“How strange, how strange.” Cassendir muttered, nodding at this new information.
“Are you done? Loren has been captured by a mad queen are you’re asking about history.” Kae’s voice was muffled. She held her head in her hands. “How will this help us save her?”
“I’m sorry, you’re right.” Cassendir straightened up. “I will have to study more about this Keeper and the Sons and Daughters at length later.”
“You can if we don’t get killed, Cassendir.” Kae sighed. “We very well might be at this point. Loren might as well be.”
Seraphis turned her attention to Kae. Her expression darkened with disappointment. “If you intend to give up and leave, be my guest and stop wasting my time. I could very well be punished for helping you. I was sent out here to kill you, but I’ve stayed my hand to allow you to rescue your princess.” She sighed and put a hand on the hilt of her sword.
“Seraphis.” The scholar said gently. The warrior-princess held up a hand.
“There is a path on the west side of the Keep that leads to a sewage system and a gate. That gate will be unlocked. Follow it and the river of blood up and to the right, it will lead you to the kennels.” Seraphis said.
“Why is there a river of blood?”
“That doesn’t matter. Once you are in the kennels, the door leading out of it will be unlocked as well. The Houndsmaster Kerza tends to the hounds day and night, but I will instruct him to let you pass. He is a trusted man, I know he will not raise the alarm. Ma’trii should be alone in one of the cells, and Kerza will unlock it for you.”
Cassendir nodded, listening intently. He had the look of intense focus that Kae had seen when he was examining plants and other items of interest. She rolled her eyes, assuming that the scholar was committing things to memory. Kae herself was barely listening to Seraphis’s instructions. All she could hear were Loren’s screams as she twitched and burned, succumbing to the queen’s magic. Kae shook her head.
“The door from the kennels will bring you to the throne room. I cannot tell the guards posted there to leave, as that will draw suspicion. You will have to use your wits.” Seraphis continued.
“Where is Loren kept, anyway?” Kae asked.
Seraphis looked to her and hesitated. “That would be the most difficult part. Knowing my sister, Loren would have been taken to the queen’s quarters.”
“What?”
“It is as I’ve said. Just like Elysia. If the queen has other plans tonight, then I suppose…” Seraphis trailed off with a sigh. “The dungeons. Follow the sounds of screaming. It shouldn’t be hard.”
The huntress could imagine the sound of Loren in pain, the sight of it setting her gritting her teeth with eyes screwed shut. And yet, from how Seraphis spoke of it, she wasn’t sure if finding Loren in the dungeons would be the better option. “How do we get the princess out of the Firestone Keep?”
The warrior princess shook her head. She played with the small braids the peeked out of her short red hair as she thought. “Perhaps the same way you came in; that would be safe. But if the alarm had been raised, I don’t know. If the queen finds you, I will have to obey her and attack you.”
“Why do you follow her orders?” Kae rounded on the princess, her voice rising. It was if a dam of emotions had broken, and her anger and indignation was spilling out like a tide. She stood, stepping close to the princess. “If you had the courage to defy her earlier, none of this would have happened! You wouldn’t have to sneak around your own city like a thief! If you had the spine to stop her, she wouldn’t have taken your slave girl!”
Seraphis’s fist cracked into the huntress’s face before she could even blink, sending the huntress sprawling to the ground. As Kae reeled, one hand on her cheek, Seraphis’s eyes were wide in anger. Her glare, turning mad with rage, looked similar to her sister’s. “How dare you speak of her. How dare you presume to tell me what I could have done. You should be thankful I’m trying to help you at all.”
“Seraphis, please!” Cassendir cried, stepping between the two ladies with his arms outstretched. “Both of you! Now is not the time.”
“Not the time? Just a minute ago you had Seraphis spouting ancient history.” Kae grumbled. She stared up the warrior princess, still rubbing at her sore cheek.
“I apologize for that! I let my curiosity get ahead of me, I’m sorry. But ever second we waste here is another second of the princess in pain.” Cassendir said gently. The soft blue light spilled from his sleeve and he offered his hand to Kae who took it and stood. The huntress didn’t move away, so Cassendir placed his hand on her cheek, aiding her with soothing magic. “I apologize on her behalf, Seraphis.”
Seraphis said nothing. Her gaze was
