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10
Signaling for us to pause, Evie and Kingston moved forwards along the mountain skirt—their Dragons becoming invisible to the naked eye with their camouflage. Silently, they advanced until they arrived at a back entrance which I supposed was the point of extraction. Evie and her guardian dropped from their rides, stealthily walking along the shadows to remain hidden.
My head turned to do a second check of the area, noticing that there was no village surrounding the palace, but holes of dirt and rock carved along the sides of the mountains around it. Both anger and pain reached me when my mind put together what they were.
That was where Raithian kept his slaves… our people.
Sudden movement made my head snap towards the front, and I noticed a man dressed in a very elegant armor move along the wall with Evie and Kingston. That was probably Nikau, Lachlan’s cousin. Except, he was guiding them away from us, to one of the row of holes nearby.
My chest constricted when they all slipped inside one of the caves, and Tharion stomped the ground, his anxiousness entering my chest. Harper's ferocious look said to calm my Dragon or else, so I began to stroke his neck once more, wishing someone was soothing me. All crazy notions ran through my head while I glowered at the cave, begging it to spit them out again.
What if this was a trap? What if one of the guards discovered them? What if Raithian—?
Everything halted for me when I caught a shadow on the side of the castle, my Dragon gaze snapped towards it to see a sentry walk out of the building with a sword on his hip. Slowly, he began to walk the perimeter, making his rounds while looking completely at ease, probably trusting that everything would be calm. Who in their right mind would dare infiltrate the Hollow when the Warlock King was so powerful that he had a four headed Dragon under his control?
Us apparently.
Unsheathing my sword, I immediately gestured to Asher and Harper that danger was near. While Asher signaled orders to the others, I slipped down from my Dragon, ready to leap onto the man if needed. He couldn’t see us, since we were all still invisible among the dragons, but if he turned the corner towards the cave Evie and the chief had disappeared into, then our whole plan could go to shit.
As our luck would have it, Evie finally exited the dirt hole, and a string of people rushed after her. My stomach dropped when I saw them barefoot, soiled, and wearing rags that resembled torn potato sacks, which had been dragged through the mud. Some women clutched kids to their chests fiercely, others helped elderly people move towards us, while a few seemed to be injured to such a degree that they were truly struggling to even walk. Dried blood, and even some fresh, stained their bodies.
Indignation, rage, and a need for justice so fierce that I could barely see clearly slammed into me, and I didn’t care one bit if it was mine or the Dragons. I wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment. It was one thing to hear about slavery, another one to see it.
Exchanging a glance when the sentry got closer to the corner of the castle, Asher and I rushed towards him just as Evie began to guide the people onto Fulgur’s wing with Arlo’s help. I had never hurt a fly in my life, but the emotions raging through me were prepared to kill that man if he even thought of alerting the others.
We reached him just as he turned, and he halted in his tracks when he saw us, eyes widening. Asher’s hand moved towards his spear in a silent warning, and I knew that it would only take a second for him to end this. The sentry’s gaze slipped past us to catch the moment Nikau stepped out of the cave. He carried a pregnant woman in his arms, who appeared unconscious, and Kingston followed, rushing out with a boy clinging onto on his back, and a couple of girls in his arms. The three kids clung to each other around his torso, bodies shaking from fear.
The man’s attention returned to us and the surprise left him, a stoic expression capturing his face. He looked through us like we weren’t even there, and turned around, lazily continuing his rounds in the opposite direction.
Nikau gestured frantically at us that moment, indicating the man was an ally, and Asher and I relaxed. Now closer to the building, my head lifted to search the towers for any sign of light or activity inside the fortress, but nothing could be seen. When my attention lowered, I saw Fulgur’s back had several people sitting on it, and Arlo was straddling his neck. She swiftly turned him around and headed into the cave, taking her load of slaves away from there as planned.
Elijah took her place while Evie rushed into the next hole with Nikau. Kingston lifted the kids onto Alkor’s wing, and swiftly met the others in the cave. My feet itched to take me to them and help them, but Asher sent me a warning glance, knowing what I wanted to do, so we held our positions. Everyone in this mission had a role to play, and we all needed to stick to it.
Mine was to search for any sign or dark magic, Raithian’s magic, or of Azazel. I prayed I didn’t find any, because that meant our mission was over and we might very well die fighting tonight, but a part of me wished Azazel would show his face.
I was losing my mind, I knew it. Yet, I couldn’t help the way I felt.
One by one, the Dragons’ backs were filled with our people and their riders took them into the tunnel, escaping the site swiftly. Evie’s orders had been crystal clear, our priority was to take the freed people as far from this place as possible, regardless of what happened to those left behind.
No exceptions. Even if it meant we were captured.
Asher and Athina took the loading spot next while Harper exited the area, which meant only Luna and Spartan were left. Even Lachlan had taken his share of people. They didn’t count Tharion among those who could carry them to safety, understandably so. It also meant that I was the only warrior left to defend them if things went south.
No pressure.
Turning in a slow circle, I carefully assessed every inch of the building, paying special attention to the windows. Tharion turned behind me too, his head lifting to the mountains. Although I wasn’t sure whether he was just mocking me, or searching for Azazel. Something told me it was the latter.
As Asher began to climb towards Athina’s neck, the sentry once again came out to make his rounds. He’d done so twice more since we arrived, and each time he stopped by the corner, glanced right through us, then returned the way he had come. Throwing a glance over my shoulder, I saw Evie and Kingston come out with a few more people, but not as many as the other rounds. Were there no more slaves we could take with us? There were easily a thousand holes in the mountain.
Kingston had explained that each trip was different. Nikau prepared all the people he could, but we normally only took the gravely injured, elderly, and the kids, since the sentry didn’t worry about them and wouldn’t notice them missing. They weren’t able to work as hard as the others, so they were worthless to Raithian.
When my attention returned to the man approaching, I realized, to my dismay, that it was a different one. I had no idea if he, too, was on our side. They were clearly lower in ranking than Nikau, so maybe they all followed his orders, and looked the other way. Lachlan’s cousin was nowhere to be found to confirm, so I pressed my back to the wall and silently unsheathed my sword, preparing for anything.
Heart racing, I searched for Nikau before I did something I couldn’t take back. Finally, I found him, but his expression wasn’t the one I wanted to see. The sentry halted when he saw me, but unlike the other, shock and rage contorted his face. He reached for the horn on his belt and I was forced into motion. Jumping into a spin, I swiped my sword against him, the blade carving out half his torso like a hot knife through butter.
Through armor. Through muscle. Through bone.
He dropped to the ground as I landed, blood spurting from the wound while the horn tumbled out of his hand. Unfortunately, the first sound had already blared when he placed it on his mouth, alerting the fortress. I hadn’t been fast enough.
