Flames

Chapter Sixteen

"Waiting for me?" Nix refused to relax his face, annoyed with the entire situation. It had already been two days. Roman would be expecting him home any day now, believing that the assassination would have been completed within hours of him arriving into Luxtene.

"We have a big day ahead of us." Cassandra offered a smile as she pulled a map free from her belt, laying it out on the ground before her. She straightened it out, dragging her finger between the marks upon it. "Now that you're awake, we can finally begin."

He would be lying if he said he wasn't interested. If she had some sort of plan for how she thought the day was going to go, there was a possibility he could sneak in her death somewhere along the activities. Without saying a word, he motioned for her to continue.

"My father wanted us to check in with Adessa. Rumors are going around that they've sided with Phaepyr. If that is true, then Luxtene will need to increase our soldiers somehow and figure out a way to attack both Phaepyr and Adessa as well as win this war." Her fingers delicately tapped on the drawing of the walls of Adessa.

While Nix stayed silent, his head did tilt. If Adessa had joined Phaepyr, he would have been one of the first to know. He was familiar with a mission several years before where three men were sent to infiltrate Adessa but hadn't heard if they succeeded. Given Cassandra and David's concern, he would say they did. The plan had been to take over Adessa from the inside out. Roman had asked Nix to be a part of the mission, but he had refused. Trying to take over a neutral city that hadn't ever been a part of the war felt wrong, but the king had tried anyway. "We won't be able to see anything from outside of the wall." He pointed out with a shrug.

"That's why we're going inside." A brief grin appeared on her face as she began rolling the map up.

"Going inside?" Nix began to laugh dryly, unsure if he was hearing things correctly. "Cassandra, Adessa is entirely locked up. If you're not from there, you don't go inside. They won't let us in." He held up his right wrist, pulling his sleeve down to reveal a scarred canvas. "No tattoo, no entry."

"Precisely." She stood, brushing some of the grass and dirt off of her skirts. "Thankfully, we have Deletrear. Soldiers of Phaepyr don't have Deletrear, however. We need to figure out if Adessa sided with Phaepyr, if there are soldiers from Phaepyr inside, how many there are, and how they got in if they didn't side with them." Cassandra listed off each thing on her fingers. "It'll be tough, but I'm sure we can figure it out."

He stood with her, fighting his laughter again. "We're going inside of Adessa? Really?" Ideas had already begun to fill his head. Regardless of what they found, if Cassandra was murdered inside of Adessa then Nix could return to Luxtene and report to David that either a soldier of Phaepyr had killed her or that Adessa really had sided with Phaepyr and had murdered her. The second option would cause Luxtene to cause Adessa, making it more favorable. It would leave Luxtene vulnerable to attacks from Phaepyr. Adessa, not ready or prepared for an attack, would be forced to join forces with Phaepyr. Phaepyr would win the war. Hiding his thrill, he followed after Cassandra. "I've always wondered what it looks like inside."

"I have too. We might be some of the first outsiders to know what it looks like." Cassandra headed back into the house, grabbing several things she needed from the doorway then started back outside again.

"Might be, but I don't think so." They heard Deletrear's voice before they saw him. He opened the door, walking outside with a grin. Just like the night before, his eyes were focused on Nix. "You would be surprised how many sneak inside the wall, my dear." His hair was pulled back neatly into a ponytail for once, some of his curls slicked back to keep them contained. He held his hand out, motioning for Cassandra's arm.