Page 107 of Storm of Fury
“What?” Haakon demanded.
Marduk raked his hands through his hair. “She’s alone out there. She doesn’t understand the world and how it works. She can’t shift and she can’t fly. And although she’s worked out how to create a portal, I don’t think she truly knows how to wield one, just yet, or she’d have made one big jump. I can’t just fly home and leave her. Anything could happen to her.”
True. Or….“We’ve been hunting her for over a week. So have both Keepers. Despite our combined experience, she’s managed to avoid all of us, and even gained ground on us by the look of it.”
“She’s creating portals to skip ahead,” Marduk protested. “How are you even going to find her? You have no magic.”
“I’m not going to trackher,” he explained patiently. “I’m going to hunt the Keepers.” It was easier to trackthemrather than Ishtar, but while Marduk owned adreki’ssenses, he couldn’t read a trail once the scent had faded.
Drekihunted the skies, but when your prey kept disappearing, there was nothing to search for. It was clear the Keepers had decided to continue on foot and follow her trail of broken branches and bare footprints.
Marduk shook his head. “They’re not the type ofdrekiyou’re used to, friend Tormund. They are fanatics, obsessed with protecting the world from the dangers of Chaos magic. They will kill any who stand in their way.”
“And you’re no match for twodrekicultists by yourself,” Haakon barked.
“Do I look like an idiot?” His voice roughened. “I don’t intend to confront them unless necessary. Marduk can fly you home and then come find me if need be. And I won’t be alone.”
They all looked at him.
He turned his head toward Bryn, who’d been leaning against a tree and watching proceedings with a guarded expression.
“Oh, no,” she said, stepping back and shaking her hands. “My part in this is done. I helped you rescue your prince. I owe you no further debt. This is where we part.”
“You want your honor back?” he told her. “Then it starts here. A letter of confession isn’t going to make up for the last hundred years.”
“I never said I wanted my honor back,” she said coldly.
“No? And yet, you came back,” he pointed out. “You didn’t have to do that. And I’ve heard you call yourself many things before, Bryn. Cold. Honorless. A mercenary. You call yourself those names enough times to make me wonder who you’re trying to convince.”
“I came back because….”
“Because?”
Her lips thinned. “Because you were going to get yourself killed.”
“And what about the princess? When they speak of the Brightfeather, they say she never left a woman unguarded.”
Bryn glared at him. “That woman is dead.”
“Then why do you want to return to her life?”
The question seemed to stun her.
Bryn’s eyes flared wide, her beautiful lips parting.
“Help me,” he begged in a soft tone. “Help me find Ishtar. Not for coin. Not out of a sense of guilt. Just help me because I asked it of you.”
She backed away. “No. No. A thousand times no. You’re out of your depths this time. Even I know better than to face the Keepers.”
“For once I agree with her,” Haakon snapped. “You’re only human, Tor.”
And one who doesn’t need his fucking hand held. “I won’t get too close to them then. I’ll merely track them and keep my distance—”
“Keep your distance?” Bryn burst in. “They will smell you coming for miles. And while they might consider you an insignificant gnat, they won’t take any chances when it comes to Ishtar’s freedom.”
“That’s not your concern,” he told her bluntly. “There’s a princess out there in the snow, lost, bewildered, and probably frightened. I’m not going to leave her to the mercy of the elements or the so-called mercy of a pair of fanatics. And she trusts me.Me.”
“I swear, you are the stupidest man I’ve ever met! They will flay you alive!”
