Chapter 130

“Collateral Damage.”

Two weeks and three days earlier.

The Duke of Lanish looked at the glass bottle filled with holy water in his hand.

His heart pounded like a madman against his rib cage and his eyes filled with unshed tears in disbelief that the gods had finally heard his prayers and had taken pity on him, after several weeks fraught with endless suffering.

But that night had been different.

Although he had had to endure not only the boring feast celebrating the arrival of the heroes and the success of the summoning ritual, but also the insinuations of the stupid King Medhas in which he practically implied that he himself was behind the poisoning of his father. But what surprised him most was the unexpected event that their conversation had not been as isolated as they had both thought. It was after the king left that he noticed another presence. There, in a shadowy corner of what he had thought was a lonely balcony, stood one of the heroes who had been summoned from another world.

Kalysto Luna.

The attractive young woman with brown hair and deep green eyes not only listened to his sad story, but offered him a deal as she mocked the king’s stupidity.

A magical contract that he had initially hesitated to accept.

Even after hearing the reason she was helping him even though they were complete strangers.

“Because I know how heartbreakingly painful it is to not be able to do anything to save the lives of the only family you have left...I know the despair and helplessness that comes with watching them die in front of your eyes and not being able to do anything to stop it.”

At first he had been shocked by the raw honesty of her words and the palpable pain in them, something that was never to be shown at any time in front of any member of the aristocracy, a society where keeping up appearances was something they were inculcated with almost from the very moment they were born.

And such a level of honesty was as appealing as it was comforting to him. Especially after he had spent entire weeks trying to find a way to bypass the king’s orders of not to sell holy water or potions within the kingdom, let alone to anyone from the Duchy of Lanish. Even when he had sent one of his men to the border to get the potions, he had been killed on the king’s orders and they had been fined heavily for such disobedience.

It was all too obvious to the rest of the aristocracy what was going on, but no one dared lift a finger to help him. Yet he had to meet someone who came from another world in order to find the cure he so desperately needed. At this point, even if she told him that he should marry her and give her half of his mine of mana stones in exchange for curing his father, he would have accepted immediately. However, her conditions were very different from what he had thought.

“ Do not be confused. It won’t be free. You will have to give me something in return, but in order to give me what I want, you will have to turn your back on your king. Would you be willing to pay the price?”

And although he had hesitated, he now rejoiced that he had agreed.

Besides, the young heroine was right, in order for him to be able to give safe refuge to her, a couple of her friends and the rest of the heroes, it was absolutely necessary to become independent from the kingdom or he would be obliged to hand them over as soon as they were discovered and most likely the king would take the opportunity to completely destroy what was left of his family and take all their wealth claiming that they had betrayed the crown.

And as the young duke looked at the bottle in his hand and the other three on the wooden table where he used to take tea in his study in the mansion that his family had maintained for generations in the capital, he smiled.

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Finally, he had the means to save his father.

His fingers trembled full of anxiety at the need to be the one to provide the cure to the only living relative he had left, but Miss Luna was right, if everything the king had told him that night was true there was only one explanation for the vast network of information the king had.

There were spies in his duchy.

And though it pained him to think that some of the people he had grown up with and trusted all his life were capable of betraying him, it was necessary to take action. So he rose from his comfortable chair, took the four vials, and walked to his desk. After sitting down and setting the vials in a drawer, he locked it. After opening another drawer, he pulled out several sheets of a special parchment, one that could withstand several spells, and spent the next ten minutes casting all the necessary spells and drafting what would be the new employment contract for each and every person who worked for him. It would be a long and tedious process, but as long as he could ensure the absolute loyalty of his men and the welfare of his father, he was more than willing to use whatever resources were at his disposal.

After all, hardly anyone knew that he was not only a master swordsman, but also a magician, so no one would expect what he was going to do next.

Two knocks sounded against the double doors of his study.

“Come in!” said the duke.

“Did your excellency send for me?” answered his assistant.

“There is an urgent matter we must deal with," he said, lowering his voice as soon as one of the men he trusted most closed the door. Then he spread the first parchment on his desk, allowing him to read it. “Sign this!” he ordered. And his assistant immediately read the document and as soon as he finished, he signed it.

“May I ask what this is for?”

“Have you ever betrayed me?”

“Never my lord, unless you count that time you asked me not to tell your father that you ran away from sword training," the duke couldn’t help but let out a half smile.

“I thought it was the housekeeper who had given me away.”

“I apologize for that, but the previous duke asked me about your whereabouts and I had to inform him, sir.” The attendant waited for another question, but seeing that his master was lost in his own thoughts, he interrupted him. "Is there anything else you wish from me, Your Excellency?"

“Yes,” and both men looked each other in the eyes for a couple of seconds while the duke activated an enchanted stone with which he could create a small isolated zone outside of which no one could hear their conversation. “We have traitors in our midst. I need you to summon all the staff. I will use the excuse of renewing their contracts to make them sign, and anyone who refuses to do so will be taken to the dungeon for interrogation. Bring Arz, Leit and Mir first. I have a mission of vital importance for them."

Fifteen minutes later he had tested the loyalty of his three trusted guards and sent them back to the duchy, not only with the vials of holy water to cure his father and enough scrolls to prove the loyalty of each of his employees and some of his trusted knights. But he also gave them the order to move his father to another location and spread the news that his father’s health had taken a turn for the worse. He needed to know if that would cause anyone working for the king or the temple to try to get close to get information and be able to find out who else was involved in this. Along with the order to assassinate, after rigorous interrogation, anyone who refused to sign the new contract.

To his great surprise, less than two days later, he was summoned to the queen’s palace.

****

Current date.

Kalysto turned around, trying to find some landmark or anything that would give her some indication of what was going on.

But there was only darkness and silence.

Contrary to what had happened to her the previous times, the collection of windows she kept open had automatically closed this time.

She frowned at the unusual occurrence.

“Map!” she whispered. A violet window flickered to her left several times, then shut off completely, plunging her back into absolute darkness.

Several seconds later, she tried again.

“Map!” But she got exactly the same result.

And without being aware of it as she strained to hear something other than silence, her breathing began to quicken in time with her heartbeat. Her green gaze traveled from side to side trying to find something in that black sea to help her orient herself, but there was nothing.

Gradually the temperature began to drop. And her nose began to itch as she struggled to stifle a sneeze. But to no avail, by the time the sneeze escaped her cold lips the faint sound of something sliding across the floor alerted her senses.

But the sound disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

Eerie silence reigned again and fear spread in her gut.

She wasn’t alone anymore.