Page 116 of I Ran Away to Evil 2
I followed him down the hallway and into my room. The inn was silent, as even the nightlife of the city had settled down in the dark hours before dawn.
Slake jumped onto my bed. “Commander General. I had my party members search for the Blackfog spies that attacked you in Servalt, and I believe we’ve found something.”
“Go on.” I sat beside the grimalcat, frowning. It wasn’t that I was ambivalent about being attacked by a band of Blackfog spies, but I wasn’t in such a rush to hear about this in the dead of night when I could be cuddling my bard.
I didn’t mention this to the grimalcat, of course.
“The spies had an order to permanently kill most of the Dark Horde, as well as fifty other people from around Valaria; Their Royal Highness Rowen, Regent Havork, Grand Duchess Calisto, Countess Julia, and the entire Oakley family, to name just a few.” Slake frowned. “None of the spies were carrying molten ash vane on their person, but that means nothing.”
The grimalcat touched a paw down on the bed and a piece of paper appeared. It was a copy of the list of names. “For your records.”
“I see.” The evidence was incriminating, though it left many questions unanswered. The rash of assassination attempts across the continent could be the work of the Blackfog spies … but if so, why had they been caught without any molten ash vane when the Assassin’s Guild master had a bag full of it? “You aresure—”
“Lina is a good girl.” Slake’s tail whipped back and forth menacingly. “She might unalive people for a living, but being an assassin is a perfectly respectable career option. Her recent misadventures are a direct result of thatfiend, Duke Lector. When I get my claws on that elf …”
“He should already be behind bars, no?” I raised an eyebrow. “Duke Wyldon would surely have already arrested him by now?”
Slake bared his sharp teeth and flexed his claws in the blanket. “While we were uncovering Duke Lector’s schemes with the guild, the elf made an appearance at the castle and announced his intentions to visit the Silver Star Festival in the Hollow next week. He left the birthday celebration before Duke Wyldon received Jack’s report, and no one has seen him since.”
That wasn’t ideal—forDuke Lector. Anyone sane would choose the full weight of the law over an irate grimalcat. There was an old nursery rhyme my mother used to sing when I was a very young pup that I still remembered clearly.
If you ever bring back, a winged horned cat,
Then you lived to escape your ill fate.
The grimalcat favors the young and the bold
But chooses the death it will sate.
Its eyes are as bright as the stars in the sky,
Its heart is as dark as the night.
Beware what you promise and keep to your word
For a grimalcat’s strength is by spite.
So never betray you a grimalcat’s trust
And never a lie pass your tongue.
The creature will hunt you until the blue moon,
And the damage returned or undone.
There were so few grimalcats, but everyone knew they were not to be trifled with. Guild Master Lina would’ve been a fool not to listen to Slake.
And so would I.
“Then I’ll let you know if I see the duke. In the meantime, we still don’t have all the pieces.” I yawned and lay back on the bed. “Is there a reason we couldn’t discuss this in the morning?”
“Minstrel Brownie is a suspect in the case, and not a member of the investigation team.” Slake stretched and let out a tiny yawn.
“And you are?”
“Of course.” Slake straightened and sauntered over to the vacant spot beside my head. I considered getting up and properly pulling the quilt over me, but the cool night air was refreshing. The nights were getting warmer with summer right around the corner. The grimalcat circled once, twice, thrice, and then lay in a ball. He said, “I offered to go when Their Royal Highness brought up sending an envoy to the investigation.”
“Really?” That would explain why we’d never run into the Peldeep representative … We had and just hadn’t realized it.
