Page 45 of War Mage

“What kind of establishment?” I ask.

“A brothel,” Urim says. “I paid a courtesan to stay in her room and to not take other clients while I was there. She was happy enough to take my coin and stay quiet about my presence. But then things went wrong.”

“Don’t they always,” I remark.

“Indeed. It would not be a mission without unforeseen complications.”

“Then what happened?” I ask. “What went wrong?”

“The courtesan I paid turned out to be Tarka’s lover, the one that she was coming to visit. When the orcress showed up, the courtesan immediately told her of my presence and I was trapped in a brothel with a crew’s worth of angry orcs looking to extract their pound of flesh from Orik. I was a very convenient target to hit with their axes.”

“How did you get out of there in one piece?” I ask, engrossed in his story.

“I almost did not,” he admits. “But I had a smoke bomb with me, mixed by the Crown’s alchemist, and threw it down. In the resulting confusion, I was able to slip out, but not before slicing Tarka’s throat.”

“How did you know it was her if the room was full of smoke?”

“Agents of the Crown are trained to filter scents, even through other distracting smells. I could smell her through the smoke and cut her carotid before the smoke cleared. But that’s when things got interesting.”

“That’swhen things got interesting?” I query, disbelieving. “Not when you were almost killed by a band of pirates?”

“No, you see, my ship wasn’t rendezvousing with me until the next day, the day that I had planned to kill Tarka and slip away. The courtesan ruined my plans and Tarka’s crew spilled into the streets looking for me. I had to escape, but had nowhere to go.”

“So what did you do?”

“Well, I realized that there was a mostly empty ship in the harbor with a full company of slaves aboard that could help me sail it,” he tells me.

“No!” I breathe out. “You stole Tarka’s own ship?”

“Yes,” he confirms. “After dispatching the few orcs that were left to guard the cargo. I freed the slaves, most of whom were orcs Tarka had captured, and we set sail, leaving the rest of the ka Grishna behind, and went back to Orik. It was a success that far outstripped the expectations that the Shield had for me. That was the mission that cemented my path toward becoming the Shield of the King myself when Rognar rose to power.”

I whistle lowly. “That is quite the tale. I can see now why you were trusted with this mission.”

“I learned from that mission that success is merely a matter of preparation and some luck,” Urim tells me. “If I had not thought to bring a smoke bomb, I would have had a very different story to tell, if I had been here to tell one at all. That, in addition to my training, let me kill Tarka. That was preparation. But Tarka’s ship being mostly empty and them having not yet sold the slaves was luck. You must take advantage of both to come out the other side of a mission alive.”

“Ugh,” I groan, but I’m mostly teasing. “I can’t believe that you took a great tale and turned it into a lesson about how I need to practice more.”

“We have nothing but time as we travel,” Urim points out. “Do you have something better to do?”

I grumble a little, but take up my bits of wire again and begin to pick the lock once more. Urim’s right, we have time right now, but the time between now and getting to Grazrath is getting shorter. I don’t have a moment to waste.

Chapter 19

Urim

The sky outside the wagon is lightening when a halt is finally called again. Adara tenses next to me, her fingers stalling in her lock-picking practice.

“Better put away your picks,” I whisper to her. “They’ll be coming to get me soon.”

Adara nods, taking her bits of wire and rebraiding them into her hair. Her nimble fingers weave the strands together gracefully. I can’t help but appreciate her delicate hands as they work. Truthfully, everything now attracts me to Adara, from her fingers to her thick hair, to the slight creases between her brows as she concentrates on her task. My Mating Instinct growls for me to touch my mate, to feel the softness of her skin with my fingers, but, of course, I do not.

It is merely that we are in close proximity to each other all the time that is making these feelings grow,I tell myself.The feelings will fade after we’ve severed the soultie.

My Mating Instinct doesnotlike that thought, but I ignore its howling and snarling, turning away from Adara to look at the back of the wagon. Any moment, a guard will come to get me and bring me to the magistrate's next feeding. Will he be satisfied with the repeat performance of yesterday morning, or will he escalate? It is impossible to tell.

I center myself mentally, finding my calm again. Whatever happens, I will keep my emotions calm, I will not let any sign of distress make its way through the mate bond to alarm Adara. I have trained for this, through my time with the warrior monks. Calm reason is my shield and I will not let it falter.

Sure enough, after some sounds of a camp being erected, a guard shows up at the back of the wagon, this time the Guard Leon from Stormfury Landing.

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