Chapter 12
“Make a peep and I’ll kill you.”
My heartbeat thunders rapidly in my ears as a man crouches above me. One of his hands is clapped over my mouth while the edge of a blade is pressed into my throat with his other hand. He pushes it deeper to shush me when I whimper.
Without my spectacles on and the room being half bathed in morning light, his features are a blur—that is until he leans in closer and reveals warm ochre skin behind a slightly turned-up nose, dark-brown eyes, bushy eyebrows, and hair styled in individual plaits.
“Do you understand?” he asks.
I nod behind his hand as my eyes burn with tears. So many thoughts run through my head: Who is this man? Where is Thane? Oh gods. Is this a setup? I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him!
“I’m just gonna rummage through that cute little rucksack and lady bag you have over there,” he says, gesturing with the hand holding the knife to my bags in the corner. “Well, actually, I’m not gonna do it. Zephra is.”
My brows dip with confusion. Who?
As the thought erupts, a creature appears on the man’s shoulder with the body and wings of a miniature dragon.
Its pink fur looks as soft as a bunny’s with the pattern of dragon scales.
Its nose resembles a bunny’s as well, while pointed ears sprout from either side of its head.
Its amber eyes are too big for its face… but in an adorable way.
“Zephra, girl, check her bags for me, will ya? See what you can find.” The man gestures to my bags, and his little creature hops off his shoulder to skitter toward them.
With her little paws, Zephra opens my rucksack, then buries her head inside. When Zephra whips out one of the half-eaten loaves of bread I got from Ellanoch, she joyously chitters.
“No—no, Zephra. You already ate!” the man scolds with exasperation. “You devoured a whole roasted turkey and didn’t bother saving a bit of it for me. Let’s not be greedy. Come on, I need you to remember your job. Coins, jewelry, yeah? Are there any in there?”
Zephra chitters again, buries her head inside, then comes back out with the strings of a pouch in her mouth.
“That’s it! Good girl!” the man praises as she hurries to him, dropping the pouch into his palm. She crawls to his shoulder again and stares at me briefly before swiping the backs of her paws over her snout.
“Don’t move. Got it?” the man advises.
I bob my head. Like I’ll dare move. I can’t even see clearly enough to know where to run.
He removes his hand from my mouth to open the pouch and dump the coins into his palm.
“Ah, look at that, Zephra. We’ll be eating good for at least a week with this.”
I reach for my spectacles, and the man points his blade at me.
“You can take it all,” I tell him, throwing my hands up. “I don’t care. Just take it.”
His brows pucker. “Interesting. I expected more of a fight from you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not a fighter.”
“That’s strange coming from a person camping out near Ruvain.
” He dumps the coins back into the pouch.
“You know what you’re doing is dangerous, don’t you?
I mean, I literally walked right up the stairs and saw you sleeping like a sweet little princess.
Almost didn’t want to startle you because you looked so precious but, well…
the coin calls.” He shakes the pouch, giving the coins a light clink clink with a mischievous smile.
“Someone like you, out here all alone, is not smart, I gotta tell ya. If I were anyone else, I’d have done—”
The man’s words come to an abrupt stop as the door of the room flies open and Thane appears.
With his sword in hand, Thane rushes the man, who scrambles to get up, and slams him into the wall, pressing the edge of the blade to his throat.
Zephra flies off and blows a small gust of fire at Thane, who deflects it with an invisible shield before wrapping her in a gold bubble.
“Hold on!” the stranger yells, tossing his hands in the air.
Thane’s eyes widen, and the blade at the man’s neck slacks as he studies his features. “Are you seri— Algar?”
Algar?
The man cocks his head, confused, until Thane steps back and pulls his mask down. When Algar sees his whole face, his eyes light up.
“By the Crystal, I don’t believe it! Thane Valkor? Is that really you?”
“Yes, it’s me,” Thane retorts, sheathing his sword. “What the shadows are you doing in here? I almost killed you.”
Okay. What is happening? I hold my breath as I watch this strange reunion unfold.
“Where were you?” My voice comes out shrill, nearly hysterical.
“I was finding water for the horse. I was only gone for a few minutes.” Thane points a finger at Algar. “Were you spying on me?”
“Well, yes. I couldn’t tell who you were with the mask and all. And look at you! There was no way I was about to take a man your size down on my own. I wanted to see if you’d left anything behind, and it turns out you did. A whole woman.”
“Give the whole woman her coins back.” Thane huffs.
“Oh, right.” Algar shoots me an apologetic grin as he tosses the pouch my way. I scramble to catch it. “My apologies if I scared you, princess. If I’d known such a pretty lady was with this twit, I wouldn’t have tried to rob you.”
“It’s fine?” I look from him to Thane, positively baffled by what’s happening.
Algar marvels at the sight of Thane.
“I can’t believe it’s you, my friend!” Algar releases a hearty laugh. “Holy Orvena. You’ve gotten taller, yeah?”
“Who is this, Thane? How do you know him?” I ask.
“Old friend,” Thane answers, raising an eyebrow at Algar.
“Old friend? Please,” Algar scoffs. “We’re practically family! We go way back. To wee little children whose heads used to be too big for our bodies.”
Thane sighs. “You’re still thieving, I see.”
“More like thriving,” Algar replies, puffing out his chest.
Thane glances at Zephra, who is snarling in her bubble with her claws up. She slashes at the bubble, but it doesn’t budge. “What in the shadows are you doing with that thing?”
“Oh, Zephra? She’s my partner. Assists me in the thieving, as you like to call it. Set her free, though, yeah? She hates being trapped.”
Thane makes a throaty noise of disapproval and waves his hand, removing the bubble. Algar reaches for Zephra, and she hurries to him, climbing up his arm until she’s settled on his shoulder.
“Don’t those things carry diseases?” Thane looks from him to the pink creature.
“Not my Zephra,” Algar says. “I found her in some bone merchant’s shop. He was going to kill her and drain her blood, sell it to the beastials.”
“Hm.” Thane puts his attention on me. “All right, grab your things. Let’s go.”
“Wait—now hold on,” Algar calls as I collect my quilt, shawl, and rucksack. “Aren’t you going to tell me what you’re doing? Or where you’ve been for the last couple of years?”
We follow Thane down the wet, creaky stairs and out of the building and don’t stop until we’re close to the awning where Pearl is tied up. While we walk, I notice a limp in Algar’s step.
“I’m sorry.” I throw up a hand to pause the situation as the sun warms my skin. “Algar, how did you even notice us?”
“Well, that’s a story, isn’t it? I was on my way to Meriva—figured I’d try my hand at the gambling tables for some coin.
Gotta feed Zephra and all. Right, girl?” He gives her furry chest a scratch, and she squeaks.
“Anyway, I passed by here and heard the horse. Figured whoever was hiding away in a building this shit and staying so close to Ruvain was asking to be robbed—that, or they have something to hide.” He shrugs.
“If it wasn’t me, it’d have been someone else.
Best for both of you that I was around, huh? ”
Thane shakes his head as he tosses his cloak on. “Last I heard, you were locked away in one of Ruvain’s prisons for cheating their prince out of his coins.”
“Um, two things. One: that was nearly three years ago. Two: their evil little prince is full of himself so, in my opinion, he was asking for it. And as you can see”—he raises both of his hands in the air—“I broke out.”
“Broke out?” Thane arches a brow. “From a Ruvain prison?”
“It’s easier than you think when you’re fooling around with one of the lady guards—especially one who doesn’t make you take your assigned muting elixir.” Algar winks at me.
“Muting elixir?” I whisper to myself. I’m pretty sure those are only used for sorcerers and charmers to dim their magic. Most elixirs are taken orally, and if Algar was in prison, they probably had a lineup and forced the prisoners who held magic to take it.
Other times, if one wants to be sneaky about it and overpower a person with magic, they can douse an object in the elixir and offer it to them.
A necklace, a stone, a cuff—anything, really.
As long as the object touches their skin, it’s effective for several hours.
The downfall is that it has to be used the same day it’s doused.
All of this leads me to wonder…is Algar a sorcerer, too?
“You didn’t break out,” Thane says. “That’s never been done before—not without a person getting caught.”
“Okay…you’re right. I did my time. But I almost did.” Algar scratches the top of his head. “Didn’t quite work out, though.”
“Right. Well, I’m glad to see you’re still alive.” Thane’s voice drips with sarcasm as he tosses his rucksack over his shoulder while walking my way. He requests my bag, too.
“It’s not like you to travel with someone, Thane.” Algar watches as I hand my bag over. “Especially a woman. Is there something I should know?” He looks from Thane to me, waggling his eyebrows and grinning.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Thane assures him.
“So you’re not boning this pretty lady?”
My jaw drops.
Thane stops dead in his tracks. “No.”
“Can I?” Algar asks, trailing after him, limping.
“It’d be nice if you ask me what I want,” I interject.