The Golden Rider Book 1: The Golden Traitor

Chapter 2.11

Chapter 2.11

It was getting really dark, and Liam had yet to make an appearance. I was starting to get worried. Cain told me that Liam had left the stables a little while ago. His Dragon Amber was making rounds tonight, so we at least had that going for us. Amber wouldn't give us away if we were caught. I just hoped that Val was doing okay all alone. Sure she had Adonis, but Adonis was a young Dragon. Young Dragons tended to cause a lot of trouble when they grew bored, and from what I gathered, Adonis was bored a lot. There was a rustling to my left and soon Liam popped his head out.

"If I were one of the New Order, you would have been arrested for looking suspicious," he told me.

"Well good thing it was you then. Now come on. I promised Silver that I would be back by nightfall which is really soon."

"I had to make sure I wasn't followed. Some of us are more careful."

"Maybe I'll just leave you here," I muttered and took off in the streets. I heard Liam behind me. I had to give him credit. For a big guy he moved much more silently than I thought. I expected him to be clanking and stumbling, but he had no trouble keeping up. Great. He really was a stud.

"Keep to the shadows. We have a full moon on a clear night. Cain said your Dragon has outer rounds, but what about rounds inside?"

"That's done by a human like us."

"How does one person do that all by themselves?"

"It's not too hard. You instill the fear, and everything falls into place. Most of these people have never had to use a sword. You kill a few people and everyone is too scared to do anything." I stopped and turned around to face him.

"You've killed a few people?" He looked away.

"I would never kill anyone; I swear. The others aren't as nice. The New Order recruited rogues with no morals. The other two with me are some of the more eccentric rogues." I nodded and continued on to find my exit. It was harder in the dark, so I kind of just went where I thought it was and then followed the wall.

"Just so you know, not all rogues are evil. Some just don't like the system."

"Rogues still deserted their posts. I wouldn't trust one. Especially not now. Half of the New Order consists of rogues. The rest are students who want power. The New Order brought out people's true personalities." We walked in silence until I finally found the secret exit. I wasn't that far off in my guess, so I silently congratulated myself. There was still a sliver of sun in the sky, and once we were outside of the walls, we could make a run for it knowing Amber was the one out there. I pulled back the rock and gestured for Liam to go first.

"This is how you got in here?"

"Of course. This has been here since I was little."

"You lived here?"

"No. I lived in Pernsville. A cute little place not far from here. My father was the mayor, so he came here a lot on business. Long story short, I didn't like the place."

"Okay," Liam said carefully and crawled through barely squeezing through the space. I had to give him a few pushes before he finally made it to the other side. I made the transition much more smoothly and covered the exits. "I can't believe none of us noticed this before. When we first arrived we had to check the perimeters for exits. These rocks would have been highly suspicious."