The War of Six Crowns: The Heir's Choice

Masquerade

Darrion smiled and drew his two-hander. Aurek had diminished the guards to about twenty, just as Fraak had promised to arrange.

No problem.

He crept toward them under Quin's invisibility, careful not to make a noise. They were close. It was time to let the Knight know.

Prepare yourself. We're about to attack.

Nothing.

Lorcan didn't respond. Darrion glanced toward Gawain. He shook his head. No response there either. Rakaln. They didn't need this.

Darrion kept moving forward. They couldn't stop now. Especially when the Knight clearly was no longer conscious. If he was dead...

The guard closest to Darrion didn't have time to cry out a warning. The one a little further away did, but his shout for aid ended in a gurgle when Kaela shoved a dagger into his throat. The rest of the guards charged. The first of Gawain's arrows whistled into the ones at the front.

Darrion led the way forward, flanked by Quin, with his broad sword, and Kaela with a pair of curved short-swords. None of them hesitated. They hurtled into the guards, not pausing for anything.

The guards never had a chance. They fell like the unlucky pawns they were. Soon enough, Gawain shot the last one in the back, as he ran away to summon help.

Kaela strung her bow and nocked an arrow. Gawain joined her. When they nodded, Quin and Darrion yanked the banner from the wall and kicked the door. The hollow thudding of boots to wood was the only sound until the cracking wood finally gave them hope.

One last kick the door broke open. They faced ten soldiers. The poor fools looked surprised. Darrion led the attack. It was truly sad that Aurek would keep such important prisoners with such inferior soldiers to guard them. But then, until today, Icaimerith had never seen what a Nordian Saint was capable of. After five minutes of fighting, they ran over and past ten corpses, pausing only to pull out arrows. The corridor stretched into darkness, both ends lined with bars. Darrion's heart constricted. Timing was of the essence. They didn't have time to search all these cells.

The beat of approaching footsteps echoed behind them, but he didn't even glance over his shoulder. The intruder would die before he could warn anyone.

"Lorcan!" Darrion shouted, choosing speed over discretion in the hope that the Knight would wake up. Only dripping water answered.

Quin exclaimed with surprise, making everyone else turn to him. Callan stood next to him, crownless, ringless, breathless.

Alive. She hurried past Darrion and peered into the cells.

"What are you doing?" He followed her.

She flitted from door to door. "Well," she said and knelt down on one knee, not caring if she stained her dress, "I uh...didn't manage to kill Aurek. I need out and I figured you have a plan." She pulled two long pins from her head, letting two more black tresses drop down.

A buzz shot through Darrion. "I do. But, how are you still alive?"

"Some soldiers crashed the wedding." She stuck the pins into the keyhole. If she could crack open a Nordian lock with her pins, these locks should be laughably easy for her. "You're standing in my light."

Darrion moved to her other side, watching her fiddle with the lock.

Click.

"How did you do that?" Kaela asked.