Page 17 of Brutal Fae King
“Bruamin is the most loyal of his servants—he won’t say a word,” one of the guards says. “That’s probably why he tells him.”
“Oh. I see,” I reply.
“But the door can always be summoned again,” a guard suggests suddenly. “If there is a witch in there, then she’sprobably the one who gave him the prophecy to begin with. You may be able to talk to her again about this.”
“Wait,” I murmur. “You would do this?”
The guards look between each other. The one who leads speaks up.
“We can’t,” he says. “The king is ruthless—if we help you, then it’ll be our necks.”
I bow my head.
“I wouldn’t have you all risking being killed,” I say. “Thanks for all your help, though.”
“Of course,” the same guard says. “You already know where the door is. We can’t help that. But luckily, you don’t know the spell to summon the door.”
He pulls out a piece of paper and holds it aloft.
“The one written on this piece of paper here. Good thing you don’t know it.”
With that, he simply releases the piece of paper. It flutters to the floor outside of my cell.
“If you knew that,” he continues, “then you’d be able to come and go, seeing the witch whenever you pleased. That would be bad.”
I chuckle.
“Yes, it would be a disaster!” I laugh, reaching out and taking it.
“Well,” the guard continues, “we ought to get back to our duties before the king notices we’re gone.”
They all nod and then turn to walk away.
“Thank you!” I call to their turned backs.
A few of them look around and wave at me, but they walk out quickly. I hide the precious piece of paper in my cleavage, the discomfort drowned out by the spreading warmth of knowing that I have friends willing to help me for the first time in my life.
Chapter 6 - Vicmar
“Sire,” a war counselor says. “The attack has landed against the Naga-occupied territories in Northern Murbyn Bridge.”
“And the result?” I ask
“It worked as expected; the Naga forces have been wiped out. There are, of course, stragglers and survivors, but they have fallen back,” the war chieftain says. “Effectively, there are no longer any Naga in Murbyn Bridge.”
I suck in a deep breath.
Now, the important question.
“And our forces?”
“It… also worked as anticipated, in the sense that it has destroyed many ofourforces too,” he says. “The Naga suspected nothing because our soldiers didn’t move, and so they were entirely unsuspecting for our magical assault.”
“Stop obfuscating,” I bark. “How many didwelose?”
“Half the squadron, Sire,” he replies. “About fifteen men.”
I close my eyes as the war council murmurs worriedly. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly.
