Dragon Sword (The Dragon Lord’s Bride #2)

Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“I don’t know if this is going to work!” I hissed as I shifted in the uncomfortable armor. My whole body clanked and clanged with such a tiny effort.

“It won’t if you keep opening your mouth!” Sylvia snapped as she, too, adjusted in her armor. “They’ll know you’re an outsider immediately just by the way you talk!”

I frowned at her. “The same to you.”

“I will do all the talking,” Will interrupted us as he, too, moved the pieces of his armor to fit his person.

I looked down at myself and sighed. Though I wore the smallest set of armor we could find, it was still much too big for me. The bottom ‘hem’ of the pants legs reached the floor several inches before my feet. Only the tall leggings kept me from waddling on the shin plates. Those, too, were ill-fitting and I found myself tripping over the toes because my own feet dragged behind the points.

I managed a few steps without humiliating myself and sighed. The Vahti was a long walk.

“Here,” Sylvia suggested as she parted my pants from my breastplate and tucked her sack into the large space. “This might help.”

Her exuberance nearly toppled me but Will caught me in his arms. The loud clatter made me wince.

I looked up at him and my visor dropped over my face. A growl escaped me as I wrenched it up to look into his bemused face. “Are you sure we won’t attract too much attention?”

“It may but no one would dare stop the king’s royal guards,” he pointed out as he righted me. “These suits are meant only for them and to obstruct the king’s men is considered an act of treason, as Terve well knows.”

I shifted my breastplate and winced when something hard in the bag poked me. “What’s in this bag, anyway?” I asked our other companion.

She glared at me. “It’s none of your business and you’d better hope I don’t have to use much of them.”

“If you’re both ready then follow me,” Will instructed us before he lowered his visor.

Sylvia and I did the same. He grabbed a spear and we followed suit, and with our costumes finished we clanged our way down the hall to the exit. The stairs were unguarded and Will led us to the exterior door. He peeked out and paused. My heart pounded in my metal suit as I heard the sounds of many voices reach our ears.

“What is it?” Sylvia hissed.

“A training exercise,” Will whispered in reply.

Sylvia gestured down at herself. “What’s the deal? You said these would hide us.”

“But not from the king’s guard themselves, of which there is some training,” he told her.

My heart fell. “So what do we do?”

“We need a diversion to get past them.” He kept the door ajar and removed one gauntlet-covered hand. A small fireball burst from his palm and danced above his skin. “When I give the command, we move.”

Sylvia and I nodded. The slightly open door gave me a peek at the dozens of elven soldiers who were training at that moment. Will knelt near the bottom of the door with his flame in hand and rolled it like a ball. The tiny fire scuttled across the ground and turned a sharp right, disappearing behind the door.

“What are you doing?” Sylvia questioned him.

Will stood and pressed his shoulder lightly against the door. “Wait a moment.”

We waited with bated breath and were justly rewarded when a whiff of smoke passed the door.

“Fire!”

“Water! To the water!”

The trainees stampeded rightward, leaving the way open for us. Will opened the door and slunk across the field. Sylvia and I tailed him but I couldn’t help but peek around at where everyone had gone. Will’s tiny flame had crawled across the grass and caught a set of dummies on fire. The dry effigies burned so well that smoke filled the training grounds, providing us with even more cover.

We clanked as softly as we could across the open ground and I didn’t breathe until we reached the cover of the city proper. Our distraction had attracted some attention from the citizens but Will approached the crowd with his arms raised.

“Disperse!” he commanded as Sylvia and I joined in on herding the crowd. “There is only an errant fire! We will bring it under control soon! Disperse now!”

The crowd reluctantly obeyed and returned to their lives. Will waited until the last one had gone before he hurried down the road. We clanked and clanged along the tiers ever closer to the high tower of the Vahti. I couldn’t help but admire the sheer size of the thing, though the plain exterior left little to compliment.

Will guided us to the building that had so caught my attention earlier, the one with the dome. The pair of doors were wide open and people loitered on the wide steps out front, many with books in their laps. They looked at us with curiosity as we passed by in all our metal glory.

Will led us on like a seasoned soldier in humiliation while both Sylvia and I stayed close at his heels. We marched into the foyer and found ourselves in a huge room filled with heavy stone bookcases. The shelves were filled with manuscripts, books, tomes, and maps, all neatly arranged and tagged. A long desk on our right was staffed by a young elf maiden and an older one who appeared to be the same age as Alisa. Both were seated on stools and were reading checklists and sorting returned books.

The younger one shot to her feet at our coming and smiled at us. “Good evening! What can I get for you?”

The older librarian hardly looked up from her manuscript and gave us a once-over before returning her attention to the parchment. “They wish to have the conference hall on the second floor.”

Her younger compatriot’s face fell. “But that is occupied by the scholars right now.”

The elder rolled up the manuscript and set it on a stack beside her. Her voice was as even as the straight lines on the lists in front of her. “Remove them.”

The other elf’s mouth fell open. She shook off her shock and ducked low beside the older elf. “But-”

“They are past their allotted time for the month,” the elder pointed out. “Tell them they may come back tomorrow.”

The younger one straightened and swallowed hard. Her face was slightly pale but she bowed her head to her elder. “I will do as you say, Madam Kipu.” She turned her attention to us and swept her arm in the direction of the rear of the building where a wide stair led up to the second floor. “This way, please.”

We followed the young elf up the stairs and to the second floor. Half the space was occupied by bookcases and the other half had conference rooms. The walls had no glass so we couldn’t see inside them and the doors were so thick that no sound came through. She guided us to the room farthest from the stairs and rapped gently on the wood.

We waited a moment before the door opened by an elf only slightly younger than Madam Kipu. He was incredibly tall and lanky like a pond reed and his hair, though long down the back, was sparse at the top. The elf wore a pair of thick spectacles down which he stared at all of us.

The old elf wrinkled his beaked nose. “What warrants an interruption of our most careful studies?”

“Is that the ladies?” a drunken voice called from just outside our view. Uproarious laughter followed.

“Have they come to dance?” another chimed in.

The old elf shot a look of death at the speakers and the merriment died. He returned his attention to us and cleared his throat. “You must excuse them. They are acting out a play.”

“Of course,” our young guide assured him as she bowed low to the leader of the lechers. “My sincerest apologies, scholars, but you have used your allotted time for the month. Madam Kipu has asked you to leave and return tomorrow.”

The elf wrinkled his nose. “If that is true then we shall leave.”

We stepped aside and watched a half dozen older elf gentlemen march past us. More than one cast a curious look at Sylvia and me, but nobody gave Will a second look. Perhaps they could smell femininity.

When they had gone, our guide swept her arm toward the room. “If you would.”