Chapter 73

The knife whistled through the air. Kestrel raised his hand, it sliced through the meat of his palm, but stopped before it found its way into his heart.

Kestrel ripped the blade from his palm, grimacing in agony at the motion.

Edrian Wolls rushed him from the other side of the room, he was nearly on him. Kestrel flung his hand forward, blood sprayed from it, splattering across the Minister of Defense’s eyes, causing a stutter in the man’s step.

It was tiny, but it was enough.

Kestrel slipped to the side, just out of reach of Edrian Wolls who thrashed into the wall behind him.

Kestrel took a cross-step towards the man and his hips whipped towards the man, loading a spinning kick that slammed into the man’s raised arms, slamming him back into the wall. He immediately leapt towards Edrian Wolls with a knee aimed at his sternum. A hidden dagger slammed into the meat of his upper thigh. Nearly mirroring the damage done from Aris’ blade to the Minister of Defense.

Kestrel screamed in pain, his leg felt like it had been stolen from beneath him, but he drew it back, away from Edrian’s grasping hands, and slammed his forehead into the Minister’s face. The man’s nose crunched further and he felt the orbital bone wielding to the damage. He slammed again. Two more times.

The orbital bone broke.

Edrian, despite the agony, whipped his leg forward, it caught the hilt of the knife and twisted it deeper into the boy’s thigh. Kestrel fell to his knees, the Minister of defense drove his knee into the young man’s face.

He felt the nose yielding beneath him.

Good. Let that cursed child feel the same pain he was.

He pulled his knee back to slam it into Kestrel’s face again, but Kestrel drove forward, hugging Edrian’s leg to his chest and stood up, throwing him backwards in the same motion.

Edrian bounced off the floor in a harsh, jerking motion. The impact stole the breath from his lungs. He tried to breathe, but his body betrayed him, No matter how he reached for breath, it wouldn’t come.

“Move! Move! MOVE!” his mind shouted.

His body didn’t respond.

Kestrel ripped the knife from the meat in his thigh. His face was a mask of agony as he did so, but still, it slipped from his body with a wet, sliding sound.

He slammed it downwards.

Edrian’s body twisted.

The blade missed his heart and tore up the side of his chest. Agony burst across the Minister’s body.

It didn’t last long. The knife found its target in the young mans second, third, fourth, and up to its tenth blow.

Edrian Wolls had been dead by the fifth.

*****

Aris and Wallace stumbled into the room in with Sephira in tow behind them, keeping an eye out and making sure there were no men following them.

Nobody had.

From the screams outside, Aris had guessed that Edrian had broken their parlay and ordered an attack on his men. He was a fool for expecting honor from a man like Edrian Wolls.

He looked down, Kestrel’s hands were covered in blood. It was impossible to tell where his blood began and that of Minister of Defense, who lay dead in front of the young man, ended.

Disappointment roiled in Aris Ravenscroft’s guts at the sight of the slain man. His death had been stolen from him. He was the one who was supposed to kill Edrian…

Aris shook his head. No, he wouldn’t lust after death. He wouldn’t rejoice in Edrian Wolls’ passing. Despite everything, he had kept their country safe up until the end.

Aris chose to mourn him just as he would later mourn all the nobles who’d lost their lives at the hand of Emperor Evrain and his Memory Mages.

Wallace looked at Kestrel, the young man looked deflated, he hadn’t yet bandaged his leg.

The old soldier found a cloth and wrapped it around his leg.

He would need to see a healer and if not treated by the end of the day, it was very likely he might walk with a limp for the rest of his life, but he wouldn’t die from the wound.

Kestrel would live and that was a blessing.

Sephira grabbed his hands, ignoring the blood. “Thank you,” she said. Those words seemed to pour life back into him.

He looked up at her and smiled, not a full smile, more like a half grin, “I gave commands to our men to be ready for a sneak attack, but I feel like I should be out there with the men,” he indicated towards the ringing of metal that surrounded the keep.

Aris’ heart filled with appreciation.

Kestrel had become a fine man, he’d seen through Aris’ own blind spots and led accordingly, strengthening his leader.

“They’ve been commanded and are following those orders. There’s little we could do to help them. No, we need to cut off the head of this dragon,” Aris said, his heart tugged at the half-truth, but he needed Kestrel and all the strength he could gather to face Evrain.

He’d been given a glimpse of the Emperor’s skill in Memory Magic, but he’d seen but a small fjord in the ocean of Evrain’s power. They may very well meet their deaths at the hand of the madman.