Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
PHOENIX
Ezkai Castle is built on a steep hill. I’m surprised how much one can hide under the castle as I take the dark stone stairs winding down to Noire’s spy lair.
So far, I’ve found seven floors underneath the castle. The deepest four are where the prison is. Jax’s cell is on the seventh. The first three are for Noire’s spies. Or so I’m told.
I guess we’re about to find out.
These damn dark stone corridors are empty. Void of any form of life, as if this part of the underground castle network is abandoned. Shadows slither over the walls, gathering in the dark corners.
Surely hiding secrets I don’t want to know about. But as the Ezkai General, probably should.
When I round the corner, I step into a corridor that has iron doors on each side. Finally.
I approach the first door. Just as my hand rests on the handle, a rush of whispering reaches my ears. As if it’s hit by lightning, I snatch my hand back. The whispers stop. I try again. The moment my hand wraps around the handle, the whispers assault me once again.
With a gasp, I step away from the door. And walk away.
No way am I opening that door.
Just as I approach the second door, a chilling scream pierces the silence. With a thrashing heart, I lean in closer to the door. Another scream. Very clearly coming from behind that door.
Yeah. Not this door either.
Hesitating, I stand in front of the next door for longer than I must. Inside my mind, I run through a hundred different scenarios of what might await me on the other side.
Stop being little bitch, I scold myself. I’m the Ezkai General. I must face everything that comes with this job. Torture chambers included.
A sight of Daegel’s face, his eyes widening a fraction as I plunged my blade into his throat, flashes in my mind.
A heartbeat and it’s gone.
The visual of the memory might be gone, but the misery and heartbreak lingers.
“Get it together,” I mutter to myself and reach for the handle.
The door swings open before me. A pale woman dressed in Ezkai leathers blinks at me, surprised. Her eyes widen when she remembers herself, and she offers me a proper greeting.
“General,” she says.
“Ezkai,” I say, confidently. “I’m looking for Taaslord Noire. He’s supposed to be somewhere in the spy lair. Have you seen him?”
“I’m right in here, General.” Noire’s voice comes from the inside of the room behind the Ezkai. “Your intuition was right to lead you here.”
The Ezkai steps to the side and allows me to enter. She leaves, closing the door behind her.
It’s not a room. It’s a whole damn cave, with round walls and ceilings carved out of black, rough stone.
In the middle, there is a heavy, long table.
As I get closer, I realize there’s a map carved into the stone tabletop.
A map of Ekios, with the tall snowy mountains in the north surrounded by deep forests, and vast farm fields in the south.
Noire stands at the head of the table.
On his right is a tall, strong woman with long, mesmerizing blond hair weaving past her shoulders, all the way down her back. She’s stunning. I remember her: Ezkai Seraphina.
On Noire’s left is a tall, broad-shouldered man with beige skin and a neatly manicured beard. Ezkai Xander. His dark eyes are inquisitive as he watches me approach.
I pause at the other end of the table-map, across from Noire, and scan the map in front of me. Jaakii is a large, bustling city. I might have visited a few places outside the city, but I know so little about Ekios. It’s a vast, rich land with much to see and explore.
“So, this is the spy lair,” I say, looking up from the map.
Noire wears a pleasant smile on his lips. “Only part of it. I can do a full tour of all three levels later, General.”
I nod. “I’d like that, Noire.” I turn to Ezkai Seraphina. “It’s good to see you again, Ezkai Seraphina. You seem well.”
She dips her chin. “I’m happy to see you too, General. Allow me to congratulate you in person on the well-deserved and hard-earned win. I and my Ezkai are honored to be serving you.”
“Thank you, Ezkai Seraphina.” I glance at Ezkai Xander. “Good to see you too, Ezkai Xander.”
The bearded man offers me a proper greeting, placing his fist over his heart and bowing his head. “It’s an honor to be in your presence, General.”
“As you may know already, Ezkai Seraphina and Ezkai Xander are both high-ranking officers leading two different squads of highly trained Spy Unit soldiers,” Noire says. “Ezkai Seraphina leads the border security squad, and Ezkai Xander leads one of the internal spy network branches I oversee.”
“Good to know, thank you, Noire,” I say.
Ezkai Seraphina looks amused by my presence. I have a harder time reading Ezkai Xander, always have.
I know he didn’t like Daegel much. What does he think of me, someone who has slain a man she loved and risked her life for at one point?
I clear my throat. “I didn’t come here for the tour only, Noire.”
He smirks. “I didn’t think so, General.”
I purse my lips, eyeing the map once again. After a pause, I say, “I would like to know if your spies made any progress on figuring out anything about Vera’s…situation.”
“Perfect timing, General,” Noire says and gestures at Ezkai Xander. “Ezkai Xander was about to brief me on the latest discoveries. And Ezkai Seraphina has some insights to share, too.”
Hope blooms in my chest before I can squash it.
Ezkai Xander glances at the paper file he has in his hands and then at Seraphina. “Wanna go first?”
She shrugs and throws a playful glance Ezkai Xander’s way.
“Sure, why not. I’m going to be much quicker than you, anyway.
” Ezkai Xander rolls his eyes. Ezkai Seraphina meets my gaze.
“We have reviewed all the border checkpoints that are used for legally and illegally transporting goods in and out of Ekios. I can confirm that Vera D’Argent has not been trafficked out of Ekios, at least up until now.
My Ezkai are monitoring the activities at all those checkpoints at all times, so we’ll know if Caligos tries. ”
My chest heaves. That’s not much.
“Thank you, Ezkai Seraphina,” I say. I look at Noire. “That’s good news, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely, General,” he says. “We can focus all the search efforts within Ekios, which should yield better results.”
I jerk my chin at Ezkai Xander. “What else you got?”
He taps the map right where Jaakii is. “Whoever kidnapped her was very well prepared—”
“It’s the Talbots,” I interrupt him, glancing between the three of them. “We know it’s the Talbots, not just whoever.”
Ezkai Xander doesn’t waver. “At this moment, there is no concrete evidence that can point to the Talbots as the kidnappers, General.”
I press my lips into a tight line, my hands curling into fists at my sides. I shoot Noire a glance.
“Ezkai Xander and Ezkai Seraphina can be trusted, General,” Noire assures me. “The Talbots have been doing this for centuries. They are good at hiding their tracks. That’s why it has been such a struggle to pin any of the crimes to their family.”
I grind my teeth, but don’t argue. I nod at Ezkai Xander to continue.
“Our spies report that once Vera D’Argent was kidnapped from her studio, she was taken underground and then transported out of the city soon after,” Ezkai Xander says.
He points a finger to the mountains. “Why I say the kidnappers were prepared is because they sent out three different carriages at the same time. Two to divert our attention, and one with Vera D’Argent.
We caught the carriage that went towards the mountains, and it was empty. ”
Ezkai Xander taps a finger on the small road leading west, to the shore. “We’re currently following one carriage traveling towards a port town.” He then points at the farm fields in the south. “And we have Ezkai following the trail leading south.”
My stomach is a pit of dread. “So, still no sight of Vera? Alive or…”
Ezkai Xander shakes his head.
With a sigh, I brace my hands on the edge of the table and lean forward. “How soon will your spies reach those two carriages traveling different directions?”
The port town on the west shore of Ekios is at least three days of travel away from Jaakii. The south is vast, with many different farms and small villages scattered through it. Some are remote enough it might take up to a week to reach them.
I can’t take this for much longer.
For a moment, I can’t breathe. It’s as if a clawed hand is wrapped tightly around my throat, squeezing it in its cold grip.
I shake my head and clear my throat. “Noire, this is taking too much time. She can’t be alive.”
Noire purses his lips. “If she were dead, you’d know, General. They’d make sure you knew. We must remain patient, and hopeful.”
Those words make me want to roar, thrash, and claw at everyone and everything until there’s nothing left but an empty void.
Instead, I take a steadying breath, straighten my back, and nod.
“We’ll do everything we can to find her, as soon as possible,” Ezkai Seraphina says. “You have our word, General.”
“Thank you,” I say and dip my chin low. “Noire, may I have a private word with you?”
“Absolutely, General,” Noire says and smiles at me. “Why don’t we take a little tour around the spy lair at the same time?”
“Lead the way, Taaslord.”