Page 86 of The Eye of the Fifth
‘We have to get out,’ Sunsi hissed at him. ‘They can’t find us here… they can’t find-’
Gedeon clamped a hand to her lips. His brother may have been incapacitated behind them, but his ears still worked just as well.
He turned to look at him.
But Sekun was gone. Salired out.
Which meant they had mere minutes before a blood-red sea of soldiers flooded the streets.
‘Follow my lead. Hood up, look down. Don’t let them see your face,’ Sunsi ordered, pulling her own over her head. She pulled thetavern door open, and announced to the few onlooking neighbours, their nosing heads still peering from their doorways, ‘It seems some people do not know their ale limit.’ Her tone was light and cheery. ‘I am taking him home. Sorry to have disturbed your rest. Please, go back to your beds.’
‘Captain, is everything alright?’ came the voice of a man to their right, and as he approached, Gedeon saw from his uniformed black boots that he was a sentry.
‘Krafer,’ Sunsi said, a tight smile on her voice. ‘Nothing I cannot handle. Go back to your post. I have this under control.’
The sentry did not obey her order. Instead, he slowly moved toward Gedeon. ‘Captain…’ he said with hesitancy. ‘Is… is that…?’
Sunsi’s voice lowered, turning stone cold as she stood between them. ‘I told you to leave, Krafer, do not make me ask again.’
Tanwen, hear me. Hear me. You were right, the whole time, you were right. I need you, friend.
Furious footsteps slapped the cobblestoned street, a hoard that would herd them into a corner with no escape. Summoned by a raging, mutilated prince.
‘You’re…’ Krafer said with dawning understanding, reaching for the sword at his hip, ‘...harbouring a fugitive.’
‘Standdown,’ Sunsi said dangerously. ‘That’s an order.’
But Krafer was still pulling his blade from its sheath.
‘Out of time,’ Gedeon muttered from under the hood, then ripped it back, pulling out his sword once more and striking it through Krafer’s heart.
‘No!’Sunsi cried as her soldier fell to the ground.
‘We have to run.Now.’Gedeon did not wait for her assent before grabbing her by the arm, forcing her into a sprint beside him. They had only one hope now, and that hope was not answering his call-
At the top of a ridge in the street, breath high in his lungs, Gedeon halted.
Waiting for them at the city’s edge, at the end of the street before the terrain levelled into the dust plains that ran into the River Emor, was a hundred soldiers.
But they were not Sunsi’s sentries.
Death-black armour covered their bodies, and on their heads sat horned helmets, reminiscent of the demonic creatures that had ruled Droria in the Void Ages.
High Wielders. Undoubtedly.
‘Gedeon, Gedeon, Gedeon…’ Sekun’s voice rang from behind through the sooty air.
Gedeon and Sunsi turned to see him passing slowly through the sentry ranks, his coat ruined from the puncture Gedeon dealt him but no longer bleeding, eye swollen shut and bloody. There were some things that even fae blood could not heal. It was unlikely his left eye would ever truly recover.
‘This is the end of the road, Gedeon,’ Sekun said. ‘You cannot run. You cannot hide. You can only face the consequences of your nobleactions. Andyou.’He turned to Sunsi, face darkening. He pointed to his bloodied eye. ‘For this… I think I will beg the Empress to let me have you rather than a swift death. I will, of course, have to assure her that you will suffer greatly for your crimes against this Empire. But then I will take good, good care of you, Captain. Do not worry.’ He stepped forward, his gaze flicking to Gedeon. ‘I think I will also beg the Empress to make you watch, brother. I did not give you that courtesy with that half-blood whore of yours… I’ll be sure to be more generous this time.’
Ignoring the rage that roared inside, Gedeon screamed one last desperate plea into the dragon bond:TANWEN! NOW! I NEED YOU NOW!
The sentries began to close in on them.
TANWEN-
No need to shout, princeling, I heard you the first time.
