Page 96 of Eldritch (The Eating Woods #2)

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

KAZHIMYR

K azhimyr pushed to his feet for the first time since he’d woken up in the ale-rotted tavern two days ago. While he still suffered a slight weakness in his gait, he could at least stay upright without tumbling to his ass.

“No pain?” Ravezio asked, pressing against the spot on his calf where he’d been bitten, while behind him, Dravien examined his every move. Ravezio shifted Kazhimyr’s leg toward the moonlight coming in through the window.

“Nothing.”

“Good. We’re leaving tonight. I can’t stand another minute in this hell hole.

” Dravien strode across the room to the door.

For two days, he’d paced like a caged animal, hardly bothering to eat, convinced that General Loyce would somehow sniff him out.

Seemed he’d been counting down the seconds until Kazhimyr would be strong enough to walk.

“You two are going to distract the guards. I’ll steal two of their horses, and we’ll meet up where we discussed. ”

The plan was to rendezvous just outside of town, in the small stretch of woods along the road toward Costelwick.

In the event Loyce might’ve come after Zevander herself, it’d put them a half- day’s ride ahead of her.

And, of course, leaving under the cover of night was safer, for Dravien especially.

Dravien nodded toward Ravezio. “Check the guards again. Make sure there are only two watching the horses.”

Ravezio strode toward the window, pressing his back to the wall as he peered downward. “Two. Saw three of the bastards and the Bellatryx head toward the brothel. Barmaid downstairs told me someone got killed there tonight.”

“Did she say who?” Kazhimyr asked, strapping his blades to his chest.

“Sexsell. Flammapul.”

“Like those in The Hovel.” It was uncommon to hear about flammellians in the more affluent towns and villages.

“You think the woman they’re after might be the one who killed them?” Seemed Ravezio was thinking the same thing.

“Seems an odd coincidence. Any word on whether the Solassions tracked her down?”

“Haven’t heard.” Ravezio slipped his sword into the scabbard at his back.

With his hand on the knob, Dravien exhaled a long breath and cracked open the bedroom door, tilting his head as if surveying the tavern below.

“All townsfolk on the main floor.” He turned his head the other way, toward where General Loyce’s bedroom sat at the end of the corridor.

“Her door remains closed, as usual. Let’s go now. ”

Dravien raised the hood of his cloak and exited the room first, swiftly making his way down the staircase to the first level. Ravezio trailed after him, with Kazhimyr hobbling behind.

Once outside, Dravien turned right, heading toward the center of town, while Ravezio and Kazhimyr flanked left toward the guards and horses.

Both bald and paunchy, one of the guards snoozed, while the other toyed with his dagger, neither of them entirely vigilant.

A glance over Kazhimyr’s shoulder showed Dravien turning down an alley adjacent to the tavern, following his plan to circle back around for the horses.

As the two Letalisz approached the guards, Kazhimyr let Ravezio get ahead of him a few paces, then called out, “Hey! Where do you think you’re going, you scum-blooded rat! I want what you stole from me!”

Ravezio turned, his hand on the hilt of his dagger. “I didn’t steal anything, you lying sack of horseshit.”

“Move on, both of you.” The guard waved his hand, urging them away from the stables.

“I’m not going anywhere until this thieving shitkisser pays me what he owes for stealing my woman!” Kazhimyr stabbed a finger into the air.

Ravezio pressed his lips together as if trying to stifle a laugh. “I don’t owe you a damned thing.”

“The hell you don’t! A horse, I’d say. And your boots!”

The guard frowned. “A horse for a woman?”

“’Least I’d get a few good rides out of a horse.” Even Kazhimyr had to bite back the urge to laugh.

The guard snorted and shook his head. “If you ain’t got an official writ then I’m afraid I can’t help you.” He waved them on again.

Ignoring him, Ravezio kept on with the fake argument. “Believe me when I say, that woman wasn’t worth the rash I got afterward. A rash you gave her first.”

The guard chuckled. “Ain’t you Micians known for diseases of that sort? I doubt an unskilled rat suckler like yourself managed to sweep a proper mancer off her feet.”

Kazhimyr didn’t have to look at Ravezio to know he’d bristled at the insult. He could feel the tension vibrating off his friend.

Beyond the soldier, Kazhimyr caught a glimpse of the horses toward the back, two of which moved away from the others, and snapped his attention back to the guard. “It’s true. Disease-riddled bastard is as skilled a lover as a Solassion.”

The smile on the guard’s face soured and he knocked his friend in the arm, jerking him awake. “You hear that Grimbald? This liverpus just insulted us.”

Ravezio shot Kazhimyr a worried look, but the anger had already hooked itself in Kazhimyr’s bones.

Ravezio gave a nervous chuckle. “He didn’t insult you. I’m a savvy lover. I fuck like a god—isn’t that right, friend?”

Kazhimyr kept his eyes on the guard, challenging him.

“So, what is it?” the guard asked, stepping toward him. “Was it meant to be an insult?”

Teeth grinding, Kazhimyr tamped down the rush of adrenaline surging through him and snapped himself out of his rage. “There’s a reason she left me for him, I suppose.” He could almost feel Ravezio sag with relief.

The guard stared back a moment more. His eyes crinkled with a smile, then he let out a hearty laugh, knocking his friend in the arm.

“You hear that? We fuck like gods!” He turned back toward Kazhimyr.

“Damn right we do, you scurvy cock!” An obnoxious laugh followed and had Kazhimyr not been aiming for a more discreet exit, he’d have knocked a few teeth from the guard’s smug grin.

“Now, get the fuck out of here, both of you.”

Still rattled, Kazhimyr hobbled off after Ravezio, down the street, until out of eyeshot of the guard.

Ravezio halted, allowing him to catch up. “You almost got our asses in a scuffle back there.”

“He shouldn’t have talked to you like that.”

“Everyone talks to me like that.”

Kazhimyr skidded to a halt. “They think they’re superior. The chosen. The sun gods . Years, I watched them torture you, and I did nothing. I was nothing back then! Now I have power. I have the ability to make them suffer as much as they made you—us—suffer.”

Sighing, Ravezio nodded. “It’s taken years to erase the pain they’ve caused.

But remember what we’re doing, Kaz. While that guard is picking his ass, standing in front of a horse stall and smelling like shit, we’re about to spare all of Aethyria from whatever in seven hells Dolion drew all over the walls.

To me? That carries far more weight than a petty insult that I’ve already forgotten. ”

Kazhimyr pressed his lips together as he kept on the path toward the woods ahead. “Hope he freezes his cock off.”

Ravezio chuckled, keeping step with him. “You were imagining that, weren’t you? When you got real quiet?”

“I was imagining worse than that.”

The two of them finally reached the stretch of woods and found the two horses tied to a tree, but there was no sign of Dravien.

A plant at the base of the tree captured Kazhimyr’s attention—more specifically, a dark substance, which looked an awful lot like blood, dripping from its leaves.

He smeared his finger over it, picked up a red fluid. Definitely blood.

A bellow of agony echoed through the forest, and Kazhimyr shot Ravezio a frown. As Ravezio stepped in the direction of the noise, Kazhimyr gripped his arm.

“Wait.”

Ravezio’s brows came together. “I’m going after him.”

“We have two horses. The Solassions don’t give a damn who we are. We could be at the Umbravale by tomorrow evening, if we go now.”

Wrenching his arm free, Ravezio shook his head. “He saved your life. A few times. Literally sucked the venom out of your wound. Personally? I wouldn’t have put my lips anywhere near your hairy fucking leg, but he did it, and he saved your life. You owe him, friend. We owe him.”

Kazhimyr groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. “Fuck. We do this, it won’t just be Captain Zivant after us. It’ll be the whole Solassion army.”

“We’re highly sought out men. What else is new?” Ravezio strode off in the direction of the outcries, and shaking his head, Kazhimyr reluctantly followed.

C rouched behind shrubs, Kazhimyr surveyed the three guards only a few yards away, who stood with their backs to General Loyce, watching the surrounding trees.

The general and another Bellatryx, given her muscular features that suggested she was half-Zephromyte, stared back at Dravien, who’d been secured by barbed bindings to a tree.

His shirt had been removed, revealing fresh cuts to his flesh.

Clutching a dagger behind her back, General Loyce paced in front of him. “Imagine my surprise finding you here. Where are my stones?”

“Dolion…is dead. You sent me…chasing after…a ghost.”

Dravien’s lie caught Kazhimyr by surprise. He could’ve given her any number of excuses—the stones had been stolen from him, the mage had overpowered him with the stones. Instead, he gave her a finality that she likely wouldn’t have believed.

Confirmed, when she said, “You’re lying.”

She dragged her blade down the length of his shoulder to his bicep, and Dravien let out no more than a grunt through clenched teeth.

“What are you doing here? And before you respond, consider that, when I administer Nilmirth, if your answer differs, you will be properly punished. None of this foreplay.”

The barbs seemed to bite deep into Dravien’s neck, the way he winced and shifted his head slightly. “I found…something better. Something…you want…more than those damned stones.”

“And what do you presume to think I want more than those stones?”

“Zevander Rydainn.”