Page 54 of Caress of Fire
He was there. Lifeless and bloated, with his throat slashed cleanly and lying in a pool of his own blood, Ignio Marula’s pale eyes were even paler under the cloud of death.
Fedryc lowered his dragon blade, his guts twisting in angry knots. The thug was dead, there was nothing to be done about it.
“You got off easy,” Fedryc spat his words at the corpse. “I would have made you suffer way more than that.”
I had lots and lots of questions for you. You’re lucky I never got my hands on you.
But there it was. Ignio Marula was dead and Fedryc was a lot further away from his goal of unearthing the traitor in his house. The thug had been a tool for someone else’s means all along.
But who? Who knew?
Fedryc turned away from the corpse of Ignio Marula. He wouldn’t dignify the cadaver with an honorable burial. He could rot and get eaten by the coyotes.
Then Fedryc stopped and stared at the inanimate, limp body of a young woman. He approached carefully, looking and listening intently, but no other people were present. He knelt beside the young woman, then turned her over on the sand. The mane of dark, matted hair moved to reveal a soft set of features, pointed ears and pale skin.
“Rela!”
Fedryc slid his hand to the girl’s neck and was relieved to feel a weak heartbeat. She wasn’t dead, but she was seriously injured. He pushed the hair out of her face to get a better look at her. A wicked bruise covered most of her left cheekbone, and a deep cut ran the length of her temple to the right side. She had been beaten, and not by a light hand. His guts twisted in anger and his fists closed so tightly they dug into his palms until it hurt.
“Don’t give up, Rela.” He picked her up, his heart squeezing at how little she weighed. Barely more than a child. “You’re not dying on me.”
With the girl cradled against his chest, he walked back to Nyra, who looked at him with surprise in her jewel-blue eyes. He settled into the saddle with Rela in his arms as Nyra sent more questions down the link than his brain could handle.
“This is the girl who was with Devan when I came for Ignio Marula in the capital,” Fedryc answered the first clear question Nyra shot at him. “There’s no one else here. It wasn’t a trap, it was a message. Death is all the Knat-Kanassis can send to me.”
Nyra squinted her eyes, casting suspicious glances all around. The dragoness was wholly uninterested in Delradon and Draekon affairs, but not immune to the suffering of an innocent girl. She wanted to punish whoever had hurt Rela.
Then a wave of suspicion came down the link to him.
“Yes, you are right.” He pursed his lips and exhaled slowly in a controlled manner to help calm the beast’s feelings. “Someone warned Ignio Marula that Marielle wasn’t coming. This poor girl is nothing but a means to an end for him.”
Nyra blew a long breath and smoke rose from her nostrils as Fedryc and the beast shared their suspicions and understood that the traitor, the one who had also murdered Lord Aymond, was much closer than they thought.
“Let’s get back to Marielle,” Fedryc told Nyra. “I don’t want to leave her alone in the castle with the traitor loose.”
Nyra stretched her neck and a long screech filled with wrath rippled across the desert.
Chapter 18
Fedryc jumped down from Nyra’s back with the still unconscious Rela, then lost no time running toward the door to the castle, ignoring the stunned guards who ran to meet him. He made his way through the maze of hallways of Aalstad castle all the way to the medical room. A Delradon doctor he didn’t know got to his feet as he stepped inside, leaving his patient, one of the guards, unattended. The doctor’s crimson eyes went to the limp woman in his arms, then back to Fedryc’s face.
“My Lord Haal,” the doctor said as he went down on one knee. “It is an honor to have you here.”
“Get to your feet,” Fedryc growled at the man. “This woman was beaten and left behind in the desert. Do everything you can to save her.”
The doctor nodded, then walked to an examination table and waited expectantly. Fedryc put Rela down with care, and his heart constricted anew when he saw how little she looked on the metal table. The girl had probably never had a full meal in her life.
If she lived, her suffering would end. He would take her—and any child like her—under his wing and make sure none of them suffered unjustly in Aalstad ever again.
“What is your name?” Fedryc looked at the middle-aged man with sharp assessment.
“I am Dr. Ylco,” the doctor answered with a curt nod, but his eyes were already on the girl with a professional intensity. As he pushed her hair away, his face twisted with worry and anger. “You said the girl was beaten, my Lord?”
The doctor then lifted sharp eyes to Fedryc, full of a suspicion that made him growl in response.
“She is the mixed blood niece of the man named Ignio Marula,” Fedryc answered, not bothering to hide his displeasure at the implication in his question. “The idiot tried to lure my Draekarra into the desert. His deceptiveness served him well. He’s dead.”
“It’s a good thing, then. Ignio Marula’s reputation runs deep and foul. But this girl wasn’t only beaten.”
