Inferno Legacy: Valor of the Dragon (Book One)

Chapter 23

            Through the increasing darkness it was difficult to make out the two guards on top. Cody had arrived past sundown, but he still couldn’t tell if that “tax” was real. If it didn’t actually exist, he could only hope that there were different guards this time. But he quickly got proof that his luck was beginning to run out, since all three of his friends could very well be dead, and he would evidently go broke before he even entered the castle.

            “What are you doing bringing your sorry carcass around here?” One of the guards said, and Cody recognized him as the one who had shot at him before.

            “What are you doing!?” Cody heard incredibly faintly, a furious voice over the wind just after an arrow whizzed by his ear.

            Cody held his place firmly, listening intently to the conversation that was going on at the top of the wall. He knew for a fact that he wouldn’t have been able to hear them without his heightened senses.

            “That’s the guy I told you about!” The first, more familiar guard shouted to the other, like a child looking for an excuse for his mother as to why he did something wrong.

            The other guard seemed to grab the first guard’s tunic collar in one of his fists as he hissed back, “I told you that if he comes back, you were to let me handle it!”

            Sick of the arguing, Cody took his bow from his shoulders, knocked an arrow, and let it fly towards them, missing the rude guard by mere millimeters, exactly where he had been aiming. The more mature guard let go of the other and disappeared down the stairs, which Cody took as an invitation to come forward and he eagerly obliged.

            When the rider made it to the gate, the seemingly friendly guard looked him over carefully. He pulled the lever without any hesitation, and allowed Cody inside. Evidently, the tax didn’t exist at all, since it was pretty much dark at that point.

            “Follow me,” the guard whispered quietly for some reason, pulling the rider out of his thoughts.

            The guard nodded as he confirmed that Cody would, and yelled up to the other, “Cover my shift until I send someone else!”

            The more discourteous guard glared at him but didn’t dare defy his orders. Without another word, Cody was rushed away without any indication of their destination whatsoever. He grew fearful again as he was led through the town by this man that he was sure he had never seen before in his life, to a small house at a sort of secluded part of the town, with only three other homes nearby. Along the way, houses seemed to rush by in a blur of motion, with Inferno’s rider racing behind the man almost as fast as he could. Upon reaching the special neighborhood, the guard brought the rider into the largest, but still pretty puny house in the area, and locked the door behind them.

            “How do you-”

            “Not here, not now,” the guard hissed, rudely interrupting Cody.

            The man looked through the keyhole in the door, as if to make sure they weren’t being followed, before he gripped Cody’s hand in his own, and rushed to another part of the house. They went through an unusual silvery-grey door, emerging into a sort of large study with bookcases on every spare inch of space lined with books. They weaved in between the bookcases until they made it to the center where a simple desk and two small chairs stood.

            “Sit,” the man said anxiously, some sort of emotion glinting in his eyes as he sat in one of the chairs, but Cody couldn’t guess what.