Authors: Mackenzie Morgan
Chapter 47
June 4
As the sun was setting Wednesday evening, Shana stepped out of the woods and made her way to the side of the shed for her meeting with Rolan. He wasn’t going to be happy with her report. She’d tried everything she could think of to find out what Rhianna knew about Landis’s whereabouts, but if Rhianna knew anything, she wasn’t saying.
Shana shook her head. She was ready for this to be over, and she figured the only way it would end was if she was dead, so if he killed her because she didn’t have the information he wanted, that was fine with her. Her only regret was that after he killed her, he’d kill her parents, if he hadn’t already.
When he showed up, she felt surprisingly calm. She opened the door, then stood back and waved for him to go inside.
Rolan frowned. Something had changed. His mouse wasn’t as terrified as she usually was. “Go on, girl, get inside, and there better not be anyone else in there or I’ll kill you both.”
Shana rolled her eyes and walked into the shed in front of Rolan.
Rolan glanced around the empty shed. “So, what news do you have for me?”
Shana shook her head. “No news, but I did try. I started taking her self-defense training, and after a couple of sessions I started staying afterwards to talk to her. She talked about being a warrior elf, about growing up in North Amden, even about the attack at the chapel. But all she would say about Landis was Myron asked her to provide protection until he could get her to a secure location where she could work on her magic undisturbed. I did ask her where that was, but she said she didn’t know, that after the attack, Myron took her home, dropped her off, and he and Landis left by key. She has no idea where he took her and she never asked since she wasn’t responsible for Landis’s safety anymore.”
Rolan stared at Shana for a couple of minutes trying to decide if she was telling the truth. “So, do you still think Myron’s interested in the elf?”
Shana nodded. “They spend a lot of time together. They go for a walk nearly every evening. They eat together whenever they’re both at the castle, and I know she spent most of the afternoon in his office today.”
Rolan paused. “Show me where the men I sent down here to kill Landis are camped.” When Shana frowned, Rolan grabbed her arm. “I know you know where their camp is, so don’t try pretending you don’t.”
“I wasn’t going to.” Shana stared at his hand on her arm. When he didn’t remove it, she shook her head. “It’s a long walk from here. I usually go by horse.”
“Then find us some horses,” he growled as he swung his arm and threw her halfway across the shed. “And don’t make me come looking for you either. You’ll regret it if you do!”
~ ~ ~ ~
An hour later Shana was back with two horses and a small glowstone torch. One of the horses was hers, but the second belonged to her neighbor. Fortunately, he and his wife were out, probably at Fenway’s since it was open again, so no one was home to see her borrow it.
As soon as Shana rode up, Rolan grabbed the reins to the second horse and mounted. “Well? Where’s the camp?”
“Follow me.” Shana headed back towards the road. They had to switch roads several times before they reached the wooded area in front of the waterfall that marked the entrance to the assassins’ cave. Shana reined her horse in. When Rolan rode up beside her, she pointed in the direction of the cave entrance. “Hear the waterfall?”
Rolan listened for a moment but he didn’t hear a thing. He glared at Shana. “I told you to take me to their camp.”
Shana sighed. “We’ll have to walk from here.” She dismounted and tied the reins around a small tree.
While she was securing her horse, Rolan jumped off of his and tossed the reins in her direction. “Hurry up! I haven’t got all night!”
Shana secured his horse and led him down the narrow path that led through the woods to the stream. “Through there,” she said as she pointed to the waterfall.
Rolan’s frown deepened until his eyebrows met. “What do you mean?”
“There’s a cave behind the waterfall. They’re camped in there.”
Rolan grabbed her arm. “You go first.”
Shana walked up to the waterfall and dashed though it. Rolan followed close behind. As soon as he cleared the waterfall, he shook his head and raked his hands over his arms. “Messy, but effective. Doubt too many people find this place by accident. Where are they?”
Shana pointed down the tunnel.
Rolan shoved her in front of him. “Show me.”
Shana took the cover off the glowstone torch she’d brought and led the way. Fifty feet later, the tunnel turned sharply to the right for ten feet, and then back to the left. The room the men were using was around that corner.
The men were scattered around the room eating dinner when Shana walked in, followed closely by Rolan. As soon as they saw the sorcerer, they dropped their plates and jumped to their feet. The man Shana knew as Fasil, the one she thought of as the leader, nodded at Rolan. “Good evening, sir. Can we offer you anything?”
Rolan turned up his nose and shook his head. “So this is how you spend your time? Lounging around some cave? No wonder Landis is still alive!”
Fasil shook his head. “The reason we haven’t been able to kill her is she hasn’t come anywhere around here. We heard a rumor that someone who looks like her was seen in a valley a couple hundred miles north of here, so Cpt. Garen and his men went to check it out while we keep watch here.”
“So? Did they find her?”
“Not as far as we know. We haven’t heard anything from them since they packed up and left.”
Rolan glared at the man. “Are you familiar with Rhianna, the elf?”
All of the men nodded, but Fasil said, “She’s not with Landis anymore, sir. We’re not sure, but we think she and Myron might be interested in each other.”
“Business? Or personal?”
“I think it’s personal. We’ve seen them walking in the evenings, sir. They hold hands. I’ve even seen him kiss her. I don’t think she’s got any connection to Landis now.”
“But she’s connected to Myron. And if he’s interested in her, she’s a valuable connection.” Rolan grinned. “She might not know where Landis is, but he does. And if I’ve got his woman, I bet he’ll let me have Landis in exchange for her.”
The little bit of color showing in Fasil’s face faded. “Are you suggesting we capture Rhianna, sir?”
Shana’s gasp echoed around the silent cave.
“I’m ordering you to do it!” Rolan roared. “And have her here, in this cave, by Friday night. I want him to know she’s gone before the council meeting Saturday morning.” Rolan took out his key. “After the meeting I’ll tell him if he ever wants to see his precious elf again, he has one hour to bring Landis to me. One of those two women will die Saturday. Let him choose which one.”
~ ~ ~ ~
For a moment after Rolan vanished into the energy flow, no one moved, no one even breathed. Then one of the men shook his head and asked, “How? Just how are we supposed to capture a warrior elf? The man’s crazy!”
“Crazy or not, those are our orders, Bruno,” Fasil said quietly.
“So how are we going to do it?” Bruno asked.
“I’m not sure yet.” Fasil picked up his plate and stared at his uneaten dinner. “This looked good before he got here.”
“I know what you mean,” another man said as he slid his plate to the side. “How do you capture an elf? I mean they can translocate.”
“I have no idea, Correll,” Fasil said.
“Maybe we could give her something to knock her out,” Bruno said. “Do we have anything like that?”
Fasil looked around, but none of the men had any suggestions.
“Maybe the sisters do,” a man with a shiny bald head said.
“And how are we supposed to get them to give it to us, Amos? Go up to them and tell them we need to knock out an elf so we can capture her? I’m sure they’d love to help us out on that,” the fifth man said. “I think it’s time for us to pack up and get out of here. This is a fool’s errand.”
“Hold on, Sunder,” Fasil said. “We can’t do that.”
“Why not? We don’t owe Rolan a thing. He hired us to capture his sister, a human. I didn’t sign on to go messing with a warrior elf. You know what happened to Saryn when he tangled with her.”
“Wait a minute,” Bruno said. “What about opium? I saw some poppies growing in the chapel garden the other day and they looked ready for harvesting.”
Correll shook his head. “All it’ll do is ease pain. It’s not strong enough to knock anyone out, much less an elf.”
“When the sisters use it, they mix it with other stuff,” Bruno said. “I’m talking about pure opium. I knew a man who would slice into the pod and collect the sap. Then he’d cook it and put it on the tip of an arrow or a knife and use it to knock someone out without killing them. Works great.”
“All right,” Fasil said. “Do you know how to prepare it?”
Bruno shrugged. “I’ve never done it, but I watched him do it. It’s worth a try. What have we got to lose?”
“Other than our lives?” Sunder asked with a snort.
“Do you have a better idea?” Amos asked.
“Other than putting as many miles between me and this place as I can by Friday night, no,” Sunder admitted.
“I say we give it a try,” Correll said, “but we need to test it out on somebody before we use it on her.”
“Agreed,” Amos said.
Fasil looked at Bruno. “Will you take care of getting the pod and fixing the opium?”
“I can try, but I don’t want to remove the pod from the stem. I’ll have to cut it as soon as possible tonight so it’ll have time to seep before I harvest the sap, and I’ll need to do that early in the morning if I’m going to have time to get it ready to test.”
“So you’re planning to sneak into the chapel garden twice and hope no one notices you’ve been there?” Shana asked. “And then shoot at Rhianna? Are all of you crazy?”
Sunder stared at her. “Why are you still here? You’ve got no business listening to their plans.” He looked around at the others. “You need to keep her here. You can’t take the chance she’ll tell someone what you’re planning.”
“I agree,” Bruno said as Amos asked, “What do you mean ‘you’? You’re part of this, too.”
“Not anymore I’m not,” Sunder said. “I’m heading out first thing in the morning and I don’t plan to stop until I’m so lost no one will ever find me.”
“Hold on. Settle down.” Fasil turned to Shana. “You do know you’re not the only spy Rolan has in the castle, don’t you?”
Shana nodded.
“And you know if you tell anyone about our plans, one of the other spies will hear about it and let us know.”
Again Shana nodded.
“And when Rolan comes back to get Rhianna and she’s not here, you know who we’re going to blame, don’t you?”
Shana felt sick on her stomach, but she managed to nod.
Fasil turned to his men. “She won’t say anything. She knows what will happen if she does. It’s less risky to let her go than to keep her since she works for Laryn now. If she doesn’t show up tomorrow morning, people will be looking for her.” No one argued with him, but no one agreed either. Fasil looked back at Shana. “Go on, get out of here. And don’t come back until after all of this is over. And be sure you keep your mouth shut. If you don’t, someone’s going to shut it for you.”
~ ~ ~ ~
While Rolan was talking to his assassins, Kevin was delivering the groceries Callie had requested. When he returned to his office, Chris walked in and sat down.
“Anything happen while I was gone?” Kevin asked as he sat down at his desk.
Chris nodded. “We had a visitor.”
“Rhianna?”
“Well, she did come by earlier, but she’s not the one I meant. Caelan dropped by for, as he put it, a quiet word.”
“Caelan? The elf? Here?”
Chris nodded.
“Why?”
“Seems a few of the bounty hunters have become particularly obnoxious, especially a band of three who have been ransacking the northern sector. Those men would show up at all hours of the day and night and demand access to the elves’ homes, barns, sheds, anywhere and everywhere someone might hide, so they could search for, and I’m quoting Caelan who said he was quoting the bounty hunters, ‘the human girl who had been captured by the elves.’ The elves put up with them until they grabbed a couple of children and threatened to hurt them if the elves didn’t produce Landis. That’s when things got a little ugly.”
“How ugly?”
“The elves surrounded the house where the bounty hunters had the kids and demanded they release the children. When the hunters refused, the elves stormed the house.”
“Did the children get hurt?”
Chris shook his head. “According to Caelan, the children translocated when the elves crashed through the doors. The elves were counting on that, so they went in loud. The bounty hunters were left all by themselves with no bargaining chips.”
“What happened to them?”
“The elves were a lot more magnanimous than I would have been. The warrior elves in the group, which included Caelan by the way, loaded them in a wagon, drove them halfway to Trendon, and told them to go home and never, ever set foot in North Amden again.”
Kevin let out a long sigh. “I can’t believe they let them go.”
“I know.”
“So what does Caelan want me to do?”
“Nothing. He just wanted you to know what happened in case anyone files a complaint against the elves. He was there from beginning to end and said he’ll be glad to go through the whole thing for Rolan, or for the federation if need be.”
“Who could complain? The bounty hunters?”
“I think Caelan was thinking more along the lines of Rolan.”
“Rolan’s not that stupid. What’s he going to complain about? That the men he sent out to kill his sister made a nuisance of themselves and were told to leave?” Kevin shook his head. “Do I need to go see Caelan?”
Chris shook his head. “He said if you need him, let him know.”
Kevin nodded.
“And how did things go with you?”
“Callie was happy to get her groceries and told me to tell you thank you for getting it all together.”
“What about the others?”
“I talked to Garen for a few minutes and he said things were shaping up. He did want to know when we’ll be able to bring out the rest of the stuff they asked for. I told him I’d try to get to it this weekend if nothing came up.”