13. Unexpected Guests

Chapter 13

Unexpected Guests

The tavern Nylian had chosen to meet at in the early evening reminded me a lot of the place where I'd made my infamous distraction in Misty Pass. The lighting was low and loud burly men crowded the tables, drinking ale and shouting at each other. Barmaids carried enormous tankards and shouted at the patrons who dared to make grabs at their rear ends. One even received a swift kick to the head without her spilling a drop of alcohol. The scents of cooked meat, body odor, ale, and old smoke mixed to create a smell that was both repulsive and familiar. Wow, I had been in this world for too long.

After some searching, I spotted Nylian at a table in a shadowy corner at the back of the giant room. It was kind of surprising that he always got these dark spots. It was as if they were always reserved for that one secretive elf who was on the run and trying to hide from the world.

Snorting at my thoughts, I wove my way through the crowd, careful not to bump into anyone. I didn't possess the ample bosom and rounded ass that would let me get away with kicking someone in the head.

As I reached the table, I found that my partner in crime wasn't alone. Jasper and Adeline grinned up at me as I reached them.

"We've been making bets about whether the City Watch chucked you into prison," Adeline teased as I dropped into the empty chair between her and Nylian on my left.

"No, I've kept my nose clean. Can you say the same?"

The woman's mouth popped open with a loud laugh. "Fuck, no! The key difference between you and me is that I don't get caught."

"Somehow I doubt that," I muttered. Before I could continue, a hand wrapped around my wrist and squeezed. My eyes met a pair of brilliant emerald eyes filled with concern.

"Everything went okay?" The light tone did not match the worry in Nylian's gaze.

"Yep, all good. Nothing to worry about," I replied with an extra-wide smile that was full of teeth, trying to hint that we'd talk more when we didn't have Adeline and Jasper hanging on our every word.

"So, the governor bought your bullshit that you're really Prince Victor?" Adeline blurted out.

My brain screeched to a halt, and my mouth dropped open. "What?" I gasped.

"They recognized you at the ogre camp," Nylian stated.

"But—"

Adeline snorted. "Yeah, 'cause names like Adam and Nylian sound sooo real ."

"What?" This was more of a shriek.

"They recognized me, too," Nylian added.

Jasper offered an awkward smile and nodded. "Adam is a bit of a strange name. You should have picked something a little more common, like Tybalt or Rafferty."

Again with Adam being seen as a weird name when it was incredibly common. What … oh…fuck… I'd done it to myself. I'd always said I would never use my actual name for a character in a book. Because of that, the rule must have been made that Adam wouldn't exist in their world, thus making it rare.

I scrubbed a hand across my face, trying to get my brain working in the right direction. Adeline and Jasper knew I was Prince Victor Montcroix, and Nylian was Prince Xeran Elrich. Fabulous.

"How? When?" I spat out.

"Adeline asked me one night after you'd fallen asleep. She wanted to make sure I wasn't your prisoner," the elf explained. I lowered my hand to take in his less-than-thrilled expression. Yeah, that had to be insulting. I couldn't have held a prisoner if my life depended on it. Of course, that was why she'd been so hard core with her negotiations for her services. She'd known we were both princes and were good for the money.

After choking back a laugh, I cleared my throat and smiled at him. "I take it you vouched for me."

"In a way. Ahead of your arrival, I updated them on what I've learned about your situation."

"Thanks."

Jasper leaned toward me, his countenance shining brighter than the sun. "Is there any way you could let me look at the coi?—"

"No!" Adeline and I shouted at him. There was no fucking way I was letting him anywhere near it.

"Gods, Jasper. It's like you've got a death wish," Adeline moaned.

"Anyway, I talked to the governor. Everything is fine so long as I get the hell out of town soon," I said, trying to make that coin a distant memory in all our heads.

"Good." Nylian slumped in his chair, appearing relaxed while his gaze skimmed over the occupants of the tavern. A barmaid popped over and dropped two tankards of ale in front of Adeline and Jasper while a cup of wine was placed near Nylian.

"Well, aren't you a sweet thing?" she purred, staring down at me. "Where did you come from?"

I aimed for my warmest, most devil-may-care smile, trying to remember that I'd been given a sexy face and was no longer stuck with my original goofy mug. "I just arrived, and I've been blessed with the light of an angel."

"Gar! Aren't you a smooth talker?" she said, fanning herself. Her round cheeks were already ruddy, but I had a feeling that was more because of the heat of the room and the hard labor than any of my flirting attempts. "What can I get you, handsome man?"

A hand clamped on my knee under the table and squeezed hard enough that I thought my kneecap was going to pop off. Obviously, Nylian didn't want me wasting time flirting with the waitstaff. My grin wavered, and I cleared my throat to keep my voice from cracking under the sudden pain.

"I'll have what he's having," I replied with a tip of my head toward Nylian's drink. Under the table, I grabbed the bastard's wrist and pulled, trying to get him to release me.

"And we'll all have the pheasant for dinner this evening," Nylian chimed, his voice as smooth as butter even as he continued to torment me.

"I'll have it all brought over in a wink." And of course, she directed that wink at me, which made Nylian tighten his grip, squeezing a tiny whimper of pain out of me.

"Thanks," I choked out.

"Lovers' quarrel?" Adeline snickered as the barmaid walked away.

"Don't talk nonsense," I snapped at her as I pried the elf's kung-fu grip off my knee. I threw him a dirty look and then directed my attention to Jasper since my other companions were busy being pains in the ass. "Did you get to the bookshop today?"

"I did, but they didn't have a copy of Uzephior's Practical Guide to Wards and Curses ," he said with a heavy sigh. "I figured it might be a long shot to find it here, but I thought since it's Edros's biggest city outside of Gushan, there was a chance. Next time we're in the capital, I'll have to try a bookstore there."

Adeline snorted. "Like we're ever stepping foot in Gushan again."

Jasper's slim shoulders slumped farther, and he took a sip of his ale, half hiding behind the giant mug. Despite spending several days on the road with them, I'd never weaseled out where they were from or why this wizard wasn't being trained. Adeline had no love of Gushan, and I had a feeling her animosity stemmed from a protectiveness of her younger brother. Her issues seemed to roll away like water off a duck's back.

Regardless of Jasper's past at the Institute of the Arcane, it wasn't the only magic academy in the world. There were others in Edros, even. The Institute was the most highly regarded, though.

"Is it unheard of for elves to train humans in magic?" I asked Nylian, willing to forgive him now for bruising my knee for no good reason.

"In Wolfrest, no. However, we haven't had a lot of human scholars studying in our kingdom over the years. Our approach to magic differs from humans, and not all human wizards adapt to it well. In Galinaes, I think there have been only a handful of humans permitted to study at their schools in all of their history."

" Pfft . Elvish magic," Adeline grumbled before draining her tankard.

Jasper let out a dreamy sigh and rested his chin on the edge of his mug. "Studying under the masters in Wolfrest would be so amazing," he declared in the dreamiest voice I'd ever heard. "Galinaes would be nice too, but it would be much harder to learn under teachers who would hate me on sight. People say that the wizards in Wolfrest judge you on your skills. So if they didn't like me, I'd know it was because I wasn't smart or accomplished enough."

"No more ridiculous talk," Adeline snapped. "I told you we'd find you a nice old, retired wizard to mentor under. That would be good enough."

Jasper nodded and turned all his focus on his ale while I fought to bite my tongue. This was none of my business. I was already sticking my nose into Nylian's business and having a hard time keeping up. There was no room in my current schedule to meddle in Jasper's and Adeline's affairs. Besides, I knew she was doing the best she could for her brother.

Except I had no doubt that a retired wizard would just use Jasper as a servant and nursemaid to care for him, run his errands, and clean his house. Jasper would learn very little magic, and he'd miss out on the joys of learning magic alongside people his age.

But getting Jasper into a good magic school started with money.

"Almost forgot," I said, reaching for the pouch on my side. I untied it and dropped it on the table in front of Adeline with a loud thud . "This should cover what we owe you for the rescue and the escort to Riverhold."

Adeline didn't look pleased. I thought she'd be crowing and celebrating her new bounty. Instead, she frowned at the bag as it sat on the table. "Yeah, about that…" she drawled, pushing the dark-blue leather pouch back toward me. "I think you should hold on to that for now."

"What?"

"Take out what we owed for the escort. She can have the fee for the ogre rescue," Nylian cut in. "She and Jasper are accompanying us to Ulmenor."

"What?" I screeched again. Really, what the fuck was happening here? How long had I been gone?

Nylian dropped his voice and leaned closer to me so that he was whispering in my ear. "I found a caravan from Kodra who will take us all on. Adeline is using what we owe her for the escort to cover the fee for her and Jasper to tag along."

I could only gape at Nylian. Had the elf lost his mind? What the hell had she said to convince him to let them join us? Did he also have a soft spot for the little wannabe wizard who dreamed of studying magic under elves? I almost smirked at him. That fucking had to be it.

"It's just until we get to Ulmenor, and then we go our separate ways," Adeline said firmly.

"Yeah, why do I feel like I've heard that one before?" I mumbled as I grabbed the pouch and secured it to my belt. I'd need to divide up the money when I was in the safety of my room.

"So…there's a minor complication with the caravan tomorrow," Nylian began in a tone that made me wish he wouldn't continue. This so-called complication was going to be a real pain in the ass.

"I don't want to know."

"You have to know. We?—"

"There she is!"

The deep roar cut through the din of the enormous room, and everyone turned to stare at the huge hairy man pointing at our table. Of course he was pointing at our table. Behind him were six other large, muscular and armed men, all glaring in our direction. Or, more accurately, at Adeline.

"Shit!" The thief reached across the table, grabbed a handful of my shirt, and pulled me in until my forehead slammed into hers. "Protect Jasper for me!"

In the next blink of an eye, she was running toward the kitchen at the back of the room. With amazing dexterity, she wove between people and even mounted a table and hopped across them to cut through the crowd.

The tavern erupted into chaos with people jumping up, shoving, shouting, and throwing punches willy-nilly while the seven men tried to shove their way through to chase after a fleet-footed Adeline. After being stymied in a knot of flesh in the center of the room, some grew brains and ran for the front door, thinking to circle the building to the rear.

"We need to get out of here before the City Watch is called!" Nylian shouted over the ruckus. I nodded. The governor had made a point of saying that I had to keep a low profile until I got out of town. Getting caught up in a brawl would not help that effort.

Jasper threw himself across the table, seizing both of our arms. "Wait! You have to help my sister! There are too many of them. She's going to get hurt."

Nylian's gaze slid to mine, and he didn't look thrilled at the prospect. It was as if he were silently asking, Do I really have to?

"Please," I pleaded. "I can take Jasper to the inn. We'll stay out of trouble."

That got me an epic eye roll, but he agreed and disappeared into the insane crowd of people. I snagged Jasper's bony arm through his robes and tugged him along behind me, attempting to use my larger frame to push my way through and protect him as best I could. It was only when we were out in the cooling evening air that I could draw in a deep breath of relief.

"Glad we're out of there," I said as we started down the sidewalk.

Jasper flashed me a crooked grin, but his face was pale, and his eyes were wide. "Yeah. That was crazy."

"Do you know why those guys were after your sister?"

The would-be wizard's eyes darted to the ground as his fingers played with the chain attached to his ever-present grimoire. "I have a feeling…she was…cheating at cards again," he mumbled, so I could barely hear him. His head popped up, and his expression was fierce. "But it's not her fault. She's an amazing fighter. The best mercenary in the business. But most people don't like hiring women mercenaries. Some of them complain she's too short. It's not any easier when she has to drag along a useless failure of a wizard on her jobs."

Jasper trailing along behind Adeline as she went from town to town searching for work couldn't be easy on either of them. I couldn't argue with Jasper about Adeline's skills. We'd run into a few relatively minor annoyances while on the road to Riverhold, and she'd always been the first one into the fray, hacking away at each attacker. She'd more than earned her money.

"Do you mind if I ask…where are your parents?" I asked, hating to be nosy, but at the same time… What the fuck? Adeline appeared to be in her early twenties and was more than capable of taking care of herself, but Jasper was small, thin, undernourished, and couldn't be more than fifteen. Maybe even only thirteen. This boy needed to be in school somewhere, or at least apprenticing under some tradesperson. Not wandering the road with his big sister.

"Orc attack," he replied in a low voice.

My chest tightened, and I swallowed hard. "I'm so sorry."

"Addie and I are from a tiny farming village just south of Gushan. It was called Dornwich. Addie left home when I was eight. She was sixteen, and Dad was trying to marry her off to the blacksmith's son. She didn't want to stay in the village and be a farmer or the wife of a blacksmith. A few years later, two ships crossed the waters from Basden, filled with orcs. They burned the village and killed everyone during the night. Our house was closest to the woods. Mom sneaked me out a window, and I hid in the forest for days, too scared to come out. Addie was in Gushan when news of the attack reached them. She hurried back and found me. I've been traveling with her ever since."

"You went to Gushan with her?"

Jasper nodded as he stepped around a lamplighter going about his nightly business, lighting the oil lanterns that dotted the street as well as replacing the wooden torches where needed. The sky was growing darker as the sun sank in the west, but the street filled with various shops and homes was taking on a warm, cozy glow.

"I did. She even raised enough money for me to study at the Institute for a couple of years." The brightness that rose in him fizzled out, and his head drooped. "But then there was the incident, and we had to leave Gushan."

I clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. All the interesting people have ‘incidents' in their past. It's the boring people who are incident free. Who wants a boring, incident-free life?"

"Exactly!" Jasper rebounded like a super-bounce ball. "Traveling with Addie is always an adventure!"

There was no doubt in my mind about that.

We reached the corner to turn down the last block to the inn, and we stopped dead in our tracks. Addie raced past us as fast as she could move while four behemoths brandishing swords above their heads chased after her, bellowing curses. Well, four was fewer than the original seven in the tavern. Either she'd lost the other three or they were chasing Nylian, whom I did not see. Maybe they'd split up?

"Come on! We have to help her!" Jasper ran after the horde, and I barely caught his arm to stop him.

"Whoa! Wait a minute! Nylian is helping her. My job is to get you to the inn safely. They'll meet us there."

"But she's outnumbered, and they're going to kill her," he argued, hitting me with those big, helpless brown eyes. Fuck . Was this why Nylian was still stuck with me?

"In case you're forgetting, I'm shit at fighting. That's why we hired your sister."

"We don't need to fight them. We just need to distract them long enough for her to get away."

That word was becoming the very bane of my existence.

I sent up a quick prayer for us to get this done without getting killed and without Nylian catching me, because I was honestly more afraid of the elf than I was of those four maniacs.

"Come on," I growled, jogging after the crazed group pursuing Adeline. While we lost sight of them, the noise was easy enough to follow through the streets. The few people left on the sidewalks at this hour had stopped and were whispering about the madness that had passed. So far, there was no sign of the City Watch, but it was only a matter of time until they appeared to round up the rabble-rousers. I did not want to be part of that group.

After a few more twists and turns, we located our target. Adeline had taken a wrong turn down a dead-end alley and the four men were blocking her primary escape route as they edged along the alley toward her. My heart raced and a cold sweat covered my skin, chilling me to the bone as I reached for my sword, only to find it missing from my hip. I squeezed my eyes shut for an instant and swore. I'd left my sword in my room at the inn because I thought I wouldn't need it for a simple dinner meetup with Nylian.

A dinner I'd never gotten to taste because I was now trying to weasel my way into trouble I was supposed to be avoiding.

Fuck my life!

With no sword on hand, I spotted what I hoped would be the next best thing. A shovel. It was a heavy bastard with a stout cast-iron scoop. Considering the way it smelled, the thing was probably used to clear out stables. I didn't know what it was doing in the alley, but I was glad it was there.

I took a step closer to the group in front of me, testing the weight of my new weapon. If I bashed the closest guy on the head, I wouldn't kill him, right? To hell with that—I'd collapse his skull and end up in the dungeon for murder. That would get me sent to Gushan for some serious explaining to my royal father about why I'd gotten sucked into a common street brawl.

Besides, this was supposed to be a minor distraction.

Searching the alley, my eyes lit on inspiration. Just over the gaggle of brutes was a sagging awning that had collected rainwater along with gods only knew what else. Definitely trash and a bit of human waste. One of the support beams was a couple of steps away. Yes, this was the perfect distraction. Adeline's attackers would get covered and distracted, giving her the chance to escape. It should also provide Jasper and me time to escape as well.

Clenching my teeth, I held the heavy shovel like a baseball bat and swung it with all the strength I had. The iron spade let out an ominous bong as it hit the wood support, sending bone-rattling vibrations down the handle and into my entire body. The support cracked and partially collapsed, but it didn't give completely.

A small amount of the water spilled out, hitting one man on the back, causing him to yelp in what sounded like icy shock. All four men turned and were now staring daggers at me.

Long story short, my distraction sucked, and I was a dead man.

I threw the shovel at them, only to have it clang against the wall, and ran away from them and toward Jasper. Yet, the second I laid eyes on the wannabe wizard with his grimoire open in his hands, I shifted from fear to abject terror. Oh fuck, he's gonna cast a spell. Nylian was going to strangle my tiny squirrel neck.

Jasper spoke some garbled words that sent a powerful echo into the marrow of my bones, and thrust out his hand. A bolt of purple light shot forth, and I dove for the ground, not caring that I was getting covered in dirt, mud, and worse. Metal clattered against paving stones, followed by several loud and angry quacks.

I shoved upright and twisted while still kneeling to see four white ducks waddle out of the alley.

"Ducks?" I shrieked. My head whipped around to see Jasper cringing behind his grimoire. "You turned them into fucking ducks?"

"I was trying the same stone spell I attempted with the ogres," Jasper replied, his voice muffled behind his book.

With a groan, I climbed to my feet and glared at the ducks, who were quacking and waddling in all different directions. This was a disaster, not a distraction.

Jasper hurried over to my side and helped me to pat away the dust and dirt that now covered my clothes. "Don't worry! They'll turn human again in an hour or two. I'm sure of it."

"That's assuming that someone doesn't catch them, pluck them, and roast them before they're human again."

"Yeah. Sorry."

I sighed and looked at the alley to find it empty. Adeline had likely climbed a wall or slipped into a window the moment those assholes had turned toward me. She'd missed the magical half of our performance.

"You know," a too-familiar voice above my head said. It sent a chill along my back, and I curled up a little prior to lifting my eyes. Nylian sat on the railing of a small balcony on the second floor of a residence. He held the slender stem of a red flower between two fingers, twirling it slowly, as if he were the most carefree person in the world. But when he lowered his stare to me, I wished the four brutes were here to beat me to a pulp. "I thought the inn was in the other direction," he continued in an icy voice.

"I think you're right!" My voice was so high, I thought I was going to shatter glass. I grabbed Jasper with both hands and turned the wizard in the correct direction. "We are going the other way right now."

I partially dragged Jasper along the street, speed walking the entire way to the inn so that we were panting and sweaty as we arrived. I wasn't brave enough to glimpse over my shoulder to see how close Nylian was. If I were lucky, he'd take some time to calm down. Because right now, I was pretty sure the elf was going to kill me.