Lucy turned around and stared at her tails. “Huh.” She said.

While the additional tail was interesting, and I really wanted to touch it, I had some other things to focus on first.

“What happened?” I asked Minerva.

“Iris and myself were running drills with the recruits when we heard an explosion at the gate. Iris went to investigate, while I made sure to protect our people. I took the recruits to lady Lucy’s family. Those intruders showed up shortly afterwards. I am not certain if they had a specific target. It is possible that they expected your residence to be empty and were looking for something.”

“Let’s examine those bodies.” I proposed. “Some of the attackers outside exploded after death. We have to make sure nothing like that happens here.”

Lucy was between her family and any possible danger. In the worst case she might be able to shield them. Still, there was no reason to take any risks.

The building was not necessarily free of intruders either. The palace was big. But we did not hear any fighting nearby. Shani, Lily and Iris were still out there, probably looking for any stragglers. I had no idea if Lilith had followed us, I had not seen her in the fight at least. But I expected the king to arrive soon, with more troops.

After a closer examination we found that the attackers had runes underneath their leather armour. They were not even concealed. They looked slightly different than the ones Minerva had.

“Something is off about those runes. I will need to study them.” I said. My arcane knowledge gave me some ideas, none of them good. Clearly the Inquisition was making some sort of progress in their endeavours.

“But I can’t see anything that would trigger an explosion.” I added. “Still, let’s take them outside.”

“I will stay with my family.” Lucy announced. I nodded.

I stored the corpses inside my storage and left the palace. Minerva and the recruits stayed behind with Lucy.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Outside I saw that more troops had arrived. They were securing the area and gathering the dead. I spotted Lilith and walked towards her.

“Well fought.” She said. “Those small elementals were impressive. And you managed all of that after my summoning.” There was respect in her eyes. It was curious that she knew I had something to do with it. Shani was the one who called them. It also meant that she was there, at the end of the fight. Maybe she had arrived when we charged into the building.

I deposited the bodies from my storage onto the ground. “Some attackers were inside. They have runes but slightly different ones. Have you examined the ones here?”

“No.” She looked around the courtyard. It was filled with holes from several explosions. “Exploding people are concerning. As is this attack. What was their goal? Was it Lucy’s family?”

“Doubtful. They could have done that smarter. Like including some of their exploding troops. It’s hard to say for certain though. Did we capture someone alive? I have to admit, I did not consider that during the fighting.” I admitted.

“Understandable. They challenged you. They dared to touch what is yours.” Lilith said. “We share that. They are trying to enslave my people. They will pay the price.”

There was a lot of fury in her eyes.

I surveyed the area once more. There was a lot of destruction. But the attackers had not achieved anything. And they had used a sizable force.

“How did they get so many soldiers in here?” I wondered. “Entering the dwarven kingdom is not that easy. You can’t just cross a river, or a forest, or something like that. You enter through a tunnel, since we are underground. And they should all be guarded.”

“If you can take care of the monsters there are other tunnels to get into the undermountain.” Lilith pointed out. “But you would think a force of this size would be noticed. Likely they bribed someone to look the other way. I find it more interesting that they had the resources to commit to such an attack. With the civil war, surely there were better uses. We are missing something.”

“Who was inside the palace? Do you think they went for the spymaster? Or some documents?” I wondered.

“A loud and visible attack at the front when security is low. Some weaponry clearly aimed at delaying high level threats. And then a small force which infiltrates the palace.” She pointed at the bodies I had brought. “I suspect the frontal assault was a diversion. Some of them explode because they were never meant to succeed. The true mission was for the infiltrators. Maybe we should have a word with our dwarven allies. They might be able to tell us what is so important inside that palace.”

We both walked over to Dalroc. He was in the courtyard, giving commands. I did not see Ingrid. Maybe she was inside.

Actually, there were quite a few people I had not checked on. The refugees we had with us, for example. But there should have been no reason to attack them. Thessia and Josef, they could have been targets. But they had lazy, I mean Terath, as a guard. And Thessia would be hard to kill. For now I trusted Lily to make sure everyone was safe. I would check on them later.

The king noticed our approach. “Thank you for your help in defending the palace.” He bowed to me.

“Certainly, we are allies.” I replied. “And we were also defending our own people.”

“Which makes this even worse. I failed not only at protecting my own people, the lives of our honoured guests were endangered as well.”

“Which brings us the question: Why?” Lilith said, while staring at Dalroc. “Why did they attack the place when the important people were gone?”