33. Lirion
Lirion paced the sidewalk outside The Greasy Gull, his eyes shifting up and down the block along the moonlit horizon.
Shadows lengthened, and the air grew uncomfortably cold.
Lirion pulled his cloak tighter about his body, but it did nothing for the cold gnawing on his fingers.
He should go inside and wait with the others, but he couldn’t sit still.
After leaving Tookie’s place, Fenric had told him to take Maxie back to the inn and tell the others what they’d discovered.
The squirrely thief wanted to go on one last fact-finding mission, but he couldn’t effectively do it with an incubus and a puppy tagging long.
“Relax,” Hapi admonished as he sat down on the wooden stairs leading up to the inn.
Lirion almost jumped. He hadn’t even heard the elf step outside.
He glanced over to find him somehow managing to look regal in a dark blue coat that fell all the way down to the top of his calf-high leather boots.
Pale grey gloves covered his elegant hands, while his skin seemed to glow in the pale lamplight.
Everything about him looked ethereal. It was hard to believe he was a necromancer.
“The fact Fenric is the last to return is a good sign.”
“How’s that?”
Lifting his left hand, Hapi extended one finger.
“Everyone else is here, which means no one got caught snooping and landed themselves in jail. Which, sadly, happens far too often with these miscreants.” He extended a second finger.
“Because of Fen’s shapeshifting skills, he can sneak places most of us can’t with relative ease.
It’s likely he’s poking around where your sister is being held, gaining valuable, timesaving information.
” He extended a third finger. “And finally, your feelings for Fen are showing.”
Lirion’s mouth bobbed open and shut several times before his brain engaged enough to recall how to use his tongue.
He wished it hadn’t, though. “Shut up.” He mentally rolled his eyes at himself.
So witty. “This isn’t about Fen. It’s about saving my sister.
We can’t exchange information and make plans until he’s back. ”
“Until who’s back?”
Lirion spun around to find Fen striding down the block, a playful smirk tilting up one corner of his mouth. Gods, how much of their conversation had he heard? Preferably none of it. Yes, that was best.
“What-what took you so long?” Lirion stammered, grasping desperately at the strands of his fractured composure. “Did you find where they are holding my sister? Can we get in there?”
“Sorry about the delay. I wanted to take a peek at Count Pierres’s villa. This…” He paused to let out a heavy sigh. “This is going to be tricky.”
Hapi shrugged one shoulder. “Isn’t it always?”
“True,” Fen conceded. He wrapped an arm around Lirion’s shoulders, drawing him toward the inn, while Hapi rose smoothly to his feet. “Let’s grab the others so we can discuss what we uncovered today.”
The Greasy Gull Inn wasn’t nearly as bad as its name implied.
It was a rather large three-story wood-and-brick building with a very large common room and a tavern on the first floor serving food that looked pretty damn greasy and had a small stage for entertainment.
If Lirion hadn’t been so anxious about saving his sister at last, he would have bartered a few songs for their meals.
But he wasn’t in the mood for singing and flirting with strangers.
The second and third floors were all rooms for rent.
Upon returning with Maxie, Lirion had quickly glimpsed the room they’d gotten for him and Fenric.
It wasn’t much—a bed, a washstand, a chair, and a small table with a candlestick.
Apparently, they all looked roughly the same.
Malfas and Hapi were sharing, while Bel and Maxie were rooming together.
Rain had won the toss to have his own room and seemed to have hope of finding a bed companion or two before they destroyed the peace of the town by taking on Count Pierres.
The group had gathered in Belstrom’s room, where they were passing around a bottle of whiskey. Laughter rose up each time Maxie made a grab for the bottle but missed because they’d already tossed it to the next person.
“So,” Hapi drew the word out as he shut the door behind them, “now that everyone is here, exactly how fucked are we?”
“Enormously!” Malfas shouted.
“Royally!” Rain chimed in.
Lirion snatched up the whiskey bottle and took a slug, welcoming the sharp burn down to his chest. He was feeling bad. The job he’d promised to fulfill for Fen didn’t sound half as difficult as this one.
“It will be an exceedingly complicated endeavor,” Belstrom added. “However, I do not sense it will be any more arduous than the Lanoa affair.”
A low growl rose from Hapi and he glared at Bel. “You swore you’d never bring that up.”
Belstrom lifted both hands as if to ward off the necromancer and a quick death. “I only draw parallels as proof we have prevailed in more taxing matters.”
“What do we know about this Count Pierres and his little sex ring?” Fen broke in, cutting off their nonsense before it could spiral out of control.
“That this man is the king of selling sex!” Malfas stated.
“Not helping,” Fen snapped as he grabbed the half-empty bottle from Lirion and took a big gulp.
“What I mean is, the rich bloke has made his piles of gold by catering to the sexual whims of the wealthy,” Malfas continued.
“He’s opened and closed high-end brothels all across the kingdom.
The vast majority of his ‘entertainment’ are kidnapped people, usually quite young and who had the bad luck of having a pretty face and no one to protect them. ”
Lirion swallowed hard and cursed himself yet again for not meeting his sister closer to their hometown. If he had been there, she would never have been grabbed.
He was torn from his thoughts when Fen pressed the bottle into his fingers. The gesture was sweet.
“Count Pierres has more permanently settled in Baza thanks to his partnership with Governor Procaccino.”
“The count kicking back a share of the profits to the governor?” Fen murmured.
Mal nodded as he toyed with his club in front of him. “It looks that way.”
Fen released a breath and shoved a hand through his messy hair.
He looked stressed, and his reaction only caused the knots in Lirion’s chest to tighten.
“As a result, we need both speed and stealth for this job. If the count can’t handle the ruckus we’ll make at his establishment, I wouldn’t be surprised if he demands backup from his business partner.
Because of its size, Baza is blessed with more than the typical city watch.
Baza is also home to the Northern Royal Army.
I couldn’t get a clear count on how many soldiers might be in the region. ”
“The Northern Royal Army in times of peace will have a minimum of two regiments but can stretch up to a full division, for a range of five thousand to fifteen thousand highly trained soldiers,” Maxie recited, leaving everyone blinking and their mouths hanging open.
The young man paused, his head tilting to the side.
“In times of war or heightened hostilities, the base for the Northern Royal Army can comfortably accommodate up to twenty-five thousand men. The principal base is a two-hour ride from the city, but there is a smaller base just inside the city walls the governor has the power to call upon, adding roughly two thousand soldiers to the city watch.”
Fen reached out, stole the forgotten whiskey bottle from Lirion’s nearly limp fingers, and threw it back.
“Fuck,” he wheezed, his voice as rough as scorched earth.
He pointed one finger at Maxie, still clutching the bottle’s neck in his fist. “One of these days, you and I are going to have a very long talk.” Maxie’s eyes went impossibly wide, and he swallowed hard. “But not right now.”
“That’s a lot of soldiers,” Rain breathed. For the first time since Lirion had met the pirate, he seemed subdued.
“All the more reason for us to make this fast. Get in. Get out. Do not capture anyone’s attention.
They can’t summon the city watch or the army if no one knows we were ever there,” Fen said, his voice returning to normal the longer he spoke.
“The place in question is called Utopia—a lavish, invite-only villa on the north side along the coastline with some very impressive security gates. We’re talking ten-foot-tall stone walls that circle the building and gardens.
There were two gates—one for servants and one for guests.
Both are metal and just as tall as the walls. Both gates are heavily guarded.”
“You sneak a peek?” Lirion inquired
“Not as much as I would have liked, but aside from the city watch and the army, Count Pierres has his own impressive security force keeping a close eye on everyone who enters and leaves. In addition, you have a large complement of workers preparing food and serving drinks, as well as musicians performing on any of the three stages within the place. Not to mention all the people servicing the clients. That’s a lot of eyes to notice people who don’t belong there.
With this job, the fewer people trying to get inside and get out, the better. ”
“With what we know, I think our best option is for me to go in as entertainment,” Lirion stated.
This wasn’t just about his need to get his hands on his sister and see her to safety.
The difficulty of getting in and out of this place was through the roof.
If one of them was caught, it wouldn’t be a simple thing of being stuffed in jail for a few days or getting flogged.
No. Getting caught could very well be a death sentence, and there wasn’t going to be any procedure resembling a trial.
He couldn’t ask any of these people whom he’d started to see as good friends to take such a risk for him and his sister.
“What?” Fenric snapped, causing nearly everyone to jolt in surprise. “Alone? Are you crazy?”
Lirion lifted a brow at his tone. How could he be against this idea?
Lirion was the best choice to retrieve his sister quietly, plus it meant Fenric wouldn’t be placed in harm’s way.
He had thought Fenric would be on board with this idea, but the man was sounding anything but.
He started to reply, but Belstrom chimed in first.
“His proposal makes the most logical sense. Lirion is both a bard and an incubus. His ruse would not only be believable, but with his innate skills, he would be able to deftly navigate the exclusive club without arousing suspicion.”
There. Lirion couldn’t have said it better himself.
Fen’s mouth opened and closed twice, but not a single sound came out.
Instead, he slumped against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and a scowl set firmly on his handsome face.
Regardless of the logic of the move, Fen clearly wasn’t happy.
And as much as Lirion wanted to pursue that interesting tidbit, now was not the time.
“That being said, it would be wise to send Fen inside as well,” Rain stated. “While he doesn’t have Lirion’s skills of seduction and obfuscation, Fen is still a sneaky motherfucker. He can get around without being noticed and help in locating Aria.”
Fen’s scowl lightened, and he grunted in agreement.