Page 93 of Eldritch
Wyntertide, the oldest Vespyri city, had to be the most beautiful in all of Aethyria. Situated closest to the eastern moon, the largest of the two, the city glowed in an ethereal shimmer that bathed the ancient buildings. As much as Kazhimyr longed to take in the open fields of icy blue snow lilies, the stretches of stone buildings adorned with creeping vines, and the icy river that wound through the small shops, he was far too preoccupied to truly admire it all.
Dravien brought his horse to a halt just before the main stretch and twisted around in his saddle. “This is where we’ll part ways for the evening. Perhaps I’ll find you later at the hostelrie.”
“Perhaps,” Kazhimyr said and with a nod, the Elvyniran kept on down the cobblestone road.
When he was certain Dravien was out of earshot, he turned to Ravezio. “My senses are telling me we should find another way.”
“You don’t trust him.”
“Do you?”
“Not as far as I can toss him.”
“Good. It’s settled, then. We’ll find a way to Calyxar on our own.” Kazhimyr gave a light kick to the horse’s flank and set off through town in the direction of Wintergrave.
As they rounded a stretch of small shops that circled the fountain square, Kazhimyr eyed a tall, massively built figure with a familiar face snaking through the crowd. Brisk steps sent the dark hood he wore lifting back just enough to catch red hair trimmed to his skull and unmistakable violet eyes.
“Torryn?” Ravezio said behind him.
Kazhimyr studied his quick strides, before noticing three cloaked men who seemed to be following the Letalisz toward an alley between buildings. “We’ll round the square to the back and pick him up there.”
Kazhimyr turned his horse, retraced his steps to the last alley they’d passed, and galloped down the narrow stretch toward the other side, with Ravezio chasing after him. When they reached the end of the alley where Torryn had been heading, they found their fellow assassin trapped at the other end, surrounded by the cloaked figures, each of them brandishing a sword.
“Hand it over,” he heard one of them demand before leaping toward Torryn.
While the brute could’ve probably taken on all three, Kazhimyr opted to hurry it along by lowering his palm toward the ground.
A blast of mist rushed toward the men, who quickly lost their footing as they jerked and slid across the ice he’d just laid down.
Torryn’s boots shot out from under him, and he tumbled backward on his ass, the sound of his groan echoing down the alleyway. The mist curled around him like a rope banded across his midsection, and Kazhimyr gave a hard yank that sent his bulky form skating over the surface toward them.
Once he was close enough, Kazhimyr tugged back the mist, and Torryn spun around on the ice to face them.
“Should’ve known it was you two cunts.”
Kazhimyr laughed at that. “Pardon the interruption. Would you like me to send you back to finish?” He nodded toward theother cloaked men, who scrambled on hands and knees toward them.
“Not particularly,” Torryn said, rising to his feet. His hands flailed as he lost his balance, but Ravezio reached out just before he tumbled backward again, gripping his arm. Torryn mounted the horse behind Ravezio, and the three of them made haste to the path outside of the town square, and up through a wooded hillside. “’The hell are you two doing here, anyway?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” Finally out of ear shot, Kazhimyr spoke freely. “Are you with Dolion?”
“Yeah. Rykaia, Allura, they’re all there.”
The very mention of Allura’s name stirred Kazhimyr’s urgency to see her again. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d been so intrigued by a woman. “Who were the men following you?”
“Scholars from the university. A secret society, of sorts.”
“How in seven hells did you incite the violence of scholars?”
“Don’t let their title fool you. Those bastards are ruthless. They guard the ancient books.”
“And so…why were they chasing you?”
From inside his cloak, Torryn tugged out a brown, leather-bound book that looked like it’d been through war, as worn and weathered as it was.
Kazhimyr tilted his head just enough to read the title of it.Blood Lineage Codex. “Are you attempting to track down a bloodline?”
“Dolion asked me to fetch it.”
