Page 34 of Dragon Revealed (Dragon Kings 1)
Chapter Eighteen
Varek stared into the lower tunnel. Something urged him to go down, but he wasn’t sure what. If he had his magic and the ability to shift, he would’ve headed into the unknown without hesitation. But he didn’t have either. And then there was Jeyra, his mate.
She was willing to leave the city with him. That wasn’t a decision she’d come to lightly, and he needed to remember that. Varek swung his head to her, the apprehension on her face solidifying his decision.
“We leave. Now.”
The relief on Jeyra’s face was proof that he’d made the right choice. She grabbed his hand, making him smile, and then pulled him after her as they began the long climb up to the main entrance.
Varek counted five other tunnels that veered off from theirs. He heard the moans and cries of prisoners in each. No doubt the council had decided to keep him separate from others to make sure he learned nothing of where he was being kept or the city’s people. And he wouldn’t have learned anything if it hadn’t been for Jeyra.
What concerned him was that they hadn’t run into any guards yet. He suspected they might be grouped near the entrance and only came into the dungeons to deliver food or to handle other such tasks. Then, just as he spotted sunlight up ahead, he heard the laughter.
Jeyra suddenly halted and moved closer against the wall of the tunnel, pulling him with her. She turned her head to him, her face covered in the red-orange glow of a nearby torch. “Four or five guards usually laze about in a small room they use near the entrance. I can distract them so you can get past, but there’s still the open courtyard to get across. It’s surrounded by a stone barrier, and there’s a guardhouse over the gate. There are usually another four guards there. If we cause too much of a ruckus, at least one of them will sound the alert.”
“Then we don’t cause any kind of commotion,” he said with a grin.
She eyed him, her lips turning up at the corners. “What do you suggest?”
“We take the ones here by surprise. After we put them in cells, I’ll take one of their uniforms.”
“And we walk out,” she said with a nod. “I like it.”
It took very little for them to come up with a plan. They quietly made their way to the room she’d spoken about. She entered first. Varek remained outside, his back against the wall as he listened to the guard’s quiet down to hear Jeyra.
“Sorry to disturb your game,” Jeyra said. “You boys seem to have the best job. Maybe I should’ve gone this route.”
They laughed, eager to hear more. Varek quietly set down the bag and smiled. Males of all species and realms were exactly the same. Put a pretty woman in a room with them, and they forgot everything but her. Varek swung around the doorway and took in the room at a glance—four men on stools, a small table between them with cards, dice, and money.
The area was barely big enough to accommodate all of them, which worked to Varek’s advantage. He was upon the first two before they knew it. He grabbed their heads and slammed them together, the two falling like rocks off the stools and onto the floor.
Jeyra stopped one guard who raised a hand with a dagger and kneed a second in the face, snapping his head back and rendering him unconscious. Varek walked to the one with the weapon and knocked him out cold.
“That was fun,” Jeyra said with a smile.
Varek nodded, thinking how sexy she looked. He wanted to kiss her, but now wasn’t the time. He slung one guard over his shoulder as Jeyra helped him get a second onto his other side before grabbing keys. They rushed as quickly as possible back down the tunnel to the first cell they came to. They dumped the two unconscious men in before running back for the others.
Jeyra stripped the biggest of them. Varek hastily donned the uniform before they got the other two into the cell. Only then did he take a deep breath.
“Here,” she said and handed him two armbands.
He accepted the hammered silver bands and slipped one on each arm. After a glance down at the red tunic and the black pants, he lifted his gaze to Jeyra. “Think this will work?”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
She started to walk away, but he grabbed her hand and turned her back around for a quick kiss. Then he smiled down at her and picked up his bag. “Now we can go.”
The grin she gave him said she hadn’t minded the delay at all.
“Walk in front of me,” she told him. “I’m hoping they won’t pay too much attention to you.”
“They won’t think it odd that I’m walking out of the gate?”
“Guards come and go all the time. If they stop you, I’ll say that I’m sending you to the council with something from the Dragon King. Or we can just attack them like we did the others.”
Varek chuckled. “As much as I’d like to take you up on that offer, we should try to keep a low profile. It’ll give us more time to find the secret door.”
“You’re only doing it this way because I’m with you. You had another plan when it was just you.”
“A good warrior knows when to change tactics as well as plans. We can bust our way out of here and attack anyone who gets close, but it makes it three times as hard to get free. This is the easier way. And we get what we want.”
She nodded, wrinkling her nose. “I’m still irked I was followed. Wait… I’m sure they’re still out there. They’ll see you.”
“I thought of that. No one saw me when I came in because there was a bag over my head. No one knows what I look like.”
Her gaze raked him from head to feet and back again. “You blend in with the clothes, that’s for sure, but you still stand out to me.”
“That’s because you know. We won’t go the same direction.” He lifted his sack of clothes over his shoulder once more to hide his tat. “We’ll let the guards think this is what I’m bringing to the council while you head in the opposite direction, which should draw out your followers. Can you lose them?”
