Page 143 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

“Five help us. There’s no end to them,” Crow whispered.

“He won’t be a problem,” Vaara murmured, drawing his sword again. She saw his shadowy outline move as he turned his head toward her. “If you can walk quietly enough.”

“Are you saying I walk loudly?”

He shrugged. “For a human, you’re quiet.”

“I’m not human.”

“You’re not Varai, either.”

“I can’t really help that.”

“It’s all right. It’s part of your charm.”

The guard at the door was leaning against the wall, and seemed to be counting cracks in the ceiling. Crow recognized him as one of the guards who had been present on the day she’d walked in on Vaara after Alexei had tortured him. Suddenly she didn’t feel so bad about what was about to happen to him.

Vaara let go of her, and as she faded back into view and the guard began to turn in her direction, Vaara’s hand slid over the man’s mouth and his sword sliced through the flesh under his chin. The man struggled for a few seconds, then went limp.

He was a little too good at that. But by this point, Crow was more intrigued than unnerved by it.

Vaara eased the body to the floor. He put a finger to his lips, as if she might not know that they ought to be quiet right outside Alexei’s door. Crow rolled her eyes, drawing her knife. Blood seeped across the flagstones as he searched the man’s clothes and withdrew a small ring of keys. He silently tried them on the door until he found the one that fit.

He gave her another look, making sure she was ready. She nodded. Then, in one swift motion, he turned the key in the lock and swung open the door.

Crow’s eyes darted about the room. It was pristinely clean, dark, windowless… and empty.

She glanced from the bed to the desk to the chair by a bookshelf in the corner. All empty. In the corner was a doorway to a washroom. Vaara, in shadow, crept over and disappeared through the doorway, then came back and dropped his spell and lowered his sword.

“He’s not here?” Crow asked.

Worry crept into his expression. “No.”

“The guard at the inn seemed to believe he would be here.”

“Then he was wrong. What do we do now?”

“I suppose he’s out later than usual today,” Crow said. “That’s all. We just have to go looking for him.”

Vaara scowled.

There was a noise behind them that sounded an awful lot like a gasp. Crow spun toward the door.

A maid with a bucket and mop in hand stood in the hallway, her toes carefully avoiding the growing pool of blood. Her eyes widened when Crow and Vaara looked in her direction. She dropped the bucket to the ground, sloshing water across the floor, and ran the other way.

“Kha hishveh,” Vaara muttered. He grabbed Crow’s arm, covering her with the fade again.

“Forget Alexei,” Crow said as they ran to the door. “We need to get out of here while we still can.”

“No,” he hissed. “You leave. I’m staying until it’s done.”

“Vaara—”

Vaara stopped her and held her by the shoulders. “Don’t deny me this. There is no justice in the world if he doesn’t die for what he did to me.”

“If anything happens to you—”

“If Patros were still walking free, would you be able to live your life in peace?” he asked. “Could you ever be happy, knowing that his deeds had gone unpunished?”

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