He climbed back down. “You think this is the first time us Wardens have been separated in a big city? We always regroup on the northern side.”
Please let us almost be on the northern side.
“And we’re almost there.”
She grinned, and they kept walking. To her delight, the buildings thinned out, revealing woods. Finally, they left the city behind and advanced into the forest.
And there they were…some of them. Ahjul, Terindi, Larak, Tarol, Haeric, and Wylan.
Yhkon assessed the group with a frown. “Seen the others?”
Haeric’s broad shoulders were slumped. He seemed anxious. Even Tarol didn’t demonstrate his usual nonchalance and buoyancy. “Ki and Kae got cornered. We were going to go help them,” he nodded toward Tarol, “but Grrake and Gustor were closer. They got there first, but weren’t able to escape…we knew we wouldn’t be able to defeat that many knights either…Grrake waved us off. They were taken as prisoners.”
The lead Warden’s features had hardened. Still enough to be a statue, he spoke quietly. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Haeric confirmed, head lowered. “We followed them long enough to find out which direction they were going, then found everyone else and came here.”
Yhkon’s cold lethargy was shattered by an enraged outburst, starting with a string of profanities that would make Talea’s mother gasp. “Curse that wretched tyrant and his…”
She didn’t catch the rest of the words in his angry tirade. Perhaps that was a good thing. The way he balled his fists and paced like a caged forest cat, muscles rigid, made her retreat a few steps to stand beside Terindi and Wylan. Larak watched him with some of the impatience she’d often seen him display, but also with what looked like apprehension, even pity. Ahjul, worry. Tarol was glaring at nothing, arms crossed.
It was Haeric who spoke tentatively, when Yhkon stopped muttering curses. “Yhkon?”
“What?!” He whisked around to face him.
“Nothing, nothing.” He raised his hands, soothingly. “What do you want to do?”
Yhkon took a long breath through flared nostrils. “No one knows where Resh is?”
All the Wardens shook their heads.
Yhkon began pacing again, more contemplatively than furiously. “Ahjul, you’ll stay here with the wards, they need some rest. The rest of us go back in and split up. If we can’t find Resh before sunrise, we’ll assume he was captured as well, and leave to free them. Clear?”
Now the Wardens nodded. “Then let’s go.” He set back out toward the city without another word.
7
Prisoners
Y hkon launched the rock over a rooftop. It clattered against the cobblestone on a nearby street.
“Over there!” The prowling knights raced toward the sound, giving him the opportunity to cross the open square unseen and continue on at a jog.
Keeping away from soldiers who had nowhere near his level of training or experience, even while trying to find Resh at night in a large city, wasn’t enough to distract him from his thoughts. It was impossible not to stray to the possibilities.
Or were they probabilities?
Stop thinking about it. It was pointless. Irrational. Either Grrake, and the twins and Gustor, were fine, or they weren’t. It didn’t give him any justifiable reason to fret about it. In any case, the sooner he focused and found Resh, the sooner he could find the others and get them back.
Before they were delivered straight into the hands of Kaydor Veserron.
He knew that they were alive. Grrake and Gustor were no fools, and they weren’t reckless either. They would know when to surrender, and how to go about their actions from there, to make sure that—most likely—they and the twins were imprisoned, not executed.
But, as prisoners, they would be taken to the capital. To Kaydor.
Yhkon came to a stop behind a stone wall and leaned against it. Curse that wretch! Villainous, murdering…stronger language came to mind, and left his tongue in a snarled string of profanity. After all, Grrake wasn’t around to either chastise or give him that disappointed look.
Focus. Find Resh, the idiot, then find Grrake, get him away from those miscreants, get the wards, and get out of this blasted region.
He’d been roaming the southern portion of Boroe for hours, in the rain no less. No sign of the missing Warden. There was the possibility that one of the other men had found him, of course. But there was just as good a possibility that they hadn’t. While Yhkon made no pretense of having as much concern for Resh as he did for Grrake, the twins, and even Gustor, he still would be reluctant to leave the city without him.
So, he would search as long as he could, until it was time to rendezvous at sunrise. After that, Resh would just have to fend for himself.
His gaze swept the adjoining streets and buildings, and landed on one building in particular. Tall, made of brick instead of wood. Barrels and crates stacked along its perimeter. A man burst from the door laughing and swearing at the same time, on unsteady legs. A tavern.
Sucking in his breath, Yhkon gave his dripping hood and mask a tug to ensure they were in place, and strode forward. For Resh’s sake, he wasn’t sure whether to hope that he found what he was looking for, or that he didn’t.
He twisted the knob and pushed the door open quietly, just enough to slip inside. The hum of voices and a variety of other sounds contrasted the cold stillness outside. One voice caught his attention from among the rest.
“Sure do have the prettiest set of eyes I ever saw. What’s your name, darling?”
“Enryda,” came a feminine, giggling voice.
“Alright my good fellow, another drink for the lovely Miss Enryda, if you please, on me! A toast, my dear?”
“To what?”
“To—”
Yhkon had heard enough. “Resh!” He moved toward the voices, blood boiling, nearly knocking over a bystander who didn’t move out of his way. He arrived to find Resh clinking glasses with a young woman, the neckline of whose dress would make a Canadise lady blush. If his behavior so far hadn’t, the empty beer glasses and the stupid grin on his face made it clear that Resh had had too much to drink. “Yhkon! There you are. Been awhile since you’ve been in a tavern with me! Say, Enryda, have any pretty friends for my—”
Yhkon grabbed Resh by the pauldron and yanked him to his feet. A minute ago, it had been his intention to deliver a sound lecture. Now, he had an entirely different reaction in mind, and didn’t bother trying to restrain himself from it. Holding the man with one hand, he pulled back the other to slam his fist into Resh’s jaw.
Enryda shrieked. Resh floundered backwards, stumbling over chairs, though he managed to steady himself on a table without having completely fallen. “What in the devil’s name was that for?!”
Advancing toward him, Yhkon took a vicious sort of pleasure in the way Resh cowered ever so slightly. “Do not play games with me. A little more spare time and I would give you a much more generous taste of my feelings regarding your complete idiocy.” He narrowed his eyes, and pointed to the door. “Get outside. Now.”
Resh straightened, if still a bit wobbly. “Yeah? And just what sort of moral high ground do you think you’re on, to accuse me? I think your head has been inflated quite enough, Silquije Eun.”