Chapter Twenty Seven

  Impending Doom

  “Took you long enough,” Zora said, her stocking feet sat atop the table just beside her boots unfortunately close to her lukewarm meat pie.

  “We did say nightfall.” Roman grabbed Zora’s boots and dropped them on the floor.

  “I got a bit distracted.”

  “We can see that,” Molly said. “We’ve all been preparing while you’ve been playing games.”

  Freya set her jaw. “Is it possible for you to not bitch about everything I do for five minutes?”

  “Stop giving me shit to bitch about.”

  Freya imagined smashing Molly’s stupid self-satisfied face into the table, then took a breath. “Roman, what’s the plan?”

  Athena waved a hand, and the air around the group began to shimmer. The background noise of the inn cut off, leaving the small corner of the tavern uncomfortably quiet. “You’re good kid.” Athena waved Roman on.

  Wonder at the strange spell had Freya snapping to attention after realizing she had missed the first few words Roman said. “-the prison. Once they’ve drawn out the town’s garrison, Lorin, Molly, and Freya will infiltrate the castle through the servant’s entrance.” Roman swiped a few plates to the side of the table, then rolled out a crudely drawn building blueprint. “Here.” He traced his finger from the entrance through a small tunnel that led straight to a small room. “Through here you have a straight path to the office of the treasurer, which happens to be right outside of the vault. Capture the treasurer, interrogate him for details on accessing the vault. Then break in. The portal bags leading to my room will let you drain the city’s coffers completely. The lockers have been set with triggers that will automatically open the doors if too much pressure is put on them.”

  “You will need to move fast,” Zora said. “Athena and I won’t be able to keep the whole garrison distracted for long.”

  “That’s what the prisoners are for.” Roman tapped on the table with his knuckles. Freya frowned, there was something off with him. He caught her eye, and abruptly stopped tapping. “Make some noise, bust open the prison, then get the hell out of there. They will call in magic users from the surrounding towns, you want to be sure you are gone before they arrive.”

  Zora grabbed Roman’s hand and squeezed. He straightened. Had Freya missed something? As much as she was happy Zora and Roman’s rough patch turned out to be more of a worn down speed bump, she didn’t like seeing him so obviously nervous.

  “And if anyone questions us?” Freya asked.

  A long pause followed. Lorin and Roman shared a look. “If it is a guard, incapacitate them. If it is a member of staff, grumble something about minding their own business.”

  “You can’t just knock somebody out, it isn’t like the movies. They usually will go out for a few seconds. And that’s if you don’t accidentally kill them.”

  “I know,” Roman said, letting the implication hang in the air.

  Freya’s blood ran cold. That’s what he was nervous about. He was planning to kill people. Freya couldn’t be sure about the others, but she was pretty confident none of them had killed anyone before outside of Zora. Of course with what they were planning it was inevitable. As terrible as she felt for the thought, it was better that her hand had been forced before all this.

  “Jesus,” Zora said.

  “If we can’t get our hands dirty, we won’t be able to do a thing to Sulivar,” Roman said. “Avoid death wherever possible. But if you can’t, don’t hesitate.”

  “We are in this world because we love books…not to…” Zora trailed off.

  “If we want this place to stay as it is, we have to protect it. Even if it costs us something dear.”

  Nobody responded. Already Freya had lost something. Suddenly she felt like the world’s biggest moron for spending time today playing games and buying books. She fiddled with the toy soldiers strapped to her chest as the others all filed out. Lorin waited at the steps leading to the bedrooms for a moment. Freya waved him on.

  “Things aren’t going to be the same after this,” Molly said. She took a long drag off of some cigarette looking thing Freya hadn’t realized she pulled out. The smell of the smoke took her off guard. It was like a cross between a maraschino cherry and a vanilla cappuccino. “Want one?”

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  Freya had never touched a cigarette or anything of the like. The closest she got was taking a little too long putting the cap on a gas can. But this was a different world. “Is it going to give me cancer?”

  Molly dropped the cigarette in Freya’s hand. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  The cigarette was strangely heavy, about half a pound. “What the hell is this?”

  “Stop being a princess and smoke the fucking thing.”

  The urge to smash Molly’s face returned in force. Freya lit the cigarette with the candle burning at the center of their table and took a long drag. The smoke poured into her lungs. Her chest burned. She held her mouth shut to keep from coughing. The effort only made her sputter before being consumed by whole body coughs that would have made her eight packs a day great-grandmother proud. Why the hell would anyone do this to themselves?

  Molly laughed. Freya’s cheeks burned. She moved to extinguish the cigarette but Molly caught her wrist.

  “Wait.” Molly drew on her cigarette, puffing her cheeks out in an exaggerated fashion. She blew out a long thin line of the sweet smoke. “You aren’t supposed to inhale. Hold the smoke in your mouth, taste it, then blow it out.”

  Freya pulled away. “Isn’t inhaling the whole point?”

  “You are trying to enjoy the smoke, not get high.”

  Freya took a measured puff, this time keeping the smoke out of her lungs. She swished the smoke around in her mouth. It tasted better than it smelled, which was saying something. After her mouth began to water she blew out. The smoke come out in stuttered puffs rather than a neat line like Molly’s.

  “Not so hard was it?”

  Freya shook her head. That was pretty nice. Actually, this was all pretty pleasant. She narrowed her eyes. “This is the first even remotely kind encounter we have had. Why?”

  “We are at Sulivar’s doorstep. If you were going to leave you would have done so by now.”

  “All that was just to get me to leave?”

  “You and your friend.”

  “Because she wouldn’t share her name?”

  Molly snapped her fingers at Freya. “Bingo.”

  After too many years of being the kid in school that wanted to be everyone’s friend, Freya knew that there were some people you just couldn’t please. What was infuriating about Molly, was that Freya felt like there was a way to crack her shell. There was no real reason to think that way. Every interaction with her had been uncomfortably cold, if not downright hostile. But still, this enigmatic feeling was tugging in her chest. It begged Freya to find a way into Molly’s good graces.

  Why did it matter so much?

  “My friends are putting their lives on the line, I am putting my life on the line. Why can’t that be enough?”

  Molly paused, her perpetually pissed off expression broke into a look that a cat might give someone that had just eaten a can of tuna without sharing. It seemed downright feral. Molly gestured toward Freya’s cigarette. “Let me show you how to blow a smoke ring.”

  Freya sighed. Not exactly the deep conversation she was looking for. But it was something. “Alright. Show me.”

  #

  Far in the distance an indistinct blob formed on the coast of the Shrinking Sea. Isleview. It was time. The forest surrounding Isleview could hardly be classified as such. Half the trees were cut down to their stumps, the other half were sickly and grey.

  Everyone had been telling her that Hathmore was the most dreary place on the continent, but to Freya’s eye there was little that could beat this. It was like standing in the barren landscape from The Lorax after that idiot with the bad haircut cut down all the trees. The sight of the endless death without even a token effort for replanting was deeply unsettling. It didn’t seem possible that this could exist in the same world as Sarehole.

  “Congratulations,” Roman said as Freya stepped over a long line of stones set into the dirt. “You are officially a criminal.”

  Lorin perked his head up. “A criminal you say?” His armor began to glow.

  Zora tossed a rock which plinked harmlessly off the Paladin’s armor. “Look at your feet genius.”

  Lorin looked down, half of his foot was also over the stone line. The glow faded, and he deflated like an air mattress with an eight hundred pound occupant. Roman gave him a pat on the back. “Maybe next time.”

  That man was certainly something else. Freya wished she knew more about this Paladin guild he was part of. She had gotten brief glimpses of the lawful stupid paladin persona, but nothing significant. It felt like an act at first, but as time wore on that notion was being driven from her head. Were they all like this? Or was Lorin just…unique? What would he even do to her anyway? Give her a scolding? Throw her in the stocks? Freya smiled at the thought, he would probably get too much enjoyment out of that.

  From here on they would need to tread carefully. As Roman noted, they were criminals now. If they were caught by any Bluffs authority that would be dragged before the closest magistrate and charged with entering the Tsardom illegally. The rest of the continent had mostly fluid borders. But not Sulivar’s little fief.

  Their conversation still sat like a bag of bricks in the back of Freya’s mind. Sulivar knew what they were doing. He knew, and wasn’t going to lift a finger to help his own people. What did that say about that man?

  He was undeniably charming, that was probably why his books had done so well. He had to have schmoozed the right publisher or something. Despite everything he had done, it was truly hard not to like him after their brief encounter. But how casually he was going to let his own people suffer at Freya’s hands, it was unhinged.

  Why was he letting them do this? He gave Freya some weak bullshit about wanting to see what the Unbound were capable of. But if he knew their plans, he obviously knew vaguely what their capabilities were. Were it not for his insistence on a second meeting, she would have figured this whole thing was a trap.

  Part of her still was sure that it was. But if Sulivar wanted her dead, he could have done her in right there in her room. He probably could have slaughtered the whole group save for Athena that night.

  “Something you want to share?” Roman asked. The others had walked on ahead through the thinning forest.

  “No, I just zoned out for a minute.” Lying to Roman put a dark pit in her stomach. But he couldn’t know about her meeting with Sulivar. Or her plans to meet him again after this. He would insist upon laying a trap for him. And oddly enough, she was interested in hearing Sulivar out.

  “Okay…” The word dragged out for just a tad too long. “Are you ready for this?”

  Was she? Probably not. “Let’s do this.”