Page 32 of Her Royal Blood

“I’m going to follow you both into the safe house and stay with you throughout the mission,” he said, already invested in his work.

“I appreciate it,” Lex looked back at Hawk and gave him a genuine look of gratitude.

And so we were loaded into large crates with soft mattresses and pillows, bottles of water and a satchel of dried meat, dark bread, and cheese. The trip from the harbor to the safehouse wasn’t a long one, perhaps an hour, but we were given provisions in case something happened and they couldn’t open the crates until later. Hopefully we wouldn’t be intercepted, but I was glad that precautions were being taken.

After a long, mildly warm trip bumping and rocking along the streets of Navarrah City, Lex and I were safely delivered to the house where the royal family was being kept underground. None of the Crypt Claw had found them and we weren’t going to be the ones to blow their cover. Our crates were loaded into a warehouse near the final destination and then Lex andI were directed to an underground tunnel that ran below the warehouse, thus we weren’t seen by anyone.

As promised Hawk stayed with us as did Derringer and a few of his men and we walked through the underground until we were brought to the safe house where the Royal women were being housed. Only when we were sitting in the receiving room and I watched Lex and King Helix be reunited did I feel truly safe.

King Lex had taken his own journey to the safe house to see the queen and his daughter, it was a much better place than the stronghold near the dock harbor with all of the Crypt Claw soldiers, to convene.

“Father,” Lex rushed to King Helix and they embraced.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” The king looked truly relieved. “Cheyenne returned from the other kingdoms last night, so the family is reunited.” This gave the king great peace as he looked a little better than he had the last time I saw him. “We’ll have something to eat and get started on solidifying our plans.”

They were immediately back to work. Lex introduced Hawk briefly before Derringer quickly whisked him away, happy to have a partner to strategize with since Hawk not only knew his way around Vitoria Island but had the loyalty of many of the prisoners. With a tray of meats, cheeses, nuts, fruit, and wine served we sat at the dinner table with King Helix, Jarvis, Cheyenne, Derringer, Hawk, and myself to strategize Navarrah City’s next steps to defeating Polonius.

“Polonius is looking for mage women to marry and father mage children. He has also sent the Solbrook prisoners back to their land. I’m not sure what he’s planning, but he has to be working on some kind of alliance with the king of Solbrook. Hey may be planning to betray them as he had us. I promised freedom to any prisoner willing to fight for us without having to serve as a soldier forever. Many of the prisoners are citizens ofOnyx Rah who had been recently abducted from their journey to the kingdom. Hawk is one of the men who I gave my word to,” Lex nodded to Hawk who stood at attention, preferring to guard the door instead of sit at the table.

“Thank you,” King Helix turned to Hawk and addressed him, “for saving my son’s life. I will grant you a position in our armed forces or any role you are suited for and desire.”

“With all due respect Your Majesty, I would like to follow Queen Aria to Onyx Rah and assist there as soon as we’ve secured Navarrah City.” Hawk was staying true to his vow to protect me.

“Thank you,” I said to Hawk, genuinely grateful.

“Very well. I’m happy to hear this. As Onyx Rah will be our greatest ally, I’m honored to have you serve Queen Aria and her kingdom.” King Helix acknowledged Hawk and returned his attention to us. “As for the warships we’re building, we’re almost done with the first. The problem is, we need to conduct a test flight and can’t while the city is crawling with Crypt Claw. In order to make sure our ships are airworthy we need to find open sky that can’t be seen by Crypt Claw. I can’t risk any more troops sending them up in an untested aircraft.” King Helix sighed with frustration over his inability to use such a vital weapon against Polonius.

“I can ask the Lupine Coalition of the Obsidian Valley if we can test our aircraft in their airspace. They already have several and it won’t be as noticeable because they haven’t allied their forces with ours. On that note, Lara and Xavier Goldlace are very eager to see Polonius defeated but they refuse to join us until they can be assured of their sister Halo’s safety. Also Sire’s son is a detective in the Obsidian Valley as you know. The Goldlaces are unsure of how loyal he is to his father and don’t want to risk intel getting to Sire Vanoire since he’s so closely tied to Polonius.” Cheyenne made his report and looked at me with anapologetic grin. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do better for you, Queen Aria.”

I wasn’t sure why he felt like he needed to apologize, I understood the Goldlace’s fears and I believed they were warranted.

“Ensuring Halo’s safety is my priority as well. As my beta and the only other mage loyal to Onyx Rah, I can’t risk anything happening to her. So we will enlist the Obsidian Valley’s help when we get Halo out of Polonius’ grip. In fact we need to liberate all of Onyx Rah as he currently holds power over them.” This felt like my defeat, though Polonius had blindsided us all.

“Polonius is stretched thin trying to guard Vitoria Island, Navarrah City and Onyx Rah. He has prisoner recruits and his Crypt Claw, but they aren’t loyal subjects by any stretch of the imagination. We can turn them all, we just need to get the upper hand here, so that we’ll be able to hold our own ground first. If the Lupine Coalition will agree to us using their airspace without Dallas Vanoire finding out, that will be a tremendous help to us in this moment of crisis,” King Helix said to Cheyenne.

“Then I’ll return to the Obsidian Valley this afternoon as soon as our meeting adjourns.” Cheyenne sat up straighter, likely glad for his father’s confidence.

“Yes. We have precious little time, Cheyenne, so if you leave tomorrow, we can load the ship onto a truck and assemble it in a hanger in the Obsidian Valley when you return. We’ve improved upon Polonius’ design and ours can be disassembled and rebuilt quickly and efficiently for stealth transport,” King Helix informed us. “We put all of our effort and manpower into this airship and while it’s taken us almost a week to put on the finishing touches, we’ve finally assembled the first one. You just let us know when you have their word and we’ll move our airship out. It is already loaded with ammunition and will be able to attack as soon as it’s deemed safe.”

Cheyenne acknowledged his father as Jarvis started to speak. “Lastly, Derringer has told us about the two Crypt Claw ships that pursued him for most of the night last night and I want us to attack both of those ships. At the moment the Crypt Claw are letting trade barges, transiting between Solbrook and Navarrah City, continue their course without disruption. We can use one of our barges to disguise our troops and launch an attack on the two vessels guarding Vitoria Island. If we overtake their ships tomorrow night or early the next morning we will catch them unaware, and vulnerable,” Jarvis said as he unfolded a paper map of Tobran.

“I can help with the mission to sink those ships,” Lex offered as he looked at Derringer. “With Royal Guards on board, as long as Derringer gets us close enough to swim to the ships, we can launch a surprise attack.”

“I think if we take out most of the soldiers in combat, we can sink both ships after taking ammunition, prisoners, and weapons off for our own use. That way Polonius will only have the few warships at our ports left.” Derringer looked at the map that was spread out before us.

“What’s keeping us from sinking the ships at our ports?” Lex asked, also looking at the map.

“We’ve got too many soldiers on land who are threatening our merchants and the few civilians we couldn’t relocate or who stayed back to fight. At the moment we’re outnumbered. Which means Brahman’s Peak must be fairly vulnerable with most of Polonius’ troops guarding Navarrah City and Onyx Rah,” Jarvis added.

“Okay so we need to take out the barges, then overtake the soldiers at the ports and sink the Crypt Claw warships. After that we can leave some troops in Navarrah City and make our way to Onyx Rah. The only problem is, a lot of our soldiers were already captured in Onyx Rah or are guarding our civilians in their safeholds. We don’t have enough to launch a successful offensive.” King Helix looked overwhelmed and frustrated again. “I want to see this end as quickly as possible, but we need at least a thousand or more new recruits.”

“I can help you there, Your Majesty,” Hawk interjected. “I can go between here and Brahman’s Peak and find your recruits. I have a good reputation among the Vitoria Island prisoners and anyone who was brought in by Polonius can be turned to our cause,” Hawk said with confidence.

“How are you going to get them away from the Crypt Claw soldiers?” Jarvis asked, eyeing Hawk with skepticism.

“I’m well recognized. The Crypt Claw recruits have been wearing black or khaki street clothes as Polonius hasn’t the time or resources to outfit them all in army fatigues. As soon as I spot them, I’m sure they’ll know me. I have quite a reputation in Brahman’s Peak for being a savior. I’ve rescued families from the poverty and squalor Polonius has left them in. I’ll be able to gain their trust and I know how to get around without being seen. In each city, I’ll rent a room in a shoddy tavern. There are many I’ve used before to get several families to safety. All I have to do is house the Crypt Claw recruits in my room till nightfall and we can make the trek back to Navarrah City.”

“If you’re able to pull off such a feat, that sounds like a solid plan,” Jarvis acknowledged.

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