Dak backed away from the bars. “Listen, Yanko. For the sake of my career, I can’t help you anymore. This has turned into enough of a morass without further muddying the waters. I hope you will consider my debt repaid.” He inclined his head once, then turned and sat down, his back to the bars. And to Yanko.
Yanko swallowed and rested his forehead against his own bars. He still had Arayevo and Lakeo, but he couldn’t help but feel that he had just lost a friend. Perhaps forever. To add to the insult, he’d failed in his mission, he’d possibly brought more dishonor to his family, and he was on his way to the enemy nation, thousands of miles from home.
Arayevo swatted him in the shoulder. “Forget your grumpy cellmates, Yanko. I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. Escape.”
“From a Turgonian warship in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by a dozen other warships?”
“Of course. Are you or are you not Yanko White Fox, someone who very nearly qualified for Stargrind?”
He snorted. “Very nearly, yes.”
“That makes you the most powerful wizard around.”
“An alarming thought.”
“We’ll come up with something. I heard Lakeo is talented with mops.”
Yanko could think of plenty of ways to destroy the ship. He could think of fewer ways to convince it to turn toward Nuria and take him home, preferably before reporting back to Turgonia with word of the continent.
“We’ll come up with something,” Arayevo repeated softly.
Yanko nodded. “Yes.”
They had to. There was no other choice.
THE END
The adventure continues this fall with the third book in the Chains of Honor series.
Snake Heart Page 29