Warlord and the Waif by Chloe Parker
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ELLA
PORTIA ARRIVES IN the dead of night.
Calder goes to the door while I collect myself, wrapping one of the furs around me. Portia chuckles as she enters; even given the dire situation, she seems infinitely satisfied with her matchmaking abilities.
I guess she’s got a point.
“You brought everything I requested?” Calder asks, taking a bundle of fabric from her. She nods, sober again.
“My cloak, a set of workman’s clothes, and some good boots,” she says as she hands them over. She reaches for her apron with a small smile and gives him something else. “And of course this.”
He takes it and beckons to me, extending the bundle of clothes. I guess I shouldn’t be shy; Portia has helped me change before. So I drop the pretense and hurriedly get dressed. The clothes chafe a bit, woven from some rough fabric, but it feels nice to be wearing pants again. The boots are surprisingly comfortable, and the cloak settles heavy on my shoulders, fastened across my collarbone with an ornate silver brooch.
Portia steps toward me and pulls it tighter around me, until the edges close in front of me.
“This fabric is woven with Syrgezian silk,” she says, “It will keep you hidden if you stay very still, and will make you hard to spot, even for the Hyperboreans.”
I blink.
“Are you saying it’ll make me invisible?”
“Not quite, but close to it,” she winks. “Although I want you to remember it makes you invisible, not invincible, so don’t take any risks.”
I nod, though I’m not sure I can make that promise.
“And Ella? Don’t lose it,” she says with a smile, “I intend on getting it back from you some day soon.”
“I promise to return it,” I smile back.
Portia steps away, leaving Calder holding the mysterious object in his hands. He extends it to me, and when he opens his fingers a beautiful watch glistens in his palm.
I take it delicately, turning it over.
“What am I supposed to do with it?”
He presses a latch on the side, and when it opens I see it’s not a watch, but a compass. The needle points not forward, but somewhere to my right, the directions labeled all wrong and glimmering.
“I think it’s broken,” I say, tapping the glass, but Calder shakes his head.
“It’s programmed to take you to my remaining crew in Oddí,” he says.
I frown. “I thought you said they were all gone.”
“I haven’t seen them in three hundred years, but I trust them,” he says, “I want you to head for a pub called the Tempest’s Rest and ask for a man named Jack Kelly. He’ll keep you safe.”
I nod and pocket the compass in the worker’s coveralls.
“And what will you do?”
Calder sighs. “I’ll explain to the delegation that you escaped, and with any luck they’ll take their leave in two days time.” He runs his knuckles gently along my jaw. “Then you can return to me, if you wish.”
“If I wish?” I place my hand over his, “You’re setting me free?”
“If you are to be mine, we will be as equals,” he murmurs, “When you return here, it will be as my lady, not a handmaiden.”
I open my mouth to respond, my heart pounding in my chest, but Portia interrupts us.
“There’s a break in the Hyperborean watch,” she says, “We need to move.”
“Go with Portia,” he says, scooping me into his arms one last time and pressing his mouth to mine, “She’ll guide you to the gate and let you out.”
“You’re not coming?” I ask, my eyes wide.
He bends to pick up his cuirass from where we discarded it earlier, strapping it back around his torso, and then lifts a massive obsidian axe from beside his bed. I go cold at the sight of him with a weapon.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he says.
We creep through the door and out into the corridor, Portia leading the way. My eyes adjust to the dark fast, and I follow the paces I’ve taken so many times over the past few weeks. When Portia glances back to make sure I’m still with her, I notice that a glowing ring of light shines from both eyes. I’ve never actually seen her in the dark, but it gives me hope that she’ll see any Hyperboreans stalking the halls, even if I don’t.
Suddenly, she grabs me and yanks me until I’m flat against the wall alongside her, and I hear footsteps about twenty paces away. In the dim light from her eyes, I see her raise her finger to her lips.
The footsteps fade.
I grip the cloak more tightly around me as we proceed, using it as a security blanket more than anything else. My boots sound impossibly loud on the stone as we descend the spiral staircase, but Portia is quiet as a mouse.
We’ve almost made it to the big front doors when I hear Calder’s heavy step behind us, and a pinprick of light shines from the end of the hallway. I look down to see a Hyperborean guard by the door jerk his head up and saunter into the dark.
“Now’s our chance,” Portia hisses, “Go!”
We race for the door, Portia reaching it first and wrenching it open. The night air washes over me, a light, misty rain setting the courtyard aglow and wetting my face. Portia hustles down the winding trail to the gate while I hurry to keep up with her; even in her skirt, she takes the whole thing in leaps and bounds.
“Wait! Stop right there!”
Portia turns for just a moment, her eyes going wide.
“Hurry!” she yells.
I hear a weapon fire and my nerves go with it, sending me hurtling forward. I’ve been fired at before—albeit with rubber bullets—and it’s not something you ever get used to. I find the dog tags in my pocket and grip them in my hand, reminding myself to be brave. Portia ushers me forward, yanking out some kind of silver disc, and holds it out toward the gate ahead of me, which begins to disassemble before me.
Calder’s voice roars out behind us, and I glance back to see him swing his axe at a guard.
I curse, torn between going back to help and continuing into the city. Portia is waiting for me, urging me to move faster, her eyes wide. But Calder…
“You’ll only be able to help him if you get out of here!” Portia shouts, “Move, Ella! Move!”
I close the distance between us just as I watch Calder come down the path, his shoulders set as he strides after another guard. He swings his axe and slices right through them, and I blanch at the violence. He seems unbeatable at this moment, but I know there are at least another fifty or so guards back in the castle.
I fling myself through the gate and the pieces start to drift back into place, forming a barrier between Portia and I. She draws a hidden blade from her skirt as she turns to join the fray. Then I see Ioni at the crest of the hill, hovering off the ground like a wraith.
I’m not any help here. I need to escape into the city.
We need reinforcements.
I scramble onto the bridge, sprinting as fast as I can across the chasm. I can hear voices behind me, Calder’s and Portia’s among them, and then a piercing screech that sends my hands flying up to cover my ears. Something is happening behind me, but I can’t look back. I have to keep moving.
No matter how much it hurts, I have to keep going. Because it’s my fault this is happening, and I’m the only one who can help them now.
The gate doesn’t open again as the sounds of battle rage on. I hit the other end of the bridge and don’t stop moving, keeping the hood of my cloak pulled up over my hair and staying low in case someone follows me. I’ve been here before, but I was so disoriented after getting out of stasis that I don’t remember much. So I follow the compass into the city, hoping it takes me exactly where I need to go.
Oddí is bigger than I thought, having seen it so many times from a bird’s eye view at Kaer Idunn. The city is built up rather than out, skyscrapers stretching out toward space. Gears turn everywhere I look, steam pushing out of mysterious machines that I presume do something to keep the city afloat, while waterfalls pour from tunnels all around. The mist isn’t quite as dense here as it was on the castle grounds, and myriad aliens push past me, not caring that I’m here. The city is alive and kicking despite the late hour of the night, populated with a few humans here and there.
The compass continues to lead me down a winding path, changing direction every so often to pull me down new streets. I start to feel anxious when about a half hour has passed and I see no sign of the “Tempest’s Rest.” I need to find help fast, before the Hyperboreans do something awful to Portia and Calder.
My heart clenches.
I have to keep moving.
I stop short when the compass needle suddenly swerves behind me. I spin on my heel and see the sign hanging in the air, the letters rusting on a rickety old building.
The Tempest’s Rest.