Dragon Lands (The Shadow's Dragon Book 2) by Dustin Porta & D.K. Holmberg

Author:Dustin Porta & D.K. Holmberg [Porta, Dustin & Holmberg, D.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ASH Publishing
Published: 2023-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

The Letter

Marziel was gone.

Countess Tsoro had ridden to Coal Abbey in person to retrieve him, only to be told that he’d been lost in the mines the same day that he’d seen her messenger. Three days later, he was still missing. To her credit, the Countess had taken it well. She’d even gone so far as to console Cren’pin. The mines of Coal Abbey were extensive. He would not be the first to have been lost this way, nor the first to be found again, should he return. Her own soldiers were looking for him along with the assassins who trained there.

When they found him, the queen’s servants would ensure his swift return to Wetherdin for questioning.

Treylen wasn’t concerned. There was a small chance that Marziel had truly gotten lost in the mines, but he doubted it. Spymasters were revered by the monks, they would tell whatever lies he asked them to, and they certainly wouldn’t allow him to get lost in their own mines. He chuckled to himself, imagining Marziel lounging in the soot-covered rafters of Coal Abbey, while the monks under his sway spun a yarn about how they’d lost track of him in the coal shafts.

Treylen was sitting on the balcony of his new room with his pants off, using the point of a nail file that he’d found to add another hole to his belt. His stay at the Clouds Pillow was largely to blame for his snug britches. The last three days at Duremo Lodge had tipped the scales.

It had been three days of breakfast with Lord Jargus and Laureth. Three days of uncomfortable teas with Remin. And three days of dinners with the Countess. Not to mention the picnic baskets that the innkeeper at the Cloud’s Rest had been bringing him.

He’d paid the innkeeper for the room for the month, and when she tried to return the purse, he had refused, assuring her that his stay with the Countess was only temporary.

Now, in spite of his objections, she seemed unconvinced that the great house could keep him fed quite well enough. The baskets came twice a day, and Treylen hid the contents, or fed them to Rime, lest word get back to the sweet woman that her efforts were unappreciated.

Treylen tested the fit on the belt and decided to install a second hole for good measure. A guard watched from the balcony of the old tower on the opposite side of the courtyard. Another two watched from the stairs that led down into the city. The countess made little effort to hide that he was a prisoner here and the servants looked in on his sleep every hour from dusk until dawn. Both Marziel and his supposed victim had disappeared from Count Tsoro’s household in the middle of the night and the Countess seemed determined to ensure no such lapses in security happened under her watch.

It was some small relief knowing where he stood with her, and the countess herself had been far more pleasant toward him since he’d come under her control.

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