped nose. "The three of you are going to give me a headache."

"Killing her is a mistake," I told him again.

"So I gather," Jerlis assured me. "Keeping her in a city building is a worse one, as far as I care. That means you have two options, Zasen. You can either keep her at your own home as a refugee, or you can build a containment facility for her somewhere else." He ducked his head and gave me a pointed look. "Far-from-town kind of somewhere else."

"Where she'd be eaten by predators," I grumbled.

Rymar groaned loudly. "C'mon, Jerlis. You know Zasen's right about this. There's no way he'd risk anyone here in Lorsa. All we need is a room with a lock, a bed, and a toilet. There has to be something."

"There's one at your place," Drozel taunted.

"That we're all using!" I sneered. "And unless you think I'm going to keep her chained up, she could easily walk out the door - or did you not think about that?"

"With the three of you keeping an eye on her?" Drozel taunted.

Jerlis just lifted a hand, halting our bickering. "He's right, Zasen. Never mind that your house is at the edge of town. She wouldn't see where, how, or even when our people move around. She wouldn't get her eyes on any of the city facilities."

"So I'm supposed to make my home into her prison?"

"As a refugee," the Mayor reminded me. "Just know that if she wanders on her own, there's a good chance someone will kill her, and I will not press charges for it."

"For murder?" Rymar snapped.

"Is it murder if we're at war?" Jerlis countered. "No, she's a Mole. If you three think she has such valuable information, then keep her safe. Otherwise, the problem will solve itself, hm?" Then he flicked his hand at the group of us. "Now get the hell out of my office and stop making my life harder."

I just looked at Drozel. "I'll remember this."

"And maybe even learn from it," he replied. "I'd think that with a sister like Jeera, you'd be the one to understand why I don't trust that pale bitch."

"Because the orin isn't anything like Jeera," I reminded him. "If she was, I would've killed her already."

"And instead, you get to test your theory. Win-win, right?" Drozel smiled, stood, and marched out of the room. "I still expect overtime for the trip, Zasen!"

I snarled under my breath, but Rymar shoved a hand into my back and propelled me forward. Together, the pair of us made our way out of the City Hall without a word. Mostly because the words I wanted to use were all going to be loud. But once we made it outside, we both turned for the clinic.

"Kanik's gonna love this," Rymar said around a chuckle.

"About as much as I do," I pointed out. "Fuck! What the hell was Drozel thinking!"

"That he hates Moles." Rymar gently reached up to rub my shoulder. "It's okay, we'll figure it out. If she's classified as a refugee, then that means she's not a prisoner, which should make turning her easier."

"And controlling her less so," I countered. "It also means she's about to be living with us."

"Then kill her," Rymar said.

I was starting to think that might be the best idea. My gut said she wasn't a threat, but I knew better. I'd studied the wars of history and had read too many examples of infiltrators who seemed harmless enough. Still, the things in her head?

"No," I decided. "If she'll talk, then that girl is worth her weight in gold."

"And if she won't?"

I scoffed at that. "Then I'll break her neck out of sheer frustration. Or you will."

"Not Kanik, though," he said.

"Nope," I agreed. "But that might work in our favor as well. After all, if she's living with us, then someone has to be the nice one, and I'm not sure I can pull off that act long enough to figure out what the fuck she's even saying."

Which made Rymar look at me, jerking his chin as if he had an idea. "You know what we need? Jeera's help. And clothes. Definitely clothes, because Orin's starting to stink."

I had to chuckle, because he wasn't wrong. "And what is Jeera supposed to help with?"

But Rymar was starting to smile in that way he had. "Oh, just giving her a female friend. Someone else to trust. Someone a bit less threatening than any of us."

"My sister?" I scoffed.

"Your little sister," he agreed. "She's small, she's grey, and she's almost as devious as you. Yeah, I think she's exactly who we need, because every girl I've ever known is more likely to talk to another woman than she is to spill her guts to a man."

I murmured because he did have a point. "And she's just as poisonous as we are. You know, Rymar, that might actually work."

"I didn't get where I am because I'm an idiot," he assured me. "Now let's go see if Orin is healthy enough to leave the clinic yet and break the news to Kanik."