Page 87 of Two Thousand Blades

However, Xiang didn’t show a moment of doubt. “Do you want to keep trying to follow it?”

He hesitated for only a second before turning toward the stairs. “No. Maybe it was an old scent, carried over from when Yichen was still captive. I don’t think it will lead us to the sword or the queen. Let’s continue in the direction we were heading.”

Kai didn’t believe the excuse he gave Xiang. The scent was too new for it to be some months-old lingering odor. And it didn’t smell exclusively like Yichen. At the very least, he would have expected there to be some hint of Rei mixed in as well, considering how close they were. No, this was something different.

Xiang said nothing as he led the way back down the stairs that ended in a very plain hallway. It was the first one they’d encountered that didn’t have the ostentatious decorations. The floors had changed from marble to plain dark wood. The candelabras on the walls were even more sparsely placed and only a couple of the candles flickered, casting the corridor in sickly thin light. A hall for servants and even they weren’t much cared for by the royals.

“Servants’ quarters and kitchen,” Xiang muttered low under his breath. The sword wouldn’t be here.

“I think Rei and Yichen are likely to have better luck than us,” Kai whispered. That pair had been sent to the opposite end of the castle to inspect the royal apartments. At this hour, the queen was likely sleeping, and Kai wouldn’t put it past her to be sleeping with his sword.

They had been selected to check the area where Rei thought they might find a depository for collected treasures. Unfortunately, the elf’s guess was wrong. As far as he could tell, they’d located only bedchambers and a few empty parlors. Nothing to show they’d ever held a sword.

Despite the chill that filled the castle, a trickle of sweat slipped along the nape of Kai’s neck. Dawn was still several hours away, but they needed to get moving. While the sun’s rays had no effect on Xiang, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of his clan. They needed to be away from the fae’s domain and back at their own clan home before the sun crept above the horizon.

But it wasn’t just the threat of the sun that was weighing on Kai’s mind. The longer they remained within the castle, the higher their chances were of being discovered. They needed to escape soon to have any hope of surviving.

He opened his mouth to tell Xiang they needed to head to another part of the castle when the warm glow of candlelight bobbed and danced on the walls, growing brighter as it approached. Someone was coming toward their corridor. Kai’s heart leaped into his throat and they both darted away to hide within a shadowy niche.

“Lousy servants,” a gravelly voice grumbled. “Can’t find a one to fetch a bite for a midnight snack.” A creature waddled across the hall, holding aloft a single candlestick. Kai squinted. He was not an elf.

Standing less than a meter tall, the man had extraordinarily long feet and long spindly arms that would have allowed his fingers to drag along the ground if he’d not held his arms up. His face resembled melted wax with its thick skin, heavy lines, and sharp, pointy nose. A couple of teeth poked out from the bottom jaw, sneaking past a thin upper lip.

The creature was familiar with the layout of the castle…and he was alone.

“Grab him,” Kai whispered.

Xiang was off like a black shadow before Kai finished speaking. The candle the man was carrying went out, and there was a brief squawk of surprise that was cut off. Kai hurried after him as Xiang hefted him into the nearby empty kitchen and threw him down in front of the dwindling embers of the cooking fire.

The poor figure bared his teeth at Xiang for a heartbeat, but even that fierce expression melted away when he saw Kai join Xiang. Yes, two against one were not good odds.

“Awww,” the little man moaned as he seized two handfuls of his short straw-colored hair and pulled on it. “I knew I should have joined the others and made a run for it while I could. There was nothing good coming from staying. Nothing good at all.”

“Lower your voice,” Xiang hissed. He pressed the point of a blade into the creature’s throat, stopping the bob of his Adam’s apple as he attempted to swallow.

He lifted his trembling hands in surrender and lowered himself to the floor, shrinking away from the knife. “There’s nobody around to hear me, even if I shouted for help,” he cried.

“What are you talking about?” Kai demanded.

“Most of the servants and even the nobles have run off. The queen’s gone mad. Completely insane. Obsessed with controlling that dragon of hers. She’s given up on all her plans to destroy the humans and take over their realm. All she thinks about night and day is how to break the dragon, but everybody knows no one can control a dragon that doesn’t wanna be controlled.”

Kai might have needed to bite his cheek to hold in his smile about that. At least this creature understood dragons. Far better than his queen. No one could control him.

Well, maybe he’d happily hand the reins over to his sexy mate, but that was a different, sexier kind of control and not what the creature here was talking about.

“That would explain why we’ve seen so few people since we entered the castle,” Xiang mumbled, pulling Kai’s wandering thoughts to their current problem.

“Between the death of the king and exiling her favorite son, nobody is happy right now. Throw in the mess with the dragon and most of the Silver Court has run off to either hide in the human realm or gone to our own home realm.” The man’s face crumbled up even more, so that it was hard to even pick out his coal-black eyes among the wrinkles and folds of skin. “Knew I should have gone. Nothing worthwhile in the human realm except a good block of cheese and those flaky little pastries with the fruit inside. You ever had one of those?” He perked up briefly as his mind turned to food to the point of even waving an excited hand at Kai.

“We’re not interested in food,” Xiang growled, and the man cringed away to lie like a lump on the floor.

“Where’s the sword?” Kai inquired.

“Sword?” their new friend repeated.

“The blue crystal sword the queen uses to control the dragon. The sword that never leaves her fucking side,” Kai snarled. What calm amusement he felt toward their temporary captive evaporated. They were so fucking close, and he knew this whiny weird creature could point them in the correct direction.

“It’s with her. Like you said, it’s always with her. Half of us have been wishing she’d sleep with the damn thing and cut her own head off when she rolls over.” The informant scrubbed a hand over his face and released a sound that was half moan and half sob. “Shoulda left. Just shoulda left.”

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