The Foolhardies 174 Into the Arms of Danger

Yes, Aura. Not her brother, the Patriarch, or at least, not just him. Since they'd come in through the southern courtyard, which really was one of the most guarded gates, they must have come with a purpose, and it was more than likely they were coming for Aura first.

I took the steps two at a time and reached the tower landing at record speed. Only once did I slow down, and that was to look over the balcony Luca and I just passed into so I could confirm the dead guards in the courtyard below me.

No one was moving, and there was a decent amount of blood spilled on the courtyard's natural stone floor. No, they were most likely killed very quickly.

"Luca… watch your back," I said while feeling a sense of menace wash over me. "These guys are serious professionals."

"I know…" Luca answered. "But they won't get me again."

We rushed past the balcony and past the second-floor entryway into the Palanquin Palace's southern wing. But I slowed to a stop suddenly because the smell of blood filled the narrow hallway we'd just entered.

Ahead of us, three shadows flickered against the sunlight filtering through the cracks in the window curtains along the left side of the hallway. Beyond them, I could see another dead body.

"Drow," Luca hissed.

"Warriors of the Claw," I agreed. "The Scarlet Moon's secret death squad…"

"Let's do this," Luca said as he drew his broadsword from its sheath behind his back. "Don't mess up and die, Dean."

"Tell that to yourself, kid who let himself get hit from behind," I countered.

That was all the banter we could spare as the shadows on the walls speeded toward us.

I drew my falchion and swung it a hundred-and-eighty degrees forward just as a shadow jumped out of the wall beside me. And even without activating Fool's Insight, I had enough experience to know when an attack was coming. This meant my counter came at exactly the right moment, in that space of time where my opponent had already committed to his attack.

My falchion's shadowblade snaked into the assassin's side, and since he was conveniently dressed in nothing more than black linen robes, my blade easily cut through him. In fact, I'd nearly sliced him in half at just above the waist.

I heard the sound of bones crunching as something heavy slammed against it. This was instantly followed by the sound of tearing skin, which, if my hearing was accurate, was a violent and messy way to die.

At the corner of my eye, I watched my brother pull his broadsword out of the sternum of his dead opponent. Luca had cut him from the shoulder joint downward.

"You're turning into quite the gorilla," I noted.

"And you're almost as graceful as a ballerina," he countered.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You realize that's a compliment, right?"

"No, it isn't," Luca argued.

The third drow assassin — yes, even with our joking around we didn't forget about the third drow assassin — descended from the ceiling to attack us.

It wasn't his fault that we were prepared, but Luca and I have spent an insane amount of time training with the Blackthorns, and while Enna loved jumping at us from the sidewalls, her cousin, the annoying Thom, enjoyed sniping at our heads from above.

In short, the drow assassin's attack failed. He instead met his end at the point of mine and Luca's shadowblades as we sliced upward at nearly the same time. Yes, Luca hit him first because he had extrlong arms and an extrlong sword — which a psychiatrist would deduce as Luca mentally making up for possibly less than adequate body parts — but I like to think my own attack dealt the finishing blow.

"It is a freaking compliment, Luca," I continued as soon as we'd deftly dodged the blood spray that rained down on us. "Even John Wick trained under a ballerina…"

"He trained under a ballerina, sure, but he was wrestling in the back room and wasn't on stage, Dean," Luca argued.

I know it seemed like that our tension had dropped during this conversation, but honestly, banter was how we brothers coped with desperate situations. Or hadn't you readers picked up on that yet?

After that encounter with the three drow assassins from the Claw, Luca and I didn't run into any more invaders. It was smooth sailing all the way to the corridor where Aura's suite was located.

Ironically enough, we arrived to a scene that would have filled me with dread if I didn't know the giant half-ogre and shieldmaiden who were mopping the floor with the bald hobgoblins in their priestly robes. Seriously, they were actually wearing red robes that would have looked passable for Shaolin monk uniforms.

This kind of situation is why the parallels between the Fayne and Mudgard never ceased to amaze me.

"What took you so long, Dean?" Ashley asked as she slammed her shield onto the chest of a hobgoblin blood monk and pinned him to the wall. "Did you stop for drive-thru or something?"

"Hilarious," I sighed while thinking everyone was a critic. Then I glanced down at the seven to eight fallen blood monks that littered the hallway and I whistled appreciatively. "I forgot that you and Aura were having a sleepover."

"Now look who's trying to be funny," Ashley said while giving me a sufficiently Arah-like eye-roll.

Luca walked over to Ashley and bonked the opponent she'd pinned to the wall with the pommel of his broadsword.

"Actually, Dean was in such a panic to save Aura that he was running recklessly through the halls like a madman," Luca tattled.

"Shut up, Luca," I growled. "You were doing the same thing!"

Luca gave me a smirk I wanted to wipe off him with a good punch to the face.

"As if the princess needed you to save her," Edo chuckled.

He was holding the last standing blood monk by the scruff of his neck and choking the life out of the hobgoblin with one hand. It was quite an impressive feat.

Luca's eyes trailed the floor, and from the realization showing on his face, I deduced that he'd figured out what I figured out.

"There should be more of them… at least three more different groups," he said the thought that was in my head.

"Probably going after other targets," I reasoned as I strolled over to where Edo was. "I don't think they're here as allies… possibly, someone put a hit out on Aura, the Patriarch and whoever else, and hired a bunch of different groups to do it…"

"How do you figure that, Dean?" Luca asked.

"The body we saw in the hallway where we fought the Claw guys…" I reminded him. "It was a dwarf dressed like those guards at the Under Ring auction house."

"You remembered how they were dressed?" Luca shook his head at me. "You are so meticulous it borders on creepy."

"That's another compliment by the way," I grinned.

"There are two of those guys inside with Aura," Ashley said, pointing her thumb back toward the only wooden double doors in the entire hallway. "She's... interrogating them."

"The Under Ring assassins got here first then," I guessed while taking a mental note of what Ashley just said about interrogation.

I glanced down at the dead that littered the hallway's wooden parquet floor. Much closer to Aura's suite, the five extra bodies here belonged to dwarves dressed in a similar fashion to the one we'd seen earlier.

Satisfied, I told Luca to watch the front door with Ashley and Edo in case more enemies appeared while I walked into Aura's bedroom suite.

I guess I should have knocked first. Maybe then I wouldn't have been so embarrassed to see Aura in her day-gown, a dress nearly as flimsy as a pixie's gossamer wing.

"Sorry," I said, and although I wanted to, I didn't avert my eyes. Not because I was a pervert but because Aura was up to something interesting that caught my attention. "This is the first time I've seen this spell… your Crown of Fire."

In the last six months, Aura had devoted herself to increasing her spell list and training her mana so she could use her magic more often in a single night. One of the three spells she'd learned in that time was the Crown of Fire.

I'd never actually seen her use it as it wasn't a combat spell, but tonight was the perfect time to see it in action.

You see, the Crown of Fire worked just like Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth.  The spellcaster who donned the crown over her head could ask a question, and whoever the question was directed at would be compelled to answer.

At Aura's current mastery level, she could ask three questions before the crown's flames winked out. But three questions were more than enough if you asked the right ones.

I was just in time to watch Aura ask her final question which was, "Who hired you?"

The dwarf kneeling before her looked like a half-dazed puppy who was trying desperately not to grin. Given how Aura was scantily dressed, I wasn't entirely sure the dopey look he gave her was because of the crown.

"I-I d-don't k-know," the dwarf struggled to speak the words.

He must have been trying to fight off the effects of the spell which might have been possible for someone with a stronger will like Darah, but certainly not some thug from a slave cartel.

"B-boss Q-qarta usually handles the details… w-we're just c-cogs in the cartel's machine," he answered.

After he said this, the burning crown floating above Aura's golden locks decidedly winked out. The dwarf blinked like he was starting to get sober.

I didn't wait for permission. I dashed in there and clocked him on the head with my falchion's wooden falcon-head pommel.  

There was a loud crack, and then the dwarf crashed forward. He would get a nasty bruise when he awoke but at least he was alive.

I looked over my shoulder and grinned at Aura.

"Hi," I said. "I'm here to save you."

Aura's smile reflected mine when she replied, "You're late."

Chapter end