Page 37 of Feral Guardian
He slaps a piece of parchment down on the table and slides it toward me.
My heart stops.
Lily’s likeness stares back at me with the Seterian words, “Bounty, four thousand gold, dead.”
John laughs. “You’re stunned! I was, too. But a big man like you packing all that muscle, surely you could help us take down one little girl?”
I sit back in my chair and push the bounty away. “I have no interest in such things.”
Movement in my periphery catches my eye and I see Duncan leaning over to look at our table. His eyes dart from the bounty page up to my face and go wide. He turns back to his card game and my blood whooshes through my ears.
“I’ll take another boat,” I say and rise from the table.
“Oh, don’t be like this! You’re a monster! You could probably handle this little thing without issue,” John says, holding the bounty up and pointing at Lily’s portrait. “I’ll give you five percent.”
I snatch the page from his hand and crumple it before stuffing it in my pocket. “I. Have. No. Interest.”
Duncan whispers something to Pierre beside us.
I need to get her out of here.Now.
I turn away without another word to John, who’s complaining wildly about me taking his only bounty poster. I march to the stairs with measured steps. I don’t want to hurry. I don’t want to show that fear is gripping the reins of my mind.
Fourthousandmarks. Who has that kind of currency?
Why?
No, I cannot allow my mind to be consumed with useless thoughts. I must protect her. I need to get her out of Yelesna immediately and far away from Seter.
We could sneak onto a boat, but we would be discovered eventually. Being thrown overboard into the monster-ridden ice sea doesn’t sound like the best plan to keep my princess safe. I could always killthe crew and take over the ship, but the princess doesn’t know how to sail. Gods, and two people can’t bring a whole ship into port.
Land. We’ll have to travel by land.
It’s a two month journey, but we can do it. The princess is strong. She can make this trip. She will. I’ll help her.
The hackles rise on the back of my neck as I smell a man following me up the stairs. It’s Duncan.
Horse’s cock.
How could he play cards with my princess—know her—and still want to harm her?
I stop at the top of the stairs and the following footsteps stop just out of sight. “Show your face, you cowardly dog.”
“I’m not here to hurt you, or her,” Duncan says as he peeks around the corner.
My hand falls to the hilt of my axe. “Tell me why I shouldn’t cut you down right now.”
He raises his hands and ascends the steps. “Several people saw her, several more saw that poster. If you want to get out, there’s a housekeeper’s staircase. It’s narrow, you’ll struggle to fit, but it’ll take you to the back of house, where the laundry is done.”
“Where?” I ask.
“If you promise not to cut my head off, I’ll show you,” he says as he stops on the third-to-last step.
I remove my hand from my axe and step aside. Duncan takes the rest of the steps up and turns toward our room.
“How do you know this?” I ask him.
“I frequent the establishment and sometimes need to escape my wife’s gaze,” he says with a sheepish glance over his shoulder.
