Page 91 of Of Blood and Fire
I glanced at her grimly but left without comment, taking the stairs two at a time and running around to my room. The door guard acknowledged me with a salute, his eyes a little wide at the flames flickering across my hand, then opened the door.
I didn’t immediately enter. “Janis? Report.”
She appeared in the doorway and saluted. “Nothing to report, Commander. There has been no entry into the room aside from the guard delivering your items since you both left.”
“Thanks.” I entered, grabbed the receiver, and switched the thing on. After a couple of seconds, a soft bleeping began, and the arrow in the center of the screen shifted, pointing a few degrees to the west.
Relieved, I switched it off to conserve the magic that powered it, tucked it into my coat pocket, and then stripped off my harness, backpack, bow, and knife sheath. Aric would think it suspicious if I was wearing it empty, and I wanted him to do nothing more than see and savor his victory over me before I handed him defeat.
I walked back out and spotted Garran, the Prioress, and half a dozen soldiers striding toward me.
“That didn’t take long,” I said, surprised.
“Four witches for a simple spell does speed things up.” She stopped in front of me. “You must not touch the knife before you confront Aric; doing so will delete the spell and make it visible again. Had we more time... Anyway, you also must ensure the blade is secure in Damon’s flesh. I would suggest aiming for his shoulder or thigh—both are easier targets than an arm and will cause less damage than a gut wound.”
“Unless I hit a main artery and he bleeds out,” I muttered.
“Do not hit an artery,” she advised. “Turn around.”
I did so. She raised my coat and tucked the blade under my belt at the back of my pants.
“And the ring?” I said, turning back around.
She handed it to me. Energy stirred across its stony surface, then faded away. I slid it over my finger and glanced at Garran. “You’re obviously planning to come in after me, but you shouldn’t. Esan needs you alive.”
His smile was coldly determined. “Nothing and no one will stop me, however ill-advised it may be.”
“Garran—”
“Bryn,” he cut in brusquely. “Esan can afford to lose another king more than she can our drakkon queen. I am leading the retrieval team whether you like it or not.”
“And I will be with them,” the Prioress said mildly. “If your mission fails and both you and Damon are killed, then my fury will rain down on Aric so swiftly, he will pray for Vahree to take his soul.”
A tiny piece of me relaxed. Garran was a fine fighter and with six men could no doubt cope with any physical traps that might await—but the Prioress’s presence all but guaranteed survival against any non-physical traps there might be.
“Fine,” I said. “Just make sure you keep far enough back that he doesn’t hear you.”
“None of us are stupid, Bryn.”
“No, but it nevertheless makes me feel better to put it out there.”
We entered the thermae, and my gaze was instantly drawn to Damon’s dusty old boots sitting neatly under the bench, alone and forgotten. I drew in a deeper breath and released it slowly in an effort to ease the rising tide of anxiety, but failed miserably. We made our way around the dividing wall to the section that held the towels, robes, soaps, etcetera, as well as the side door for staff to use. The tunnel entrance lay on the rear wall, and while the light from the room barely lit the entrance, that was enough to reveal it was a reasonable width. Even so, given Damon’s size and weight, it was pretty obvious Aric hadn’t overtaken Damon alone, let alone dragged him through Túxn only knew how many miles of tunnel.
“Any luck, Rishi?” Garran asked.
The burly, middle-aged man nodded. “The weight of three lies to the northwest—two near a large body of water. There is also an odd deadness in the ground to the left side of where they stand that I cannot see past.”
“Another earth witch?” I asked.
“Most likely, given there is little other reason for the particular patch of ground to be sterile when the rest is not. I doubt it’s one of ours, though. Their energy is unusual.”
“‘Unusual’ is one description of Makki’s energy, but it can’t be him. Damon sent his ass back to West Arleeon days ago.”
“I am not familiar with General Makki’s energy,” Rishi said. “But as I said, this energy is not a native one.”
I glanced at Garran. “Do you know if any of his men are missing? Aside from Makki?”
“Those restrained in the main barracks remain, but it’s totally possible Aric had already sent men into the tunnels by the time you and Damon confronted him.”
