Chapter 55: Back to the palace

Tez straightened up and looked around the alley.

The butler was gone. There was only the empty roof where he had vanished, and the dust still settling over the broken stones. Whatever had held the dome in place had faded along with him, and the sounds of the night had started to creep back in.

He turned his head toward the direction the arrow had come from.

Three figures stood on a rooftop across the street. Amber was in the middle with her bow still raised, and Mira and Lia were on either side of her. A moment later, they leaped down together and landed on the stones.

Lia was the first to run.

She crossed the alley in seconds, grabbed his hand, and pulled him toward her, her eyes scanning every cut and bruise on his body.

"Tez, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? You’re bleeding!"

"I’m fine," Tez said.

"You are not fine," Mira said, coming up behind her. Her arms were crossed, but her face was tight with worry. "You look like you were thrown through a wall."

"A couple of walls, actually," Tez said, and tried to smile. "But I’m alright. I promise. It looks worse than it is."

Lia did not let go of his hand. She kept looking at him, her lip trembling, until he squeezed her fingers and gave a small nod to show her it was true.

Then he turned to Amber.

"Thank you," he said. "If you hadn’t shot when you did, I don’t think I would have gotten the chance to hit him."

Amber lowered her bow and shook her head a little.

"It was only an arrow. But what happened here? We heard the explosions from the inn, and we came as fast as we could."

"It was the butler," Tez said. "Grent’s butler. He came for me tonight, and he brought something with him."

Amber’s brows drew together. She looked at the ruined alley, then at the cracked walls, and then at him.

"Did you already know?" she asked slowly. "That they were not good people? Is that why you didn’t allow me to stay at the manor?"

Tez let out a breath.

"Yes. I found out some things while we were there, and I didn’t like what I learned. I was trying to keep it quiet until I had a better plan, but the butler came after me before I could do anything."

Amber said nothing for a moment. Her hand tightened on her bow. If she had stayed there, if she had said yes to that offer, she would have been under that man’s roof tonight.

"I see," she said quietly.

Mira’s eyes moved past him, and she stopped.

"What is that?"

Tez followed her gaze.

A huge shape lay on the ground at the end of the alley, half buried in the rubble. It was a body, and it was massive. It was nearly seven feet tall, with swollen arms and a shredded jacket hanging off its shoulders. A broken blade stuck out of one eye socket.

"That’s Ragnar," Tez said.

"Who?" Lia asked.

"The thing the butler brought to kill me." He looked at it and shook his head. "I killed it, but it was not easy. It took everything I had, and a bit more."

Nobody spoke for a while. Mira walked over and looked at the body, then at the crater around it, then at Tez.

"You fought that alone?"

"I had no choice."

She did not answer, but her expression softened a little.

Tez rubbed his neck. His body ached everywhere.

"We can’t keep this quiet anymore," he said. "After what happened tonight, Grent knows I’m a problem. He’ll try again. So I think we should go and talk to Peter. The old man needs to hear all of this."

They agreed.

Together, they carried what was left of Ragnar out of the alley. It took all of them, and it was not pleasant work, but nobody wanted it found in the morning. Then they walked back to the inn through the empty streets and called it a night.

The morning came faster than he had expected.

Tez stood in front of the counter, with everyone else gathered behind him. Amber, Lia, Mira and Lia stood in a loose half circle. During the night, they had dragged the body behind the inn and buried it in a deep hole, and they were all tired.

Peter stood behind the counter, with one arm still bandaged against his chest, listening.

"Grent is not someone we can trust," Tez said.

Peter’s face went cold.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said. He’s not the person you think he is."

"That is a serious claim, boy." Peter set his good hand on the counter. "Grent is an old friend of mine. We have known each other for decades. How could you possibly know something like that after one visit?"

"I got it from one of his maids," Tez said. "The one with the whip mark across her back. I won’t tell you exactly how I got her to speak, but you should know that I did, and that what she told me was real."

Peter frowned.

"And what did she say?"

Tez told him.

He told him everything, from the slave trade to the families held hostage to the beatings. Peter listened with his jaw tight. Then Tez told him about the night before, about the butler and what he had brought into the alley.

"He had a creature with him," Tez said. "Seven feet tall, strong enough to shatter a sword in one punch. The butler called it Ragnar."

Peter’s eyes widened.

He had been leaning on the counter, and now his hand slid off it. He stared at Tez, and the color drained from his face.

"Say that name again."

"Ragnar."

Peter palmed his face with his hand, and for a long time, he said nothing at all.

"When we were young," he said finally, his voice low, "Grent and I used to travel together. We were adventurers then, and we fought in a lot of places. In one ruin, we found a book." He shook his head slowly. "It described a way to merge humans with other races, to twist them into a single mutated monster. A process, a ritual. The creature at the end of it was called Ragnar."

The room went quiet.

"We burned that book," he said. "At least, I thought we did. I never imagined that he had kept it. And that he had used it."

He lowered his hand. His eyes were wet.

"I could not believe it. All these years, I called that man my friend."

"I’m sorry," Tez said.

"No. You did what needed to be done." Peter drew in a long breath and straightened. "That is proof enough for me. He is into something diabolic. The question is what we do now."

Tez shook his head.

"For now, we can’t do anything."

"What?"

"We lack the resources and the power. If we go after him today, we’ll lose. He has people and money, and he has things like Ragnar that we haven’t even seen yet." Tez looked at Peter steadily. "So I want to ask for a week."

"A week?"

"We’ll go to the Sky Palace and grind. Get stronger. By the time we come back, we’ll be ready."

Peter stared at him in confusion.

"A week," he repeated. "How much stronger can anyone get in a week?"

"More than you’d think."

"That is not an answer."

"I know," Tez said, and smiled. "But I promise you, everything will go well. When we come back, we’ll be ready, and everything will be set."

Peter looked at him for a long time. Then he nodded slowly.

"Alright. I will trust you. A week."

Tez turned around.

"Leah, Mira, Lia," he said. "We’re heading back to the Sky Palace today. Pack what you need."

They nodded and went to gather their things.

Then he looked at Amber.

"And you? Do you want to come with us?"

Amber thought about it for a moment. Being outside was unsafe, especially now. Grent would be looking for her, and for Tez, and the inquisitors were still somewhere out there. For now, the best thing to do was to get stronger.

And Tez seemed to believe that he could do it.

Even if it was hard to believe that a single week would be enough, she wanted to believe him.

"I’ll come," she said.