Page 85 of The Soul of the Dragon

A roll of thunder sounded from above, and lightning cracked in the distance. I looked up. “Of course that would get you excited. It would seem you are about nothing but pain.”

“Isaac.” A weak voice spoke my name.

I looked back down to see Kitra’s dark gaze looking up at me. “What’s wrong? Why are you so upset?”

I made a choked sound. Because I wanted to laugh and couldn’t. “Thank the Goddess,” I finally managed.

“One of the imps got me didn’t they?” she asked, forcing herself into a sitting position.

“Don’t get up yet. Give yourself the time you need.”

She frowned at me. “I’ve taken more time than we could afford, haven’t I?” She glanced around. “Where are we?”

“Hidden in the forest just outside the castle.”

Her eyes widened. “Then we have no time to waste. We’ve got to finish this.” She pushed to her feet, her arms and legs visibly shaking as she did.

“You’re not ready.” I tried to pull her back down into my lap, but she surprised me by jerking free.

“I appreciate you are worried about me, but we must go now before it’s too late. The guard will be back soon I’m sure.”

I raised to my feet, stuffing down my reservations and handed her her bow and arrows. If she insisted on going through with this, she still needed some kind of weapon. My knife was still stuffed in my boot, and easily accessible should I need it.

“Do you have a plan for getting into the castle?” I asked.

“There are so many ways in and out. As someone who dedicated her teenage years into sneaking around the place, I probably know it better than even the King.”

I didn’t doubt that for a second. “Okay then, you lead the way. But if you start to look even slightly ill, I’m shutting this down.”

She smirked, and like it or not I was taking that as her tacit agreement. I settled my gear across my back and followed her. We circled the castle until we were on the backside at which point Kitra crouched low and hissed, “Get down.”

“What’s happening?” I bent down to her level.

“The King has increased his security. He’s got people all over the grounds.”

“That’s not surprising.”

“We can’t wait for dark. It will be too late. We’re just going to have to go in between them.”

Together we observed each one as they made their rounds, and it wasn’t long before we memorized their patterns. “As soon as the next one goes by I think we can break for it,” I whispered at her ear.

She nodded. And just in case I pulled my knife free and took the lead. I ignored the widening of her eyes as they fixated on my weapon because we didn’t have time to chat about it.

“Let’s go,” I ordered, running through the open field with my hand firmly wrapped around hers. The dragon tensed inside me, but I ignored him. Whatever he sensed, I’d deal with it when I had to.

“Go there!” Kitra pointed to a small door at the bottom of a nearly hidden staircase. We scrambled to the bottom, but when I tried to turn the knob I found it locked.

“How the hell are we supposed to get in? Is there a key?” I searched for a lock of some sort and found nothing.

She shook her head. “No. It needs magic to open.”

“Then how the hell are we going to get through it?” Was this her big idea of us getting inside? “We have about forty-five seconds before the next guard walks by and I guarantee he won’t miss us down here.”

“We aren’t going through the door. We’re going in there!” She pointed at a very small window that was covered in bars.

“Again. How the hell are we getting in through there?”

She yanked her hand free and shoved me aside. I didn’t actually budge so she had to squeeze by me, but it was a nice try.

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