Page 57 of Conflicted Fate
“Then we’d better make it count.” Kiel shrugged. “I don’t know a better way. Do you?”
“Not really.” I frowned. “We should steal it.”
“What?”
“The shard he’s already working on. Steal it before he can finish it. Then, maybe we can find a way to break it. Free however many shards he’s already worked into it.”
Kiel grinned. “Now, there’s an idea. Okay, I’ll create a diversion. You go for the blade or whatever it is at the moment. Just watch out for the Master Blacksmith. I’m sure he’s been ordered to defend it at all costs.”
“I will,” I said.
He started to stand.
“Wait,” I said, pushing him back against the warm bricks of the furnace we were hiding behind, pressing my body to his, my lips sealing his shut as I stole a moment.
“What was that for?” he asked breathlessly when I released him.
“A reminder of why you have to make it out of here,” I said as his eyes traversed my body, lingering on my breasts. He’d seen them a thousand times, but that didn’t seem to matter. His mouth always twitched with a smile each time he knew I caught him staring.
Men.
“Now, go!” I urged, brushing his face gently with one hand.
“Be safe. Be smart,” he growled, smashing his mouth against mine quickly, hotly, and then he was gone, the touch of his lips a ghostly caress that faded as he rose with a roar and began to smash stuff.
It was amazing. We were in the heart of enemy territory on a mission to save the world from the tyranny of one of the evilest men I’d ever met. Trained guards and assassins were all around us, each one longing to plunge a blade through our hearts.
Yet, despiteallthat danger and the utmost seriousness of our mission, Kiel was easily having the time of his life. Whatwas itwith men and their enjoyment of breaking things? He grinned lustily as his hammer swung to and fro, bashing pipes, shattering bricks, blowing open holes in containers that spilled hot coals. He shoved merrily on one giant bucket with the end of his hammer and molten iron spilled out across the floor.
Giant clouds of steam filled the air as he broke pipe after pipe, the machines in the background screeching in protest as they slowed, the loss of pressure shutting everything down.
“Boom!” Kiel roared happily as he swung the mighty hammer in a full arc, the entire side of a minor forge coming apart in a spray of brick fragments.
“Goodbye!” He brought the hammer overhead onto a worktable, smashing it in half with one blow, sending everything on it flying.
“See you later!” Spinning on one foot, he blasted a huge bin across the room to break open on the wall.
“Going deep!” The hammer came up underhand to crash into a portable cart, sending it hurtling through the air.
Pay attention, Kiel. Don’t get yourself killed just because you’re having fun breaking things!
The alarm was ringing now, and guards were running toward Kiel, who was singing a deep ballad about a cow and a barmaid, although he had substituted Lycaonus’ name in for the maid.
“Next time,Iget to go smashy-smashy,” I muttered under my breath as I crept through the chaos, heading for the one thing Kiel hadn’t yet broken.
The heart of the Grand Forge and the Master Blacksmith himself. The man, if he truly was alive, stood still at the opening of the heated furnace as he’d before. Unmoving, unnaturally so.
Sneaking up behind him, I picked up a nearby hammer and swung it at his right knee, aiming to cripple him before I even went for the blade.
The hammer nearly whistled through the air with the effort I put into my swing. There should have been no way he escaped unscathed.
CLANG.
At the last second, the blacksmith’s arm came down, blocking my blow with the shaft of his hammer.
Astonished at his speed, I wasn’t ready when he twisted his hammer, locked it around mine, and pulled with incredible strength. My makeshift weapon was pulled from my grip and launched across the room, disappearing into a cloud of steam.
Instead of waiting around, I struck out, kicking hard for theotherknee. The blacksmith was fast, but he wasn’t prepared for that, and something shattered as I connected. I lashed out withbothfeet a second time, and the figure tumbled away in the same direction as my lost hammer.
