Page 45 of The Night Prince 3
Betray his uncle? His king? Or betray his best friend? His true king? The Kindreth answer would have been whatever was more advantageous either in the moment or the long run. Betting against Vex was never advantageous. But Rhalyf had never been a good Kindreth.
Rhalyf swallowed. “I’m sure that will never be asked of me–”
“Could be,” Snaglak pressed. “See Vex soon.”
“I… well… you… what would you and Glom do, Snaglak? I’m sure that Vex could ensure you never lacked for beer or ham. Would you betray Aquilan?” Rhalyf thrust back.
More ass scratching. “No ham in Under Dark and Helgrom have best beer.”
“Oh, well, that settles it then.” Rhalyf threw up his hands. “No ham and bad beer? Definitely sticking with the Sun King! I suppose weightier decisions have been made for less logical reasons.”
Helgrom nodded. “Loyalty is a funny thing. My own people told Vex no and… well, he left us to our fate.”
“What did the Draesiwen not agree to do for him? I’ve never actually heard,” Rhalyf asked.
Helgrom met his gaze evenly. “We wouldn’t take Vex’s side against Sun King Ailduin.”
Rhalyf blinked. “Seriously?”
That had not been on his checklist of reasons.
A nod. “My ancestor told Vex that this fight between them would pass and that he would be glad that we would not strike out at the Sun King.”
“But he did not agree, I take it?” Rhalyf asked.
“He did not. But he didn’t cut my ancestor down then or after. Nor did he have his army do it. He simply left us to our fate when Ailduin fell and everyone was against us,” Helgrom sighed softly. “They scented blood in the water. They knew Vex would not defend us so they took advantage of it. And all was lost.”
“I see.”
And Rhalyf did see. On the one hand, perhaps Vex had appreciated the Draesiwen loyalty to his old friend Ailduin. That was likely why he hadn’t killed them himself. On the other hand, Vex had likely fiddled while the great Draesiwen Kingdom burned.
“We should head in.” Yet Helgrom did not take a step towards the gate. He stared at it almost balefully. “It has been nigh on 100 years since I stepped foot in the Under Dark. The fact that I go there as an ally of another Sun King…”
“Luckily, all you have left is a tavern, Helgrom. There is no kingdom for Vex or your enemies to take,” Rhalyf said gently.
Helgrom squared his shoulders. “Not that it would matter either way. Aligning the Draesiwen with these particular Sun Kings is the right thing to do. Let’s go get Finley.”
Snaglak and Glom followed on his heels with the naki literally nipping at Snaglak’s. Rhalyf drew in a deep breath, raked a hand through his hair and strode purposefully forward.
I’ll drop the glamour before I proclaim who I am. Then Declan and I can perhaps convince Aquilan and the others to leave before we meet Vex and–
He did not get farther than that in his thought process as instead of simply stepping through the rift there was a yanking sensation and the world went all wobbly. He nearly fell smack on his face. He caught himself on a wall just in time and hung on for dear life until the sensation passed. The wall shouldn’t have been there. When he’d looked through the rift it had emptied out on the plain outside of Illithor. But now he was in the midst of buildings.
“By the gods, what was that?” he asked even as his shields snapped on to full power and a fireball ignited in his hand. His senses were already shooting away from him looking for an enemy.
Ah, the power of the Under Dark! Gods, I can feel it!
But it was more than that. It was where he was in the Under Dark. He was inside Illithor. Instead of being deposited on that plain, he was indeed deep inside the fabled capital city of the Kindreth. His heart beat faster as he spun around to see how, why and who had brought him to such a place?
But there was no Night King in sight.
Nor was there anyone else either. Snaglak, Glom, Helgrom, Elasha and Darcassan were nowhere to be seen. Aquilan and Declan were far from him. So far that he didn’t even sense their magical auras.
This is bad. Very, very bad.
He knew how the rifts worked. He had created them himself. Not to go to Illithor obviously, but to leave the Under Dark head to Earth and then the Lieran Plane when he had fled his uncle. So he should have stepped out on the road that led to the city, not in the city itself.
Where in the hells am I?
