Chapter 41
Darrow
Porrine was impenetrable. For the last two days, I’d balanced my time between searching for my contacts, sending a sebeska to Karganoth to spy on the king, and testing the Zadrya capital’s security. None of my efforts turned up anything valuable.
My grandfather seemed set on staying at his well-fortified palace, according to the guards’ conversations around there, as if King Sagan was aware I was targeting him. He wasn’t even planning to visit the lands his army recently conquered. For a prideful dark elf, that set my alarm bells ringing.
The only one of my spies I’d tracked down after Ori had been hiding and hadn’t seen anything useful.
I was growing impatient to learn more about the enemy’s plans.
We couldn’t counteract what we didn’t know, and I was tired of being away from my wife.
With us fully bonded, any separation that ran more than two days intensified my longing for her.
I just needed some actionable information I could take back to the prince.
The last border section of Porrine I hadn’t tried was on the southwest end within the Sobaryan Mountains. I crouched one hundred feet away from the invisible line, shivering from the cold wind that blew at this altitude. Mid-autumn always brought chilly temperatures near the peaks.
My senses prickled as a patrol approached.
I couldn’t cross the border without setting off the wards.
They were weaker since they had to cover a large area, but they would alert any nearby guards to intruders.
I didn’t want them to know I was here. At least, not before I got the information I wanted and could quickly leave.
I’d teleported farther down the mountain and climbed the rest of the way up until I found a natural path that the patrols had made.
Then, I hid and waited. That was forty-five minutes ago.
The two male dark elves chatted with each other as they came closer, though I couldn’t make out what they said.
I crouched behind a large boulder, waiting for them.
Time passed slowly. My knees and back ached from staying still for too long, and one of my hands was filthy from grabbing dirt to run through my fingers repeatedly.
My targets had better be worth the trouble.
As they rounded a bend, their faces came into view.
I smiled when I recognized one of them. The nameless ones had just made my job much easier, and I thanked them for it.
When they came close enough to the boulder, I grabbed the one I didn’t know with my powers and slammed his head into the hard surface.
Not enough to kill, but he would sleep for a few hours.
An enraged expression came over the other dark elf.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with short black hair.
It only took one look at him to know he’d tear someone apart if they pushed him.
He was handsome but also fierce. I’d known him since I was four years old, because his highborn mother watched my sister and me during the winter months spent in Karganoth when our own mother was busy.
We also trained together for the trials, though he stopped at level nine.
I stood. “Hello, Malachi.”
My long-time friend ran his gaze around the mountainside, checking for witnesses, before striding forward to embrace me. He might be a menace to his enemies, but he had a softer heart than most would guess. Few were aware of that fact.
“I was wondering when you’d find me. Took long enough,” he said, pulling back. “Do you know how much trouble I had to get into for them to assign me here?”
I laughed. “Something tells me you had fun doing it.”
“Well.” He shrugged. “Maybe a little. I kept challenging the border guards and beating them up until they decided to force me to do the job.”
Malachi was likely the closest match to me for fighting skills if we kept magic out of the equation. We’d wrestled so many times as children that we learned from each other, improving ourselves faster than others because we didn’t hold punches.
“It’s good to see you,” I said, meaning it. I hadn’t been able to reach him since the beginning of the year due to the king assigning him duties in southern Karganoth.
He clasped my shoulder. “I’ve missed you as well. Sorry about the invasion and not warning you. Those of us who had any ties to you whatsoever were closely watched during the last few months leading up to our coming here. The best I could do was make myself available afterward.”
“I’m relieved my wife didn’t kill you at sea.” That had been my only worry about her destroying so many ships, but I couldn’t very well ask her to check the names onboard first—if that had even been possible. Protecting Zadrya took priority.
He lifted his brows. “So that half-druid lady is your wife? I heard the rumors, but I never know which ones are true or not when it comes to you.”
“She is my wife and my mate,” I said. Aside from my cousin, Bogdan, Malachi was the next dark elf I trusted the most. He had saved me from trouble and getting caught more times than I could count.
My friend studied my face. “Are you happy with her?”
The growing ache in my chest intensified after too many days apart from her.
“Yes.” Matters weren’t perfect between Aella and me, but I wouldn’t trade her for anyone else. We’d work out our issues with time.
“Good.” He nodded. “Now, if you cared about my happiness, you’d put in a good word with your sister.”
I barked out a laugh. “We’ve been over this too many times. You’re welcome to her…if she’ll ever accept you.”
Malachi had made the grave mistake of bullying her while we were growing up.
He didn’t physically harm her since I wouldn’t have allowed that, but he’d played many jokes on her and said things that hurt her feelings.
That was during a period when I wasn’t good to Faina either, because I’d just lost my ability to love or feel deep emotions.
I’d let my friend do it and even joined him. I wasn’t proud of that now.
By the time he grew out of it and realized he was deeply attracted to her, it was too late.
She tended to throw knives the moment she saw him.
He had the ability to reverse the trajectory of any objects that sailed his way and did it without thought, so that didn’t go well at first, but now he’d even let blades hit him.
Malachi would do anything to change Faina’s mind about him. I suspected they’d be happy together if she gave him a chance—and we weren’t on opposing sides of a war. That certainly made things complicated, as I’d learned the hard way, but not impossible.
My friend sighed. “Maybe eventually she’ll stop hating me.
” He paused to glance around us to make sure no one was nearby.
“You should know they have the king’s grandson down in the prison.
They tortured him for the first week, but they’ve left him alone since then.
I pointed out that he’d make good leverage if he didn’t die. ”
I appreciated that Malachi never needed prompting to tell me exactly what I needed to know. “What about Kaius? I went to the prison and saw they freed him, but I haven’t been able to find out anything about what became of him.”
“You’re not going to like what they’re planning.” He shook his head. “They’re going to marry him to one of the women in the Karganoth royal family, which has only a few possibilities right now.”
I swore under my breath. “The only ones with enough standing for the king would be my mother and sister. Bogdan’s mother, Xannia, has been dead for years, and his sister recently married Aella’s cousin. I have more distant relatives, but none high enough to become a queen.”
“Exactly, which is why Faina should marry me quickly to remove her from the list,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets. “I’d take any risk for her.”
A disturbing thought occurred to me. “Is that why they have been increasing their forces on Radoumar? Are they trying to get to her?”
My mother had already suffered through two political marriages.
I had no doubt she was fighting tooth and nail in Karganoth to avoid a third.
According to Gretel, the king had confined Zareen to her room since two months before the invasion.
She was basically a prisoner, but there was nothing I could do for her at the moment.
Getting into the royal palace was impossible unless I supplicated to my grandfather.
“I’ve been on patrol here for the last week and haven’t been in the meetings since then, but I know they were looking for Faina.
” His gray eyes held deep concern. “Get her away from there because they aren’t likely to stop if they know she’s there.
They’ll use any means necessary to force her into marriage with Kaius, rather than using your mother. ”
The thought of Faina with that traitor had me mentally crushing nearby rocks. As pieces of them flew in different directions, Malachi gave me a concerned look. “Is she still in the city?”
“I don’t know,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “I requested transferring her out of there, but I’ve been moving around too much and told them not to send a sebeska my way in case it brought attention to me.”
With my luck, it would arrive while I was spying on dark elves who weren’t Malachi.
My friend gave me a desperate look. “Protect her, Dare. Don’t let them take her, and I’ll keep finding out everything I can from here.”
“You know I will, but I have a few more questions for you before I go.”
Malachi lifted his brow. “Go ahead.”
“Is there any way for me to enter Porrine right now that won’t trigger the wards?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, but there is supposed to be a big event one week from today with your Uncle Radan and Kaius. I don’t know exactly what they’re planning, but they are pulling some of the soldiers from border patrol to guard the event field where it will take place.
Do whatever it takes to be there because that is your best chance to reach them. ”
I asked him for his patrol times so I could check in with him between now and then. After that, I gave him my final question. “Where do you want me to hit you?”
We both knew the next patrol would be along soon, and he needed to be down with the other dark elf when that happened. I never minded hurting him a little anyway. Malachi needed some bruising now and then to keep him humble.
He sighed and pointed at his temple. “Do it here. My head is so hard that I might wake up too soon if you try anywhere else.”
I chuckled. “I had the same thought.”
With no warning, I took hold of a nearby rock larger than my fist and sent it flying at Malachi. He was out before he hit the ground, though I softened his landing. The dark elf was my friend after all. I could be a little generous and save him from any other injuries.