Sam sighed and hung his head. “I understand. A woman on a mission is not a force to trifle with.”
I locked eyes with him so he'd understand the full gravity of what I was about to say to him. “No woman is ever a force to trifle with, Sam, especially not Tamara. I’m pretty sure she’d kill for you, and if not for you, certainly over you. You may want to think about giving her a chance, whether she’s directly told you how she feels about you or not. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that she cares about you, possibly even adores you. Stop expecting the girl to jump through hoops to soothe your ego.”
Sam looked a little wounded, and sounded it even more so than he looked. “My, you are blunt when you’re not worried about hurting one’s feelings, aren’t you? I do understand your point, however, and I would just like to ask that you hold on to that little gem about not expecting people to jump through hoops to soothe your ego. If you’re as invested in Kieran as I think you are, you’re going to need that advice more than I do.”
“Let’s not fight,” I sighed, locking the door to my room behind us, “Let’s just focus on the magic we need to work on my iPhone and avoid any emotional mess in the process.”
Sam shook his head and clicked his tongue. “You are so emotionally repressed, Lauren. It worries me, for your mental and emotional health.”
I threw my hands up in frustration and shook my head. “Look, my mental and emotional health are kind of collateral damage here. There’s a psycho queen after me, and I’m pretty sure she’s willing to tear apart this entire fortress to get to me. I think we need to focus on making sure that doesn’t happen, and worry about the mental and emotional repercussions later.”
Sam shot me a stern, disapproving look. “With an outlook like that, you’re going to snap one day, and it’s not going to be a pleasant experience, young lady.”
I suppressed a shudder. “Look, I know you’re an elf, and you’ve got a couple thousand years on me in age, but you don’t look old enough to be calling me young lady. Stop it. It’s weird.”
Sam let out an ironic chuckle and nodded. “All right. Let’s get back to the magic, then, shall we? I know what Rolf told me, but I know you’d like to reiterate your ideas to me in your own words because you’re worried his interpretation may not have conveyed your ideas completely. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” I nodded and passed my iPhone back to him. “Don’t forget to loan it to Wynne so she can finish the movie this evening. My two main ideas revolve around sound amplification and projection. You did a pretty good job of amplifying the sound in the training area the other day, but we need it to be much bigger.”
Sam nodded and studied the iPhone. “Do explain, please.”
“Well,” I mused, “As to the amplification, I was wondering if it would be possible to magically turn the walls of the fortress and surrounding areas that might be invaded into speakers.”
“Speakers? What do you mean?” He cocked his head, obviously confused by the terminology.
I shrugged, trying to think of a good way to explain myself. “I was wondering if it would be possible to use magic to make the walls and surrounding areas around the fortress produce the sounds that are on this iPhone, like music, but extremely loud? If we have the element of surprise going for us, it might startle the queen’s forces, and if it’s loud enough, the sound might feasibly stun them. Do you see what I’m saying?”
Sam nodded, short and to the point. I could see him losing his flippant facade as his mind shifted gears into work mode. “Yes, I believe I understand. Now, tell me your ideas regarding projection, whatever that means.”
I chewed on my bottom lip for a minute. “Magic is capable of producing large-scale illusions through the correct spells, right?”
Sam snorted. “That’s quite a large assumption on your part, but it happens to be a correct assumption. Go on.”
I shot him an annoyed look for a second, perturbed that he felt the need to point out I was making big assumptions that could have been wrong. “Well, what if we were to take certain images, like battle scenes from some of the movies I have on the iPhone, and use those images to produce large-scale illusions that could possibly scare the enemy away, or at least confuse them and shake their confidence?”
Sam's gaze sharpened, and I could tell I'd captured his interest.“Strangely, your logic makes sense. I will see what I can achieve through practicing my spell-craft on your iPhone. I’d better find Wynne and let her borrow it now because I may need several days or weeks to craft spells on the level you’re envisioning.”
I shuddered as a foreboding chill ran down my spine. “I hope we have that long, Sam.”
He shot me a grim look over his shoulder as he unlocked my door and stepped out. “So do I.”
With that, Sam exited my room with a flourish, and I was left to wonder if my ideas would help us at all, or just hinder us in the long run. I didn't let myself wonder for long. Instead, I decided to check on how things were going with the linothorax production and find out where Mack and Gabriel were. The dog had taken to oscillating between keeping me company and roaming around with Mack like a little furry body guard.
I was surveying the progress we’d made with linothorax production for everyone in the fortress when Mack caught up with me, Gabriel prancing frantically beside him. His face was ashen, eyes wide, and Gabriel's canine features somehow mirrored Mack's panic.
“We’re in trouble now, lass,” he gasped, clearly out of breath from exertion.
My heart pounded in my chest, and I took a deep breath in an attempt to steady myself. “How bad is it, Mack?”
Mack shook his head. “Bad doesn't cover it. The queen is outside our gates, and she’s brought an entire bleeding army with her.”
My heart dropped like a stone, and cold fear flooded me from head to toe, accompanied by suspicious anger. “Adele facilitated this somehow, I just know it.”
Mack nodded, his expression grim. “Aye, I suspect the same, but now is not the time to pick that fight with Kieran or Rolf about the she-elf. The linothorax may be completed, but we still need to distribute it.”
I returned his nod, knowing we had a lot of work to do, and a short time to do it in. “Not only that, but we also need to evacuate as many people as we can. Those who cannot fight should hide somewhere safe until this is all over. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Indeed. Those who are unable to fight can hole up in the hidden caverns with the crops we harvested before the blizzard hit, and they can take the livestock with them. It’d be hard for the queen and her army to hold a siege against this fortress if they can’t attack the livestock and deplete our resources, eh?” Mack rubbed his hands together, obviously eager to get to work.
“Sounds good, Mack." I bent over and rubbed Gabriel's ears, hoping to calm him. "Let’s clear our plan with Rolf and do what we have to do to make this happen, hopefully without tipping our hand to Adele in the process.”
We made our way to Rolf's office in quiet, determined silence. I focused on the rhythmic click of Gabriel's toenails on the stone floor, trying to clear my head and keep calm. The spaniel walked so close that my leg brushed his side with every step, and I felt like it was a mutually comforting gesture. Before we entered the office, I smiled over at Mack.
"Thanks for helping me take care of Gabriel, Mack. I want to talk to you about him when we get through discussing our plan with Rolf."
Mack nodded, but that was his only response before we opened the door and stepped in. Rolf was pale and quiet as we entered his office. He ignored me and looked to Mack. “What is your assessment of our current situation, as the longest-standing resident of this fortress?”
Mack shrugged and made placating hand gestures as he talked. “We might not be quite as buggered as it seems. The queen waits outside our gates with an army of 5,000 and they’ve begun retrieving lumber from the forest, I assume to build siege engines with. Things are looking pretty grim right at this particular moment. We do, however, hol
d some tenuous advantages…for as long as the she-elf within our walls remains ignorant to our plans.”
Rolf’s eyes darkened to a shade short of midnight black and the line of his mouth compressed into a thin, angry line, but Mack stood his ground. “What are these advantages, and why is Adele’s ignorance to them of such importance?”
Mack crossed his arms and lifted his chin, clearly not intimidated by Rolf's anger. “Her ignorance is important because she may be a spy for the queen, of her own will or not. The queen is a powerful mage, and she specializes in manipulating people’s minds. You have no way of knowing whether or not she’s controlling Adele, although I’d venture that she’s at least used Adele’s essence to locate our fortress. This location was a well-kept secret until the she-elf arrived, that you cannot deny. So, keep her in the dark, whether you and Kieran like it or not.”
Rolf sighed and nodded, knowing when logic trumped his personal preferences. “Point taken. And the advantages?”
Mack grinned conspirationally. “It’s hard to hold a siege when you’re not able to damage or deplete any resources, isn’t it?”
Rolf nodded. “I suppose that makes sense. What are you suggesting regarding protecting our resources?”
Mack shrugged. “Well, we’ve already harvested all the crops we could before the blizzard hit, and hidden them in the caverns. That’s one resource they can’t hurt. What if we were to have all those who aren’t capable of fighting hide in the caverns with the crops, and take the livestock with them? That’s another resource they can’t touch, and any civilians who might otherwise be collateral damage gain safety while helping to maintain our resources. We still get eggs and milk, at the very least. There’s enough hay put up in those caverns to keep the livestock alive for a year."
Rolf nodded eagerly. "Of course. That makes perfect sense."
Mack returned Rolf's nod eagerly. "Only those willing and able to fight end up in harm’s way. Even if things go much worse than we’re expecting, the caverns have mechanisms that can aid in safe collapse of the tunnels." He paced back and forth, gesturing excitedly. "They can take the livestock and escape on the other side of this mountain range without having to go over or around. With intelligence and secrecy, we can best the queen’s forces and allow the majority of the people here to escape and start a new life in the South, even if our fighting forces lose.”
“Very well,” Rolf agreed. “Get it done. Prepare everyone, and I will see to it that Adele remains in the dark.”
“Thank you,” Mack spoke for both of us.
As we turned to leave, Rolf spoke again. “Lauren?”
I spun around, a little startled that he even noticed I was there. “Yes?”
Rolf studied me with a guarded expression. “How much of the plans Mack just shared with me were your idea?”
I shrugged, not caring about getting credit. “It was an equal effort from both of us, Rolf.”
Rolf bowed his head and sighed, looking much more relaxed when he met my gaze again. “I’m just glad to know we’re not relying entirely on magic and your ‘technology’ to save us.”
I wasn't sure how to take that comment. “Um…thanks?”
Rolf shrugged. “It was meant as a compliment.”
I chuckled for a second and shook my head. “Sure, but we don’t really have time for pleasantries, do we? There are things to do, and not much time to do them in.”
Rolf laughed aloud and nodded, doing the dismissive hand gesture thing that drove me crazy. “Well said, Lauren. You may go.”
16
Oh, Jealousy
After helping Mack for as long as possible, I was finally forced to go to bed. Gabriel escorted me back to my room and curled up with me until I fell asleep, but when I woke the next morning, Mack and Gabriel were both gone. It felt a little lonely, but I knew they were doing what was best for everyone. So, I got ready and set out for the armory.
I was on my way to meet Captain Burns for more combat training when I passed Kieran in the hall. I suddenly wished I hadn’t asked Mack to supervise the linothorax production and evacuation plans in my absence. If he’d been with me instead, I would have had a valid excuse to ignore Kieran. As it was, I strode past him in stony silence with no intention of even acknowledging his existence. I figured it was fair since he’d been ignoring me ever since Adele arrived at Tiernan.
Apparently, Kieran had other plans than to keep mutually pretending that the other didn’t exist because he caught my wrist and spun me around to face him. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Excuse me?” I gave him a narrow-eyed glare.
“You heard me," he snapped. "Do I really have to ask again?”
I sighed and looked down, avoiding eye contact with him because I didn't want him to see the emotions I was struggling with. “I’m surprised you’re pretending to care. After all, Sam and I are just tools that you and Rolf plan to use against Sigrid.”
Kieran let out a haughty snort of derision. “I guess eavesdropping would make it easy for you to take things out of context and come up with some kind of stupid assumption like that.”
“Wow," I hissed between clenched teeth. "You’re really trying to make things which I clearly heard you and Rolf saying out to somehow be my fault? That’s super logical of you.”
“Really?" I saw him cross his arms in my peripheral vision, and his voice was razor-sharp. "You want to accuse me of being illogical? You’re the one who’s reacting emotionally to a fragment of conversation with no context to go on. Did you ever stop to think maybe it wasn’t meant the way you heard it?”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “So you’re both in the habit of saying things you don’t mean when you think you’re alone, without the influence of the subjects being at hand to deter you from saying what you really think? Is that what you’re telling me?”
He snapped back with an exasperated huff. “I really don’t understand the emotional response you’re having to this situation. Are you angry, disappointed, hurt, or is there something else at play here, something like jealousy?”
“Jealousy?" I let out a harsh, sarcastic laugh. "What the hell do I have to be jealous of?”
“You’re obviously jealous of Adele," he chided. "You’ve been suspicious, moody, and downright irritable ever since she showed up.”
My head snapped up and I glared at him, wide-eyed and waving my hands with frustration, trying to emphasize my point. “I have a right to be suspicious, Kieran! She’s a freaking TEXTBOOK candidate to fall in the category of ‘spy for the enemy.’ Why can’t you see that? What is it about her that blinds you so completely?”
“Oh, for God’s sake!" Kieran mirrored my frustrated gesticulation. "Adele aided our escape from Pallidia, Lauren! She’s the one that gave me the plans of the castle sewers. She’s the one that told me how to get you out of that dungeon. Adele is the one who distracted the rest of the QEG the night Damon tried to stop us from leaving Pallidia. She’s been helping us all along! Your suspicions are misplaced, and I absolutely believe they’re rooted in jealousy. You feel threatened by her because she’s beautiful, powerful, and of this world. You’re an outsider, and she makes you feel it down to your bones every time you look at her.”
All I could feel was pain, at first, but the ache in my chest was instantly overwhelmed by scalding shame, frustration, and outrage. Tears blurred my field of vision, and my warring emotions must have made me lose my mind for a moment because I slapped him before I had a chance to realize what I was doing. The resounding crack of my palm meeting his stubble-coated cheek echoed off the stone walls. My palm stung and the bones of my fingers ached as if I'd just broken them all at once.
“How dare you?” I could feel myself snapping from the inside out. I was trembling from head to foot with boiling rage, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was like I was having an out of body experience--I had no control over what I was saying or doing anymore. My temper, the one I’d done such a good job of bottling up for s
o many years, was finally at the reins. “I thought that maybe Adele and Rolf were each manipulating you, and that you were just too naive to see it, but now I know better, don’t I? You’re as much a cold, cruel, calculating son-of-a-bitch as either of them ever hoped to be. I’m only going to say this once, so listen hard: you take that conniving pretty princess bitch and both of you stay the hell away from me."
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