Cloak of Darkness (The Destroyer-Blessed Saga Book 1)

by Sara E. Tonissen

  “Like I said,” Sampson confirmed, “I know when to back out of a deal.”

  “Good for you, but you’re not backing out of this deal,” the general announced. He stood and paced in the little space that the closet provided. “I am damn tired of fighting in this war. Good dwarves are dying every day on those rotting fields. It’s time for a change. And if I have to hear one more excuse from Britton’s blubbering general about how his soldiers are still being affected by that damned sleeping spell, I am going to shove my sword so far up his—”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Sampson cut in, stopping Helio from saying anything else. “Are you telling me that you’re willing to commit minor treason to help me try and end this war?” Sampson could barely believe his own words even as he said them.

  “I am protecting the crown to the best of my ability,” Helio retorted with a steady gaze focused on the prince. “It may be nontraditional, but my loyalty is still held to the same principles.”

  General Helio reached his hand out over the candle, the movement from his arm making the flame dance around. Sampson looked out at his outreached palm, yet again amazed by the abrupt turn of events that he knew he would never witness again. The prince reached his own hand out, enveloping the dwarf’s palm in his own. The pair shook on their pact, silently vowing to never tell their queen of their plans.

  “Where do we start?” Sampson asked before they stepped back into the reality of the castle.

  Helio turned to him with a smile that was just short of being diabolical. “Your official training starts tomorrow. I’ll meet you in the barracks with the other soldiers at dawn.” The general reached for the candle, swiping it off the floor before slipping out of the closet and shutting the door on Sampson.

  The prince sat on his bucket in silence, his eyes trying to adjust to the darkness. He was pleased to know that he had not been a fool to help the rebels. But he was terrified of what training with General Helio meant—surely it was not going to be good.

  Chapter 23

  In the events of another sleepless night, Red roamed through the mostly empty halls of the compound. With heavy eyes she watched the light of her stolen faerie orb shimmer with blinding intensity. Her bare feet scraped along the dirt, kicking up loose rocks and buried roots with each sluggish step.

  Red missed having a training ring to practice in when her mind was too awake to let her body rest. She had exhausted every other measure to try to get rid of some of her energy. Her daggers and sword were sharpened to perfection. Every speck of dirt and dried mud had been cleaned from her boots. Her hair had been woven into every possible braid and twist that did not require multiple pins holding it together.

  Herbal teas were useless and without sugar they tasted horrible. An hour of meditation before bed had only allowed her mind to wander further. Red stretched out every kinked and tense muscle in her body, only leaving her more flexible than the night before. Even the medicines that she had swiped from the med bay had done her no good.

  Red could no longer focus during the training sessions with Jezamon, a fact that the mercenary had teased her about until he stopped getting even a smirk as a response. Red had resorted to taking short naps throughout the day, leaving no room for her dreams to form when she was constantly being woken up for one reason or another.

  Red shivered as she felt the light touch of something brush against her ankles. She stretched out her neck as she felt a tug against the soft skin just below her hairline. She lightly swept her hands over her skin, remembering that the ground was home to insects and rodents long before it had been repurposed for people to live in.

  Red found nothing, but she was still unable to shake off the shivers that coursed through her body—something was not right. A whisper of a breath moved across Red’s neck and she turned, faerie orb raised to blind anyone that was stupid enough to sneak up on her, but the hall behind her was empty.

  With a quick breath and the thought that she had finally gone crazy, Red continued her aimless trek through the labyrinth of underground tunnels. She kept turning around to make sure that her fatigued mind was only playing tricks on her. But she could not escape the feeling that she was not alone.

  “Where are you going?” a girlish whisper inquired in Red’s ear, confirming her suspicions.

  Red whirled around to where the sound had come from, but she already knew that she would not see anything. Red decided to turn back toward her room. It was close enough to the coming dawn that it would only be a few hours before she was summoned to the training hall.

  “Why are you awake at this hour?” another voice whispered the question—this time it came from a boy in front of Red.

  “Show yourself!” she demanded, holding the orb as far out in front of herself as her arm could manage. Red knew that her imagination was wicked, but it had never visited during her waking hours.

  “Who do you speak to?”

  “Whoever deems to speak to me.”

  “I told you she was smart,” came a light giggle. Swishes of soft fabric brushed against Red’s legs, but there was still nothing that could be perceived by her deceived senses.

  “She’s pretty too.”

  “He did tell us so,” came a chorus of laughs as invisible hands pulled and tugged at Red’s legs from every direction. She dodged as much as she could, but that did not stop the other hands as they brushed against the skin exposed from her night shirt.

  “Who told you about me? What are you talking about?” Red demanded as she kicked her legs out, managing to catch a few hands as they reached for her. She yelped when the faerie orb was plucked out of her dropped hand—her only weapon stripped from her.

  “Follow us and you’ll see,” someone giggled as the light moved down the hallway. The orb bounced around comically, but the sight was anything but funny to Red.

  “Come back with that!”

  “Come on!” another sweet voice called out, an invisible hand grabbing onto Red’s so she could be pulled through the tunnel. “Follow us!”

  “How am I supposed to follow someone I can’t even see?” Red exclaimed, ready to just let the tricksters leave her behind so she could head back to her room in peace. But going back to her room meant that she had nothing better to do than go back to sleep, an option that Red had not been interested in for several weeks. And she was curious to see where—or who—she was being taken to.

  Red let herself be guided down the winding hallways that had become a true sanctuary to her since she had arrived in the rebel compound months ago. Every time she guessed when the group was going to stop, her stolen faerie orb disappeared down another set of tunnels.

  Red was almost relieved when she saw a figure standing guard outside one of the private chambers. But upon further inspection she grimaced when she realized that Ryker Flori was the guard on call for the night. He looked as annoyed as herself as he watched her stumble down the hallway behind a floating faerie orb.

  Ryker held his oversized spear out to stop the orb from going farther into the tunnels. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, directing his question toward the hidden figure holding onto the orb.

  “We are on a mission!” the creature exclaimed. Red imagined that the boy speaking jumped in the air as she watched the orb bounce around.

  Ryker raised an eyebrow in challenge toward the carrier of the orb. “Did Eliseo say you could all be out here at this hour?”

  “He lets you out at this hour, so why can’t we be here?”

  “This is my job,” Ryker replied coolly. His brows were furrowed in frustration, but the smirk lining his baby-blue lips said that he was entertained by the spectacle.

  “And this is our job, big brother,” a voice close to Red responded giddily. “We have special orders.”

  “From whom?” Ryker Flori and Red asked at the same time. The two could not help but glare at each other despite the fact that they were looking for the same set of answers.

  “From me,” Robyn Thorn stated c
almly as he opened the door to his private chamber. He gave Red a sheepish grin as he saw her standing utterly confused in what they all knew was not an empty hallway.

  As if controlled by one mind, seven young Mienai elves appeared out of thin air together. The group giggled and danced around as they celebrated their mission’s victory. Each little elf was a different pastel color—making up a beautiful spring-themed rainbow. Their glee-filled smiles were contagiously spread to Robyn, but passed over Ryker’s furious stare and Red’s appalled face.

  “It’s almost dawn! Why are you even awake right—”

  “Please,” Robyn interrupted Red, his hand held out to stop her. “The guards have been reporting your nightly wanderings for weeks now. It seems that you have done a great job of scaring my men because no one wants to be near you when there are no witnesses around to see what you might do to them.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her, clearly daring her to say something to fight his claim. “Clearly your men need to be scared if they want to fight in a war,” Red could not help but say, her own eyebrows raised in a silent challenge.

  “We can scare them for you!” one of the little elves shouted. The lavender girl clapped her hands together in excitement—what could only be considered an evil plan forming in her head. Some of her siblings disappeared in excitement.

  “What did I tell you about having them do your dirty work?” Ryker asked Robyn. He rolled his eyes as the rebel leader gave him a sheepish shrug.

  Ryker turned toward the door and began hitting the door frame with the point of his spear. “Listen up you fools! You are all going to go back to your beds”—Ryker Flori took his time to stare down each of his siblings, even the invisible ones—“and no one is going to bother the hardworking guards until the sun is well over our heads.”

  “We were just kidding about scaring them,” the boy holding the faerie orb stated—his ears folded back sadly. He handed the orb back to Red, his small yellow hands barely big enough to even hold onto the sphere of light.

  Ryker gave his siblings another long stare. “Uncle Eliseo will not be pleased to hear that you left your rooms tonight.”

  The seven little elves did not say another word as they scampered away quickly, their faces all lined with worry. They did not make a peep until they had made several dozen turns through the tunnels to ensure that Ryker’s ears would not pick up any plotting whispers. They only had time to scare two of the guards that night, but they made sure the boys standing watch really screamed before running back to their rooms in fits of giggles and high-fives.

  Ryker shook his head as he turned back to Red and Robyn. The elf pointed toward the latter. “I will deal with you later.” He ignored Red as he turned back to his post, stamping his spear in the ground a couple of times before silently staring at the dirt wall in front of him.

  “That went well,” Robyn Thorn said with a grin. He stepped aside and motioned toward the inside of the room behind him. “Would you like to come in?”

  “If only to get out of his path of rage,” Red whispered with a laugh.

  “Goodnight, Ryker,” Robyn lightly sang as he closed the door.

  “The next time you sleep I’ll be sending those little beasts to wake you up,” Ryker Flori promised without looking back at the concerned rebel leader.

  ~~~

  “Sorry about that,” Robyn said as he shut out Ryker’s comment with the click of the door closing shut. “I always forget that Eliseo Flori’s nieces and nephews tend to make games out of their orders. They have yet to cause any of my night guards to quit, but I have had to give away many of the nicer rooms as payment for staying at their posts night after night.”

  “They’re kids,” Red said with a shrug. “They’re probably bored living down here. If it had been you and me, we would have been the exact same way. Or worse if we had the chance.”

  Red took a seat at the large wooden table in the center of the room. She brushed her tangled hair off her shoulders and leaned forward to look at the maps and plans spread across the tabletop. Her brows furrowed together as she read the paper in front of her.

  “You’re absolutely right,” Robyn Thorn laughed. He moved to stand next to her, sliding the papers back before leaning against the table. He gave a shrug when Red protested as the paper she had been looking at was swept away. “We would have wreaked havoc in every single one of these tunnels together.”

  Red rolled her eyes in agreement, but her focus was still turned toward the plans that she could no longer make out. She rubbed her hand across her brow, massaging her head. “Why did you bring me here in the wee hours of the morning? The big rebel leader doesn’t have anything better to do?”

  “I’ve been hearing the reports on guards being scared senseless while you roam around at night.” Robyn Thorn lifted his eyebrows in question, but he did not ask why Red had been wandering the corridors. “I just assumed that you would be up.”

  Red leaned against the table, resting her head against her hand. Robyn could not help but worry about the shadows that lingered under her eyes—identical to his own—but he did not show his concern. He knew that Red could take care of herself.

  “It must be the eternal night that I’m shrouded in,” Red said with a small shrug. “My internal clock is off balance. It just needs to be adjusted, that’s all.”

  “Right…” Robyn did not believe her lie, but he knew better than to pry into any details more personal than how Red was enjoying the weather. “Well, if you ever need something to do, you always know where I am.”

  “You don’t get to scold me for being awake at this hour when you are also awake,” Red pouted.

  “I’m not scolding you.”

  “You might as well be with the ridiculous level of concern that I’m getting from you. I have never been a great sleeper. Why should that change now?”

  “Fine, I will never worry about you or your bad habits ever again,” Robyn sighed. “Would that make you happy?”

  Red’s face was completely unconcerned and unbothered as she blandly replied, “Ecstatic.”

  Robyn nodded, his concerns turning toward the other matters before him. He pulled up a chair on the other side of the table, pulling the numerous documents closer into an untidy pile. He felt Red watching him as he blindly sifted through the pile.

  “I didn’t know you could read at that pace,” Red joked. “It’s no wonder that you’re the second in command here.”

  Robyn Thorn could feel the heat rise in his face as he glared at Red. “Most of these documents have only been read by two other people. You shouldn’t even be here.”

  “You invited me in, remember?” Red pointed out, a sleepy smile on her face. She turned away from the rebel leader, placing her free hand over her eyes. “I won’t look at anything, I swear.”

  “You can’t pry any information from me by playing nice.”

  “Who said I wanted any of your information?” Red inquired, her hand still comically covering her eyes. “I can’t exactly march up to any of the queens and just hand it over to them. And who would I even sell this stuff to? From what I saw, it was nothing more than a financial statement from some filthy rich supporter.”

  Robyn quickly looked through the stack of papers, finding the one to which Red had been referring. The document detailed the extent of Prince Sampson’s generous first donation to the cause. The prince had sent over the documents more than a week before, but it was the first time Robyn had been able to take a look at it.

  “Did you happen to see who it was from?” Robyn asked, trying to keep the worry out of the easy tone that he was faking.

  “Someone from Airaldan based on the type of parchment,” Red replied, not seeming to take note of Robyn’s concern. “It’s made of appleseed cotton.”

  Robyn Thorn waved the paper about as if he were trying to see if the smell of apples would come wafting off the document. “How do you know that?”

  “My, uhh, uncle owned a printing business. He was very in
terested in… paper,” Red stated, cursing her tired mind for not coming up with a better excuse for her strange knowledge. She laid her arms on the table, placing her head in the crooks. She closed her eyes as the wooden table became her only view.

  “Is this different from the uncle that was also interested in wax seals, or the same one?”

  “Same one. You can’t send letters on fine parchment without the right wax seal, you know,” Red replied, her answer muffled against her skin.

  “Of course not.”

  Robyn turned back to the document, reaching to grab a new piece of parchment and his quill in order to write his response to the prince. His eyes caught on Red’s curled up figure, her breathing beginning to slow. He praised himself for being able to tire out the sleepless assassin—despite using such unconventional methods.

  Robyn continued to work well into the morning, his best ideas always coming to him when no one was there to criticize his actions. His pen scratched away as he wrote his opinions on dozens of correspondences that he never had time to get through during the day.

  He watched Red sleep through the rest of the night—her dreams on pause as her brain reset for another day. Robyn Thorn was ready for his own mind’s reset, but he knew it would be many more days before his own exhaustion would finally sink in.

  ~~~

  Red was pulled out of her sleep by the throbbing in her neck and shoulders. She left her head to rest on the table, her eyes still closed as she tried to rub out the stiffness in her muscles. She let out a yelp when she opened her eyelids to see two large eyes peering directly into her face. The chair nearly tipped over as Red jolted upright.

  The little Mienai elf staring up at Red giggled shyly. “I did not mean to startle you.”

  “Did no one ever tell you not to sneak up on a sleeping assassin?” Red retorted. She glared down at the child as she stretched out her muscles in a more proper fashion.

  “I have been told that I can be quite frightening when I sneak around,” the little pink elf replied sweetly. “My brother says that I should wear a bell so that I cannot sneak up on him or the other guards anymore. He says, ‘Junna, no more sneaking around. One day you’re going to scare someone to death!’ I don’t think I would be able to do that, but I try not to sneak around him anymore.”