Page 14 of Elven Lies

The cries of agony and torment from inside magnified in the air.

Rebecca tensed, scanning the darkness beyond those open doors, her senses on high alert for any indication of having walked right into an ambush on the enemy’s home turf.

Beside her, Maxwell stiffened as well, his every muscle rigid with wary readiness as a low growl rumbled deep within his chest.

He’d promised not to take action until she gave the word.

The intensifying cries from inside now joined by the muted sizzle and crackle of magic and occasional beeps, blips, and clunks of machinery felt almost like a physical blow bombarding them from inside the building. Rebecca hoped more than ever now that her Head of Security was capable of keeping his word.

From this moment forward, anything could happen, and they had to be ready for it.

It was just the two of them, with no backup team and no contingency plan. If things went south—which was still a very real possibility—they’d also have to get out of here all on their own, just the two of them.

As long as Maxwell could handle himself until then.

The hairs on the back of Rebecca’s neck prickled with static from such concentrated magic billowing through the open doors. She almost summoned an orb of crackling crimson battle magic in response.

But movement through the darkness in front of them made her pause.

Someone was coming.

It wasn’t Harkennr.

An especially squat, hardily built dwarf with a bald head and an enormous brass ring through his nose that made him looklike a tiny two-legged bull stepped out of the prison’s entryway, partially illuminating himself beneath the mid-morning light.

His wide eyes—of the strangest turquoise and glowing from within—flickered across both their faces before he dipped his head in greeting.

Not an attack, then. Just an odd one-dwarf welcoming party, apparently.

The dwarf lifted one bushy eyebrow, clearly waiting for something.

So Rebecca offered him Harkennr’s first figurine of dark stone—the token of his open invitation.

A cruel smirk flickered across the dwarf’s lips before he plucked the figurine from Rebecca’s outstretched hand, just like she knew he would. Then he pocketed it, looked Maxwell up and down with an unexpected level of apathy and unconcern, but he spoke only to Rebecca.

“Welcome. He’s been expecting you.”

Ew. How creepily cliche and so very like Harkennr.

The dwarf’s voice was startlingly low and broad, a booming bass completely at odds with his small stature. He nodded, gestured behind him toward the looming darkness inside the prison with a sweep of his arm, then spun around and shuffled back inside.

Thathadto be an invitation to follow. Probably the only one they were likely to get.

Rebecca had expected something like this, though that didn’t lessen the urge to shudder as she and Maxwell stepped through the front doors together.

“Follow me, if you will,” the dwarf boomed without looking back at them. “And do stay close. This place can be a maze.”

As soon as they’d made it over the threshold and two feet inside the prison, the double doors creaked shut behind them with a resounding bang, plunging the entryway into strikingdarkness after the comparatively bright daylight outside. The preternaturally long echo made their arrival feel that much more final.

There was no going back now. Not before this was finished and she and Harkennr had the little chat he so desperately wanted.

The low lights within the prison’s entryway flickered occasionally, casting the dwarf’s shadow long and thick across the dusty, chipped concrete floor. Rebecca and Maxwell followed their guide side by side, and she was especially glad for his decision not to take up his usual bodyguard position three feet behind her and to the left.

They were in this together now, and she might very well need him at her side for whatever came next. Even, she dared to admit, as her equal.

The slightly louder screams of agony and tormented wails from within the bowels of the prison ricocheted toward them from every direction through the semi-darkness. Then Maxwell surprised her when he leaned toward her and murmured, “How did you know to bring those figurines with you as our ticket in?”

She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She didn’t want to risk him seeing on her face the uncertainty she now felt, and she wasn’t sure she could successfully hide it.

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