He sighed regrettably. “All right, Silas. I understand.”
“Do you really?”
“I do.” He smiled. “I understand perfectly.”
“That sounds pretty damn cynical the way you’re saying it.”
“Please, release me. Then we can get the prism and I can create the locator spell.”
“Yeah, I still have no way of doing that,” I reminded him, before I heard a very peppy, very loud Lanette closing in on the front door. “But I know someone who does…”
“Gam, Pixie, and Lanette shouldn’t be too far behind,” Rufian whispered, stepping back further into the wall. “Plan this ambush carefully, hero.”
“It’s just like Clave to be late,” Gam said, his squeaky and nasally voice pitchier than Lanette’s.
“Maybe he went and got us something nice!” Lanette beamed. “The head of Yogharni, wouldn’t that be something?!”
Pixie chuckled. “You only want his head on a spike because he hates hybrids.”
“They all hate hybrids! But Yogi uses them for sport in his underground pit! I just know it!”
“Sounds like he wants to bring the Blood Games to Mavriel,” Gam snickered to himself, all three of them heading my way.
“I still can’t get over how those losers robbed us!” Lanette cried.
“It wasn’t them, it was that couple,” Pixie corrected with a huff.
“Stealing all of our stuff right under our noses.” Lanette scoffed. “Why I oughta teach them a lesson!”
Trying not to get caught, I ran for cover. The closest door to me was the pantry, but as soon as I stepped inside of it, I knew I fucked up. The sound of them hauling groceries around made me climb the narrow shelves on both sides of the walls, and up to the high ceiling I went. Luckily, I was tall enough to reach from one end to the other, and I was strong enough to support myself as I watched Lanette hum a tune as she stocked up on supplies.
Why the hell did you need a goddamn kitchen pantry when you could store non-perishables in an infinite inventory?!
I stayed up there as long as I had to, Lanette doing several rounds back and forth. Then I heard Pixie cawing at Rufian, teasing him to come out.
Rufian didn’t entertain her, the big girl’s voice growing angrier.
“Leave him alone, big mama,” Lanette sang. “He’ll be dead by morning.”
“Mmm, I can’t wait to simmer him in some spicy cream sauce!” Gam said, smacking his tongue.
“Can’t your orc half take a time out for two seconds?” Lanette teased.
“Anyone heard about Clover?” Pixie asked as they all sat around the kitchen island. By the sound of it, they were going to stay long, so I tried to climb down as quietly as possible before my limbs went numb up there.
Judging by the comments, Clover’s disappearance didn’t bother her ex-squad mates. In fact, they hated her, and I already knew why. She wasn’t as ruthless and chaotic as them. I pitied her, because I remembered how happy she was when she finally realized she was free, only to die seconds later.
When I peeked through the jam of the door, I saw them, my eyes popping open to the size of Gam. He was short, I mean real short. The shortest orc I’d seen! Granted he was only half orc, but he had to have been at most four feet tall. He had a subtle red undertone to his skin, with tusks and stubby pointed ears. Gam was a stout guy who looked more like a bookkeeper in a library than a crook, but I knew first hand looks could be deceiving…
Example, my feisty fae wolf girl.
As I watched them behind the door, I continued to eavesdrop on their conversation. They went from collectively talking shit about Clover to arguing about heading to the next location on that list Tienus gave Rufian. Pixie was smart enough to know that their legs were being pulled, but Lanette and Gam wanted to stay on course. The verbal argument got off the rails when Pixie began slamming the table and raising her terrifying voice, insisting they refer to Clave for a better lead, but even her anger couldn’t change her teammates’ minds.
“See?! This is exactly why Clave never takes us seriously!” Pixie retorted. “We act like a bunch of drooling babies! Always need his say-so! We can never think for ourselves and agree on something!”
“That’s because your plans always backfire,” Lanette bravely insulted.
“Because you buffoons won’t follow them!”
“Why bicker like amateurs?” Gam added. “Let us just collectively agree to work down the list. That way, we will know for sure that the source was tainted from the start.”
“So we could what? Waste valuable time and mana following some half-baked plan with no idea where it came from?!”
“Our contact said it was legit!” Lanette cried.
“And we took his word for it without batting an eye!”
“He hasn’t done us wrong since,” Gam added.
“And where is he now?! I’ve tried to reach him four times already, and nothing!”
“He’s always busy, big mama, you know that!” Lanette defended.
“And I also know a slimy snake when I see one. I’ve been doing this longer than any of you and I’m tired of wasting my time with this bullshit! We need to be smart if we want to find that codex and Clave knows that. We’ve already been swindled by that whiny couple—they took the list!”
Gam stepped forward, his voice carrying an unexpected authority. “I don’t think Clave is in the right mind to find the codex. He doesn’t care what we do.”
“Hey! How can you say that?!” Lanette reprimanded. “Clave is doing everything he can to find the path to the Grimoire! He cares about it just as much as we do! After everything the High Order has done to him, to us? You’re a fool to think otherwise!”
