Page 121 of Bosse
“Are they a danger to anyone?” Justin asked.
“No.” Alifair moved her lips as if counting to herself. “The woman in charge of the servants is very loyal to Krol, though. She probably can’t get word to him because he doesn’t use a mobile phone, but she might undermine anything you left in place. The other nine women are captives. What will happen to them?”
Scratching his head, Adrian said, “First, we’ll need a secure place to hold sixteen guards but keep them safe until our people arrive. If the women are willing to stay put, our people will be here before dark and can arrange to send them home.”
Those words lifted Alifair’s tired spirit. “I’ll tell them, but I’m not talking to Hessie, the one I warned you about. That’s up to one of you.”
Smiling because he had the perfect answer, Bosse said, “There should be five empty shifter cages in the basement for the guards.”
Eriko groaned but clamped his lips shut quickly.
Justin gave him a questioning look. “Five? You and I fought four.”
That ruined Bosse’s good mood. “Unfortunately, the worst one escaped.” He told them about Beast and how dangerous that shifter could be. “I’d like to think he’d head toward whatever is home, but that could be a continent away. Still, I don’t think he’ll come back here.”
His gaze sliced over at Alifair. She rubbed her arms as if cold, but it was not cold in here. Beast had scared her. She’d have a hard time closing her eyes again in this country with that thing loose.
Wanting to give her a task to keep her mind off Beast, Bosse suggested, “Why don’t you go with Justin to talk to the women and get them set?”
“Good idea.”
Justin had given Bosse a glare loaded with a look of are-you-giving-me-orders? When Alifair turned toward the hall by the stairs where she’d had a room, Bosse caught Justin’s eye and mouthed,Please.
Nodding that he understood, Justin went off with Alifair.
Bosse could get used to working with a team. He, Vic, and Adrian herded the guards who had come around down to the basement, then carried the others and piled them into cages.
He could do without the smell of dead animals in the hall. “We should probably burn these carcasses.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Vic concurred. He crossed the room and opened the big front doors. “Let’s toss them out front.”
While Bosse and Adrian dragged bodies into a pile outside, Vic found cooking oil in the kitchen, then gathered dead limbs and smaller kindling to start a fire. Flames engulfed the bodies quickly.
Bosse led the way back inside the castle, but the burning odor followed all three of them.
Alifair and Justin walked back into the main hall. She pinched her nose. Burned flesh smelled just as bad as dried blood on dead animals.
While walking back in, Adrian told Bosse and Vic how he planned to find Krol. “Can’t be that hard. We can find something belonging to Krol and track his scent.”
Bosse did not believe it would be that simple. “Krol is sly and not that easy to corner. He will probably take some of his clothing and drag his lion’s scent in different directions. He’ll send the wagon on a roundabout path to further confuse anyone daring to follow him.”
Running his hand over his hair, Adrian stared at the fire, then asked Bosse. “What’s your intel?”
Bosse waved Alifair over. “Tell them what you know.”
She cocked her eyebrow at him.
He closed his eyes, waiting for her to tell him she did not respond to orders. He wasn’t ordering her, just moving this along.
She surprised him by not mentioning his poor etiquette right now and explained about her dreams. She finished by sharing that she’d seen the wagon entering an area with ruins from an old castle. “I normally see only when someone has arrived at a place, but I don’t think the women are at this place yet. Not for another day or two.”
Adrian listened politely, but his wrinkled brow said he had trouble using that information. “Thank you for what you’ve shared. The problem is we have limited time to reach these women before Krol does something with them. We have gifted females in our group as well. One has visions and isalwayscorrect. Have your dreamsalwayscome true the way you see them?”
She had never claimed her dreams were always accurate, but Bosse believed in her.
Alifair gave Bosse a look of apology and admitted, “The majority of the time, yes, but not always.”
Taking his time, Adrian huffed out a sigh before replying. “I would not insult your intuitive dreaming for anything and truly appreciate all you’ve done to help us, but I have a map to where Krol is going right now. I can’t risk losing any time on a maybe.”
