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If he thought he could stop us from taking her, he'd find himself feeding beetles on the forest floor.
6
Ryze
"Since when do Fae fight other Fae?" Khala asked after I caught up. She didn't seem scared of me, just nervous. That alone made her different from other humans. Most of them were terrified of the sight of me and my men. As they should be. So why wasn't she scared?
"You don't know much about us, do you?" I asked flatly. "Allow me to dispel a myth or two. We have no use for your names, outside being cordial. We don't sacrifice humans to the gods. And we don't eat humans." After a moment I added, "Without their consent."
That earned me a look of surprise and appraisal. Yes, she was definitely not scared of me. I was going to have to work harder at that.
"So fighting other Fae is normal for you?" Her words were dangerously close to an accusation.
"It's not something I prefer to do," I said. "But if the situation calls for it, I'll do whatever is necessary. Currently, the situation calls for us to be quiet." Dalyth had probably recalled her men by now, and readied the carriages to move on, away from Havenmoor. It didn't hurt to put a bit of fear in Khala and Zared, if only to ensure their obedience.
I got that for a few minutes at least, until Khala broke it.
"Where are we going? Back to Ebonfalls?"
"Definitely not," I said. "It's not safe there for you."
She seemed to be thinking about that for a moment. "Is it safe for any of my sisters? The younger ones, who are still Silent Maidens."
"For now." I managed to sound reassuring even though it was a flat out lie. There was nothing I could do for the rest of them. Not today. As it was, we'd only come this far east for information. Once we learned the Temple was moving the maidens today, we had to act. If there was anything I hated, it was being taken by surprise. Clearly the information that they wouldn't be moved for another month was spurious. When I found out who passed that on, their head would adorn my city gates. It was too long since any decorated them.
"Where are you taking us?" Zared asked insistently. He looked very much like if he didn't like the answer, he'd refuse to go.
I silently dared him to try. He was more than welcome to return to the caravan. Dalyth might even let him explain who he was before she had him executed. She did like playing with her toys.
"Somewhere safe," was all I said.
He looked like he might argue, but Khala signed something to him with her hands. It must have been a request for him to keep the peace, because he became silent after that. Thank the gods. Another word out of his mouth and I might have reminded him we didn't need him to have a tongue.
I dropped back to where Tavian scouted behind us. "Any sign of anyone following?"
"There is one, maybe two," he said after a moment. "They're doing a crap job of keeping quiet."
I regarded him for a moment, then sighed.
"Everyone stop," I ordered wearily. "Get into the bushes."
Khala looked confused and, for the first time, scared. Miraculously, she didn't stop to argue when Vayne pulled back branches and waved her forwards. She and Zared ducked down. Vayne followed.
Tavian and I both dropped to a crouch, knives in hand.
There, I could smell them. Up ahead. They must have gotten around us while we were talking. If I could smell them, then they could smell us. Them and the two behind. They were moving through the trees like a flock of drunk griffins.
Two against four, those were fair odds. None of us had surprise on our side, but our opponents were split up. They were trying to herd us into a pincer, to catch all of us between them. I doubted they had orders to bring Khala back alive and kill the rest of us. That gave us an advantage. They wouldn't shoot blindly if they were armed with bows.
In theory.
They could kill us all and go back to Dalyth with some story about us killing Khala. That wouldn't end well if she figured out they were lying. And she would. Or she'd kill them, just in case. As far as I was aware, the woman didn't know the meaning of the words 'moral compass,' much less possessed one.
I nodded to Tavian and pointed back the way we came. I gestured to myself and pointed forward.
He nodded, rose and disappeared amongst the bushes and trees.
"I'm going with you." Zared crawled out from under the bushes. He looked like a half drowned mouse the palace cat dragged in.
