The White Werewolf || Season One: Ties That Bind

Chapter Thirty-Six

"It's my plan," she revealed. "My coin. And I don't want you to kill the beast. I want you to help me save it."

Geralt peered at her skeptically. Now Robin relaxed behind him. She shut her eyes and dared to probe lightly at Triss' Chaos, but was quickly repelled.

"You weren't trained by any magic school, were you?" Triss asked.

Robin shook her head, trying not to be embarrassed by her clumsy attempt at reading the other woman's mind.

Geralt rose up to his full height and stepped closer to the sorceress. "Leave her be," he warned her.

"You're very protective of her," she observed. "While her magic is obviously rudimentary, I imagine she can protect herself just fine. And don't be so defensive. She tried to read me. Not the other way around."

Geralt looked back at Robin and she shrugged apologetically.

"It seems we have many things to talk about," Triss declared. "Let's go to my tower. If you don't like what I have to say, you can leave freely. I will not harm you. I promise."

Geralt hesitated for a moment, then put away his sword. He looked at Robin once more and she nodded.

"Very well," he agreed. "Let's go."

****

Triss' tower was a spot of brightness in the dark castle. Jaskier had been right about a particular gloom shadowing everything in the city. It was even more present here. As they'd walked through the dusty hallways, it had been apparent that nothing had been cleaned in some time, for instance.

Robin thought it was like being inside a giant tomb, and she didn't enjoy it, so she clung to Geralt's arm. Despite the warmth and pleasant herbal smell of the room, there was a chill that refused to leave her.

Triss promptly explained her business. "Six years ago," she began, "stablehands started vanishing at the castle above the city. Before long, citizens were disappearing throughout all Temeria."

"Six years ago?" Jaskier chimed in. "But that was before..."

Jas, stop. She doesn't seem to know Geralt and I were here before.

He stopped speaking abruptly and tried to recover. "Um, before... some other thing I'm sure I heard about happening here, but can't quite recall at the moment."

Geralt gave him a stony stare. Triss merely continued, though Robin was sure she'd noticed the slip.

"Foltest's royal guards soon realized the creature was coming from the crypt where the king's sister Adda is buried."

Robin thought back to the graveyard from years ago. There had been crypts there, certainly, but nothing that had struck her as royal. And all of them had been in disrepair. Adda's crypt must have been somewhere else.

"Rumor has it she was having an affair with a young man in town when she died," Triss revealed.

Geralt paused. "Was she pregnant?"

Jaskier looked confused, but understanding dawned on Robin's face. She knew exactly where he was going with his line of questioning. If he was right, and she was sure he was, the creature he was looking for was something even most witchers would have only read or heard about, but not seen.

"Well, if she were," Triss responded primly, "that would make her child the sole heir to the throne, as Foltest never married."

Geralt remained silent, though it was now obvious to him why Triss wanted the creature saved and not merely stopped.