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“And all you ask for in return is the lives of my men.”
“Yes. Because, given the choice, don’t you think that is what they would want to fight for? So their children could experience a life not caged?”
“You think them prisoners here?”
“I think you are all prisoners. Just as I was in my kingdom of ice, unable to leave. Though then, I’d been unaware of the dangers lurking just outside my castle walls.”
“You are so sure that you will win?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“How can I lose? I will have your army of dwarves at my side.”
He stares at me for a moment, expression unreadable, before he throws his head back and laughs. A deep booming sound that echoes off the walls of this room. It’s so loud, so infections, that I find myself smiling as well. Then, a woman slips her head in from the hall. Her blonde hair is braided thick down her side, threads of silver woven in the strands.
“What in the—did you break him?” she asks me.
“I don’t know,” I reply with a grin.
“Alastair, what in the realm has gotten into you?”
“This girl reminds me of you, my love. She has more balls than any man I’ve ever encountered.”
“Alastair!” she scolds, though the smile on her face shows just how amused she is.
“I take that as an immense compliment,” I tell them both. “Does that mean you will help?”
“It does,” he says. “But I will ride with my people. I will not send them out to fight a war without me.”
The joy in my heart is only outmatched by the relief in my soul. “Then I am honored to fight at your side, Your Highness.”
“You may call me Alastair,” he replies. “For as far as I’m concerned, if we bleed together, we might as well be on a first-name basis.”
Chapter 21
Fort
Exhausted, sore, and ready to get the fuck out of this armor, we step up to the gate just outside the dwarven caves. I raise my fist and knock, thankful that, only a few seconds later, the door is swinging open to reveal Carleah on the other side. She smiles, and the stress of the day completely melts away.
“Come on in, Warrior.” She takes my hand, and we move into the tunnel together with the elven guards and all sixty-two of the elves from Salma’s village. Generations of beings trapped in a world away from their magic and heritage.
My strength rushes back to me as soon as we cross past the obsidian, a relief that washes over and strengthens me.
“You got them all?”
“I did. Salma was surprised to see us. I think you’ve made a new friend,” I tell her truthfully.
"She thought she'd been abandoned. Even if she angered me with what she said to you, it was important that I show her I would not do the same.”
I squeeze her hand. “It was good of you.”
“Were there any incidents?”
“No. We saw nothing on the way there or back. A little eerie, to be honest.”
“I am grateful for it. I had quite the victory myself.” She grins up at me as we continue to walk.
