I jabbed him in his ridiculously hard abs. “No fucking way, Vox Vylan. We’re in this together. Stash Iker; he’s more likely to be able to get us out of a jam if it is a trap, and he’s bleeding all over the good rugs.”
Iker bared his teeth at me. “If you think I’m letting you walk into an unknown, possibly dangerous situation without me, you’re delusional.”
Fifteen minutes later, Iker was hiding in the woods with the bags, while we watched the Baron and his entourage gallop down the pothole-riddled road on horses. They were obviously in a hurry, but they didn’t seem to be armed.
“What do you think?” Hayle asked quietly, and Vox shrugged.
“I’m unsure. They’re within the time allotment, much to my disappointment.” We’d decided that as the Baron of the Sixth Line already knew he was here, there was no point dirtying him up again.
Well, any dirtier than we’d been earlier.
“I don’t sense any ill-intent, but they could havetalspreventing me from reading their true intentions,” Lierick added, a small frown lining his forehead. It was obvious that the Baron of the First Line knew Lierick was with us, given that his powers hadn’t worked on the assassins. If the Barons were working together, there was a chance that these soldiers could be armed too, and we were sitting out here like ducks during hunting season.
All three of them looked at me, and I stared back. “What?”
“What do you think?” Hayle asked again, like that was going to make any difference.
I shook my head, and Lierick placed a hand on my spine. “You have the ability of foresight, Avie, even if you’ve never used it. We don’t need an exact prediction, but what does your gut say?”
Sucking on my lower lip, I dipped into that place that Lierick had convinced me existed. I thought about what I wanted to know, and while I’d almost expected a reel of events to play in my mind, all I got was the mental equivalent of a thumbs up.
“Uh, I think it goes fine?”
Hayle gave me an encouraging smile, leaning forward to kiss me softly. “You amaze me every day.” Then he looked back at the advancing soldiers still galloping down the mountainside. “They’re going to injure their horses,” he muttered to himself, his expression turning irate.
The first wave of guards arrived, stopping in front of us, but they didn’t climb down from their mounts. Instead, they stared at us with something between suspicion and incredulity. Vox’sfingers flexed, like he wanted to shove them off their horses, but he resisted.
The Baron of the Sixth Line appeared, quickly dismounting. He was puffing loudly, and Will Marlee was beside him just as quickly.
“Thank you for waiting,” he told Hayle. “We came as fast as we could.”
Given the way the Baron was sucking in air, maybe they should have arrived a little slower so he didn’t run the risk of a heart attack.
None of the guys spoke up, so I inclined my head at the Heir to the Sixth Line. “You’re welcome?”
He huffed a laugh, making the guys beside me tense. He raised his hands. “Whoa. Not flirting with your wife, Taeme. I have one of my own, who’ll have my balls if it’s even suggested that I flirted with another woman. Though, she’s more likely to steal your wife than me.” He looked at Vox. “Heir Vylan. What a pleasant surprise.” There was clear animosity there, and I wondered if it was because there was history between them, or just because he was a Vylan.
Vox merely lifted a single brow. “I’m sure.”
Sighing, Hayle pulled me closer. “Enough. What is it you want, Baron Marlee?”
In answer, the Baron raised a hand, and a small woman in pants appeared, looking peeved. She unbolted a gilded box, lifting out a painfully fragile scroll. I almost knew what was going to be on it before the Baron held it out to Hayle.
I quickly read it over his shoulder.
Beneath the wings of the Spryrix, the Sixth will rise. Between the teeth of the Spryrix, the Sixth will fall.
It was signed by Ellanora Halhed.
Great. Another prophecy.
Hayle handed the parchment back to the Baron, who passed it immediately over to the woman. She slid it back into its gilded box, which was placed carefully in the saddlebags. I’d bet my next orgy that she was either the archivist or the Librarian here.
We stood in silence for a moment, because well, what did you do with that?
“And what do you take that to mean?” I asked softly. “Ellanora Halhed was my ancestor, but her prophecies could be vague.”
I sent a mental apology to Ellanora’s ghost if she was watching me. But we needed to know their next move, and I needed to know if it put Hayle at risk. Would they try to capture Hayle and pin his wings to the wall, taking her prediction as literally as possible? Or would they try and eradicate Hayle, and take their chances on the rise-and-fall portion of the foresight? People were unpredictable; people in power were more unpredictable than most.
