Chapter 25 #3
I lifted my gaze, pleading with the nameless gods to have mercy on me, but they didn’t.
Aella was on Gretel in the next moment, punching and kicking the woman with impressive strength and speed.
Her brief time with the Andalagar showed.
I watched her break the dark elf’s nose, a few ribs, and bust Gretel’s bottom lip while standing off to the side and silent.
Armin leaned against the wall with his legs crossed as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but he watched the women with rapt attention.
It was then that I realized he’d slowly been easing out of his melancholy these last couple of weeks.
He couldn’t dwell on the loss of his wife from years ago anymore, not with his parents dead and the kingdom in peril.
Maybe his new responsibilities had helped force him to change.
He’d even begun to find his sense of humor again, which might have been odd under the circumstances, but I’d always found it was an excellent way to handle stress.
“You’ll never be able to please him,” Gretel said, blood running down her face and neck. “He likes pain mixed with pleasure, but I seriously doubt you could handle that.”
Aella slapped her hard enough for it to echo through the stone room and then backed away, heaving for breath. “I assure you that I’ve handled far more pain than you can possibly comprehend.”
As she turned and stomped toward her corner, I realized the top she wore was low enough in the back to reveal some of her layered jagged scars. She hadn’t bothered to use glamour to cover them up. Perhaps she didn’t feel the need now that everyone knew about them.
Gretel hissed in a breath at seeing them as well, but she didn’t say anything.
I crossed my arms as I glared at my prisoner.
“Let me make some things clear, aside from the fact that my wife pleases me far better than any other woman has ever managed.” The dark elf flinched.
“Only two things are keeping you alive after you insulted my mate—who is now fully bonded to me. One, you’re lucky she reached you first and chose not to kill you. ”
I wouldn’t admit that I’d purposely held back to allow my wife to unleash her fury.
“It was my choice not to finish her yet,” Aella said, using a fresh towel to clean the blood spray from her clothes and skin. It was also in her loose blonde hair, but she’d need to shower to get it all out. If the gods were merciful, she’d allow me to join her.
I gave her a nod before turning back to our prisoner. “Two, we need to know about the gemstones. If you tell us everything you know about them and offer Lady Aella a very nice apology, I’ll consider letting you leave this room alive, rather than joining Jagon over there.”
Gretel stared at the dead body behind me, heaving for breath as her blood dripped to the floor. Between her and the other dark elf, urine and a sharp metallic scent tainted the air. A full minute passed before she lifted her gaze to me and swallowed. “Fine, I’ll tell you what I know first.”
I glanced at Aella, and she dipped her chin in acceptance. Her cool and calm composure was back in place, as if nothing had happened. If not for the abrasions on her knuckles and red splatter in her hair, no one would have guessed she’d beat up a prisoner.
“Very well, go ahead.”
The dark elf took a deep breath. “Do you recall the five druid kids who went missing from Marbard Academy twenty-eight years ago?”
Armin stiffened at the back of the room, which told me he was actively reading her mind.
“Vaguely. That was a while back,” I said, attempting to recall what I’d heard.
I was only eighteen then, and it had been summer. My friends and I had spent much of our spare time drinking and partying, knowing it wouldn’t be long before we’d have to take on greater responsibilities. Little else mattered those days.
Aella moved to stand next to me. “No one could figure out what happened to them. They just disappeared one night from their dormitory, and it’s been a mystery ever since. None of them were ever found—not even their bodies.”
I gave her a grateful look for elaborating.
“Yes, well, a group from Karganoth who spent a year planning and preparing for the kidnapping took them from their beds. They kept them asleep, so they couldn’t raise any alarm…though the academy wasn’t that well-guarded anyway,” she said, scoffing.
Aella’s shoulders tightened. “It was in a remote place on the eastern coast with only one narrow road leading to it. They couldn’t have used a ship to return to Karganoth because they checked all the main waterways, and no one in their right mind travels through the Forgotten Ocean.”
She referred to the vast body of water that lay between Alavaar and the dark elf’s continent. The few who had survived the crossing said it took them six weeks, but the most enormous and vicious sea monsters lived within its depths.
Since we began keeping records, nine out of ten ships didn’t survive the journey.
It was why Karganoth had few dealings with the druids.
The safest way to each other required going through or around Zadrya, which made for a long and arduous trip.
They had a few items each was willing to trade out of necessity, but otherwise, neither wanted anything to do with the other.
“Well, they managed to survive crossing the Forgotten Ocean,” Gretel said with a shudder.
“And the five druid kids they took continued to improve their abilities under close supervision. Each of them varied in their specialties, but early this year, the oldest one grew powerful enough to enchant the red sphere stones with invisibility and make the spell last for days. Two more of them have since mastered skills that have proven helpful. It was one more reason King Sagan chose to invade Zadrya now.”
The prince’s face was furious when he nodded at me this time to confirm her story.
“So, these druid enchanters are prisoners forced to enchant the stones to use for war?” I asked, angry at the idea as well.
She shook her head. “If that’s what they wanted, they would have taken more experienced adults. In fact, they tried that long ago, but adult druids proved they’d rather die than help Karganoth. It’s why they chose kids.”
“They’re young and impressionable.” Aella clenched her fists at her sides. “As I recall, the oldest one they took was only thirteen, and the youngest ten. They had just enough training to continue perfecting their skills over time as they grew stronger.”
Unlike fae, full-blood druid children came into their magic between seven and eight without the nasty faebor fever to risk killing them.
Aella and her two siblings likely suffered a milder version of it, as did Loden.
Occasionally, mixed-bloods could die as well, but they had a better chance of survival.
“Yes,” Gretel agreed. “The dark elf families charged with caring for the kids were tasked with endearing them to our people and integrating them, so they’d grow up loyal to us.
They were kept in small villages in the mountains with little contact with the outside world.
No one knew about them except those involved. I didn’t find out until a month ago.”
The prince was pacing the back of the room now, but he paused to meet my gaze and nod again. It must have required remarkable restraint for him to keep quiet. His face was red with anger, which made me wonder if he caught visuals of the druids involved.
“Did you meet them?” I asked.
She nodded. “Two of them. The one who can enchant gems for invisibility, and another who can enchant gems to boost powers twofold. That’s how we were able to infiltrate Porrine and other locations, despite our portal channelers not being very powerful.
The druids seemed happy and motivated to do the work when I saw them, and they moved about freely within the keep, though with guards to protect them. ”
I asked a few more questions until I was satisfied we had everything we needed for now.
“The other dark elf we took, will he know anything you don’t?”
Gretel bit her lip, likely knowing what her answer would mean. “It’s possible.”
Prince Armin shook his head.
I looked at Aella. “If she apologizes, will you allow me to lock her back in her cell?”
“Yes,” she replied after a minute of thought. “But someone better give her clothes, and she stays confined and well guarded until we figure out what to do with her. She might be useful for other questions that could come up later.”
That seemed more than reasonable under the circumstances. “Gretel?”
“My deepest apologies, Lady Aella. I should not have said what I did and will avoid offending you in the future.” She almost sounded sincere. We’d all learned in training how to say what our instructors wanted. I knew she wasn’t truly sorry, but she’d done what I asked.
My wife took a few steps closer and gave her a cold look. “Let’s hope not, because if you insult me in the future, I’ll cut your head off.” She held up a four-inch blade she’d acquired sometime in the last few minutes. “With this, and I’ll do it slowly.”
The prince gave Aella a look of admiration. Had he read her mind to see if she spoke the truth? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to that, but it had the intended effect. Gretel lowered her head in submission.
“Very well.” I motioned at Jax and the guard to take our prisoner away.
After she was gone, Prince Armin finally spoke, “We need to send a sebeska to the Queen of Alavaar, letting her know what we learned. Also, we must assume most portals on Zadrya aren’t secure anymore if there’s a boosted dark elf channeler who can untangle the wards on them.”
“I thank the nameless ones for my family’s centuries of paranoia, so the rune sequence to Darynia has never been written down or shared with outsiders,” I said, running a hand through my hair.
Aella put her hands on her hips. “That’s why I couldn’t find it.”
“Precisely.” It amused me that she’d tried.
“I must give the dark elves credit for the level of planning they put into this invasion and how well they’ve kept it a secret. I’d always been led to believe they lacked patience,” Armin said, stress lining his eyes.
I gave him a grim look. “Most don’t. I certainly never have had much, but my grandfather is a different story. He has always been excellent at planning and waiting for the right pieces to fall into place.”
Knowing that, I’d always wondered why he hadn’t killed me and gotten me out of the way. Perhaps he simply thought it would keep all the other heirs on their toes since I was the most powerful among them. That was my best guess, anyway.
“I’m going to set up a meeting for this evening after dinner.” Armin looked at Aella. “I must ask you to bring Lord Gannon and Loden back because I’ll need both of them here for it.”
My father was still in Siggaya, and Loden had been spending time at the library in Tuireen, working with the druids to get the information we needed on the fountain. It would take my wife much of the day to retrieve each of them since it was now late morning.
“Whatever you need, Your Highness,” she said, giving him a curtsy.
We followed the prince out of the room. While he continued toward the stairs, I asked Aella to wait while I went down the corridor with the male prisoner we hadn’t questioned.
He leaned against the wall, naked and chained, with his head bowed.
I studied him for a moment, but I didn’t recognize him at all.
Most likely, he was a low-level soldier.
I used my powers to snap his neck, then let his guard know he could dispose of the body. Aella didn’t say a word when I returned to her. She knew what I’d done, but she didn’t bother to question it. We couldn’t afford to hold useless prisoners right now, nor could we consider returning them.
“What will they do with the corpses?” she asked.
I guided her toward the exit. “Dump them in the lake for the creatures to eat.”
“How very efficient of you.”
I snorted. “It’s certainly simpler than sending the bodies back to Karganoth, and the creatures have to eat something, or else they get cranky.”
She sighed as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m not going to ask what you feed them when you don’t have enemies to throw in there.”