THE wyvern was a distant speck in the blue sky. Audrey shielded her eyes with her hand and looked at it. It seemed like a dream. A painful, terrible dream.
Kaldar, his eyes, his smile, the way he kissed her . . . She had lost him. She hadn’t realized how much she had wanted him until he was gone, and there was this gaping painful hole inside her. It hurt. She felt so hollow.
They could’ve been so happy. Why, why did it have to end like this? Why couldn’t they have gotten away?
Audrey closed her eyes and willed herself to wake up. She wanted to wake up, open her eyes, and see the wyvern’s cabin above her, then see him lean over her with that wicked smirk on his lips . . .
Please. Please, I’ll do anything. Just let me wake up and let him be there. I’m begging you, God. Please.
Next to her, Gaston cleared his throat.
She wasn’t waking up. This was real.
Audrey opened her eyes. Gaston’s gaze searched her face.
“Are you leaving, too?” she asked.
“The dispatch said ‘all agents.’ I am not an agent. Not yet.”
“Why did she want him? Why trade me for him?”
“Intelligence.” Gaston shrugged. “They’ll probably torture him . . . Eh, sorry. They must be on the way to Louisiana by now.”
“No,” George said hoarsely.
“George?” Audrey walked over and knelt by him.
George opened his eyes. His face looked haggard and paler than usual. “They are keeping him in a ruin. There.” He raised his hand and pointed right. “Over that mountain. She has him tied to a chair. They are hooking him up to a machine to drain his blood. I have a bird on him.”
“So he’s alive?” If Kaldar was alive, she would get him out of there. Whatever it took.
“For now.”
“How many people does she have?” Gaston asked.
“Six.”
Six Hounds, and they had Gaston, her, and two kids, one of whom was worn to his limit and the other only twelve years old.
Audrey looked at Gaston. “How many can you take?”
“One,” he said. “Maybe two.”
She was no fighter. It only took one kick from Helena, and she was down. Audrey thought for a minute.
She was no fighter, but she was a very good thief. And a very good grifter. The beginnings of a plan began to form in Audrey’s head. “Gaston, can you make sure the wyvern will be ready to take off in a hurry?”
“I’m not leaving Kaldar there to rot,” Gaston snarled.
“We are not leaving him.” Audrey held George’s hand. “Listen to me,” she said softly. “I don’t want you to drain yourself dry. If it comes to that, you drop that bird, do you understand me?”
George nodded. “It will be fine,” he said. “It’s just far. It’s harder to maintain the connection over such a long distance. I just need to rest.”
Audrey got to her feet. “How far are we from de Braose’s castle?”
“It’s down the road,” Gaston said. “Half an hour.”
“I need new clothes.” Audrey stared at her torn, bloody suit. “On the other hand, no. I’m perfect just as I am.”
WHEN walking into the lair of the dragon after robbing his hoard, the least you could do is hold your head high, Audrey reflected, as the two veekings led her into the bailey of de Braose’s castle. Morell’s guard force had suffered losses. Every man she saw was either bruised, bloody, smeared with soot, or all three.
A cloud of smoke spilled from the third-story window of the keep in a black, oily pillar. The sound of gunfire came from somewhere to the left.
Morell de Braose emerged from the doors, carrying a sword in his hand. Black smears and blood spatter marred his blue doublet. All of his polished veneer had slid off him. Only the robber baron remained, ruthless, cold, and infuriated to the brink.
He could just kill her. She wouldn’t put it past him to run her through with that sword and leave her to bleed out on the ground.
His gaze fastened on her. “This is an interesting development. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you?”
“Helena d’Amry murdered my brother. I knew she would show up here, so I came here to kill her. I failed.”
“Why should I care?”
“Because Helena humiliated you. She ruined the reputation of your auction. It will be a long time before people will visit you again.”
Morell grimaced. “You aren’t endearing yourself to me.”
“The only way to restore your reputation is to punish the party responsible and make that punishment so brutal, nobody else dares to besmirch your reputation.”
“Helena is on her way to Louisiana,” he snarled.
“She is less than six miles away, in a castle ruin, over that mountain.” Audrey pointed to the green mountain range.
Morell grasped her face and pulled her closer, looking into her eyes. “If you’re lying, tell me now. You have no idea how painful the things I’ll do to you will be if I am disappointed. I’m extremely pissed off, and I will get very creative.”
Her heart squeezed itself into a painful, fear-filled ball. But she wanted Kaldar more. This was her only chance to get him back.
Audrey stared back at Morell. “Over that mountain. A ruin of dark stone with four towers, one broken, three still standing. She has six people with her. When you kill her, tell her Lisetta says hello.”
Morell pushed her aside. “Lock her up. And get the wyvern ready.”
A veeking grasped her shoulder and dragged her down to a guardhouse. He pulled her through a large room to the back, where barred cells waited, and threw her into one. Audrey crashed against the wall. The veeking slid the door shut with a metallic clang, locked it, and walked out.
Through the open doors, she saw men run back and forth. People shouted. Then all became quiet.
She sat on the stone floor and waited.
A man cried out, a sharp, pain-filled sound, and a veeking fell to the ground in the doorway. Gaston stepped over the body and grinned.
“They are gone.”
Audrey concentrated, and the lock on her cell clicked open. “Let’s go get him.”