Sam Foster knelt on the grass next to the Chancellor’s feet. His wrists were trapped in stiff handcuffs, and he was gagged. Dread and panic shone on his face. I stared at him while disbelief ricocheted through my brain.
“The hell do you think you’re doing, Quill?” I demanded, and then nodded towards Sam. “That guy is a healer.”
“Yes.” The Chancellor gave me a cold smile while nodding towards Lance. “And that guy is a Binder.”
“A healer mage is worth a thousand Binders.”
“I know that you think so. Which is why we let you believe that we were coming straight for Lance, so that we could steal your real prize right out from under your noses instead while you were focused on the wrong thing.”
Rage crackled through me. They had come after Sam. No one touched Sam.
Holding the Chancellor’s gaze, I swung my free arm to indicate the mountain full of dark mages behind us. “You really wanna battle this out, Quill? You’re severely outnumbered here.”
The dark mages on the mountain probably wouldn’t come to our aid, but neither the Chancellor, nor any of the people who lived inside the walls of Eldar, knew our customs so they couldn’t know for certain whether I was telling the truth or not.
“No, I don’t want to fight,” Quill replied in a voice laced with steel. “I want to trade.”
“Trade?”
“I will give you Sam Foster if you give me Lance, Jessica, Leoni, and Darren. And the Enhancer.”
“That doesn’t seem like a very fair trade.”
“Didn’t you just say that a healer was worth a thousand Binders?”
I let out a mocking laugh and shifted the knife under Lance’s chin while glancing down at him. “Wanna tell him?”
Lance flicked a quick look up at me before meeting Quill’s eyes. Regret blew across his features as he spoke. “The Enhancer has been destroyed, Chancellor. I’m sorry.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“I see.” A hint of disappointment flickered across his face. “Well, then I suppose we only exchange prisoners.”
“And then what?” Audrey cut in. “You give us Sam and we give you these four. Then what happens? We battle it out anyway?”
“No,” Quill replied. “We agree on a five-day ceasefire before we resume any hostilities.”
A sharp smile stretched Audrey’s lips. “So that you can get Lance back to Eldar without anyone trying to stop you.”
The Chancellor lifted his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “You would also be able to use that time to get back to your homes and prepare.”
“Tempting. But let me make you a counteroffer. You give us Sam. Or we will kill Lance and his friends right now.”
“And you think that I won’t kill Sam Foster in return because that goes against my principles?” He chuckled and then cocked his head. “Well, you are correct about that. I don’t kill people in cold blood. However, I do believe in bringing dark mages to justice.”
With a jerk of his chin, he made the two constables next to Sam lurch into motion. One of them planted a boot between Sam’s shoulder blades and shoved him down on the grass while the other unsheathed his sword and handed it to the Chancellor. Terror spiked through me as the two constables moved Sam’s shackled hands and positioned them flat on the grass.
“However, you have abducted my Binder,” Quill continued. “And without Lance here to seal Sam’s magic, we are forced to resort to much more barbaric methods.”
Blood drained from my face as he measured the sword against Sam’s right wrist. He was going to cut his hand off. He was actually going to cut the hand of a skilled healer. Our healer. Fuck, we couldn’t let him do this.
Sam struggled against the constables’ grip, but they were too strong. Even from across the grass, I could see the world-ending fear in his blue eyes as he stared up at the sword. Desperate noises came from his gagged mouth.
“Chancellor Quill!” Lance suddenly blurted out. There was pure shock bouncing across his features as he stared at the gray-haired man and the sword he was holding. “This is… This is…”
“Very uncivilized, I know,” Quill filled in. “But we are in Castlebourne now, and this is the regular punishment for dark mages here.”
Locking hard eyes on the Chancellor, I growled, “You cut his hand off, and we’ll slaughter Lance and all of his friends right here in front of you.”
“And if you kill Lance and the others, I will cut off Sam Foster’s hand,” he retorted. While holding my gaze, he raised his eyebrows. “So unless that is an acceptable outcome for both of us, we trade.”
For a moment, no one said anything. The grass trembled slightly as a strong wind blew down from the mountain and washed over the landscape. It brought with it the smell of metal and smoke. Gray light from the overcast sky glinted in Audrey’s eyes as she slid her gaze to me and nodded. I replicated the gesture.
“Alright,” I ground out as I returned my attention to Godric Quill. “We trade.”
Relief flooded Sam’s face. I almost shook my head at him in disbelief. Had he seriously thought that we would even consider letting someone chop his hand off?
Below me, that same relief washed over Lance’s features too. Though, there was a guarded expression in his eyes now when he looked at his Chancellor. Darren blew out a long breath while Jessica only cast worried glances towards her boyfriend. At the other end, Leoni turned to look at us with smug victory dancing on her features.
“Excellent choice,” Quill said while handing the sword back to the constable next to him. “We meet in the middle. Bring them and the keys.”
Taking my knife from Lance’s throat, I reached down and buried my fist in his collar instead. With a firm grip on it, I yanked him up to his feet. Next to me, Henry and Audrey did the same with their captives while Paige shoved Leoni closer to Jessica.
When Lance was on his feet, I kept my grip on his collar as I leaned closer to him and spoke in a quiet voice. “Remember how horrified you were to find out what had happened to the people on the bottom level back there?” I jerked my chin towards Quill. “Your Chancellor was willing to do the same. To a healer mage. Someone who helps wounded and sick people. And Godric Quill was prepared to cut his hand off. After this, and everything you have seen on this journey, do you really still believe that your side is only good and ours is only evil?”
Hesitation joined the guarded expression in Lance’s eyes as he cast a quick glance towards Quill. “I…”
Before he could reply, the Chancellor called, “Let’s get this over with.”
Audrey and I exchanged a glance. Then she slid her gaze towards Lance’s friends. “Follow.”
“Henry. Paige. Stay here,” I said as I started across the grass.
“Yes, boss,” Henry replied.
Paige said nothing, but she remained where she was while Audrey and I marched our prisoners towards the spot halfway between us and them.
A warm summer wind rolled over the grasslands. It blew the smoke back towards the mountain and instead filled my lungs with air that smelled of damp soil. I kept my hand around Lance’s arm while the six of us came to a halt.
Quill, joined by Sam and one of his constables, reached us a few seconds later.
For a while, we just stared at each other.
“Key,” Audrey ordered eventually, breaking the tense silence.
The Chancellor dragged his gaze to her. I could see the indignant rage flickering in his blue eyes, but I wasn’t sure exactly what had caused it. The fact that she was giving him orders or that she and I had kidnapped Lance in the first place. Or maybe something else entirely.
But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he just jerked his chin at the guard who was holding on to Sam.
Metal glinted in the steel-colored morning light as the brown-haired guard tossed Audrey a key. She caught it in her left hand.
After pocketing it, she withdrew a set of keys from her own clothes. Her green eyes gleamed with a sudden sharpness. Then she threw the keys towards the guard. I had to suppress a chuckle when I realized that she had deliberately aimed too short.
Another bout of anger flashed across Quill’s face as he watched the keys clatter down on the grass in front of the constable. She just smirked back at him while the brown-haired man was forced to release his grip on Sam and instead bend down to pick up the scattered keys.
Once they had been retrieved, he straightened and looked over to his Chancellor for instructions. Godric just kept his eyes on Audrey’s face.
“Let’s trade then,” Audrey said.
He drew in a deep breath and then tore his gaze from her. “Yes. Let’s trade.” Shifting his attention to Sam, he flicked his wrist. “Go ahead.”
Audrey glanced at our captives and then jerked her chin. “You too.”
Moving slowly, all five prisoners walked across the grass and towards the other side. I tracked Sam’s movements while Audrey kept her eyes on the Chancellor.
My pulse thrummed in my ears. If Quill was going to try something, he would do it soon. And even with Sam on our side, I wasn’t sure if Audrey and I could take on eighty constables in these kinds of circumstances and live to tell the tale.
I smothered the urge to sigh in relief as Sam at last reached our side and slunk in behind us.
A moment later, Lance and his friends reached the Chancellor as well. As they turned around to face us, I shifted my gaze to Godric Quill.
“Well then.” I spread my arms wide in a deliberately cocky gesture. “Wanna give it a shot?”
His intelligent blue eyes studied my face, and for a few seconds, it looked like he was actually going to give the order to attack. But then his gaze flicked up towards the mountain behind us and the mass of dark mages that waited there.
After blowing out a small disappointed sigh, he raised his hand and flashed some sort of signal. Behind him, the ranks of constables began retreating.
The Chancellor, however, remained. His eyes were hard as he stared back at us.
“You might have destroyed the Enhancer, but now we have Lance again,” he said in a slow and measured voice that pulsed with underlying threats. “And this war is just getting started.”
I let a sharp grin curl my lips. “Then I guess we’ll see you on the battlefield.”
“Yes, you will. Because I will bring you to justice.” Fury burned like blue flames in his eyes. “As soon as I catch you, I will bring you back to Eldar and drag you to the ceremonial chamber myself. And then I will cut your palms with the Blade of Equilibrium and personally drain every drop of magic from your vile souls. That is a promise.”
I knew that he was spelling it all out like that because he wanted to sound menacing. But the problem with trying to scare a dark mage was that we had already done far worse things to each other, so pathetic promises of bringing us to justice didn’t really do much for us.
My observation was strengthened when Audrey clicked her tongue and flicked a dismissive hand.
“You talk too much. Next time we meet, I think I’ll just go ahead and poison you before you can open that annoying mouth of yours.”
“Tread carefully.” He flashed us a cold smile. “Because now I know what you look like.”
Before either of us could respond, he turned around and stalked after his retreating constables. Leoni shot us a triumphant grin before following him. Darren, Jessica, and the brown-haired man with the keys turned and walked away as well.
Lance’s eyes lingered on us for a second. Then he abruptly turned around and hurried after them.
Standing there on the grass at the foot of the mountain, I watched as Chancellor Godric Quill and his eighty constables made their way back to Eldar.
With three smug students.
And the Binder that we had worked so hard to get.
