“Shh!” I hissed before he spoke. “I need you to slide closer and pull the pins out of my manacles.”
“Ru, what's happening? Where are we?” Cyn whispered.
“Alcha is controlling your mind. I need you to focus. I don't know how much time we have.”
“I'm going to kill them,” he growled and swung his head toward the men.
“Shh! No! If you make a move now, Alcha will only order you to stop, and we'll lose our chance. Come on, free me.”
Cyn's expression twitched with rage, but he slowly slid sideways to me, then reached out with one hand as he remained facing forward. Unfortunately, manacle pins couldn't be removed one-handed, even by a Dragon King. So he had to shift closer, then bring his other hand across his belly to help. When my left hand was free, he very slowly reached across me and freed my right hand.
“Now what?” Cyn asked.
I left my wrists in the open manacles just in case one of the Shanba glanced over. “There are weapons in the pockets of my cloak.”
“Your cloak?”
“You're wearing it, Cyn.”
He looked down. “Oh.”
“They took my crossbow and—”
“You had a crossbow in this thing?” He slid his hands into the cloak.
I rolled my eyes. “I'm a Raltven. Nowfocus. Try the pocket on the left, three rows in from the front edge and two down. There should be a collection of throwing daggers. And try to look as if you're still in a daze.”
“I love you so much right now,” Cyn whispered as he felt inside the cloak while looking straight ahead. “I've got them.”
“Slowly, hand them to me.”
Cyn slid his hand out of the cloak and placed my throwing knives in my left hand. I slid that hand free of the manacle to shift two knives into my right hand, tucking them back along my forearm, then quickly replaced my left hand, doing the same maneuver with the remaining two knives.
“There are Raltven daggers in the pockets, five down and four in on either side,” I said. “Get them out and prepare yourself.”
“Prepare myself for what?”
“We have to wait for them to decide what they're doing with us. Hopefully, Alcha will come over here to give you an order. When he does, we kill him.”
“All right.” Cyn paused, then asked, “How did we get here?”
“You tore down a wall in the castle and flew us here. We're in the Suquari Mountains. In one of the peaks.”
“What?” he turned to look at me.
“Keep facing forward,” I hissed.
Swinging his head back, Cyn said, “I don't remember any of it.” Then he frowned. “Weren't there four of them?”
“I killed Gorsi on the way here.”
A vicious grin spread over his face. “Well done.”
“Thank you, but now they want revenge against me as well as you. I think they're going to order you to torture and kill me.”
“I will never hurt you, Ru.” Cyn slid his stare toward me, only his eyes moving.
“I don't think you'll have a choice, babe.”
