Chapter 5
“You. Boy. What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Helping to fix your mistake. Didn’t I tell you from the beginning that Naya was safer with Rewi and me?” The village boy who had envisioned Nayana as the mother of his children glared at me as if he wanted to kill me as much as I yearned to annihilate him.
Sword or dagger?
Gritting my teeth so hard they hurt, I reminded myself that Naya would be even more cross with me if I sent her so-called friend to an early grave. There wasn’t one amicable undertone audible as I snarled at him. “No one wants you here. Leave.”
“Actually, I asked them to join us,” Fig chimed in, and my wrathful glower zeroed in on him. First, the sleeping draught—and now he was burying a blade into my back? I was more than tempted to rip him apart at this very moment and barely held on to the last shreds of my sanity.
“Hello, sexy man.”
My head spun around, and my eyes narrowed as I spotted the woman called Rewani, who prided herself on being Naya’s best friend—as if—from her pathetic hometown.
Maybe she’d had that status back in the day, but the spot had been taken over by me months ago, and I could only hope the woman was aware of this.
Otherwise, she could join the boy six feet under.
“I’m not happy you lost Naya.”
“Well, guess what? I’m not ecstatic she ran away and got herself kidnapped either.”
“You knew she’s a flight risk.”
“Stop speaking as if you comprehend past events better than I.” Glaring from Rewani to Bryon, my face contorted into a feral visage. I wasn’t even trying to subdue the predatory energies coiling around me like an invisible force field.
“Dion, calm down.” Antas put his hand on my shoulder. “You will need your strength for later.”
“I contacted the two because they arrived in Ivreiana a while ago, and they’re the only contacts we can trust.” Fig intervened and almost casually positioned himself between me and the two humans.
Fucking pricks, all of them. They could consider themselves fortunate that I was so disgustingly weak at the moment.
I was about to snarl some more at everyone when the door opened, and a man with deep red hair wearing a thick beard of the same color entered the room.
His stocky build couldn’t fool me. He had more than enough muscles, and the way he moved with trained agility told me he wasn’t harmless, even if his face seemed friendly and open.
The clothes he wore were of excellent quality, but what tipped me further to the edge of insanity—more than the presence of the boy—was his leather armor, which bore the sigil of the King of Merchants.
My chest rumbled from another low growl, spilling over my pursed lips as I realized for whom the human male was working. I’d rip him apart in proxy for the real enemy, hoping violence would keep me together long enough until Perran Feroy himself was at my mercy.
My fingers twitched as I imagined how I’d tear off his limbs with my bare hands and force his own blood down his throat and nose until the liquid flooded his airways so his heart, brain, and lungs would collapse at the same time.
The man’s eyes roamed over everyone present and eventually settled on me, in total disregard for the danger he was in. Was he displaying stupidity or bravery? “Good, my message reached you. I’m Nancy Ajutor. And you’re Dion, aren’t you?”
“Who wants to know? Your boss? I’ll carve my name into your bloody, broken torso and send the remains back to him piece by fucking piece as a declaration of what his imminent future will hold.”
“Oh, please don’t. Perran has no idea I’m here. If he had any inkling, I’d be dead already.”
Everyone, not only me, regarded him suspiciously, and I prowled over to him, stopping in his personal space, my teeth on full display. “Explain.”
“There isn’t much to disclose except that I want to aid the young woman currently locked in a cell under Perran Feroy’s headquarters. Luckily, I was able to gain an inch of her trust, so she told me your name.”
I grabbed his shoulders and shook the man so hard his bones rattled. And yet, he wore a brave face. “Then bring us there instantly.”
“Believe me, I would if I could. But storming the compound with only so few people is far too dangerous. What I can do is give you information—everything I know—and I can help you from the inside, but you need to tread carefully. Feroy’s place is crawling with guards, mercenaries, and outlaws.
There have been reports of countless gruesome murders along the trail he traveled on, so he expects the men who have an interest in his prisoner to appear sooner or later in an attempt to rescue her.
Since she hasn’t answered any of his questions, he hopes to get more insight from you.
So he tripled the guard staff around the mansion, and some of his new employees he’d bought right out of prison. ”
Pride bloomed in my chest and warmed my heart upon hearing that Nayana had stayed quiet, even if doing so had been unnecessary. Feroy could just as well know who and what was coming for him. I didn’t give a single flying fuck.
Antas and Fig had taken some blueprints Nancy had handed over, and both were bending over them.
“More so, Perran owns almost everything and everyone in the entire city. You’ll have to find a safe place to lie low after your mission before you act.
I’d offer you to hide in my home, but since I’m associated with him, this hardly qualifies as a safehouse.
And leaving the city in a hurry is no option, since the woman is in no state to travel. ”
My airways tightened, and a burning pain tore through my chest at the thought of how severely hurt Nayana was.
Tortured. Alone. Frightened. But still alive, according to this man.
Shaking my head to get rid of the fear crushing my heart in its iron fist, I concentrated on the important questions at hand.
“How many bodies are guarding the perimeters, and how many more are manning the dungeons?”
“At present, about five dozen guards patrol the grounds and main areas of the buildings during each shift rotation. Around sixty additional people at any time in the dungeons. As the blueprints indicate, those are massive, although I’ve only seen a small part of them myself.
Most of them are hidden. If there’s anything else or if the place is further guarded, I can’t say. ”
“Too many to use force.” Fig looked up from the plans and locked me in with his gaze. He almost made the impression as if he wanted to hypnotize me.
“Those numbers are nothing.” I couldn’t help but argue out of habit, although objectively, my general was correct.
Oh, how I wished to be in possession of my full power. Nothing would stop me from shadowwalking over there this instant and showing everyone involved in Nayana’s torture—which in my mind was every single person in the greater vicinity—they’d picked the wrong side.
“We need to work out another plan. One that does not involve destroying another Ivreian city,” Antas agreed with Fig.
These fucking traitors. My magic alone might not be enough at the moment, but I wasn’t the only Wielder present, godsdammit. “Is there anyone in this shithole not answering to Feroy?”
“The only ones not owned by him are the king and queen.”
My eyes transformed to narrow slits in contemplation, and suddenly, I had not one but two brilliant ideas. Sure, my soldiers would protest against them as well, but I’d force them to understand they couldn’t fight me in this.
“Boy.” I stared at the human called Byron or Bryon—I mean, what did I care about his bland, forgettable name?—who stood there gaping like a rabbit among wolves. “Do you still own the favor of King Pritatus you were bragging about in Rastialla?”
He glowered with an expression as if he wanted to strangle me.
Well, I longed to do the same to him. Sometimes, I still saw his hands all over my Nayana when I closed my eyes.
Oh no, I hadn’t forgotten how he’d pawed at her, how he’d tried to steal what was mine, and as certain as the sun went down every day, he’d soon learn to regret his past actions.
Once Nayana was safely at my side again, all I needed was a bit of free time alone with him, and we’d have a stern conversation about his plentiful mistakes.
Hopefully, he’d be a fast student; otherwise, I couldn’t guarantee anything.
Finally, he remembered how to speak and answered through gritted teeth. “Yes.”
“Good. Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, we’ll be paying your king a visit, and you’ll use your favor to ask for yourself and her,” I nudged my chin in Rewani’s direction, “to get employment in the castle. And you better put genuine effort into your plea.”
“Why?”
“Well, I don’t expect someone like you to understand my plan, even though anyone with only half a brain can guess what I have in mind.
But I’ll humor you and, for your sake, try to refrain from using words too big to comprehend with your limited capacities.
You will do as you’re told because I’ll need people inside the castle who have an interest in Naya as well, feeble as your importance may be.
After getting her out of captivity, she’ll need a sanctuary to recover until she’s well enough to travel again.
What better refuge than the royal residence?
” My plan was a good one, and the twinkle in his puppy eyes alerted me that he’d finally recognized the merit of my order.
What he didn’t have to understand was that I had every intention of residing at the castle too, and that he and his favor were only the backup plan concerning lodgings.
In the end, I only needed him to pave the way to gain an audience with King Pritatus as fast as possible.
My real plan had a high chance of working out, but if I were denied a meeting with the monarch, enacting what I’d come up with would be next to impossible.
Antas rose to his feet and frowned. “Dion, certainly you are not considering what I fear you are.”