Page 94 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
“Yes.”
“How many days ago?”
“Roughly three days ago. But I can’t be sure.” He shudders, as if reliving a difficult memory. “You lose track of time down here, especially when they bring you to the green chamber.
A detail I don’t particularly care. I just want to find this friend and make my girl happy.
“Father, bless us. Armayne…” The orc rushes to help a prisoner on the wall.
“I thought I was going to die,” the other guy gasps, tears brimming in his eyes.
“The others might still be in the green room. Gather the survivors at the entrance. We’ll escape together,” the orc says to his friend, his voice rough with feeling. “Be careful.”
I don’t mind him saving his brethren. My mind is too busy picturing the look on Nel’s face when she sees her friend. If I’m lucky, she’ll thank me with another kiss.
That’s not sincere,the noble direwolf beast in me chides.
Honestly, I don’t need a kiss. I just want to remove those dark circles around her eyes and make her smile again.
“Come on, it’s just a few more cells down this hall,” the orc says, carefully avoiding a dead jailer lying on the floor. This one perished a while ago, but the body is still well preserved. It’s as if the rats and scavengers refuse to touch his remains.
Something like remorse flashes through the prisoner’s face at the sight of the corpse. “Akaloth has been offering these rebels Asterdust in exchange for their loyalty. It changes everything from our physical strength to our emotions.”
This guy sure loves to hear himself talk. I let him continue as long as he is of use to me. We reach a red door at the end of the passage. The prisoner uses all his strength to force it open. His desperation indicates the girl might be inside.
“Step aside,” I tell him. I rip the slate right out of its hinges with a single pull.
My eyes adjust immediately to the dimly lit war room. Two fully stacked shelves line the far wall, a brown couch on the left side, a desk and a wooden stool at the centre, quills and curled parchments littering the floor. The chamber is full of everything but the girl we’re looking for.
“She’s not here,” the prisoner mutters in despair.
No shit. What a fucking waste of time…
“Mother above, Blaire…” he chokes in the silence.
I ignore him and move to the table. A paper crane rests beside a dried up ink bottle. It looks exactly like the duck Nel once made to bargain with me.
At least I know that the girl had been here. Time to question the fuckers upstairs. I snatch a map on the wall and walk out of the room without words. I don’t wait for the prisoner to follow me. The journey back to the entrance is brief and silent.
Just before I enter the courtyard again, a hand lands on my shoulder, pulling me back.
“We don’t stand a chance once they took the Asterdust. Did you bring enough soldiers for this rescue?” the prisoner asks, his eyes full of uncertainty.
He would have been a crippled orc without an arm had he attempted this act a century ago—hell, a month ago. But I’ma reformed man now, trying to be better for my Nel. I merely shrug him off and move forward.
Silence falls as we walk into the courtyard. The prisoner is eyeing my work on the keep’s walls and floor. “What happened here?”
My lack of self-control is what happened. I should have left some to interrogate.
“Wait…I did leave one…” I mutter to myself.
But that scrawny coward who leaks himself must be hiding now. They all are. I supposed I can start a fire, burn down the entire keep to flush them out like rats—
“Wait… you did this?” the prisoner suddenly asks, his voice still hoarse, like sandpaper over rough wood. “You said you were trying to rescue Blaire.”
“I am.”
Just as I say it, an orkan assassin appear in front of me, striking me head on. It’s a beautiful, well-coordinated attack. But what the poor orc doesn’t know is that I anticipated it.
