Page 88 of Trapped to Tame
Priest’s eyes narrowed on the soldier. ‘If you hear nothing, what are your orders then?’
‘We're to wait until mid-winter. If no one comes, the First Scholar ordered us to kill the fae whelps and return to Kitore.’
‘Nixus, that fucking prick,’ Drax snarled.
‘How many soldiers are here?’
‘Twelve.’
‘Twelve?’ Fie asked. ‘That can’t be right. There should be a hundred and sixty-seven children. How could so few men have brought them all here?’
Priest asked the question.
‘There were many more of us in the beginning, but an illness killed over fifty.’
‘And the children?’
‘None of them caught it.’
‘How have you kept the children here with so few of you?’ Priest asked.
‘There are some thirty priests here as well and …’
‘And what? You will speak!’
‘And the children are fed herbs in their food to keep them docile.’
Fie had heard enough. He nodded to Drax who tore his knife across the man's throat and threw him down the stairs to join his friend.
‘Ten left,’ he growled.
Five stood. ‘We kill them all. The priests as well if they give us trouble.’
‘Four will be walking around. The others will be in the guard room,’ Drax said, peering out into the corridor. ‘All is clear.’
‘We take the ones on patrol first. Eve with Priest. Drax with me.’
They walked out into the hall, Priest and Eve going right and he and Drax turning left.
‘You should have kept the female with you,’ Drax murmured, but Fie shook his head.
‘Perhaps he'll be able to get through to her before she needs to open a portal. Perhaps then, he won't have to ...’
Drax nodded. ‘Aye, perhaps.’
They exited the hall and found themselves on a high, open-air walkway. Stone arches overlooked the main square below and, as they heard more footsteps, he and Drax realized that another two soldiers were walking around the top of the cloister. Hiding behind a couple of the thick columns that made up the archways, they waited for them to come closer.
Fie looked down into the square itself and his heart leapt as he saw many children, some playing, others sitting. They were there. They were alive.
‘Thank the gods,’ he whispered, leaning his forehead on the cold stone, and closing his eyes in relief for a heartbeat.
And then he darted out of his hiding place, slitting a guard’s throat, watching Drax run another through with his sword. They put the bodies out of sight behind the columns.
‘Eight more to go. Let's leave the other two to Priest and Eve and find the guard room. We'll take care of them quickly enough if they’re anything like these two useless cunts.’
Drax nodded and they left the cloister, walking through to another winding hall. They strode around a corner and found a priest, his eyes widening as soon as he saw them. Before he could yell for help, Fie had leapt forward and swung his sword, cleaving the man's head from his shoulders. Blood spurted out from his neck as he fell to his knees and his head rolled down the corridor, bumping into the wall.
‘Noticeable,’ Drax said, observing the mess, and Fie grimaced.
