Page 103 of Of Nine So Bold

My skin crawled at the scorn beneath his polite veneer.

“We would have the assistance of your scholar,” Casimir said with a nod to Ignatius.

The duke paused for a moment. “I see. In that case, my people will, of course, accompany him. To aid him in representing the interests of Erenelle.”

Casimir smiled. “We would be honored by their presence.”

If smiles were swords, both these men would be drawing blood.

Ignatius motioned to the stones where I could feel the gateway’s magic. “This way.”

With my friends, I started in the direction he’d indicated. At the duke’s nod, several of his henchmen did the same.

But Norbert clearly wasn’t willing to wait. Before we made it more than a few yards, he shoved past the other giants, glaring. “No, enough with this fucking around. Are you going to get these things off us or not?”

Coming to a stop with the others, I started to frown at the obnoxious giant. But then I caught sight of Ignatius turning toward me. A bolt of anxiety shot through my veins like lightning. Quickly, I buried the nascent expression.

Such displays weren’t the training of the Order. A scholar was somber. Still. They allowed the world to pass before them, observed and catalogued.

Nothing more.

“We have every intention of assisting you,” Casimir replied calmly to the giant.

Norbert stuck his wrist out in silent demand that the vampire get on with it.

Casimir smiled but didn’t move. The expression was neutral. Utterly unfazed. It could be read any number of different ways, none of which included the vampire king bowing to what anyone else commanded.

Gods, I envied him that control.

“But before we get to that,” the vampire continued, “I do have several questions for your scholar.”

Norbert took a step closer. “No, you free me. Now.”

Casimir’s brow arched in amusement, as if a toddler had just stomped their foot and demanded a cookie. He turned to Ignatius as if Norbert didn’t exist. “One of my associates tells me you once expressed an issue with those your people wouldlabeldwarves. I would hear from your own mouth what your intentions are if I release you.”

Norbert gaped, shocked the vampire was ignoring him. But after a few seconds, he seemed to conclude he couldn’t actuallyforceCasimir to obey. Not without another trouncing like he’d received in the corridor—to say nothing of risking that we’d never free him at all.

At the vampire’s words, Ignatius glanced my way, one eyebrow rising.

Gods, I wished I could hold his gaze. But I was a coward. I looked away.

“Your associate speaks the truth,” Ignatius replied. “Once, I believed how someone was born mattered. That dwarves, by virtue of being smaller than the rest of our kind, must have other deficits.”

Clay bristled while a choked snarl left Ozias. The princess put a hand to the bearded man’s arm and he stilled.

“I think differently now.” Ignatius bowed his head slightly to Casimir, a sign of respect but not so deep as to indicate fealty. “Your citizens are safe with me.”

My eyes darted to my friends. Were they believing this? Should I?Differentlycould mean anything.

Safeseemed straightforward enough.

But was I willing to entrust my friends’ lives to that?

Or Gwyneira’s?

“Ignatius helped me,” Niko said quietly. “He protected me from people who… had other ideas.”

He didn’t quite look at Norbert when he spoke, but Clay clearly read between the lines. “Well, shit. I didn’t know Norbert was bright enough to have ideas.”

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