“Of what?” Cheyenne watched the goblin move around to the other side of Persh’al’s square before she followed him.
Persh’al cleared his throat and rolled his chair toward his monitor and keyboard. When the halfling shot him a curious glance, he shook his head and dove into his system.
Byrd stopped at the warehouse’s thick steel door leading to the back of the property and shoved it open. “We’re tryin’ again!”
“Already?” Lumil shouted from outside. “Didn’t think he had it in him.”
“He might not.” Byrd chuckled and opened the door wider as Lumil stepped inside. “But Cheyenne’s here.”
“Oh, hey.” The goblin woman jerked her chin at the halfling, wiping slightly damp hands on her pant legs. “What’s up, kid?”
“I’m waiting for someone to tell me.”
Lumil ignored her and eyed Corian instead, who was busy opening another portal in the center of the warehouse. “How does L’zar’s kid showing up make the lizard head more willing to talk?”
Byrd sniggered. “I mean, look at her!”
The goblin woman looked Cheyenne up and down and smirked. “Yeah, she’s pretty terrifying. You’ve done this before, right? I thought I heard you mention something about that.”
Glancing at the portal quickly opening in front of Corian, Cheyenne shrugged. “I need somebody to tell me what you’re talking about before I can answer that.”
“Persuasion, kid.” Byrd smashed his fist into the other palm. “A direct and intentional line of questioning.”
Lumil leaned away from her counterpart and shot him a mocking frown. “Interrogation. The physical kind.”
“Yeah, I’ve been there once or twice.” Didn’t take much to make Durg squeal. Good thing he did. “You guys still have that scaly guy locked up somewhere?”
“Damn straight, we do.” Byrd marched toward the center of the warehouse, where Corian’s portal had now opened fully into whatever room lay beyond. “We spent twelve hours straight huntin’ this asshole down. No way is he gettin’ turned loose anytime soon.”
“Has he said anything else?”
“Eh.” Lumil wrinkled her nose and wiggled her hand back and forth. “He started mumbling two hours in last time. If he said anything, it was pretty fuckin’ indecipherable.”
Cheyenne slowly joined them behind Corian, peering around the edge of the open portal for a better look. “He didn’t look so great this morning, either.”
“Oh, he wasn’t.” Lumil chuckled. “Hey, let me know if he looks worse or the same, huh? It’s hard for me to tell. You spend all day bashing a guy’s face in, and everything tends to kinda run together.”
Corian looked slowly over his shoulder and fixed the goblin woman with his glowing silver eyes. “I understand your particular brand of humor, Lumil, but I don’t enjoy it. This isn’t a game.”
Lumil’s lips curled in a tight, humorless smile. “Don’t talk down to me, nightstalker. I know exactly what this is.”
“I know you do. Just try not to look like you enjoy it so much.”
Corian glanced at Cheyenne and gestured at the open portal. “This is where we try to figure out how tonight happened. You gonna have a problem with this?”
Pressing her lips together, the halfling shook her head. “Nope.”
“Then let’s wake him up.” Corian stepped through the portal, followed quickly by Byrd, who rubbed his hands together vigorously and chuckled through his nose.
“After you, kid.” Lumil nodded at the portal and flexed her hands. “I’m still warming up.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The portal took them into some kind of basement with a cement floor, ceiling, and all four walls. The room was empty except for the blood-splattered office chair with an equally stained coil of rope hanging limply over the armrests, a bright and unfiltered lightbulb dangling overhead, and two sets of iron manacles attached to brackets in the cement walls by sturdy iron chains. Those manacles were closed around the silver-scaled magical’s wrists and ankles. He sat relatively upright against the wall, though his arms dangled six inches above either side of his head, which slumped all the way forward so his chin touched his chest.
“Go ahead,” Corian muttered, staring at their unconscious prisoner.
“Oh, yeah.” Byrd stepped forward and squatted in front of the scaly magical, then reached into the inside pocket of his dark-brown vest and pulled out a handful of dried leaves. They crunched loudly when he squeezed the bundle in both fists. He slowly opened his hands again and waved them under the lizard-man’s nose.
The prisoner gasped and reared back, thumping his head against the cement wall as his eyes flew open.
Byrd blew on his cupped hands, sending the leaves and dust into the other magical’s face.
The lizard-man screamed and jerked against the manacles around his wrists. He was too weak to do more than lash out with his feet when the chains wouldn’t let him go any farther. “You sadistic fuck!”
Spit flew from the lizard-man’s mouth, his blood-red tongue flicking out between rows of tiny sharpened teeth.
Or maybe it’s just a mouthful of blood. Cheyenne shoved her hands into her pockets and studied the O’gúleesh prisoner who was working Earthside for the Crown.
Byrd smirked and stood, dusting the rest of the crushed leaves off his hands as he stepped slowly backward. The lizard-man eyed the puff of dust with wary yellow-green eyes. “You think you’re onto something with that shit? Go ahead, bring in a whole fucking pile and bury me. I’m not telling you shit.”
“The thought did occur to me.” Corian’s voice was low, calm, and controlled, his hands clasped behind his back. The prisoner’s eyes flickered up to settle on the nightstalker’s face. “If I left it up to these two, that’s exactly what they’d be doing right now. Or something equally painful for you, no doubt.”
The magical sniggered. The glistening silver scales around his hooded eyes, thin lips, and flattened nose had taken on a sickly green hue. “Next you’re gonna tell me I’m lucky you stopped them ‘cause you’re the one calling the shots around here. But you ain’t.”
Corian’s nose wrinkled in response.
Cheyenne pressed her lips together. He’s more upset about the poor grammar.
His prisoner
