"General Ehuna, I did not expect you. Nor for you to bring me prisoners," Tannin said.
I gritted my teeth. Of course he hadn't expected Ehuna to come. He had sent men to kill her because of her connection to us. Not that he would admit that to everyone standing here. Nor would it matter if he did. He was in command, and nothing else mattered.
Ehuna would have been perfectly within her rights to call him out, but of course she was smarter than that.
She pulled on the ropes around my wrists and lifted her head to meet Tannin's gaze despite the distance. "Those under my command do not deserve to die for these two. So many lives lost for just two. I could not, in good conscience, allow it."
Above us, Tannin made a loose gesture with his hand, and the tension in the air eased slightly. Weapons retreated into the wall, and a few of the soldiers disappeared, the clatter of their armor nearly eclipsed by the grinding of the gate opening. More soldiers poured out, and they held their weapons loosely at their sides as they dragged Legacy and me from our horses.
As much as I wanted to lash out with my magic and end this right now, that wasn't the plan. We needed to be taken inside, or else the rest of our plan would fall apart before it even began.
Still, that didn't mean I would just go along with it willingly. Tannin would be suspicious if we did, and I was more than happy to put up a fight as the guards dragged us through the gates.
I kicked and elbowed as much as I could with my hands still bound, and I even felt a crunch under my kick, accompanied by a grunt and a cry of pain. At least one broken bone, which I hadn't intended, but it was certainly going to sell our story a bit better.
Tannin waited in the courtyard inside, his expression smug. I made a rude gesture at him, spitting at his feet as the guards dragged us by him. His long robes shuffled on the ground behindus as we headed deeper into the fortress, likely toward the dungeons. The tunnels narrowed so much that Legacy and I, as well as the guards holding us, walked in single file.
The perfect opportunity to lash out and set the next stage of our plan in motion.
I glanced over my shoulder at Legacy, and despite the jostling, I found her looking at me as well. The corner of my lips quirked up in a smile.
We were in agreement, then. Now was the time.
We yanked our bound wrists apart, and reaching deep inside myself, I pulled my magic to the surface and unleashed it. The power surged against the soldiers holding us and slammed them against the walls, pinning them there.
Tannin gasped as the wall of power coiled around us, leaving us standing in our own little room of magic, cramped in the confines of the tunnel while the soldiers stuck to the walls.
"Don't move," I warned.
Tannin yelped as he stepped backward and ran straight into the magic wall. Not enough to do any serious harm, but he would have been better off if he’d listened to what I’d said.
Legacy snatched weapons from one of the soldiers. With a wild, fierce grin, she flipped a dagger around in her palm to hand it to me, holding a sword in the other. "I get the big one, but I can share. I’m generous like that."
I snorted and took the dagger from her loose grip. Both of us turned back toward Tannin, still cowering against the wall of magic that I held with nearly no effort at all.
How had this man caused so much terror and death? He was a coward, and we would make him pay for what he had done.
"So,” I began. “You're going to tell us exactly who you're working with to continue this war."
"And if I don't?" he challenged.
Legacy tilted the sword’s blade up toward him, and he cringed. Her smile looked nearly feral, and I chuckled under my breath.
If nothing else, this was actually sort of entertaining.
"Then we kill you and track down the next of your conspirators to make them tell us.” I shrugged. “Your choice."
Tannin nodded slowly. “Then I think I’ll choose option C.”
“There is no option C,” I shot back.
He flashed out his right-handed gauntlet. His magic surged right into Legacy and knocked her back into me, flattening us both to the ground. Around us, my magic wall dissolved. His soldiers dropped from the tunnel walls, and all of them advanced toward us.
Tannin’s laugh rose up from behind them. “There’s always an option C.”
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
