Elf Defence (Adventures in Aguillon #2) - Lisa Henry Page 0,46

a stern talking to and make them clean out the town stables for a week.”

“Tournel’s never executed anyone before, it’s true,” Gunther said with an evil chuckle, “but there’s an old law that definitely states that’s the penalty for treason.”

“I won’t allow it,” Lars said, bending down and tugging on his pants. Calarian followed his lead and found his own clothes. He threw a pair of trousers at Benji as well. He knew Benji didn’t care if every man and his dog saw his bollocks, but there was a definite psychological disadvantage to being naked, and Calarian had a feeling they’d need all the help they could get.

Gunther tsked impatiently. “I don't care if you'll allow it or not, Your Grace,” he sneered. “In fact, you’re under arrest as well, for impersonating the duke.”

“What?” Lars shook his head. “No, I’m definitely the duke. Benji and Calarian told me that the duke himself mentioned me as his heir!”

Calarian winced slightly under the weight of Lars’s beseeching look. He cleared his throat. “Well, technically...”

Lars’s jaw dropped.

Gunther snorted. “I doubt they’re even real royal envoys!” He gestured impatiently at the guards. “Take them away!”

Benji chose that moment to grab his bollock dagger from on top of the bedside cabinet. Calarian had teased him for days about the way Benji refused to go anywhere without it, but just at that moment he was profoundly grateful to see Benji’s fingers curl around the hilt. And then Benji threw the dagger with unerring accuracy and it pierced Gunther’s hat, taking it off his head and pinning it to the wall.

All eyes turned to watch as the blade embedded itself in the wall with a solid thunk, and when Calarian saw Benji mouth “Run!” at him and Lars, he didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Lars’s hand, dragged him over to the open windows, and after balancing on the windowsill for a split second, they jumped.

Throwing himself out of a window to avoid sudden and certain death? This was familiar territory for Calarian. It was clearly Lars’s first time though, since he landed in the small garden with a thump, a yelp, and then said, in a strained voice, “What the hell just happened?”

“Oh, you know,” said Calarian, tugging him to his feet. “Just running for our lives from a bunch of soldiers. Same old, same old.”

Lars blinked at him dozily. “What? You are real envoys from the kings, right?”

“Yes,” Calarian said. “They were actually with me the last time, and–” He stopped, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, it’s a long story that we don’t really have time to go into right now. Run!”

From upstairs through the window—thankfully it wasn’t a very high one—Calarian could hear the sounds of yelling and fighting. It sounded like Benji was holding his own, at least for now, but that wouldn’t last. He was severely outnumbered, and despite having a mouth bigger than most continents, he’d never actually intentionally killed anyone. Benji was more of a lover than a fighter. Even when he’d been the monster in the Swamp of Death the only way he would have killed someone would have been by forcing them to read his manifesto and boring them to death. And generally he didn’t even do that - just sexed them up and robbed them blind before sending them on their way in a penniless, post-coital haze.

“We have to run,” Calarian repeated. “Now.”

“But, Benji?”

At any other time, Calarian might have found Lars’s concern touching. But right then, from the window, a couple of guards’ heads appeared. There was much yelling and pointing and shouting, and Calarian didn’t doubt that any minute now one of them would make the leap.

“Benji gave us the chance to get out, and he’d be very disappointed if we didn’t take it,” he said, and took a second to reflect that Benji had actually done something selfless, and wasn’t that a turn up for the books?

The least they could do was make sure they escaped. With that in mind, Calarian grabbed Lars by the wrist and dragged him out of the garden and towards the nearest gate and the road out of town, the one that led up into the mountains that Lars loved so much.

“Come on,” he said. “We need to find somewhere to hide.”

Chapter Twelve

Benji had never been in a dungeon cell before and he wasn’t a fan. It was, like he presumed most dungeon cells were, small and dark, but it clearly hadn’t been used as a dungeon in