17. Grok
The walls of Thornhall loom before us, a towering bastion of stone and spite, blocking our path to the heart of the human lands. To Emberhal and the female, the future that waits within its walls.
Lily. My heart, my home, held captive by the twisted lord of this tainted land. My scouts came back with the news today, after hearing it in the town squares, seeing it on posters papered on every tavern door: the Red Blade has been declared a traitor, and captured for trial, even execution. One man is responsible.
Varkos. The Bloody Baron, they call him. The Butcher of Emberhal.
A monster in human skin, and the only thing standing between me and my mate.
But not for long, if the plan forming in my mind bears fruit.
Beside me, Sharak shifts in his saddle, his eyes tracking the movements of the scouts returning from their furtive forays. ”What news?” he rumbles, his voice a low growl.
The lead scout, a wiry young warrior named Drex, swings down from his mount and sketches a quick salute. ”The city is well guarded, my lords,” he reports, his words clipped. ”Patrols on every wall, every gate. Archers in the towers, armed and alert.”
I nod, unsurprised. Varkos is no fool, for all his cruelty. He knows the prize he holds, the power he wields in keeping Lily confined.
He knows that I will stop at nothing, spare no one to get her back, to bring her home.
To me. To the heart that beats only for her.
”But,” Drex continues, a glint of excitement in his eyes, ”there is an opportunity. A weakness in the city”s defenses, one we might exploit with cunning and courage.”
I lean forward, my blood quickening. ”Speak,” I command, my voice a low, intent rumble.
Drex nods, gesturing to the bustling streets beyond the city walls. ”There”s a festival planned for tonight,” he explains. ”A celebration of some human holy day. The gates will be open, the guards distracted.”
A slow, savage smile curves my lips, a fierce anticipation kindling in my veins. ”A festival,” I muse, my mind racing ahead, spinning out possibilities. ”Crowds of revelers, clamor in the streets, the perfect cover for a small, stealthy force to slip inside, slide between the cracks...”
”And strike at the heart of the city,” Sharak finishes, his eyes gleaming with a ruthless light. ”At the keep where they”ll be holding her. The Red Blade, the ransom they think will buy them safety, security...”
”Fools,” I snarl, my hands clenching into fists on the reins. ”As if anything, anyone could keep me from her.”
I turn to Drex, my decision made. ”Gather the others,” I command, my voice ringing with authority, with absolution. ”The best of the best, the bravest of the brave. We ride for Emberhal and we do not return without the Red Blade, without my mate.”
Drex salutes again, a fierce light in his eyes. ”As you command, my Chief,” he rasps. ”We will bring her back or die in the attempt.”
”Let us hope it does not come to that,” Sharak murmurs as Drex hurries off. ”We are few, and they are many, with stone walls and steel blades between us and the goal.”
I meet his gaze, my own unflinching. ”Then we must be swift,” I reply, my voice steady. “We will strong from the shadows. We must be smart and sacrifice everything, even honor, even open combat for the sake of stealth.”
Sharak”s eyes widen, understanding dawning. ”You mean to go in disguise,” he breathes. ”To cloak ourselves in costumes and walk among the humans undetected.”
I nod grimly, the idea taking shape. ”It”s the only way,” I mutter. ”The only way to get close enough, quick enough to find her and free her, before they sound the alarm.”
”It will not be easy,” Sharak warns. ”To pass as human, to play at being something we”re not, it goes against every instinct, every inch of what we are.”
”I know,” I grit out, the words bitter on my tongue. ”But for her, for Lily, I will do anything. Be anything, even if it means betraying the warrior I”ve always believed myself to be.”
I meet his gaze, my own burning with the immensity of my resolve. ”I will crawl through the mud, cower in the muck if it means getting to her, bringing her back. I will beg and bleed, Sharak, will break every vow, every value if it leads me to her side.”
He stares at me for a long, charged moment then nods, a grim acceptance settling over his features. ”Then let it be done,” he says quietly. ”Let us be done with the ways of war for this night, this need.”
He leans in, his eyes fierce. ”For her, Grok, we will be anything. Everything you require. Shadows in disguise, who strike from the darkness, all for the sake of the female that holds your heart.”
Emotion swells in my chest, a tidal wave of gratitude and allegiance to this male, this comrade who”s been my sword and my shield for longer than I can remember.
”Thank you,” I rasp, the words woefully small. ”Thank you, old friend.”
With love burning in my breast, my blood, I turn to face the city that holds my heart within its walls.
Night fallsover Emberhal like a shroud, a shadow thick and full of whispers, of warnings left unheeded.
We move through the streets like ghosts, cloaked in costumes and camouflage, blending with the crowd of revelers, the clamor of the festival in full swing.
It”s a jarring thing, to be so close to the enemy and yet go unnoticed. To walk among them, with them as if we are part of their pack, their party.
As if we belong when every instinct, every inch of me screams the opposite.
But I push down the revulsion, the resistance and focus on the task at hand, the target ahead. On the keep, the castle where my Lily lies in chains, in captivity.
Waiting for me, wanting for me to come for her, claim her as I always have, always will.
No matter the cost, the carnage. No matter the mask I must wear, the disguise I must adopt to slip past the guards and reach her side.
”The gate is ahead,” Sharak murmurs, his voice a barely-there breath against my ear. ”The guards are distracted, drunk on wine and wenches. If we move now, swiftly, we may pass through unseen.”
I nod, a sharp jerk of my chin. ”Then let us move,” I growl, the words a rumble in my chest. ”Let us move and may the gods grant us speed and stealth as we breach the walls that keep me from my mate.”
We surge forward as one, a unit bound by purpose and passion, duty and the driving need to see our mission through, our majesty restored.
To see her restored to my arms, my aura. To the place, the position she was always meant to hold.
At my side, in my sight as my queen, my completion.
We pass through the gate like smoke, like specters, unseen by the guards that should have stopped us.
”The keep,” Drex hisses, pointing with a clawed finger. ”There, at the heart of the city, rising like a blight on the land.”
I follow his gaze, my eyes narrowing, my nostrils flaring as I take in the towering spire of stone, the stronghold of the enemy.
The place where she is being held. Hurt in ways that make my blood boil, my bones quake with the need, the necessity to reach her, to free her.
To end the ones who dared to lay hand on her and make them pay, in blood and bone and breaking.
”We go in hard and fast,” I rasp, the words a growl of barely leashed violence. ”Silent and sudden, striking from the shadows and leaving no trace of our presence.”
I meet each of their gazes in turn, my eyes burning with the intensity, the immensity of my resolve. ”No killing,” I command, the words bitter as bile on my tongue. ”Not unless necessary, not unless needed to preserve our own lives.”
I see the surprise, the shock flicker across their faces. The ogre way is not one of mercy but of ruthless efficiency, removing any threat.
But for her, for Lily, I will temper my blade, my brutality. I will stay my hand, my hunger for the spilling of blood, the sundering of bone.
Because I know it is not what she would want. Not what she would choose, even for those who have wronged her.
Even for those she should hate, by all rights and reasons.
”Incapacitate them if you must,” I continue, my voice low and lethal. ”Knock them out, tie them up, but do not end them. Not unless you have no other choice, no other chance to complete the mission.”
They nod, a grim acceptance settling over their features. They don”t like it, I can tell they don”t, but they will obey because it comes from me.
From their chief, their chosen who has never led them astray.
Even when the path, the purpose goes against every instinct, every inch of what they are.
”For the Red Blade,” Sharak rumbles, his voice a low, fervent growl. ”For the female that holds your heart, we will be anything. Do anything, even if it damns us, dooms us in the eyes of our ancestors and breaks our ancient codes.”
The others echo his sentiment, their voices quiet in the enemy’s presence, but fierce and loyal all the same.
Emotion swells in my chest, a tidal wave of gratitude and allegiance to these males who would follow me into the very mouth of hell for the sake of my happiness, my wholeness.
With that fervor driving us forward, we plunge into the bowels of the keep, navigating winding corridors and hidden passageways mapped out by careful scouting. Closer and closer to the thrum of the bond pulling me ever-onward, the sense of Lily blazing like a beacon in my mind.
The roar of my pulse drowns out all else, urgency building to a fever pitch as we near our goal. Just a little farther, just a few moments more and?—
A sudden clang of bells shatters the tense silence, the alarm raised by some hapless guard. Shouts echo off stone, the thud of booted feet converging. My warriors tense, teeth bared and hands flying to hilts.
”Go,” I snarl, waving them onward even as I break into a sprint. ”Secure our path. I”ll not leave without her!”
They melt into branching corridors without hesitation, dispersing to wreak whatever havoc is needed to keep our escape route clear. I spare them hardly a glance, eyes locked on the iron-banded door at the end of the hall. On the sense of Lily just beyond, searing my soul.
With a final burst of desperate speed, I”m there. A savage kick splinters aged oak, the lock giving way with a tortured shriek. Then I”m through, momentum carrying me across the threshold of a small, stinking cell.
And there she is. Chained. Battered. Eyes blazing with the same defiant fire that captured me so long ago.
Our gazes lock and the world falls away, a maelstrom of emotions roiling between us in that suspended second. Relief and rage, longing and dread, the promise of violence and the ache of reunion.
”Lily,” I rasp, her name a prayer on my tongue. ”I”ve come for you.”
The tension stretches taut as a bowstring. Then, slowly, she smiles. A fierce flash of teeth, bright as blood against bruised skin.
”Took you long enough.”