Chapter 151: Lucius meets a traveler

"Where is she?"

Ares burst through the door, his eyes moving across the room. There was an empty chair and an overturned table with no one in sight.

"She was just..."

Ares cut Soren’s words off as he grabbed him by the collar.

"Is this some sort of ploy between you and that bastard, Lucius?"

"Ploy?" Soren scoffed. "You think I will make a ploy like this?"

"As a matter of fact, yes" Damon interjected.

Soren cast him a glance, his eyes narrowing.

"When I left here, she was sitting in that chair, bound to it and Lucius was here. He said she remembered everything and we would have to leave through the tunnel. He could not have known that I would betray him except he has me followed."

"Is that right?"

"He wanted me to go with one of his men but I refused but what if he had had me followed either way." Soren said. "Ares, you may all be angry with me but surely you can see reason. I am putting my daughter’s life at risk here. We need to find them."

Ares looked him up and down.

"Let him go, son" Kieran said. "He is telling the truth."

Ares released him and stepped back.

"He must have found a way to leave."

"What way? The gates are closed and guarded and so is the tunnel by the way. He cannot escape."

"Then he must be hiding" Soren cut in. "Either way, we need to find him before he makes it out of the palace."

"Of course." Damon muttered. "Because we are to believe anything you say. You, who has betrayed his Alpha time and time again."

Soren opened his mouth but before he could speak, Cassian raised his hand.

"Stop." Everyone looked at him.

Cassian stood very still, his eyes were closed.

"Can you all hear that?"

Ares frowned.

"Hear what?"

"Listen."

They all heard it then, a faraway shout and the clang of steel and something that might have been a scream coming from the direction of the front gate.

They all rushed out.

They got to the courtyard just in time to see Lucius slinging a limp body over his shoulders, the guards dead at his feet.

Beside him, stood the white haired witch Amara.

"Stop!" Ares roared as he drew his knife and charged.

Amara’s lips began moving just as Ares threw his knife in her direction.

One second they were standing there and the next Ares was charging into empty air.

"What the..." his eyes widened in shock.

They had just disappeared.

Damon and the rest of them came up behind him, also shocked by what they had just seen.

"Guards!" Ares roared. "Search the perimeter! They cannot have gone far."

"She cannot hide them forever. She is weak and they would need horses if they intend to get to Emberfall." Soren said. "The only place they can get horses is at the village. That is where they will be headed."

Get me every man who can ride." Ares said to the guard nearest to him. "Damon" he called out.

Damon stepped forward.

"We are going after them."

"Of course" Damon nodded.

"Cassian, you seal the gates after us. No one comes in and no one goes out."

Cassian nodded.

Ares turned to Kieran and Soren.

"I think it is time to speak to the priestess and find out what she knows."

"I already did." Soren declared. "And I know for a fact that she is the reason we cannot remember the Veyr family’s execution. Miranda took our memories"

"That would make her hundreds of years old." Cassian muttered.

"And a practioner of the dark arts... a witch"

Kieran gritted his teeth, Henry’s words coming to mind.

"We cannot let her know we are unto her." He said. "We will handle it."

Ares nodded.

Damon returned with the horses and he mounted it, cast them one backward glance before he rode out of the gates.

...

Lucius could barely breathe. Ayla was heavy against his shoulder.

Amara’s lips never stopped moving. He could hear the mutter of it under her breath, low and continuous as water over stones, and beneath it the ragged edge of her exhaustion. The spell was eating her. He could see it in the gray cast of her face, in the slight drag of her feet. Good. Let it eat her. He needed it to hold a little longer. Just until the horses.

They had not gone half a mile when the road curved, and around the bend came the creak of wheels.

There was a traveler, a lone man with a cart and a horse heading toward the village.

Lucius’ eyes immediately went to the horse then the cart.

Perfect

"Drop the spell" Lucius said to Amara.

"What? Why?"

"He has what we need. If we can get him to name his price for it then we would not need to get to the village and risk getting caught."

Amara considered this and nodded, dropping the curtain of invisibility around them.

They appeared directly in the middle of the road and the man’s horse panicked.

The man pulled violently on the reins, cursing as the horse reared with him barely managing to keep his seat.

He jumped down.

"Gods..." The man’s voice was high with fright. "You cannot just jump into the road like that. I could have run you over."

Amara stepped forward, her voice gone soft and apologetic/ "We are so sorry. We did not..."

"How much for the horse and cart?" Lucius cut in.

The man’s eyebrows rose.

"What?"

Lucius stared at the horse.

"How much?"

"It is not for sale." the man said.

"We will pay you handsomely." Amara interjected. "As much as you want."

The man looked at Amara then at Lucius.

"Where did you both come from?" He asked, his eyes narrowing at Lucius. "Is that blood?" he pointed.

"It is nothing." Lucius cast him a smile but the man was not convinced.

Hi gaze moved to the figure hanging over Lucius’ shoulders and his expressed changed to one of total suspicion and fear.

"Is that a person?" The man’s voice had gone thin.

Lucius dropped Ayla to the ground. He straightened and stepped over her, and the traveler took a step back.

"No," Lucius said. "She is just..."

"Is she dead?" The man’s eyes were wide now. His hand fumbled at his belt, at the place where a knife would have been.

"Is that a person?" The man’s voice had gone thin.

Lucius dropped Ayla to the ground. He straightened and stepped over her, and the traveler took a step back.

"No," Lucius said, his hand closing over the knife at his waist. "She is just..."

"Is she dead?" The man’s eyes were wide now as he backed away from them.

Lucius knew what the man was going to do but before he opened his mouth, Lucius moved, slashing at the man’s throat.

The man’s hand flew to his throat, blood poured through his fingers as he fell to his knees and collapsed.

"Was that really necessary?" Amara scoffed, staring at Lucius with mild distaste.

He looked at her.

"Sure." He wiped the blood from his knife with the man’s cloth. "We could have let him go to the palace and report what he had seen. That would be a smart thing to do."

Amara’s lips tightened but she said nothing.

Lucius crouched and searched the man’s pockets. There was nothing useful and so he dragged the body off the road.

"I will hide the body. They will find him soon enough but we will be gone by then."

When he was done tucking the body into the bushes, he bent and hauled Ayla up again, slung her into the back of the cart among the burlap sacks and the straw, and climbed up onto the horse. "Get in."

Amara stood a moment longer, before she climbed into the cart beside Ayla.

Lucius took the reins, turned the horse hard, and drove it north, away from the village, away from the palace, toward the boundary and the dark stretch of the world that belonged to him.