Page 135 of Owned By the Fae
‘Are you well?’ she asks.
I nod. ‘It’s just a bit taxing for the Harbinger to keep the Breach open for so long.’
She gives me a smile and squeezes my hand. ‘Will it be rested enough to open the Breach again in a few minutes? The rest should come through then, I’ve been told.’
I nod. ‘It will be ready.’
Only once more and all of the fae of the fold will be safe. The Harbinger is as relieved as I am.
‘They'll be safe,’ it echoes. ‘They'll all be safe now.’
I realize how worried it’s been, not just for me, but for those it once swore to protect.
‘The sun is beginning to set here,’ I murmur as I glance at the horizon, ‘and the times seem to be the same in the fold as they are here. How much time do we have? Is the Dark Realms close?’
‘I didn’t want to worry you,’ it answers. ‘But don’t delay. Open the Breach now.’
Kal
I searchthe rubble of the keep in my incorporeal form, gratified on so many levels that most of it has been destroyed.Lia’s room has half slid into the moat, and it is with difficulty that I even get to it. I realize as I walk through it how lucky we were to escape. If not for the Harbinger’s ability to open the Breach, we would have been crushed by the ceiling.
Seeing the remnants of the place where she was kept for all those weeks, tortured and tormented, treated like nothing ... yes, I’m glad it's gone. In what’s left of the room itself, I look around, finding blood but not much else. Fiana's body is nowhere to be found, so I can only assume that she got through the Breach. But I can't unearth any evidence of Varrik either, and I grit my teeth.
I pick my way through the rubble, annoyed that I haven’t found a definitive answer to any of my questions. I was hoping for a body or two. I wanted to see with my own eyes that Varrik and Fiana are dead.
I hear a noise behind me, and I turn, half hoping it's Varrik himself so I can slit his throat here and now without him being any the wiser. But it's Tristian, one of the last of his surviving elites. He's picking through the rocks as well, muttering to himself inaudibly. I keep silent, staying invisible so he can't see me, and I watch him.
He meanders through the room and over the half-broken threshold to get into the corridor outside that now balances almost precariously as the earth beneath it has subsided. I can hear rocks moving, and I know the building doesn’t have long before the rest of it collapses. I only hope it doesn't come down around my ears.
I follow the elite as he goes to the other side of the keep, where some of the rooms are still largely intact.
‘Did you find anything?’ A female voice asks, and I see it's the other one.
Meryl.
‘No,’ he answers. ‘I can't find hide nor hair of Varrik nor Fiana. The Harbinger is gone as well.’
She snarls. ‘What happened here?’
Tristian shakes his head. ‘Whatever it was, it was quick. Gods, we were only in the village. What did you find on this side?’
‘Vern and Rikoth’s bodies, their bones broken almost beyond recognition. I knew them by their clothes.’
Tristian frowns. ‘Was it the Harbinger? Did she get free?’
‘I don't know,’ Meryl blusters, ‘but we'll make her pay!’
I roll my eyes. I don't need any more of my female’s enemies finding her. I’d best stop them before they try to leave the fold.
I sneak close to Tristian, and when I’m just a step away, I silently throw my knife into Meryl’s back. Her body hasn’t hit the floor before I slit his throat. Neither has time to do anything at all. It's quick, almost anticlimactic. But I don't need them trailing after us. By the time all this is finished, I don't want Lia to still be looking over her shoulder, and that means taking down anyone who could be a threat to us.
I go to the main hall and find that it's almost completely undamaged, bar some loose bricks and a hole in the ceiling.
I find what Meryl was talking about. Vern and Rikoth are very much dead; probably killed by Varrik once he realized they were betraying him. Their bones are twisted and gnarled. Crushed.
I go to Rikoth’s corpse first, and I rummage around in the pouch on his belt. I find the purple amulet that, in hindsight, I’ve decided might be useful outside the fold.
I pocket it and then frown. Perhaps Vern has one as well.
