“Whether my decision was a mistake or not, we have yet to find out,” Arthur acknowledged with an agreeing nod before sitting delicately in his high-backed chair. “But unless that day comes, we shall put this whole argument to the side; there is no need to worry about what might be.”
Red was stunned at the new coolness that had crept back into her mentor’s tone as he brushed away her worries without another thought. She had never planned on starting an argument, but she had never imagined it being resolved so quickly.
“You’re just dropping this?”
“You mistake my moving on as forgiveness for your insubordination. But to answer your question, yes. I am dropping this little blip, and I wholeheartedly plan to forget it ever happened. Partly because I know that your mouth will always produce some snarky little comment, but mainly because I have more pressing issues to worry about.” Arthur Welin sighed, massaging his temples to relieve even the smallest amount of stress that never stopped building between them. “One that I need you to deal with.”
Red noted the tiredness in her mentor’s words, but she made no move to comfort him after what had been said and the fact that their conversation was far from being over. She wanted nothing more than to prove that she was right, but she held onto her poise and kept her argument to herself to keep from cutting the already thin wire that she was walking on with her mentor.
“What do you need me to do?” she inquired in a low voice.
“There is a group of rebels that have dared to cross into our southern borders,” Arthur grumbled with closed eyes as he continued to massage his forehead. “They are causing some disturbances with the younger trainees posted there, and I don’t need rumors to spread that we cannot protect our own lands.”
“You want me to take them out?” Red questioned tightly. She had no quarrel with the rebels; she even wished them well when their chaos entwined with her own. But even the smallest disturbances were not taken lightly by Arthur, especially when it came to his stolen lands.
“Not all of them,” Arthur Welin corrected, “just their leader. Their work is quite excellent when you look at the finer details. But that does not permit them to stay on my lands. I just need you to teach them a lesson about intruding on our territory. Taking out their current figure of power should do the trick.”
“As you wish,” Red stated with a dramatic bow, not bothering to hide the disdain behind it.
“And Red?” Arthur added with one last look at his student. “Keep it clean. I’d hate to attract any more Baragori to these forests.”
With a final bow toward her mentor, Red turned on her heel. Her cape swung in a low arc around her body, making her exit as dramatic as her entrance. The waiting butler quickly opened the door, and brought it to a clicking close, her cloak almost catching in the frame with a final wave of crimson before she disappeared down the hall.
Chapter 12
Red climbed through the dense underbrush of the woods entrapping the Kingdom Rogue territory. Her dark tunic blended between the filtered shadows—her cloak left behind in a neat pile on her bed. Her hair was tied in a tight braid, every strand twisted back to keep from getting in her way.
Behind her trailed small groups of archers, swordsmen, and trainees that still needed to be broken in. Red sighed as she looked back on her company, every trainee sticking out like a sore thumb in the afternoon light falling through the holes in the canopy.
After spending an uneventful morning searching almost every inch of their borders, Red halted the group at their final destination on the southern edge of their hidden lands.
At their final stop, the archers quickly scrambled up the trees. The swordsmen took their places behind thick bushes and boulders. And the trainees scrambled for any hiding spot not already taken, some falling to the ground in a panic to be out of sight.
Red’s ears cringed at the scratching of arrowheads against the tree branches and blades across the leaf strewn dirt. The sound of every rustling leaf and shifted branch echoed through Red’s ears.
Red pulled herself into the natural shadows of the woods, her inner darkness always pulling her toward the best hiding places. She tried to reel in every ounce of that power, but she had yet to mend the break in the leash she usually held it on. She cursed the shadows around her, wishing they would not tease the ones within her.
With a deep breath to cool the black flames flickering under her skin, Red signaled for the archers to follow her into the cover of the canopy. The swordsmen circled after her, leaving the trainees to fend for themselves as they blindly followed Red past the edge of Kingdom Rogue territory, into the unclaimed lands of Perancis.
~~~
A Kingdom Rogue arrow was shot out of the sky by a burst of onyx fire, the weapon barely missing its mark in the chest of the rebel leader. The rebels screamed in time to the Kingdom Rogue battle cry. Neither group was entirely sure of what they were supposed to do after the failed assassination attempt.
Chaos spread through the small rebel camp like the plague. Women scrambled to protect the few children in their ranks. Men grabbed anything that could pass as a weapon. No one was safe in the thrall of screams and clashing weapons.
Robyn Thorn fought his way through the mob, dodging around fluttering skirts as the women fled to the safety of the woods. His sword was unsheathed and grasped in his umber brown hands the moment his body was free of the bustle.
Robyn’s charcoal black hair was cropped short in anticipation for a fight. His crystal blue eyes simmered with rage as he watched his people abandon their camp. His tunic of iron chainmail clinched against his broad shoulders as he ran to reach the front lines of the fighting.
Ready to launch the attack against his old comrades, Robyn charged into the fray, only to be felled by a small figure huddled against the ground.
“Get up!” Robyn Thorn screamed as he reached out toward the child-like bundle. But his hand barely brushed against the figure before it shot backwards with teeth bared.
Robyn scrambled back as well, separating himself and Red with his broadsword. He almost laughed at the petrified look on his old friend’s face, but he knew better than to let even his weakest shields down.
Red swallowed hard, her face pale and clammy. She slowly rose into a crouch, eyeing the deadly sword with a barely suppressed glare. Her hands slid across her torso, twisting to reach for the daggers placed at her sides. Without breaking eye contact, she gave a devilish smile.
“Such a shame those rebels got away,” she laughed. “Arthur will be very disappointed in our failure.”
Another wicked grin danced along her features, her eyes sparkling like jewels in the patchy light. She pivoted her boots in the dirt, leaving her back exposed to Robyn Thorn’s waiting sword. Red paused for the slightest second before she stood, flipping her daggers in her hands.
Red cast one more devilish look over her shoulder before leaping into the fray. The moment her feet hit the ground, she was running, daggers flying from her hands with deadly accuracy.
Robyn almost choked when he saw one of her blades pierce the side of a Kingdom Rogue after managing a small cut in one of the rebel’s arms. He watched Red dance around the chaos, receiving nothing more than a few scratches and sideways blows, the smile never leaving her wickedly beautiful face.
Red continued the fighting until everyone around her was panting at the effort to even watch her move through the frenzy. Her head whipped around to catch Robyn’s stare one last time before making a shrill whistle, signaling to retreat into the protection of the woods.
Robyn Thorn sounded for his own company to retreat as he watched many of the Kingdom Rogues throw their final deadly blows. Bodies littered the ground, but he would not risk any more lives in fetching them until darkness fell over the forest.
~~~
Red did not bat an eye as Arthur Welin slammed his hand against his desk for the third time since their conversation had started. She found his anger unsurprising the moment she had walked
into his office with the failure of not killing Robyn Thorn dangling on the taut line between them.
“I am sorry that I failed you,” Red said. No touch of remorse filled her deadpan tone. She bowed low before the desk with a flip of her cape. “It pains me to disappoint you.”
Indeed, Red was in pain from the few cuts and jabs she had received. But her every emotion sat stone cold inside her sore body.
“I don’t care that you’re sorry,” Arthur bit out with a raging fire lighting up his eyes. “Being sorry is useless to me!”
“We can search our surrounding borders agai—”
“There is no need. You have already wasted my time and resources,” Arthur replied, curtly cutting her off. “Now I have important meetings to attend with the street lords and prostitutes as you so kindly like to put it. You may leave.”
“Of course,” Red returned stiffly with a final bow before the desk. She let the door slam shut behind her as she exited Arthur Welin’s office, the sound clanging through the manor’s quiet halls.
~~~
The servant shied away from Red’s glare as she opened her bedroom door, the time well before dawn. Red had already endured a restless night tossing and turning, her mind never able to leave the memory of the afternoon’s events. The unsolicited visit, however, had not helped to brighten her already dim mood.
The servant reached to pass Red a folded note with a trembling hand. The small woman’s body was angled toward the open hall as if she were ready to escape at any moment. The second the letter brushed against Red’s fingertips, the woman’s hand quickly fell away as she fled into the empty hall without a backwards glance.
Red sighed as she reached for the letter that had fluttered to the floor in the wake of the skittish servant. She frowned down at the little note before moving to light the lamp at her bedside table. With the flick of a match, the speck of light hit the oil, basking Red’s tiny room in flickering tangerine light.
Red rubbed at the dark circles forming around her eyes. She unfolded the piece of parchment, smoothing out the wrinkles until she could focus on the rushed scribbles scrawled across the parchment.
The street lords are placing their
bids on you in two weeks.
Do not disappoint.
Red’s exhaustion escaped her body as she read Arthur’s words. She memorized every word the second time she read the note. She crumpled it in her fist and dropped it in her lamp before she even made it through the third reading.
The flames ate at the paper like they were devouring a feast. The blue of the fire set Red’s eyes ablaze. She seethed at the words imprinted across her mind. The anger that flooded every vein made the words into scorching red brands that overtook her vision.
Her fingers tingled as the shadows sparked and curled around her hands. Strands of liquid ash and charcoal flames twined together in intricate threads along Red’s arms.
Red tried to calm her racing heart, but every breath was suffocated by thick smoke. The burning coughs that escaped Red’s throat snapped her back into the confines of her room. Onyx flames retreated back into the shadows of the room, the magic soaking back into Red’s skin.
Red raked her hands through her hair, pulling at the strands as she coughed the cursed soot out of her lungs. “I will not be made the fool in these games. They cannot shut me up that easily.” Red looked into the blue of the flames, a new spark igniting in her mind, letting her anger spread like a wildfire.
~~~
The young girl ran up to Robyn Thorn, her mud splattered skirts fluttering around her ankles. Her plump cheeks were stained cherry red. Her dark chocolate eyes were bright in the gleam of the candlelight.
“You have a visitor,” the girl stammered out between rushed breaths. “He requested an immediate audience with you.”
Robyn’s shoulders hunched forward, his stiff joints creaking at the first sign of movement in hours. He let out a strained sigh, scribbling his last few comments on the documents before him. His quill splashed dots of ink across the page as he dropped it back into its inkwell.
He turned toward the girl, barely suppressed annoyance lining his tired frown. “Who in their right mind would be seeking an audience with me at this hour?”
“You’re still working at this hour,” the girl commented as she tried to see the documents hidden behind his broad shoulders. When she saw that Robyn was watching her, she jolted back. The girl strained her back, forcing her spine stick-straight as if she were wearing the world's most constricting corset.
She tried to play off her curiosity as she added, “He said it was urgent.”
“If it’s urgent, then it will still be urgent in the morning,” Robyn Thorn huffed as he cracked his knuckles, turning back to his late-night reports. He shuffled the papers around, forgetting which document he was supposed to focus on next.
“I was told to bring you to him,” the girl stated as she returned to stand next to Robyn’s desk, barely trying to hide the movement of her roaming eyes over every piece of parchment. She whipped her head back to him, failing to be discreet as she realized she had been staring at the scribbled words for too long again. Her dark eyes focused on Robyn’s bored face. “And that is exactly what I will do.”
Robyn almost laughed at the pure determination in the child’s voice, but he knew that if he did not entertain her wishes, his night would extend even further into the oncoming dawn.
“Fine, take me to our mysterious guest,” he sighed, gesturing for the girl to lead the way. He groaned as he stood from the old wood chair, his muscles straining as he finally stretched them out.
The child gave an approving nod before ushering him through the underground passages that made up the rebel compound. As the last remnants of the giant Liath moles, the network of tunnels could easily fit a whale. It had been the perfect place to house the rebels.
Dozens of Liath mole colonies had lived peacefully underneath Cathal for eons. But the five continental kingdoms had been threatened by their presence. Most of the entrances to the hidden tunnels had been destroyed when the species had been wiped out.
It had been a miracle that the first commander of the rebels had taken such good care of the tunnels that had remained underneath his property. Without the protection the tunnels provided, the rebellion would not have been able to expand.
The girl led Robyn Thorn along the winding tunnels and musty dirt paths, never faltering in her light-footed journey. She tossed a glowing faerie orb in her hands, the bright white light bouncing along with her cheerful steps.
They made their way to one of the small bedrooms lying within a dirt encrusted hall exactly like the rest. The girl stopped before a small wooden door. Nothing was special about the room, but the girl’s confidence was set. “He said that he wanted to only meet with you once I brought you here.”
“I’m starting to think this ‘He’ is nothing more than a sick prank planned out by some bored children,” Robyn grunted under his breath. The girl shot him an annoyed glance that told him otherwise, so he wisely shut up. However, she pushed the door open a hair, sighing in relief when she could see the visitor had not left.
She turned back toward Robyn, giving him a small smile. “You might want to bow,” she whispered to him before shoving him into the room. The girl giggled evilly as the rebel leader stumbled into the room.
Robyn was about to shout at the girl and her horrific manners, but the door closed in his face before any curses could break free. With an exasperated breath, he turned to the interior of the room. His shock left him paralyzed before he could even greet the less than welcome strangers situated amid the cramped living quarters.
Robyn Thorn dropped into a low bow, kneeling before Prince Sampson of Airaldan just as the prince turned toward him in greeting. “I am greatly sorry for your wait, Your Highness,” Robyn stammered. He cursed the girl for not giving him any warning as to who he was meeting. His rumpled, dirty clothes practically shouted how unprepared he was for the myster
ious rendezvous. “How can I be of service to you?”
“Please,” Sampson laughed out nervously, signaling for Robyn to rise. “There is no need for formalities tonight.” He shuffled his hands around awkwardly, as if he was also not completely ready to talk to Robyn.
Robyn Thorn stood from his crouch, still amazed by the presence of royalty in the midst of the rebellion. He eyed the two guards carefully, but their bored eyes showed no interest in him as they watched their prince with trained eyes.
Two lemon colored Tele pixies sat atop each soldier of one of the guards, their iridescent wings heaving with their bodies as they tried to catch their breaths. These pixies were known for their ability to transport themselves and other beings between points in space, but the toll it took on their little bodies was immense. Robyn made a mental note to try to recruit more to help with quicker movements and surprise attacks.
“How can I be of service to you, uhh, prince?”
“This is quite the operation you have going on down here,” Sampson commented, ignoring Robyn’s question entirely. He nodded in approval. “I must say, despite some obvious setbacks, the work you are accomplishing here is truly inspiring. I have avidly listened for the news of your attacks against Perancis’s and Weznik’s armies.”
“Both armies are formidable opponents. They fight without mercy. Setbacks are just a part of leading such a movement,” Robyn shot back with as much harshness as he dared to employ against the future ruler. “We might not have every luxury at our fingertips, but we manage.”
Sampson raised a curious eyebrow at the quiet insult, but he made no notion as to whether the comment had offended him. “And how much of this are you managing exactly?” he asked with a wave of his hands around the room as if it encompassed the entire rebel compound.
“We all share our responsibilities toward the cause. Some more than others, but—”
“Every job is important,” the prince interjected with a nod. “I understand those little bits of importance. But I am asking you specifically.”
Cloak of Darkness (The Destroyer-Blessed Saga Book 1) Page 19