Haskel shook his head. “We don’t have time to explain.” He straightened and pulled back his shoulders to appear every bit the prince he was. “We have come to meet with my mother, and we will leave once we have done so. We are not here for the meeting of the thieves and Houses.”
Tradek chuckled and shook his head then pointed his staff at the group. “I think you’re wrong. It has plenty to do with the royal house of Serhon, but since you don’t care, neither do we. However, that doesn’t mean we’ll let you simply walk right in.”
Tired of the pointless talk, Lorrek rose to his feet and stared the two thieves down. “Try and stop me.” Then he headed toward the cave. When Tradek and Radim tried to block his way, he passed right through them and never looked back.
The thieves stared, stunned, and Tradek looked back at the others. “An explanation would be nice.”
Gremina shrugged and offered him a smile in passing. “It’s complicated.”
As the group moved on to the cave, Dustal paused and looked at Tradek. He hesitated then motioned to his injured arm. “Um...can you?”
“Heal that?” Tradek nodded as he neared the thief and placed his hand on the injury. A golden glow flared under his hand over the wound, and Dustal hissed but didn’t move until Tradek pulled back. “Dagger?’
Dustal nodded. “Dagger.” He jutted his chin over his shoulder toward the retreating form of Lorrek. “Friendly fire.” After rotating his arm, he smiled his thanks then turned to catch up with his brother.
Tradek observed them then looked over at Radim.
She crossed her arms and watched them leave. “They’re not going to be happy about seeing him.”
Tradek shook his head. “Nope.”
“It’s going to be hectic.”
“Yep.”
The two shared a look then smiled. “Guess we wouldn’t want to miss it, now would we?”
“Not at all.” Tradek shook his head then offered his arm to Radim. “Shall we?”
Lorrek entered the cave and noticed that it was smaller than he had expected—lower ceiling too. He didn’t have enough time to survey the full area before a young man approached him, so Lorrek set a glare upon him and learned by a simple glance into his mind that his name was Tobias. “Tell me, Tobias, where is Her Majesty Queen Sidra of Serhon?”
Tobias tried to appear tough by crossing his arms and nodded to a door in the wall. “But you’re not supposed to—”
Ignoring him, Lorrek marched toward the door and didn’t bother opening it but instead passed straight through it.
Tobias’ jaw dropped at the sight of this, but as Gremina and Haskel approached, he ignored them and rushed after Lorrek, yanking the door open. “Hey! You’re supposed to use the door! That’s why they exist!”
“I did use the door.” Lorrek chuckled as he glimpsed over his shoulder. “Simply not the door handle.” He nodded to the handle then turned to the additional massive chamber of the cave. The uneven ceiling towered high above his head. Several other passages all met in this room on different levels, and now the eyes of numerous thieves and assassins fixed on Lorrek as they stayed in their position ready for an attack.
Haskel pushed past Lorrek and gave him a warning glare in passing but then turned his attention to those gathered within. “I am Prince Haskel—son of Queen Sidra. I know she is here, and I wish to speak with her.”
All eyes shifted amongst themselves until they settled on a single woman, who wore the garb of a thief with a quiver of arrows on her back and a bow in her hand. She stepped out of her crowd with her eyes fixed on her son and daughter.
Lorrek already dismissed her from his mind, for she was no threat to him; there were many more magical beings in this room who deserved his attention, so he skimmed the faces, made note of the multiple magic users and their locations, and then dragged his gaze back to Lady Sidra as she approached Haskel and Gremina.
She opened her mouth, ready to greet them, but before sound could emerge from her throat, a whirlwind of magick swirled through the air, sending everyone reaching for their weapons.
Once the dust had settled, Sirros and Nyvera stood back-to-back—Nyvera with weapons drawn and Sirros with a blue fiery orb conjured in his hand. Sirros took in the sight around them then frowned, impressed by the number of people who had gathered.
Tobias muttered under his breath, “Does anyone use the door anymore?”
Sirros greeted those gathered with a smile and bounced the glowing orb in his hand, putting everyone on edge. “Well, I must say, I am thrilled by the sheer numbers gathered together today to ambush my lovely wife and me.” He motioned back to Nyvera. “I had been worried my reputation had faded a bit since my time in the dungeon of King Roskelem, but I am glad to see you all still fear me.”
“This has nothing to do with you, Sirros.” A thief, Mel’Nath, stepped up in a rusty red coat. His hand lingered near the pistol at his hip. At his side was a girl with pale features and brilliant red hair. She wore a similar coat, and she already had her gun in her hand ready for action.
Mel’Nath jutted his chin at the couple. “Ardenn and I came here because we were invited. None of us want to kill each other.” He paused then took a look at those around him and locked eyes with a few individuals before nodding back at Sirros. “Let me rephrase that: we don’t want to kill each other just yet. Got to figure out why we’ve been called here.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Nyvera lifted her brows but did not relax her stance. “They want to get us thieves and assassins in one place to kill us all.”
“And why would they want to do that?” Ardenn, the girl beside Mel’Nath, placed a hand on her hip while she held her pistol in her other hand. “And who is ‘they’ anyway?”
“Good questions, darlin’.” Mel’Nath placed a proud hand on her shoulder then looked at the others. “That’s exactly what we need to find out and why we aren’t gonna go kill’ people ‘cause it’s the easy thing to do. If this is a trap, I want to know who set it, so we can rob them penniless and leave you assassins to finish them. Sounds like a plan?”
Nyvera shared a look with Sirros then nodded and rose to her full height, sheathing her daggers while he extinguished the fiery orb. “Well, if we’re all here, where is our daughter? Don’t tell me she wasn’t invited.”
“You mean Vixen?” All eyes shifted to the man several levels up, leaning on the railing and looking down. Lorrek narrowed his eyes as he looked upon this man. He had mentioned Vixen’s name, so he knew her, and Lorrek wanted to find her. However, Lorrek remained silent to see how the situation would play out, and he brushed across the man’s mind, finding his name was Wol’Van, and he took into account the man’s appearance.
This individual wore a brown trench coat and a wide-rimmed hat. He tipped his hat toward Nyvera out of respect, but with that movement, Lorrek saw the various blades strapped to his body as well as the pistol at his hip and rifle on his back. Wol’van spread his hands on the railing to lean even further for his message to get across. “She isn’t here—hasn’t been with thieves for a while. Last I saw her, she was hanging with Aden’s ragtag group, but he swears he hasn’t gotten her killed.” He gestured to a man among the thieves with light brown hair that was almost blond.
Aden narrowed his eyes upon Wol’van then motioned to Lorrek. “She accompanied Loroth to Cuskelom several years back, and I have not seen or heard from her since.”
Gremina cast Haskel a worried look, and her brother frowned. Who was Loroth? And why did the thieves mistake Lorrek for him?
Lorrek saw the look the princess of Serhon gave her brother, and then he shifted his gaze back to Aden. Now he had the name ‘Loroth’, and if he could determine the importance of this individual to Vixen, maybe he would find her.
“Well?” Wol’van directed his question to Lorrek. “Where is she?”
Before Lorrek had the chance to reply, Haskel stepped forward. “There must be a mistake. This is not Loroth, and nor have we heard of such
an individual. This is Lorrek, and he has actually come to find Vixen.”
Nyvera pulled away from her husband and approached Lorrek, circling him, sizing him up until she came back around and looked up to his face. “And why would you look for her?”
He stared down at her, unimpressed. “Because I seek to kill her.”
All around him, weapons unsheathed everywhere—mainly aimed at Lorrek, but because of this Haskel set his bow and targeted the nearest thief who was aiming at Lorrek. Another thief took aim at Haskel because he was targeting the other man. Gremina set her sights—with bow and arrow in hand—on the thief aiming at her brother, and Mel’Nath pointed his gun at her. Aradin had his arrow targeted at Mel’Nath, but Ardenn had her gun aimed at Aradin while Dustal’s sights were fixed on her.
Nyvera, Sirros, Aden, Tobias and numerous others had Lorrek as their primary target.
“Hold it.” Haskel kept his voice even as he held the string of his bow pulled back, ready to release the arrow. “Wait.” As much as he would love to see the prince of Cuskelom tortured and killed, he preferred it to be at his hands and as justice for his sister.
Lorrek arched a brow—still unimpressed. He looked down at Haskel and reminded him. “Their weapons cannot harm me.”
Now curious, Tobias flung his knife at Lorrek, but it passed through him harmlessly and headed for Nyvera, but Sirros twisted and deflected it with his magic and sent a blast toward Lorrek.
Everyone dove for cover as chaos was unleashed.
Arrows flew through the air. Gunshots echoed in the chambers. Knives and other throwing blades whizzed through the room. Explosions, here and there, shook the cave. Magic weaved through the air as numerous magic users gathered their powers then sent out electricity, fiery orbs, and invisible blasts, cracking the walls of the caves and causing the ceiling to begin to crumble.
Tradek swirled his staff around, charged it with magic, and blasted away at any who came within reach.
Radim dove into the fight with nothing but her hands and feet as weapons, and she fought as a blur.
Unsheathing his double sais, Tobias twisted them in his hands, grinned at the excitement of the battle, then rushed in.
Aden sighed then locked eyes with Kilroth across the way then shifted back to Tobias. Kilroth nodded, lifted his staff then went after Tobias to keep him from killing himself while Aden sensed a threat coming up behind him. He spun around, lifting his own sword in a backhanded way to deflect the attack from a thief, only for an arrow to sink into the back of the shoulder of his attacker. Shifting his gaze to the upper corner of the chamber, Aden saw that the archer of his band of thieves, Lyston, stood with his bow armed and ready. Aden nodded his thanks then turned back to the fight.
Across the way, Mel’Nath shouted at the red-head girl beside him. “Watch my back, Ardenn!”
She cocked her gun then nodded with a grin. “Always got it.”
He smirked at her, pointed both his guns up then dove behind a neighboring pillar, and together the two peeked out from around the pillars and peppered the chambers with gunshots.
In the center of the chambers, Nyvera moved non-stop. She threw blades at those charging at her, but when they deflected her knives, she sheathed the rest then charged at them. She didn’t stop but raced up the body of one thief, wrapped her legs around their neck, and twisted them to the floor. She rolled to her feet, hands up in a fighting stance, and caught the kick of the other thief then yanked them to the ground.
Beside her, Sirros fought another sorcerer—palms outstretched, each with a fiery orb between them growing larger and larger. Behind his back with his other hand, Sirros conjured another orb and threw it at the sorcerer, disrupting the man’s concentration, and both orbs crashed into him. Unimpressed, Sirros brushed off his hands then turned and saw three thieves attacking his wife. “Care for some assistance?” He approached her casually while deflecting with a thought any arrows, bullets, or knives flying in his direction.
“And let you have all the fun?” She bent back to avoid a sword then locked eyes with her husband behind her. Reaching her hands up behind her head, she backflipped and shoved the thief away from her.
Sirros shrugged. “Well, let’s confuse them, shall we?”
She smirked. “With pleasure.”
With that, Sirros switched places with Nyvera, and the thieves fell back when their target changed from a woman to a man with a magical orb in his hand and a grin on his face. That was their only warning before Sirros slammed an invisible force into them, knocking them back off their feet.
Nyvera came to stand beside him and looked down at them, disappointed. “I was hoping that would last a little longer.”
“Maybe next time.” He stole a kiss. “There is plenty of fighting to be done still.” Gesturing to the chaos all around them, the two shared a smile then went back into the fray.
Lady Sidra took cover behind a boulder with her son and daughter. As she nocked an arrow to her bow and prepared to shoot it, she stayed low and waited while Haskel twisted around toward the room, rose slightly over the boulder, and shot three consecutive arrows before dropping back behind the boulder.
Sidra gave her children a hard look. “Isn’t that Prince Lorrek?” She nodded in Lorrek’s direction where the sorcerer still stood in the midst of all the chaos, untouched by any weapon.
Haskel grumbled under his breath as he prepared an arrow on his bow, and Gremina leaned past her brother to lock eyes with their mother. “He has no memory of who he is. Papa took it from him as punishment for his crimes against our family.”
When their mother furrowed her brows in confusion, Haskel sighed. “He is responsible for terrible things done to Atheta.” Then he gave her a hard look. “And you cannot tell him he is a prince.”
Sidra frowned then peered over the boulder and watched as Lorrek crossed his arms and scowled while waiting for the chaos to end. “Then why did your father simply take his memory and not execute him?” She twisted back around and settled behind the rock again.
Haskel nodded in Lorrek’s direction then lifted his brows. “As you can see, it’s difficult enough to kill a man who has no solid form.”
“A failed spell on Father’s part,” Gremina clarified then sat back with her bow ready to be fired. She locked eyes with her brother, and together they twisted around to face the battle and rose from behind the boulder. Both siblings lifted their bows, pulled the strings back to their faces, and took aim at specific targets. In unison, they released their arrows at different targets, and the arrows shot through the air.
On the higher level, Wol’van shook his head as he watched the fight below. Since everyone had their own agenda, there was no clear line of who was trying to kill whom. It was like playing chess but with a hundred different opponents. He weighed his throwing knives in his hands, but he preferred to wait until he was attacked before he jumped in. All this was ridiculous to him. Whoever set this up didn’t realize how foolish it had been to bring all these killers into the same room.
Two additional thieves, Kedessa and Pravin, rushed up beside Wol’van with their bows and arrows, and Wol’van observed as they assessed the situation, found their desired target, and took aim.
Down below Dustal stood behind a pillar beside his brother. With an arrow ready to be shot from his bow, he peeked around the pillar for a good target then pulled back—just as an arrow flew right where his head had been and sank into the pillar. Dustal dropped low and spun around—bow ready to shoot at whomever had fired at him, and his sights landed on the brother and sister archers on the higher level. “Kedessa?”
Aradin heard his brother’s question and pulled his head to look around. “Where?”
“There.” Dustal nodded to them on the balcony then widened his eyes as he saw that look in her eyes as she took aim at him again. Shoving Aradin to the ground, Dustal dropped too as another arrow whizzed past him.
On the floor, Aradin turned his face to look at his little brother. “I�
��d say she’s still upset with how you proposed to her then vanished for two years.”
Dustal glowered at Aradin. “Hey, she chose not to give me an answer right away, and besides, how was I supposed to know that when I fell through the forest floor, it would take me two years to get free from the Tiavora House?” He turned to Kedessa and mouthed with huge hand gestures, “Not my fault!”
Her younger brother, Pravin, shot at him this time, causing both brothers to duck again.
Dustal straightened and gave them both a glare, “Don’t shoot me again!” Satisfied, he turned back to the main battle and prepared to shoot his bow. Just as another target came into sight and he was about to release the string, another arrow whizzed past his face—very close this time.
Dustal spun around and gave Kedessa and Pravin an exasperated look. “Stop shooting at me!”
Aradin placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Maybe you should go apologize.”
“Right now?” Dustal looked at Aradin with bewilderment. “We’re in the middle of a fight.”
Aradin shrugged then armed his bow and took a shot at Mel’Nath.
Then everything stopped.
Every thrown weapon froze in midair—whether metal or magical.
A powerful, clear woman’s voice captured the attention of all. “You. Will. Stop.”
Lorrek looked up to the woman, who stood on a higher level opposite of Wol’van with her hand stretched out over the room. Her slight figure appeared delicate, draped in an oversized black coat, and her long black hair hung flat around her emotionless pale features. Her eyes swirled dark blue, almost black with concentration. Lorrek sensed deep magic within her.
At her side stood a man with a warm presence, but the tension in his shoulders and face betrayed his anxiety. His clothes, Lorrek noted, were that of royal quality, though the man had opted for the neutral colors of brown and gray to better blend with the company of thieves. Clearing his throat, he neared the railing and gripped it with both hands while looking at all those in the room. “I am Kinnard—prince of Talhon, and this...” He motioned to the lady beside him, who still held her hand out, holding all of their weapons at bay. “Is my...” He hesitated, as if indecisive, but then pressed on, “My sister, Radella, but she prefers the name Fawn.”
The Chronicles of Lorrek Box Set Page 48