“No…” I said through clenched teeth. That wouldn’t help, not now. “We’ve lost this fight. We need to talk to the others. I don’t know if there is a way to get to Myel, but if there is, we need to help him. He’s hurt and probably in for more of a beating. I need to get stronger, and we need to make sure he survives, that’s our only priority now.”
Just like that, everything had gone to shit.
Again.
IZZY
There wasno use in returning to Magic 101, that ship had sailed. I called an emergency meeting of Team Izzy, and we met in the training compound.
I looked at Safir and Zora, they’d always been the connected ones, the most informed. “What do you know?”
“We’re still trying to find out where they’ve taken Myel, but I have all my resources focused on that,” Safir said. “We’ll find him.” And I silently thanked the tiger shifter for not bringing up the issue of my bond with Myel. We’d all known it would cause trouble eventually, for both of us, but pondering that now wouldn’t help anything.
“I did manage to find out who Myel will be fighting for the punitive deathmatch,” Zora added. “A troll, condemned for a killing spree in the east, nasty.”
“Will they still go through with that? If they know Myel and I are bonded, won’t they…” I couldn’t say it.
“No,” Vyns said, voice hard. “Saldrea loves to torture people. She’ll draw it out, make it as painful as possible. If she knows anything about bonds, she’ll know killing him will potentially kill you, and shewilldo it, but she’ll do it atthe deathmatch. She wants you to suffer for days, then die horribly.”
Koar nodded slowly, face twitching from a jaw clenched too tight.
“Well, isn’t that wonderful,” I said sarcastically, but actually it was a relief. I let out a sliver of tension in a heavy sigh. “But that means we have two and a half days to figure out a way to save Myel. I’m open to ideas.”
No one said anything right away and I couldn’t stand the silence, so I kept talking. “My plan had been to work on my ability to enhance others so I could make Myel stronger, tougher, ready for the fight. But—” I looked at Lhorine, “—I can’t do that from a distance, can I?”
She shook her head. “If you were well trained and among the strongest of elves, you could do it from a short distance away, maybe a dozen feet, but no farther.”
I nodded.
“What if… we could get you in to see Myel… in disguise?” Olinara piped up. “I’ve never paid much attention to deathmatches, but I seem to recall hearing something about the shifter having some last hurrah the night before, a special meal and aconjugalvisit?”
Of course she remembered the part about sex. That’s my grandmother for you. I’d only known her a few days, but I already knew she put the nymph innymphomaniac.
Still… if this was true, it wasn’t a bad idea.
Safir nodded. “That is usually the case, yes. The question will be will they allow it in Myel’s instance?”
A grim, mirthless smile spread on Vyns’ face. “Oh… they will. Think about it. Saldrea knows Myel is bonded. The only woman he’d wish to be with is Izzy… so of course she’s going to send some woman up there to taunt him. We need to find out who and stop her, send Izzy in her place.”
“On it,” Zora said. The hobgoblin stood. “Do you need anything else from me?”
I looked to Safir. I did need the man, even if I sometimes hated to admit it. He gave a nearly imperceptible smile as he realized the same thing.
“No,” he said. “Go.”
Zora left and the rest of us got down to planning, though our plan was fairly simple. It had a lot of holes, unknowns.
We needed to find out where they were keeping Myel. Then we needed to find out who they’d send to be with him the night before. In the meantime, I’d work my ass off to learn transmutation magic and elven enhancements so when I went in, I could make Myel into an unstoppable force.
“No, that won’t work,” Vyns grumbled.
We all looked at him.
“Why?” I asked.
“They’d have put a binding collar on him.”
“Fuck!” Safir hissed. “He’s right.”
