Chapter 7 #5
It would be worth every moment of their company and every piece of precious treasure in that cavern if I could strike a blow against that bitch who claimed to rule our kingdom.
If I could take this one thing from her, then at least I could sleep a little easier at night knowing I’d stolen something vital to her plans and kept it far from her grasp.
After that…well, I’d figure it out if by some miracle I managed to complete this task.
I gripped the coarse rope tightly between my fingers and placed my feet against the black stone wall of the palace dungeons as I descended.
A slightly cooler breeze whipped around me, blowing off of the Lyrian Desert and no doubt sailing all the way here from the distant Cartlanian Sea.
It smelled like camel shit but tasted like freedom, and I couldn’t get enough of it.
“Mmmm, poop on the air. Yum, yum, yum. Smell that? Yes, lots and lots of poop. Somewhere close too. Mmmmm,” the tiny voice of a dung beetle drew my attention where it sat in the crevice on the wall and I tried to block out its merry voice about shit on the breeze as I kept moving.
I clutched the rope tighter, adrenaline surging through my body from the drop below but I didn’t falter, my pace hurried but steady as I closed in on the ground and the band of thieves who waited for me.
When my feet hit solid stone, I took a steadying breath and turned to find the gang darting towards an alley to my right, their footsteps silent on the cobbled streets as they slipped into the embrace of the shadows beneath the tall white walls.
I hesitated, wondering if I could make a break for it before they noticed I was gone.
The verges of the city sprawled out before me, I could take any path I wanted and likely be long lost before they ever caught up to me.
But I'd made Drake a promise. Shaken his hand. Besides, I knew the reputation of The Forty well enough and they dealt with those who crossed them in the most severe and barbaric of ways. I didn’t want to pitch them against me and risk fucking up this one chance I had at making my life count by falling prey to their wrath.
Drake glanced back at me as the others ran on, his chin lifting in what was undoubtably a challenge.
They weren’t fools, they knew they were giving me the opportunity to betray them here and the calculating look in his dark eyes said they would make me pay if I tried to slip away.
But I was a man of my word, and as little as I trusted this band of murderous rogues, I’d made my choice already.
If I didn't keep my word, I'd become just like any other lowlife criminal, the last scraps of my pride and the man I’d worked so hard to become stripped away from me with the simple act of that lie. For a lot of Fae, deceit and false promises were a way of life these days, but I’d always taken the warnings of our past to heart.
Our kind had fallen because of a lie. And I had vowed a long time ago to embody the sins of that Fae as little as often.
So with a healthy dose of trepidation and the solid feeling that this may have been a terrible decision, I took off after the man who had granted me freedom from my cage.
I feared making a deal with a bunch of thieves was going to lead me down a path I couldn't come back from. Then again, the moment I’d laid eyes on the beauty of the princess my fate had been stolen from me anyway, so perhaps all I could do was embrace this new path I found myself on and hope that I could make it count for something so much greater than myself.
Thoughts of her spiralled in my head for a few long seconds, of her amber eyes meeting mine and confirming everything I’d ever thought about her.
Because I saw her pain, her struggle in those depthless eyes and I knew she hated her shackled life as fiercely as I hated it for her.
And though I may never see her again and I would surely never cross her mind for one more instant in this world, the path I walked now would be for her.
“Don't make me regret this,” Drake said under his breath as I ran alongside him, clutching the poker burn on my side as I worked to ignore the pain and concentrate on moving as swiftly as I could manage.
“I won’t,” I swore, eyeing my new companion as he laughed low in his throat.
“Welcome to the world of transgression then, Cassius. You’re in for one hell of a rebirth.”
I lowered my brow at the ring of truth his words held.
We were heading into the heart of the city’s underbelly tonight and I knew it.
I just hoped I made it through unscathed, because I had a singular goal now, one which would haunt me in every waking moment until it was done.
Magdor’s downfall lay with me, and I would bring it upon her as swiftly and as wickedly as I could.
The night swallowed us up and the ringing of alarm bells sounded back in the prison, clanging loudly and echoing across the night’s sky as the word of our escape finally spread.
The palace guards would be called to hunt us down now and this game of escape had suddenly become so much more dangerous.
My kinsmen and captain would cut me down as assuredly as if they had never known me, a number gone rogue, a rebel to be dealt with.
I had no place in the life I had pledged myself to any longer.
Anxiety burrowed into my gut. I was a fugitive of the kingdom's justice. But when I completed this task and destroyed that coin, I'd at least have saved Osaria from a worse fate. The only problem was, I was a condemned man on borrowed time to get it done.