Although the ogre’s eyes never wavered from Kiel and me, the soldier who’d summoned us lacked the composure. His eyes darted to my left, landing on a tall, bare-chested man standing slightly back from everyone else.
Yellow-orange flickered in his gaze. Fire? Was that the man Kiel thought was a dragon shifter? It didn’t matter.
“It seems your claims are true,” the prince said slowly. “You have killed one of the Alphas.”
“I told you we did not lie,” Kiel said.
“True. So, I’ve decided that my men shall strike deep into the empire. That they and you will kill another of these tyrants.”
“Good,” Kiel said, clapping his hands. “I’m glad to hear it. We will all benefit from this.”
“But,” the ogre said, raising a hand, “under one condition.”
Kiel tensed. “Which is?”
“I don’t trust you or her. Not enough. You will go with my warriors. Underhiscommand.”
The prince pointed across the room. Kiel and I turned, and I could only just groan as the centaur who had led the party that found us stepped forward, revealing his dirt-filled teeth in a big smile.
Beside me, Kiel inhaled sharply, the sound audible throughout the room. I could just imagine his tendons creaking as every muscle in his body flexed. How long had it been since Kiel had to obey someone else?
The room was all but flooding with testosterone as the two parties stared one another down. Others in the throne room were slowly edging aside as the giant centaur and proud wolf shifter looked ready to throw down.
Unfortunately, we needed the help of the prince’s men, as Kiel had just explained to me. Which meant we couldn’t afford for them to come to blows before the mission even started. And wasn’t I just the lucky one who got to play peacemaker.
Men.
Yay.
Chapter Thirteen
“Where are all the guards?” Kiel mumbled as we looked down the hill toward the island city of Teagan, the smallest of the shifter cities.
Technically, Onetra had fewer people, but it was sprawled out over a larger area. Teagan was an irregular, triangle-shaped island at the fork of a river, surrounded on all sides by water, with bridges extending off each side onto the shore surrounding it. The bridges were big and wide, built with sturdy stone to support the heavy grain carts that were a constant presence in the city.
Farmers from the plains to the south and east hauled their crops to the city, where they were sold to merchants who shipped them downriver, eventually ending up in the great port city of Helisson, where they were shipped to the rest of the empire and elsewhere. The vast majority of Teagan’s population was involved in the crop trade in one way or another.
But there were other loading towns along the rivers. Teagan just happened to be the largest of them, which was why the Alpha of the territory had set up his seat there. Because of that, the city had seen growth, but it was still very small. Which made scouting it easy—or it should have.
“No guards means an easier attack,” the centaur, whose name was Jurvin, said with obvious glee, practically smacking his lips at the prospect of a walkover.
Kiel, meanwhile, was far more suspicious at the small number of soldiers patrolling the city. So was I. It didn’t seem right.
“Those guardhouses,” I said, pointing to the small buildings on each side of the road at the base of the bridge. “There are five guards in each, so ten per side. We’ve seen patrols of two here and there inside the city itself. So, with twenty guards per bridge, and say, another twenty patrolling, that’s eighty guards total, right?”
“Give or take,” Kiel acknowledged, eyeing the guards on the bridge nearest to us with suspicion.
Most of the guards were lounging around sloppily, not doing much more than acting intimidating. They checked any cart that went in or out of the city to ensure it had actual crops in it, but that was all. There was no thorough inspection, no fear for actual security.
If there were an extra fifty or so guards posted throughout the city that we could see at stations or wandering around, I would feel just as confident that our operation would go off without a success. As it was, however …
“There’s no way it’s a trap. Right?”
“Unlikely,” Kiel agreed. “So, either Teagetes issupremelyfully of himself and stupid, or he’s sent them off somewhere.”
“But where?” I mused. “Mount Triumph is too far and out of his territory. That’s in Nycitum. And we haven’t seen any sign of wildfires that he might need help fighting or evacuating people from either.”
“This is why we should attack. Now,” Jurvin grunted, shaking his bulk and backing down the slight incline. “My men and I will do this if you are too wussy to do what needs to be done.”
