Page 38 of The Fury She Holds
“You seem to know an awful lot about this secret mansion,” Carrick voiced Tal’s concerns.
Without missing a beat, Faron replied, “Before King James’s father took the throne, my family was close with the royals and other members of the nobility, as I previously told you.” He met Tal’s gaze. “They had a daughter a few years younger than me. When politics required our fathers meet, we often playedtogether: the princess, King James—then a young noble—and me.”
“So, this secret mansion is only a secret to commoners then.” Tal searched Faron’s face for a hint of deception.
“It is a secret to anyone who is still alive, save James, a few select advisors, and me, and now you, Ed, and Waylon. Everyone else who knew about the mansion died in a fire that burned down the east wing.” He nodded to the opposite end of the mansion.
Tal narrowed her eyes at the east wall. The stone shone brighter in the moonlight, with considerably fewer vines snaking up its face. The framework appeared stunted, as if the structure used to be grander. The newer addition didn’t fit the architecture or the quality.
Whispers from years past of the dead king began to make sense. “A tragedy,” they would say. “His whole lineage, even the little one.” Women gossiped over their baskets. Men harumphed at the new king without royal blood. The throne had been given to one of his closest advisors—a noble—and King James was that man’s son.
She hadn’t thought about the circumstances surrounding the throne but seeing where the man and his entire family met their demise humbled her, at least for the moment. She found the window at the west end of the house where the girl screamed in the room beyond—the queen’s room.
For decades, perhaps centuries, the royal family would visit this mansion for a private summer getaway, and the queen would sleep peacefully in the room where one of her kingdom’s servants was now being tortured. Who was that woman that perished in the fire twenty years ago? Would she turn her nose at anyone below her station, or would she protect all members of her kingdom, title or not?
“How do we know the king isn’t somehow involved in the mages’ presence here? It is his mansion,” Tal said.
Carrick’s body tensed with each new tortured scream from the window, but she wasn’t about to blindly jump into a rescue mission against an unknown number of the most powerful and dangerous beings they’d ever heard of.
Faron sighed, exasperated. “We’ve been over this. The king has no involvement with the mages, nor would he ever contribute to the kidnapping and torturing of innocents. If he were involved, do you really think he would be hiding them in a secret dungeon or in his summer house? He would be better off creating a false story to accuse them of treason, not that he would even need to have a reason for any of his actions. But I’m telling you, he’s a good man. He is not involved here. Are we done debating who is responsible? Can we stop them from torturing Nola now?”
Tal released a frustrated sigh. “If those vines are strong enough, I could scale them to that window.” She nodded to where curtains swayed on a summer breeze.
“They’ll hold. But I’ll go first to eliminate the mages in the room.”
“With all due respect, your nobleness, those swords of yours won’t do any good from that window. By the time you get over the threshold, the mages inside will have already spotted you, sliced you open, and raised an alarm. We need the element of surprise.” She pulled her daggers a few inches out of their hilt, letting the moonlight glint on the metal.
“Then I’ll go,” Carrick chimed in.
Tal patted his large bicep. “Sorry big guy, I don’t think any vines would hold you. And there’s no way you would fit through that window. You stay below to keep guard and run the girl to the woods once we get her out. I’ll go first and take out the mages in the room. Hero over here,” she gestured to Faron, “will followafter me, help me get Nola out of the room, and down to you. In and out. No heroics. No wise ideas to investigate or take out any more than we need to.”
Carrick’s mouth tightened in a thin line, but he stayed silent.
Faron’s lips quirked into a crooked grin. “I like it when you give orders.”
Tal ignored him but stuck her tongue out at Carrick. No matter how much trouble they found together, he would always try to protect her from danger.
A window on the west side of the building opened, and a candle appeared.
“That’s Ed’s signal. The patrols are gone.” Faron tensed on the balls of his feet.
Tal pulled her daggers out. “How many mages are inside?”
“Only one way to find out,” Faron said with a flourish of his sword and leapt out onto the open lawn.
Carrick swore and followed while Tal paused to smirk at the man bounding across the lawn, dressed head to toe in leather. She met her companions against the west wall, regarding the vertical climb.
They waited for a signal from Waylon to indicate he’d distracted the mages inside. Carrick faced the opposite end of the estate. “What kind of signal did he say he would give?”
“He didn’t.” Faron tested the strength of the vines.
Tal wondered how much longer they’d have to wait when a deafeningBOOMshook the building. Despite the horror on his face, Faron gestured for Tal to climb. “Well, you can’t miss that. Up you go, lovely.”
Without a moment’s pause, Tal stepped to the wall, quickly finding footholds.
The climb proved much faster than she anticipated. The ivy grew several inches thick from decades of neglect, and she easilyslipped her toes among the foliage. As she climbed, the agonized screams continued, pushing her to move faster.
She reached the side of the window and carefully stepped onto the sill, the curtain obscuring her from the occupants inside. By the groaning floorboards and voices within, Tal guessed there were two others—one near the girl, and one straight ahead, likely by a door. Securing her footing on the ledge, she pulled two daggers from their sheaths. Tal crouched behind the curtain. A quick glance told her that Faron had climbed halfway up the wall.
