There was a loud ringing in Daris’s ears. A long time passed before the king spoke again.
“We have to send Sonah with them, Daris,” Altos whispered. “We’ve no choice now. The northern king has threatened war if we do not return Sonah to him and Terena. I’d rather he visited his wrath on Solon than Sparta. You will go with Sonah, ensure her safety. I don’t want Duke Ovenno getting any stupid ideas about leveraging her for amnesty.”
Daris opened his mouth to speak but Altos held up a hand to stay him. “Terena will come for her, Daris. I want you there when she does.”
“She hates me,” he bit out, his eyes on the ground in frustration.
“Aye, well, hopefully some of what she felt for you before remains and she’ll listen to you when you explain about Lerek. It’s time. We’ve no choice.”
Chapter 4
OLYMPIA
Croak stayed close to his sister as they rounded the corner and saw the men milling about in the main hall of The Keep. She’d found him yesterday moments before the blood rushing to his head made him pass out.
With Rydon and Gabriol’s help, they’d lifted him back from the battlements where Hermes’s scum had ambushed and hung him over the wall upside down. Croak had screamed his head off, panicking when the rope slipped. His heart had lodged in his throat as he’d tried to remain still so as not to further tempt the Fates. A lifetime later, he looked up into his sister’s grim face and cried with joy at seeing her—and being rescued, of course.
Hermes’s idiots had laughed at Croak when he followed his sister into the dining hall. They weren’t laughing when she left, though. Hermes had berated her for unleashing her fury on his men, one of whom lost a leg during their argument. She’d pushed back, telling him they’d started it by picking on Croak, although he took exception to the ‘picking on’ part. He was certain he threatened their masculinity with his own virile personality and lashed out like a bunch of babies.
Or perhaps it was the innocent prank he’d pulled on them with the snake he and Orry had found in the old ruins outside the palace.
Hermes looked up as they arrived and he motioned for Terena. Croak hurried to stay close, casting a scathing look at one of Hermes’s men who had the audacity to smirk at him. His black eye and split lip made Croak feel better, though.
“Another message from Altos,” Hermes said when Terena stopped beside him.
“What now?”
The god’s usually smiling countenance was no longer on display. He looked annoyed as he thrust a crumpled note at her. “Duke Ovenno is in Sparta, asserting his parental rights. He wants Sonah to go back to Ovenno with him. The king suspects it has something to do with Emperor Solon putting pressure on the provinces no longer under his control.”
“So we go to Calla,” Terena said as she handed the message back to Hermes.
“No.” He stroked his chin and turned away. “I will still take my army south, for Sparta. You take Gabriol and Rydon and go to Calla. Take Migela too,” he added, motioning to the tall, Offeni assassin who’d joined them a fortnight ago. Migela strolled up, her hand on the hilt of her sword as she smiled grimly at Terena.
The raven-haired Offeni wore all black, her hair long on the right side while the left side was shorn to the scalp. Her nose twinkled from the jewel through her left nostril as she tilted her head and signed in greeting. Migela was mute, her tongue taken when she was a child during an invasion that killed her family. She was now one of the deadliest assassins on the continent and Croak was glad to have her on their side.
She was also a little sweet on a certain cleric.
“It’ll take them a few weeks to get there,” Terena said after she acknowledged Migela. “Why don’t I go south with you and we can intercept them?”
“I need you to do something else for me,” Hermes said distractedly as he nodded at something one of his men whispered in his ear.
Turning back to Terena, he said, “I want you to find a tracker that has… eluded some of my finest mercenaries. One of my scouts found her in a village west of Vesala. I was going to put it off for now, but since that’s where your sister’s headed, I thought it best to send you now.”
“If your man found her, why can’t he bring her back?”
Hermes sighed dramatically. “Because she gave him a message for me. She will only go with the Royal Tracker.”
“Me?”
“I assume that’s who she meant,” Hermes sang out sarcastically. His goons chuckled as Hermes turned to leave. Terena dogged his steps just as Rydon and Gabriol descended the staircase to their right. Croak caught Rydon’s eye and strolled over to him.
“She said it like that? She called me the Royal Tracker?”
“Aye.”
“What’s going on?” Rydon asked as Croak neared. He didn’t stop and Croak jogged a few steps to keep pace with him as he and Gabriol followed Ren.
“We’re going to Ovenno,” Croak said, failing to keep the excitement from his voice. “The duke went to Sparta and is taking Sonah back to Calla with him.”
