Chapter 30 #3
“My grandfather has forbidden attacking Darrow. For some ludicrous reason, he enjoys your husband’s rebellious nature and still thinks he can convert him to our side.” She sighed dramatically. “I’m not allowed to hurt him unless he attacks me first.”
At a guess, the king would check her memories if Darrow ended up dead.
The waves of anger coming through our mating bond were chilling. I needed to calm the situation before it escalated. “Then please go away because I think his limited restraint is almost at its end.”
Evrenn studied the man at my side, and her eye twitched.
“Hmm, yes. I see that.” She looked at me.
“I suggest you take everything you want now because once you’re gone, I’m going to use it as a home for my pet snakes.
Feel free to leave Tadeus, though. I would love to take him down to the dungeon and try some fun new torture techniques on him. ”
“Snakes?” I asked, taken aback.
We only had three varieties in Zadrya. One was small and very venomous, but only lived in the Oarwar Desert.
The second was a constrictor that favored swamp areas and could consume people whole.
For the third, the seboa could grow up to four feet long and was completely harmless as long as no one stepped on it.
Anyone who did that lost a body part—such as a hand, foot, finger, or nose.
The appendage would vanish with a flick of the reptile’s forked tongue.
We had no idea how that worked, but assumed magic was involved.
Darrow glanced at me. “Evrenn has an affinity for dangerous reptiles, the way you do for plants, and keeps them as pets. She relates to cold-blooded creatures far better than warm-blooded ones. There are many species of snakes on Karganoth compared to here.”
I fought a shiver. Frogs gave me the most anxiety, but I still preferred to keep my distance from snakes.
Seboas with pitch-black scales wandered into my garden now and then.
They never stayed long since my carnivorous plants ate all the rodents, so there weren’t any food sources for them, and my tractvines usually threatened them.
“For now, I’ve let my new wife use your bedroom to house half of them,” Ulmar said to me with a smirk. Then, he looked at Rynn. “The rest of them are in yours.”
He’d probably hoped we’d sneak into our rooms to get more of our things and run into them. The bastard. His audacity and cruelty knew no bounds.
My little cousin lifted her chin. “If that’s what makes you happy, you have a really sad life, Ulmar.”
“That’s Lord Ulmar to you,” he said, expression hardening.
I gave him a saccharine smile. “As the new Lord of Therress, don’t you have more important things to do than hang around a garden?”
Squeak! Squawk! Squook!
I nearly jumped out of my skin. The weird chicken I’d released in Tradain about two weeks ago came leaping along the walkway alongside the castle. Though the purple and green creature was in her smaller form, she sent the dark elves scattering.
“Not that thing again!” one of the soldiers cried. “How does it always know how to find us?”
Squeak! Squawk! Squook!
“I’m going to kill that bird,” Ulmar muttered, putting a hand out toward the hen. He shook his arm and grew irate when nothing happened. Had he just tried to cause the chicken pain with his powers?
Darrow leaned toward me, though he kept his gaze on the commotion before us. “Is that the bird you told me about?”
“Yes.”
“It certainly knows how to make an entrance,” he muttered.
Several of the dark elves had disappeared beyond our view, but the chicken was pecking at the faces of the others one after another as if she had to spread her painful love to as many of them as possible.
Thin trails of blood ran down their faces while Ulmar and Evrenn shouted orders, trying to keep their frantic soldiers from fleeing.
Many of them tried to grab the bird, but she kept slipping through their grasp due to her oiliness.
One managed to capture a feather, and out came a loud SQUA-OOR that I also remembered. Putting an arm out, I gestured the others back. “It’s about to get really ugly.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jax said with a pleased grin.
We exchanged knowing looks over our shared experience with the bird.
Ulmar’s eyes rounded in horror when the chicken grew to ten times its previous size and began taking chunks from the dark elves. “Shit. What is that thing?”
“I don’t know.” Evrenn bumped into our ward in her attempt to back away, barely noticing when it shocked her. “But there must be a way to kill it.”
“I’d advise you handle that trouble before it eats half your army,” Darrow said dryly.
Squeak! Squawk! Squook!
The chicken’s cries grew fainter as she chased her targets toward the animal pens at the rear of the keep.
I could no longer see the hen or her prey.
About ten dark elves had managed to stay with their lord and lady outside my garden entryway, many of them glaring at us like the strange hen’s arrival was our fault.
Jax and I could take partial credit, but they didn’t know that.
Who knew she’d make it the two-hour walk up to Ivory Castle?
“Our soldiers will manage that creature.” Ulmar regained his composure, putting his usual sneer back in place, and took his wife’s arm. “Come, my dear. We’re due in Porrine shortly. Little Zelthor certainly won’t torture himself, now will he?”
“Certainly not,” she agreed, giving us a frigid smile.
Dare and I stiffened at the mention of Princess Lillian and Lord Jacthor’s son. Dear nameless ones. I could only hope they weren’t actually letting Ulmar hurt him, though his comment implied the heir was likely still alive. We’d have to alert the royals as soon as we returned.
After one final snide look with his remaining good eye, my cousin and the dark elves left.
My hands shook with anger, not helped by the mating bond, which was running with even greater fury from the opposite end.
I hesitated only a moment before taking Darrow’s hand and pressing it to my face.
He was barely stopping himself from going after the retreating group.
“You were right to hold back,” I said, forcing him to look at me.
“We will find another way to take them down, but it can’t be here and now.
The chicken was a great distraction, but we can’t guarantee it won’t turn on us.
If Ulmar isn’t able to hurt it with his powers, I don’t want to risk drawing its attention.
You probably can’t do anything to it, either. ”
He rested his forehead against mine, breathing slowly to calm himself. They wanted us to take Tadeus, which I find suspicious.
Unfortunately, I’d thought something similar. If I open a portal to somewhere easy, it won’t take long to regenerate my strength, so I can get us back to Veronna. I just don’t know where to send him.
He lifted his head. Would your sister accept him? He can do little harm in that village, and I doubt Ulmar or the dark elves would expect him to go to Alavaar.
Yes! I should have thought of that myself. I’ll do it now. We still have a half-hour of work to do before we finish up here, so that should be enough time to regain the little power I’ll lose.
Good, he said, then turned his gaze to Tadeus. “How is your brother blackmailing you?”
My cousin’s face turned ashen. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Is he using your mother?” I asked as I followed Darrow’s line of reasoning because nothing else made sense.
Tadeus winced, hesitating a moment before responding. “I’m sorry, Aella, but he swore I’d never see her again if I didn’t do exactly what he wanted. When she suddenly disappeared a few days ago, I confronted him, and he said she’s in the dungeon.”
“How long have Karganoth’s soldiers really been here at the castle?” His previous story might not be true at all.
“Since two days after you left me the note in the garden,” he admitted.
I rubbed my temple, feeling a headache forming. “What happens if we leave you here?”
“Please, don’t. Ulmar will kill my mother and me—he swore it.”
Darrow’s voice entered my mind. I received a report from one of my contacts this morning that his mother arrived in Zerech last night, seeking refuge. Karganoth hasn’t conquered much of Raumandia yet, so she must have fled there, where it’s safer.
So she’s not in danger at the moment, I surmised.
It appears that way.
My eyes burned. I wanted to cry, tired of people I trusted and cared about letting me down.
Tadeus may have been trying to protect his mother, but how could we be sure?
Maybe his brother turned him against us.
There was no way to verify his story right now, and I didn’t want to bring him to Veronna—not after finding out this.
I’d portal him to my sister and send her a sebeska later with a full explanation, since my cousin couldn’t be relied upon to tell the truth.
Darrow reached out his hand and used his power to hold Tadeus in place. “Jax, search him.”
Terror filled my cousin’s eyes as the elf began running his hand over him. Then, Darrow’s friend stopped when he pulled something from Tadeus’ pocket. It was a red sphere stone.
“I wonder what this does,” Jax pondered, rubbing it between his fingers.
Loden took the gem and studied it. “I am sensing that it helps bypass wards.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I just get feelings sometimes that I can’t explain.”
That wasn’t only a feeling but another ability. My mind raced at the implications, realizing there was even more to Loden than he might know. “Do you have any idea who your father might be?”
Sorrow filled his eyes. “No. My mother was with him for just one night, so she only got his first name. He had long since returned to Alavaar by the time she realized she was pregnant. I tried looking for him, and so did Dare.” He glanced at my husband.
“But we didn’t have enough information to do much good, so I’ll likely never know. ”
Every word he spoke was filled with the pain of a child who’d never met his father.
From what little I’d heard, his mother struggled raising him alone.
If not for Darrow, he would have had it even worse.
I cursed our current location and circumstances because the poor man looked like he desperately needed a hug after telling me his story.
Still, he’d just given us another clue to his heritage. “That second ability you have—even if it’s weaker—still says your father must have come from a strong druid family lineage. You wouldn’t have it otherwise.”
“Really?” he asked, surprise in his gaze.
I nodded. “It narrows the number of families we’d need to check, so there’s a chance we could find the right one.”
A flicker of hope showed in his eyes. “When things are calmer, we can do that.”
It spoke volumes about the kind of man he was that he still put everything else first.
“I promise I’ll help you,” I said, giving him a solemn look.
“Thank you.” His voice was so full of gratitude that it humbled me.
Darrow’s gaze fell on me with a similar feeling flowing through our bond. Loden was a close friend he’d known since childhood, when he could still feel love, and I imagined it frustrated him that he couldn’t do more to search for the half-druid’s father.
“Okay, we’re sending Tadeus to Fionbar,” I announced, clasping my hands. Like it or not, we needed to get back to our other problems.
“No, you can’t make me go there!” my cousin screamed, still unable to move.
I strode to the ring, not wanting to hear his pleas any longer than necessary.
We’d throw him into the ring, and he’d have no choice except to hurry past the dying land to the village and my sister.
I could only hope she didn’t get too upset over my surprise gift until she received my explanation.
We had too many other things to do to escort him there ourselves.