Broadswords - 33. The Turmoil

Broadswords

Chapter Thirty-Three
The Turmoil

"How far could he have gotten?" Elsior asked angrily, pacing the room which had until recently been Birten's holding cell. Both Deke and Rea stood against the wall, arms crossed, watching him. He assumed neither wanted to be the first to speak.

Unsurprisingly, it was Rea who finally spoke up. "It's hard to say, Elsior. We don't know exactly when he got out. He was here when I finished my session with him. I left sometime just after midnight. Deke arrived about an hour ago, and he was gone."

He slammed his hand down on the stone slab in the middle of the room. "Unacceptable! Why was nobody standing guard?!" He was livid. Such a simple thing, yet neither of his cohorts could manage to handle it without him. He had just about put an end to Daegon, too. Now, that would have to wait. Birten was too important in his plot.

"He was chained, the door was locked," Deke said.

"Well clearly that wasn't enough to keep him here, was it? I don't even have the patience right now to try to figure out how he escaped. We have to get him back. If Rea's sessions with him haven't taken yet, it will all be for naught."

At those words, Rea stepped away from the wall, neared the center of the room, and rested her hands flat on the stone. She stared Elsior in the eye. "I built up enough doubt in his mind during his awoken state that the Oneiromancy wasn't as complicated as we'd initially expected. I got seven good sessions in. In that time I was able to get him to believe that he's from Tarragonia. I even had him speaking Tarragonian as of two nights ago. It's to the point, too, where he believes that Jhirdyr is an enemy kingdom. Specifically with an emphasis toward the prince and the dragonslayer."

That wasn't good enough. "There are too many possibilities of things going wrong. One week; that's the same amount of time you had when you altered my memories. And I was fully accepting, and you used much simpler alterations on me."

"Obviously it's not ideal. But it's better than nothing. Hopefully we find him so I can finish. I'm not thrilled about this either, Elsior. But I can say, I think this is going to work in our favor," she said. Elsior knew Rea was not easily intimidated, and this was no exception. It frustrated him more to see how calm she was in all of this.

And they needed to get Birten back. He couldn't put enough faith in the feelings Rea had in the matter to feel quelled. Even if Birten was convinced enough that Harmon and Daegon were the enemy, Elsior had no idea how acquainted Birten was with the prince. If their relationship was strong, Harmon might be able to break through and ruin the work Rea had done. And if that were to happen, it would not only have been a waste of time, but Birten could also warn the king of the events that were transpiring in Oestra.

"It's far from ideal," he said. "Deke. Get out there, search for him. Scour the area. I need him brought back here before I can get back to dealing with the slayer."

And just like that, with use of his Tetradite pendant, Deke vanished. Elsior couldn't go back to the cave without the Tetradite anyway, and Deke would need it to search for Birten. Daegon would have to wait. While he was longing to see the Elsior's Dragon burn the slayer to a crisp, a little longer without food and water might just do the trick. It wasn't as epic, but at this point corners might have to be cut.

Days had passed, and they hadn't found Birten. It was now a lost cause. He could be anywhere. He could have made it to one of the nearby kingdoms somehow, if he was able to get hold of a horse. He could even be further than that if he'd managed to charter a boat off the continent. There was no point thinking of the possibilities, because it was just making him angrier.

To top things off, when they finally went back to the cave, Daegon was also nowhere to be found. The dragon remained where he'd left her, but Daegon's chains were empty. How they'd lost both prisoners, both who'd been shackled, was lost to Elsior. It was almost surreal. His plan was spiraling out of control in the worst possible way.

It was likely that Daegon was on his way back to Jhirdyr. That would mean that the king would absolutely be informed of what Elsior was up to. It wouldn't matter if Birten revealed anything, because the slayer would certainly arrive back in Jhirdyr before the squire would.

His only hope was that the babies in the cave to the north of Jhirdyr would do the trick. It was the only part left to his plan that hadn't been screwed up. If all went as it should, they would soon be ready to emerge. They wouldn't be quite as easy to manage as their mother; while she would not attack unless given instruction to do so by Elsior, the babies were born rather than created directly by him. That being said, they would be more likely to act of their own free will. And for their purpose, that was fine by Elsior.

He hadn't visited them at all. He could only rely on Deke's updates, as he went on a weekly basis to ensure they were getting fed. And lately, he wasn't too fond of Deke.

Though he didn't have a whole lot of reason to visit Oestra now that Birten had vanished, Elsior did find himself back about a week later. He needed to discuss the plan with Rea. He was still bitter with her as well, but he didn't have anybody besides her and Deke.

Even though her home was where they had been holding Birten, the rest of the space looked nothing like the cell. While the walls, floors, and ceiling were made of the same materials as the cell, there was an abundance of décor throughout that warmed the place up. Although Rea had somewhat of a cold exterior, you wouldn't know it based on the way she lived.

It made Elsior a little bitter whenever he would visit her, considering he lived in a run-down shack in Dorre. But soon enough, once Jhirdyr was destroyed, he'd have plenty of riches to buy himself a new place. Wherever he wanted. And Harmon and his father would be as dead to everyone as they already were to him.

He waited in a tall-backed plush armchair facing the fireplace. He hadn't announced his arrival, or even let her know he was coming. That wasn't his style, anyway. He didn't know where she was, but he could wait.

"Hello, Elsior," he heard from behind him. Turning, he saw that she had entered the room. She didn't seem surprised that he was there. Then again, that annoying stoniness to her face was almost always there. She was clad in a long, airy gown and carried a glass of wine. It appeared that she might have been preparing to get herself to bed, but he didn't care.

"We need to figure out our next moves," he said. He heard her bare feet softly clap against the tiled floor as she made her way to the twin chair beside him. She settled in easily, and made no offer to prepare him a drink. He didn't expect it.

She drank slowly, as if she was intentionally letting silence fill the room before she responded. She finished the glass before she finally said anything. "What other moves do you expect to have? Unless you've got a new way to get a few more of those slayers out of Jhirdyr, I don't see exactly what else you're able to do."

"That's why I'm here, to brainstorm," he said through gritted teeth. She was getting on his nerves. He respected her for her craft, and he wouldn't be where he was had it not been for her bringing him into the Collective. Regardless, his admiration for the woman didn't prevent her mannerisms from irritating him.

She rose as effortlessly as she had sat. She padded over to the other side of the room where she refilled her glass. Once again she was adding delayed responses to his statements. He wondered if she was getting a sick enjoyment out of it. When she reclaimed her chair, she turned to face him. "This is your plan. You need to tell me what you need me to do. I can't figure this one out for you."

His neck was getting warm, and he knew he was reddening with anger. It would probably only egg her on more, but there was nothing he could do about it. It was his tell. "The three of us are all in this. It's not just my plan."

"It is," she said pointedly. As least she responded right away this time. "For you, it's a vendetta. For Deke, it's about money. For me, well, I don't know the prince or the king. And I don't need the money." She gestured at their surroundings, which was unnecessary. He knew she was wealthy. It didn't need to be rubbed in his face.

"You still have something at stake, here," he said coldly. "I haven't forgotten about our little bargain. I don't know who these two men are that you're worried about in Jhirdyr. But if you don't keep up your end of the bargain, I might just not keep up mine."

"I did keep up my end of the bargain!" she said, a hint of emotion reflected in her slightly raised voice. It wasn't extreme, but it was noticeable on Rea. She swallowed her second glass down rapidly. Pointing a finger at Elsior, she continued. "I did exactly what we agreed on. It wasn't my fault the kid escaped and it wasn't part of our deal for me to figure out how to ensure that everything goes exactly according to plan. I brought my expertise in here, which is my Oneiromancy. I'm not a master at schemes of this sort. I agreed to help you to prevent you killing Sal and Kep with the destruction of the city. Do not attempt to blackmail me, because I will ensure that you are ruined."

The words didn't scare him. Even if he felt that there was truth to her threat, it didn't matter. Once Jhirdyr was gone, so was he. He would be long gone before Rea had any idea what had happened.

Regardless of everything, he no longer needed to know who Sal and Kep were. He could tell by the fire in her eyes and the tone of her voice who they were. He hadn't been aware that Rea had children.