Page 140 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

Chapter 38

The next evening, the dark stone walls of the prison emerged from behind a hill. The structure stood alone, stark against the snow-covered fields and trees, the only man-made object for miles around, all hard edges and impenetrable walls on a soft plain. It was a beacon of danger and misery, a blight on the otherwise pretty landscape of Ardani.

A heavy snowfall had begun as they’d traveled. As the four of them stopped in a patch of trees a safe distance away, out of sight of any sentries, Crow pulled her cloak close about her and glanced furtively up at Vaara. He was staring hard at the prison’s walls, the corners of his lips turned down.

“Are you ready?” Crow asked.

He nodded solemnly.

Crow turned to Novikke and Aruna. They were both bent over their notebook, which Novikke was writing in. She paused to look up at Crow.

“Are you sure you want us to wait out here?” she asked.

“Yes,” Vaara said, and Novikke gave him a wary look. It wasn’t often that he spoke directly to her. “We’ll signal if we need you. If all goes well, we won’t. We should be able to get in and do away with him without anyone noticing.”

Novikke smirked. “Of course. The Varai way.”

“The smart way,” he corrected her dryly.

“Can I ask you something?” Novikke said.

Crow could see Vaara holding back a sigh as he canted his head in her direction. “Yes?”

“What happens after you kill him? Do you plan to free the rest of the prisoners?”

“Why would I do that?”

She shrugged. “Killing one person won’t make much difference. The prison is still there. It will continue functioning without Alexei. Someone will replace him, and the people in there will keep being mistreated.”

“I couldn’t care less about the other people in there. I was the only one there who wasn’t a criminal. The rest are thieves and rapists and murderers.”

Novikke arched an eyebrow, disapproving. “Then the point of all this is really just revenge?”

Vaara looked like he was going to ignore her at first, but then he paused. His lips thinned. “Alexei is not like the other guards there,” he said. “Crow says he has a darkness in his mind. Have you ever met someone like that? A person with a darkness in their soul that cannot be scrubbed out?”

Her disapproving look faded. She said nothing.

“Sometimes, the only way to deal with that darkness is to kill it,” Vaara said.

He turned to Crow. He hesitated, his expression softening. “Crow—” He paused again, then cupped her face in warm hands and kissed her. “Be careful.”

She blinked at him. Then she pressed her hands over his. “You, too.”

He faded into the darkness. When her eyes adjusted, she could still faintly see the outline of his body, hidden in shadow.

She slid Aruna’s enchanted ring onto her finger and summoned a glamour, and then they started toward the prison.

* * *

The openingthey’d crawled through on their way out would be sealed by now. There was no other way in, unless they wanted to climb the walls or dig under them.

So they had decided that the easiest option would be to walk through the front door.

As they neared the front gate, Vaara separated from her, and she quickly lost track of him in the darkness. She continued down the path alone, back straight and steps sure.

The two guards posted at the iron gate looked up, bored, as she approached. Their faces were illuminated by flickering torchlight. Crow recognized them both from the last time she’d been at the prison.

The taller one gave her a familiar type of lingering look that she understood immediately—a look that said he was wishing he could see what she looked like with fewer clothes on. She panicked for an instant before reassuring herself that the glamour was still in place. They only saw Natalio—the blonde that she and Vaara had sent away at the inn.

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