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When he finally dropped a short distance from the tunnel, he set her carefully on her feet and held her arm to steady her. Her face was pale, and though she attempted to regain her composure, her breath still left her in panicked pants. Her wide eyes slowly took in their surroundings before narrowing on the tunnel ahead of them.
“Is this it? Are you going to have to go down… there?” She swallowed nervously.
“You did want to speak to the Master of the Guild,” he reminded her. “Or have you changed your mind?”
“No, no. I haven’t changed my mind that is. It’s just… I have this terrible fear of tight, closed-in places,” she said with a wince.
“The labyrinth to the Court is a bit tight,” he agreed, not willing to lie to the female, “but the Court itself is a wide space, comfortable enough for humans, I believe.”
Her eyes darted to him, and her brow furrowed. “But not for you?”
“Ragoru … we have different needs, I think. Though we live in comfortable dens we are not used to being confined in such a manner for lengths of time.”
“Is that why you were out wandering the city?”
He grimaced but didn’t answer, knowing his silence would speak for him. She laughed softly, her hand touching his arm with sympathy.
“I can imagine it is not easy. Very well. If you can brave it, so can I. Let’s get on with it before I lose my nerve.”
He smiled down at her and moved toward the entrance of the tunnel, aware that she followed so close to him that she was nearly underfoot. He moved with more caution but did not rebuke her. She was managing her fear quite well. As they moved through the corridors of the tunnel, Tim leaped out from around one of the bends.
“Kyx, there you are! Your triad is looking for you, and the big one, Rager, he is not at all happy, in fact… who is that?”
The boy peered at the female with open curiosity, the dirty sleeve of his tunic coming up to swipe at his nose. The female moved closer into the torchlight and Tim’s mouth parted in surprise.
“Oh, Blessed Mother, you don’t belong down here,” he whispered frantically. “It is not right for a lady to come into the Court.”
A gentle smile curved her lips. “It might not be considered right in some circles,” she said, “but I think when it comes to the fall of the Order, we can consider it to be a greater sort of right in this situation.”
Tim laughed, his lopsided smile widening. “Truer words never spoken, miss.”
“Maddi,” she offered.
“Miss Maddi, then. The Master isn’t expecting you, but I am sure he will be interested in hearing whatever you have traveled here to say if it benefits his aim to bring down the Order. I will run ahead to let him know you are coming.”
Tim raced ahead of them as Kyx kept his pace reasonable for Maddi as she picked her way through the tunnel. Even with the low light of the torches her eyesight seemed terrible, and she often stumbled over various rubble. She came perilously close to stepping onto the boards of a trap before Kyx pulled her away. He was relieved when they finally arrived at the Court. Tim had plenty of time to alert everyone to their arrival. Most likely his triad would also be present.
As expected, his brothers stood near Cyrus. Upon seeing him, Rager crossed both sets of arms over his massive chest, but Warol just grinned. Kyx had no doubt he was pleased to see that he wasn’t the only one apt to break the rules when it suited him. Kyx’s ears lowered under the glower of their lead. He wasn’t like Warol, who enjoyed a good fight. Rager’s disapproval crashed over him. Maddi glanced up at him with concern, but he gave her an encouraging smile as he left her in front of Cyrus while he joined his brothers. Rager didn’t say anything, other than narrow his eyes at him with irritation.
Cyrus frowned as he stroked his fingers through his beard. He carried the air of authority that didn’t seem present unless he was fully engaged in his role as Master. A crowd began to gather, which seemed to heighten Maddi’s anxiety. Kyx could smell it rolling on her, but despite her fear she betrayed none of it on her face. His admiration for his mate’s cousin grew. Cyrus seemed to share that appreciation and then some, because after a long minute of quietly observing the female, he broke into a wide smile.
“Mistress Maddi, fancy meeting you again. After slapping my face and chasing me with a slew of vulgarities I never would have expected from a lady upon learning that I wasn’t the gentleman you imagined I was, I was certain that I would never see you again.”
“You mean for lying to me,” she corrected, her voice maintaining its steady tone.
“Such an unreasonable distinction,” he chuckled. “Tim tells me you have brought some very important information for me.”
“I have. As you may be aware, the First Elite Huntsman is preparing marriage to the Lady Anwar.”
“So, we have heard tell, although we are not all agreed on whether such speculation is accurate or not,” Cyrus returned, a bland smile on his face.
“I assure you it is. I am her cousin, Madelin Fairwell. And I’m telling you that this is no false heir. The First Elite has tried before to join with a direct descendant of Lady Felicity Anwar. My grandmother, Lady Vera, schemed to get her only daughter born of Lord Anwar joined with the First Elite to align our families, but Elizabet joined with another against her wishes and left with a colony group with her husband. Much to grandmother’s disappointment, neither of the sons born from her joining with Lord Anwar bore any daughters, and in fact died young without progeny. As for her sons whom Lord Anwar adopted, most are notably huntsmen who waited late to settle. My father was born of her first joining before that of Lord Anwar, and though I am not descendant it didn’t stop her from trying to pressure me into seeking union with the First Elite. But now that she has Arie,” she shook her head grimly, “she is carrying through the plans that begun with Elizabet.”
“So, she is of value because the Anwar family is a family of huntsman,” Warol growled. “Our mate will not cooperate with such things.”
Maddi shook her head. “No, she’s valuable because she is of direct bloodline to the first oracle. You don’t understand. It was never supposed to be like this. Long before the arrival of the Ragoru, everything was chaos and anarchy. Our world that we nearly destroyed was returning the favor and we were dying off at alarming rates. There was no hope. The Lady Anwar came out of nowhere. No one had heard of her before. She brought the Mother and the gods to us, prophesying that a time of hope would come, and the people would be made strong again.”
“Everyone knows this bedtime story. The seer reordered our civilization, gave us hope, and created the Order to protect us and kill Ragoru,” Cyrus said with a roll of his eyes.
