“Rest assured all the ladies watch over their husbands, though Baroness Kannon mainly watches to make sure he doesn’t pester the female servants too much. There’s nothing else?”
“I am curious about something. I saw no sign of Marris’s family.”
“They’re dead. The pig actually bragged about it. He liked to say if we didn’t behave we’d join them soon enough.” The baroness nodded and glided away down the hall, a slight limp the only sign of injury from her time in captivity.
Damien shut the hall door and frowned, trying to remember exactly what Marris had said when they spoke in his room. The baron had never actually said his family was alive. He’d said in one piece and like the inexperienced fool he was Damien assumed the rest. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Lane opened the door connecting their rooms, three stuffed bags sitting on the floor behind her. “I thought I heard voices.”
“Baroness Trasker stopped by to offer me one more bribe. I don’t know what she hopes to accomplish beyond getting her hooks into me.”
“Maybe she’s genuinely grateful.”
Damien raised an eyebrow at that. Nobles were seldom genuine and even less often grateful.
Lane shrugged and smiled. “I’m sure she had a good reason.”
“On that, at least, we’re in agreement.” Damien conjured a box around her luggage and they set out for the courtyard. They passed a pair of servants who both curtsied. The barons and their families made no appearance which was fine with Damien. He’d probably offended them with his little speech to Kannon.
“Not much of a send off,” Lane said.
“Disappointed?”
“Not especially. How will we be traveling?”
“Do you have a preference? I remember you mentioning a gold dragon.”
She blushed a little at that. “I was being sarcastic. Perhaps something a little less ostentations.”
Damien conjured a black horse with a double saddle. “How’s this?”
“Much better.”
Damien climbed up into the front saddle and reached back to help Lane up behind him. Remembering his first flight with Master Shen, Damien conjured a belt around Lane’s waist to hold her in place. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
The horse galloped into the air, Lane’s luggage box right behind. She yelped and grabbed Damien around his chest. Damien grinned, but kept his face turned away so she wouldn’t see.
They flew for a minute or two before she finally let go. Behind him Lane gasped.
“It’s amazing. I’ve never seen the world from this high before.”
Surprised, Damien asked, “Didn’t you ever fly with your mother?”
“She offered to take me, but I wouldn’t go. I was angry, a lot, when I was younger.”
“So you naturally became a diplomat.”
“The position got me away from sorcerers and the capital which helped with the anger. When we get back I need to talk to Mom, tell her I’m sorry for being so difficult.”
Damien reached back and patted her knee. “I don’t know your mother very well yet, but she was adamant that I keep you safe. Difficult or not I think she loves you very much.”
Behind him Lane sniffed and a moment later her head pressed against his back. Damien suspected when they reached the capital many hugs and tears would be shared. He envied Lane the chance to get closer to her mother. He wished he had a similar chance with his father. Maybe if he tried harder to talk to Dad they could find some way to set aside the anger of the past few years.
A twenty-minute flight brought them to Allentown. Damien brought the conjured mount down a little ways out of town and transformed the box carrying their luggage into a mule. Now if anyone saw them they’d look like regular travelers, more or less.
“What now?” Lane asked.
Damien guided the construct toward the town gates. “Now I deal with the Lord Mayor, we head over to the Golden Stag for twelve hours’ sleep, and in the morning we fly home.”
Chapter 48
Damien and Lane walked through the afternoon shadows up the long path to the front door of the Lord Mayor’s residence. He’d suggested Lane remain at the inn while he handled the mayor, but she insisted on joining him. Just to be safe he wrapped her in an invisible shield. Damien didn’t expect any real trouble, but after everything they’d been through these last eleven weeks he’d hate for anything to happen to her now that they’d almost reached the end.
A pair of guards holding spears stood beside the pale wood doors. They looked young, older than Damien, but still young. They probably received the assignment straight out of training. They crossed their spears to bar his way. “The Lord Mayor isn’t seeing anyone else today,” the older guard said. “You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”
“I’m here to remove the mayor from office.” Damien drew on his soul force and caused his shield to crackle. “I know his crimes. Stand aside or be judged with him.”
“Please, sir, we have sisters. If we let you through we lose his protection. They may be taken. The Lord Mayor is a man of great appetites.”
Damien crossed his arms and scowled. “So you serve this pig to protect your own families while others less fortunate have their daughters kidnapped and given over to his tender mercies. You dare call yourselves men of the kingdom? I should kill you both for your cowardice. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind.”
Spears clattered to the ground and the guards fled back down the path. How had they even made it through training? Damien didn’t know what sort of training the regular army required of its cadets, but if those two were representative they needed to improve their standards.
“Would you have killed them if they didn’t run?” Lane asked.
“Of course not. They were only doing what they believed necessary to protect their families. Still, if they’d had the courage to run a spear through the mayor’s guts when he came out this door
