Page 56 of Oathborn
Javen was nowhere to be found.
“I’ll head back,” Jones said, not asking Tobias’s permission.
“Sounds good.” Tobias gave it, anyway.
At the entrance, Erik didn’t bother with delicacy. He shoved the heavy oak door open with his shoulder. It swung inward with a groan of protesting hinges, the momentum carrying it until the iron-banded edge slammed against the wall with a solidthwack. Plaster dust puffed out from the point of impact, leaving a fresh gouge in the wall.
“Commander Lockwood’s gonna kill you for the dent,” Drace told Erik.
“Nah, he’d let us burn it to the ground, if we asked.” Erik drew his pistol as he walked into the manor. “But Javen said not to make a mess.”
“Surprising, coming from him.”
The two Crimsons shared a laugh as Erik added, “How many times did we show up to a location to find the whole damn site already burned down?”
Something about the familiar way the men talked about the captain made Tobias bristle. He was rather used to being the only one who knew the captain.
“Drace,” Tobias said, “you patrol the outside, and Erik, you take the upstairs. I’ll sweep this floor.” The two exchanged a look, clearly unimpressedwith Tobias’s commands. He tried his best to summon that steely-eyed gaze Javen used so well. “Now.”
Drace made a mocking salute and headed back outside. Erik took the stairs two at a time, leaving Tobias alone. He swapped his pistol for the miniature incandescent electric lamp clipped to his belt and swept its beam across the hunting trophies. Finding nothing, he kept moving, across the grand hall. To think that Lockwood referred to such a place as a lodge when Tobias’s entire family home could fit in its entrance way. Even a single work of art from one of the walls would bring his ma more money than she’d make in a year.
Opening a heavy hardwood door, Tobias walked into a vast kitchen. Immediately, he spotted a single olive on the floor. Someone had been here.
Zari.
Any minute now, one of the Crimsons would find her.
He would be right, and Zari would be branded a traitor. Even if she was able to prove her innocence, the rumors would spread about the general’s daughter. How she’d turned her back on everything her father had died for, how she’d sided with the fae over her own countrymen.
He scanned the kitchen slowly. The dust here had been disturbed, hinting at recent occupation by beings far larger than mice. In the corner a closed wooden door must lead to the pantry. And there, Tobias noticed the smallest bit of fabric peeking out. Zari’s dress.
A few steps, and he’d have her. He’d have proof, too, to show the Crimsons he wasn’t a fool, even if he was from Karsic. But Zari had saved his life. Could she really be guilty? He turned, still unsure of what to do, just as a bright sword blade swung an inch from his neck. Biting back a curse, Tobias froze.
“What are you doing here?” the unseen attacker asked, with a Karsici accent that matched Tobias’s own. Was Zari’s traveling companion not a fae?
It startled Tobias almost as much as the attack had. “I don’t mean any harm.”
“An interesting statement for a military officer.” The shadow-wrapped figure replied. “Are you here for Zari?”
A lead weight settled in Tobias’s gut.
“Do you have any idea what will happen to her, if you turn her in?” the speaker asked. “The military has no mercy for sympathizers of the fae. Are you willing to send her to a firing squad?”
“No, I just… I was doing as I was ordered.”
The speaker snarled, a low, furious noise. “My advice,soldier,is to question orders rather than follow them blindly. Now, tell me who sent you. Lockwood, or another Crimson?”
Generic, vague answers flickered in Tobias’s mind. The Rhydonian government. His commanding officer. The law. “If I tell you, will you let me live?”
“There’s a reason you’re not dead yet, yes.”
“It was Captain Javen, of the Cobalts.”
Mercifully, the sword swung away from Tobias. Before he could take a breath, the speaker shoved him hard, between his shoulders. Tobias careened forward, hitting the ground hard. As fast as he tried to push himself upright, his attacker had moved faster, so fast that Tobias only saw a hint of motion and heard a muffled curse. “Drowned and done, isn’t it!”
The figure vanished, into the shadows, as a creaking door opened and shut. Tobias blinked. That phrase… he hadn’t heard it since leaving home. What was someone from Karsic doing mixed up in all this?
Tobias’s knees wobbled. Placing one hand on his neck, he breathed a sigh of relief. The stranger had held the blade with deadly precision. Whoever they were, Tobias would leave Zari with them, and return to the capital, a failure, but one who hadn’t gotten the nurse who had saved his life killed.
