Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Casimir
Motioning to the others, we started down the hillside. Above us, the orb continued to fade into the deep gloom of the lowest light of night. Dragons could see just as well around them in the night, but it severely limited our distance vision. From the estate, we would be effectively invisible now.
Halfway down the slope, Dirk, who had taken the lead spot, gestured for us to assemble around him. He had paused in the lee of a large outcropping of rock, free of any overgrowth or debris.
“It should be around here somewhere,” Dirk was muttering as we approached, searching the exposed rock face by running his fingers over the surface. “Ah. Here.”
He pushed hard on one section of rock, and it gave way beneath his fingers to reveal a hinged cover. Underneath were four holes. A half shift of his hand and Dirk stuck the claws of his right hand into the matching holes and pulled.
After a moment of resistance, a giant slab of the rock face simply slid aside, revealing an unlit tunnel.
Dirk led the way once more, followed by me, and then Durion with Kolar and Florian bringing up the rear. I trusted these four dragons most in all of Hollow Earth.
We descended swiftly along the smooth, natural-bored secret passageway. About fifty feet before it ended, the walls changed from rock to hewn stone, fit so perfectly together as to be nearly seamless. A matching lock mechanism provided us entrance to the interior of Yarl’s estate.
The storage room into which the tunnel emptied was not where we were supposed to be.
“Dirk,” I hissed as we crouched among boxes of supplies piled up everywhere.
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “The tunnel should have put us out in the lower levels.”
“These are not lower levels,” I pointed out, running a finger over the crate near me. “There’s no dust on these or on most of the floor. This room receives a lot of traffic.”
Dirk looked frustrated. “My contact only said the tunnel still worked. I had to go into the archives in the citadel to find out more, back from when it was still a military base. Yarl must have changed it.”
“Or any of the previous owners,” I muttered, shaking my head.
The estate had been originally built before the unification wars.
Buried under us was a rather large subterranean aquifer.
Freshwater was always a valuable resource, and so a citadel had arisen over it.
After the first tyrant united the ice dragons millennia ago, it had been expanded, razed and rebuilt several times.
It wasn’t surprising that at some point since its decommissioning and sale to private ownership the tunnel had been altered.
“What now?” Durion grunted as discussion among us dissolved into individual conversations.
“We continue.” I infused my words with a hit of alpha power. I wanted it made clear that there were to be no arguments.
The others stiffened in response, the noise dying away into silence. I met each of their eyes in turn. They were on board, and time was wasting. If Ella was in here, I wasn’t leaving without her.
Dirk moved toward the door leading deeper into the estate and reached up to pull it open. His hand froze short of the unlocking mechanism, and he turned back to us, motioning for silence. Then he tapped his ear and his mouth.
We heard voices on the other side and ducked for cover. Dirk had barely disappeared behind a stack of crates when the door opened. Crouched down behind a rack of laundry, I watched through a crack as two women came into the room, chatting inanely between themselves.
Both of them wore slave collars, the silver metal tight around their necks, shining even in the dim light of the storage room.
I bit back a snarl. Using slave collars was technically illegal.
But thanks to dear old dad and his desire to crush the weaker dragons beneath him at any cost, it was just another thing that went overlooked.
Now, far too many of the other elites believed as he had.
I was making inroads, trying to change things, but it was just taking too much time.
If I could just pin down whoever was behind the hunters’ markets in Kylma, with incontrovertible evidence, I could make an example of them. Show the rest of the kingdom that things were changing, and they needed to adhere to the laws. My laws.
When I’d first risen to the throne, I’d thought about simply fighting anyone who disagreed. Until Dirk had pointed out that using my strength to force others into line made me no better than our father.
That wasn’t the sort of ruler I wanted to be, especially not now that I had Anna. She wouldn’t approve. I was sure of it. And I needed her to approve of me. To know that I wasn’t the evil person she’d dreamed of.
I had to be better. For her.
“Now listen, Holly,” one of the slaves was saying as they gathered up fresh towels and linens between them. “I’m telling you, I saw people up there before it got dark. I’m not making this up.”
Crap. We’d been spotted on our way in.
“Doesn’t matter,” the one named Holly said. “Trust me. You’re new here, and Vanna doesn’t like when newbies on her staff speak up. Just remember that you’re replacing someone else for a reason. So keep your head down, and shut up. It’s not your problem.”
“Okay,” the first speaker said hesitantly as they headed for the door. “But what if—”
“Trust me, Ella. If you want to survive here, you keep your mouth shut.”
I was up and ghosting toward the door without a second’s hesitation. Florian spied me from his hiding spot, his eyes wide. I gestured at the one named Holly, but there wasn’t time for me to communicate much more. I had to hope he understood.
We rose up behind them like shadows, hands clamping over their mouths.
“Be quiet and stay still,” I snarled in full alpha command right into their ears.
Both women arched up at the command, their eyes rolling back into their skulls. They shivered and began to twitch.
“What the fuck is this?” Florian hissed, grabbing Holly before she could hit the floor.
I had Ella in my grasp as well, staring in shock. They should have slumped into submission at my words.
“I don’t know,” I said as I eased Ella to the floor so she wouldn’t hurt herself. As I did, my arm brushed against the slave collar.
I hissed in pain and yanked my arm away.
“What’s wrong, Alpha?” Kolar was there, his arms spread, ready for anything.
“The collar. It’s brutally hot. Be careful.” I eyed the metal band. It wasn’t burning their skin, but now I understood the source of their reactions. “Yarl has them keyed to resist alpha command that isn’t his.”
“That can be done?” Dirk asked from where he was keeping an ear to the door, his attention focused outside the room.
“Yes, though I’m surprised Yarl knew how. That’s a bit beyond his imagination, I would have thought.”
I mused on that for a few seconds, but I would have time to ponder it later. For now, we had to move.
“Come on. Get them up. Let’s get out of here before the effect wears off and they can sound the alarm.
Durion, get the door. Kolar, get to the surface as fast as you can and make sure our path is cleared.
We can’t risk the chance that anyone else saw us.
Once they realize these two are missing, someone will put the pieces together. Now move.”
We moved out in order, Dirk taking up the rear guard and dropping little pouches from his bag as we went while Florian and I carried the women in our arms, careful not to touch the collars. I could see the skin under them reddening, and my fury increased.
Damn Yarl. I could remove the collars, but it wouldn’t be pleasant. At all.
“What are you going to do with the other woman?” Durion asked as we jogged up the slope of the escape tunnel.
“Put her in the dungeons with the others,” I grunted. I didn’t have a better solution at the moment.
Maybe Anna would.
We left the tunnel behind and raced up the hill as fast as we could.
Behind us, the packages Dirk had planted were already oozing out the fetid stink of rotting swamp to cover our tracks.
As long as we weren’t identified, we would be in the clear.
Yarl would think it was simply another elite stealing his property.
The second we crested the hill, Anna shot out from her hiding spot.
“Quiet,” I hissed, seeing her eyes land on Ella. “Don’t shout.”
She rushed to my side. “Ella. Ella it’s me. It’s Anna. I’m right here. You’re going to be okay. You’re safe now. I promise, I—ouch!”
“Careful of the collar,” I said, crouching to set Ella on the ground. She was wide eyed with terror and pain, barely responding to anything.
“What happened to her? Why is she like this?” Anna’s hands were wringing over themselves repeatedly as she hovered, unsure what to do.
“The collar was keyed by Yarl to react to alpha command. I …”
“You used alpha command on her? I told you not to do that, Caz!” Anna glared at me.
“I had no choice. They stumbled upon us, and I couldn’t risk them making a noise or sounding an alarm. Ella already spotted us making our entry. If someone else had, they would have known immediately what was up.” I touched the collar, hissing in pain again at the heat.
“What do we do now?”
“We get them to the citadel where I can safely take the collars off,” I said, standing. “Florian, you carry Holly. I’ll take Ella. Let’s move.”
“No.”