Page 43 of I Destroyed the Elf Prince's Harem

“So…there’s a minor complication with the caravan tomorrow,” Nylian began in a tone that made me wish he wouldn’t continue. This so-called complication was going to be a real pain in the ass.

“I don’t want to know.”

“You have to know. We?—”

“There she is!”

The deep roar cut through the din of the enormous room, and everyone turned to stare at the huge hairy man pointing at our table. Of course he was pointing at our table. Behind him were six other large, muscular and armed men, all glaring in our direction. Or, more accurately, at Adeline.

“Shit!” The thief reached across the table, grabbed a handful of my shirt, and pulled me in until my forehead slammed into hers. “Protect Jasper for me!”

In the next blink of an eye, she was running toward the kitchen at the back of the room. With amazing dexterity, she wove between people and even mounted a table and hopped across them to cut through the crowd.

The tavern erupted into chaos with people jumping up, shoving, shouting, and throwing punches willy-nilly while the seven men tried to shove their way through to chase after a fleet-footed Adeline. After being stymied in a knot of flesh in the center of the room, some grew brains and ran for the front door, thinking to circle the building to the rear.

“We need to get out of here before the City Watch is called!” Nylian shouted over the ruckus. I nodded. The governor had made a point of saying that I had to keep a low profile until I got out of town. Getting caught up in a brawl would not help that effort.

Jasper threw himself across the table, seizing both of our arms. “Wait! You have to help my sister! There are too many of them. She’s going to get hurt.”

Nylian’s gaze slid to mine, and he didn’t look thrilled at the prospect. It was as if he were silently asking, Do I really have to?

“Please,” I pleaded. “I can take Jasper to the inn. We’ll stay out of trouble.”

That got me an epic eye roll, but he agreed and disappeared into the insane crowd of people. I snagged Jasper’s bony arm through his robes and tugged him along behind me, attempting to use my larger frame to push my way through and protect him as best I could. It was only when we were out in the cooling evening air that I could draw in a deep breath of relief.

“Glad we’re out of there,” I said as we started down the sidewalk.

Jasper flashed me a crooked grin, but his face was pale, and his eyes were wide. “Yeah. That was crazy.”

“Do you know why those guys were after your sister?”

The would-be wizard’s eyes darted to the ground as his fingers played with the chain attached to his ever-present grimoire. “I have a feeling…she was…cheating at cards again,” he mumbled, so I could barely hear him. His head popped up, and his expression was fierce. “But it’s not her fault. She’s an amazing fighter. The best mercenary in the business. But most people don’t like hiring women mercenaries. Some of them complain she’s too short. It’s not any easier when she has to drag along a useless failure of a wizard on her jobs.”

Jasper trailing along behind Adeline as she went from town to town searching for work couldn’t be easy on either of them. I couldn’t argue with Jasper about Adeline’s skills. We’d run into a few relatively minor annoyances while on the road to Riverhold, and she’d always been the first one into the fray, hacking away at each attacker. She’d more than earned her money.

“Do you mind if I ask…where are your parents?” I asked, hating to be nosy, but at the same time… What the fuck? Adeline appeared to be in her early twenties and was more than capable of taking care of herself, but Jasper was small, thin, undernourished, and couldn’t be more than fifteen. Maybe even only thirteen. This boy needed to be in school somewhere, or at least apprenticing under some tradesperson. Not wandering the road with his big sister.

“Orc attack,” he replied in a low voice.

My chest tightened, and I swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry.”

“Addie and I are from a tiny farming village just south of Gushan. It was called Dornwich. Addie left home when I was eight. She was sixteen, and Dad was trying to marry her off to the blacksmith’s son. She didn’t want to stay in the village and be a farmer or the wife of a blacksmith. A few years later, two ships crossed the waters from Basden, filled with orcs. They burned the village and killed everyone during the night. Our house was closest to the woods. Mom sneaked me out a window, and I hid in the forest for days, too scared to come out. Addie was in Gushan when news of the attack reached them. She hurried back and found me. I’ve been traveling with her ever since.”

“You went to Gushan with her?”

Jasper nodded as he stepped around a lamplighter going about his nightly business, lighting the oil lanterns that dotted the street as well as replacing the wooden torches where needed. The sky was growing darker as the sun sank in the west, but the street filled with various shops and homes was taking on a warm, cozy glow.

“I did. She even raised enough money for me to study at the Institute for a couple of years.” The brightness that rose in him fizzled out, and his head drooped. “But then there was the incident, and we had to leave Gushan.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. All the interesting people have ‘incidents’ in their past. It’s the boring people who are incident free. Who wants a boring, incident-free life?”

“Exactly!” Jasper rebounded like a super-bounce ball. “Traveling with Addie is always an adventure!”

There was no doubt in my mind about that.

We reached the corner to turn down the last block to the inn, and we stopped dead in our tracks. Addie raced past us as fast as she could move while four behemoths brandishing swords above their heads chased after her, bellowing curses. Well, four was fewer than the original seven in the tavern. Either she’d lost the other three or they were chasing Nylian, whom I did not see. Maybe they’d split up?

“Come on! We have to help her!” Jasper ran after the horde, and I barely caught his arm to stop him.

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