The rear guard raced up, low and quiet, and whispered something to Trajan, then returned to his post.
“Regency soldiers are coming this way,” Trajan said. “They’re about ten minutes out.”
“We could always hide and let them fight it out,” Isabel said.
“If my father weren’t inside, I would agree with you. As it stands, we have little choice.” He signaled to his point man and they started toward the cave.
The entrance was covered over with hanging vines. Once inside, they found a small cave, measuring ten feet deep, four feet wide, and almost five feet high. The back wall was occupied by a large, stout door. Trajan tried to open it, nodding to himself when it didn’t budge.
“If you give me the space I need to use my magic, I can open that door,” Hector said.
His tone was monotonous, void of passion or feeling, simply conveying information. Isabel made a mental note of his mood. She’d been worried about him since Horace died, but things had really changed with him after he woke the ghidora. His mood was dark, devoid of passion or humor or desire, as if some essential part of him had gone missing.
Trajan and Isabel withdrew about forty feet from the cave and waited for one of his men to signal. They returned to find the door open and two freshly killed men on the floor—both of them Karth house guard. Hector was cleaning one of his swords.
“What have you done?” Trajan said. “These men were of my house. Why did you kill them?”
“So they wouldn’t raise the alarm,” Hector said slowly without looking up from cleaning his sword.
Trajan started to take a step toward him, but Ayela stopped him with a hand on his arm.
Isabel went to Hector and stood in front of him, waiting until he looked up at her. She saw so much desolation in his eyes … it worried her.
“Don’t kill any more of the Karth guards if you can help it,” she said quietly but intently.
He nodded and went back to his sword, checking the sheen by looking along the length of the blade, then carefully, deliberately, sheathing it.
They filed inside, bolting the door behind them, and moved deeper into the underground stronghold with Trajan in the lead. He stopped at a corner, peering around momentarily before quickly pulling his head back.
With hand signals, he indicated three targets, one witch and two house guards. He selected two of his men to attack with him. Then he motioned for everyone else to remain where they were.
Isabel looked around the corner a moment after they moved, watching them race toward the trio without saying a word, weapons up and at the ready. They got within twelve feet before the three turned around. The witch tried to throw some kind of spell at Trajan. The expression on her demonically contorted face transformed from confusion to horror as his club whistled through the air, catching her on the side of the head just above the ear and caving her skull in with one stroke. She slumped to the ground. Trajan’s men grappled with the house guard until they could be shown the truth of the Sin’Rath. Once they saw her true form, they both agreed to work with Trajan to kill the rest.
He questioned the two guards intensely for several minutes, gaining a basic understanding of the stronghold’s layout and learning where his father and the Sin’Rath were likely to be, then assigned them to lead the way.
They quietly passed many doors, some with muffled sounds of snoring behind them. These people had just fled the Regency in the dead of night, narrowly escaping with their lives. Isabel suspected they were all exhausted; the emptiness of the corridors bore that out. The two guards led them ever deeper, winding through some levels and bypassing others entirely. Where they saw guards, they were able to pass without arousing suspicion because of their uniforms and bearing … until they got close to the witches and Severine.
They came upon two guards at the bottom of several flights of stairs. The guards seemed willing to hear them out, waiting patiently as they approached, until they saw Trajan and Ayela and immediately cried out an alarm, drawing weapons. Their two fellow guards that had joined Trajan attacked them with clubs, knocking their swords aside and lunging into them, followed by two of Trajan’s men who took their weapons when they went down.