The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (16 page)

“
It’s all about who
you know,” she answered, lowering her wrap around her mouth so she
could speak clearly. “I have to say though, out of all the people
to come rescue me, I’m glad it’s you, Demon.” She turned to Cathy.
“Let me guess, you finally got Aaron to leave the farm?”

“
Not quite,” Cathy
said, removing her helmet. “Just another chick in drag.”

Natalie looked slightly disappointed as
she turned back to me. “Miss me so much you had to try and replace
me? She even has a scar down the cheek. You don’t miss a detail, do
you?”

“
Natalie, meet Lady
Sandra Middleton of Davalin,” I said.

Natalie’s eyebrows lifted in intrigue
as she studied Cathy in a new light. “So, that means Cooky sent
you. Should have guessed you wouldn’t have come for me on your own,
Demon.”

“
No one knew where
you were,” I shrugged. “Call this a happy coincidence.”

“
Very happy if you’re
in my situation,” she said. “What’s the plan?”

“
Walk out the front
door and leave town,” Cathy answered. “Lord Cook took care of
everything. He said you would know the rest though.”

“
Yeah, yeah, pick up
the ledger, save the kid, overthrow the government. Tell him the
price is still the same,” Natalie said dismissively.

“
Ledger?” I
asked.

“
Yeah,” Natalie said,
then scanned our faces and chuckled. “Ah, he never mentioned it.
Well, that was how I got all my information. Michaels recorded all
the transactions in a ledger: paying the mercs, bribing officials,
paying assassins, hiring thieves to break into Lord Kent’s castle.
It was all there. Honestly, the guy was too efficient for his own
good. You just don’t leave that information lying around in a safe
behind locked doors in a heavily guarded castle so anyone can break
into it and steal it.”

“
Interesting...” I
said thoughtfully. “So, we break into the castle and secure the
ledger again.”

“
Sort of,” Natalie
explained. “The mission went a little bit sour so I had to ditch it
in a safe place outside. The mercs were pretty steamed when they
couldn’t find it. Lord Michaels talked a good game about torturing
me, but never showed up. He couldn’t have found it so you get me
back on the grounds and I should be able to lead you right to it.
Easy stuff, Demon.”

“
Nothing is that
easy,” I said.

Natalie shrugged.
“Now are you going to let me out or are we going to talk all night
long?”

“
We have plenty of
time but I can understand not wanting to be caged up,” Cathy said.
She unlocked the cell and slid open the door.

“
Thanks,” Natalie
said sweetly. She hurried over to her equipment on the table and
picked up her blade gauntlet. She put the glove on and the blade
slid out of its hidden spot before she sheathed it. “I missed you,
baby.”

“
A quick question
that’s been bugging me,” I pitched.

“
Go for it,” Natalie
replied, starting to change into her armour.

“
How were you able to
convince everyone you were a guy?” I asked.

“
People see what they
want to see,” she answered. “I don’t have much going on in the
chest department and I convinced them the headdress covers a burn
mark that left my face hideously disfigured.”

“
What about the other
inmates?” I asked.

“
I know a trick or
two when it comes to dealing with people,” she said, turning to me
and flashing a smirk.

“
We’ll leave it at
that,” I said.

“
Aww, you’re no fun,”
she said.

“
I know, right?”
Cathy pitched in.

“
Great,” I
mumbled.

“
How are we going to
get out of town?” she asked. “Headdress or not, I’m a wanted girl
either way.”

“
Kairu will cover you
in an Illusion spell so you are invisible when people are around,”
Cathy answered. “People will just think we are a new guard patrol
heading out of town.”

“
So don’t worry about
the headdress,” I said. “You could be naked and people won’t
notice.”

Natalie looked thoughtful for a second.
“It is too cold out there right now.” She removed the headdress and
sighed as her short, black hair was finally free. “It was starting
to get itchy anyhow.” She wrapped the headdress around her left arm
and tied it off and nodded. “Let’s get out of here already...Kairu
was it?”

“
Long story,” I
said.

“
Good, the walk to
Riverside is going to be boring otherwise,” she smiled.

Chapter
14

Getting out of the
city was easy. With the guard uniforms covering our faces and
Natalie rendered invisible by my spell, we were just another patrol
on our way to Riverside. The gate guards just waved us through
without any trouble. The security seemed a little relaxed for a
war-torn city, but in the dead of night, exhaustion and apathy
would always triumph.

Outside the city, we had a two day walk
on our hands as we had to circle around the river up to Riverside.
We stopped at a nearby cave Natalie used as an occasional hideout
to get some rest. It was a great opportunity to talk to Cathy
again. Things had been too crazy since entering the capital. It was
an odd feeling to miss someone so much despite them being right
beside you.

She was a little more
relaxed after leaving Thurlborn Peak. She no longer needed to act
‘proper’ and could act something closer to herself. She still
wasn’t her old way, but she looked happy again. I was relieved to
see her relax.

We slept through the
night and most of the morning until Natalie’s boot made its way
into my stomach as a wake-up call. I wanted to sling a Fireball in
her direction, but she was holding up breakfast so I forgave her.
The charred rabbit was a bit dry, but a nice mix with the wild
berries and water.

The day dragged on as the thought of
two full days of walking weighed on me more than the heavy armour,
although thoughts don’t chafe in uncomfortable locations. The only
action we saw was when we passed through guard outposts and Natalie
had to take the long way around.

Still, we had made excellent progress
and when the sun dropped, Natalie knew of an abandoned outpost
where we could spend the night. If I had been smart, I would have
recorded the location of each place Natalie showed us on my map,
but the sight of a bed after a full day of walking was just too
inviting.

I was up early in the
morning and sensed Natalie approaching for the wake-up call. I kept
my eyes shut and waited for her to get closer. When she stopped
beside the bed, I turned my palm up and launched a Pulse. It hit
her right in the chest and she stumbled back and fell onto her
butt.

“
Hey!” she
exclaimed.

I opened my eyes and tried to look
groggy. “What happened?”

“
You know exactly
what happened,” she growled.

I chuckled and sat up in bed. “I got
you before you could get me?”

She smirked. “That you did, Demon.”

Cathy walked into the small bedroom
already in her armour. “What’s the hold up?”

“
Just making sure
Natalie is awake,” I answered, crossing the room to the dreaded
armour.

“
I’ll get you back,”
she said playfully, heading out of the bedroom.

Cathy chuckled and approached me as I
pieced together the armour. “How’d you sleep?” she asked.

“
Better than the
night before,” I answered. “What’s for breakfast?”

“
Same thing as
yesterday,” she answered.

I nodded. “She didn’t happen to catch a
pig for bacon this time?”

She shook her head.

“
Dang,” I said.
“Ready for another fun day of walking?”

“
Travelling sucks,”
she said. “It was much more fun in your head. At least I could make
fun of you because it sucked. Now I have to live it.”

I laughed. “Oh, the
joys of being Human.”

“
Let’s just get back
to killing something soon,” she said, turning and heading out of
the room.

I put on the
gauntlets and picked up the helmet. I had grown accustomed to
wearing the suit and it wasn’t feeling as heavy as before, but I
still couldn’t wait to get rid of it though. This would be the
first and last time I would wear armour. I worked better in
cloth.

After a hasty breakfast, we were back
on the road to Riverside again. Natalie had taken the role of scout
to distance herself from us… or probably just me. She wouldn’t
admit it, but I got her good with the Pulse and now she needed some
time to heal her pride.

“
I guess if it’s just
the two of us back here, we can get some talking done,” I said to
Cathy.

“
Well don’t I feel
special now,” she said sarcastically.

“
That’s not what I
meant,” I said, regretting my words.

“
Maybe I’ll just move
on once we get to Riverside,” she said. “Clearly you don’t need
me.”

She turned her head away from me and
crossed her arms. I smirked and just continued to stare at her. She
turned slowly to face me and smiled. “Got you.”

“
No, you didn’t,” I
said.

“
At the beginning
there,” she pointed out.

“
A little,” I
admitted.

She scoffed. “More like a lot.” She
switched to a mocking tone. “Oh, that isn’t what I meant, Cathy.
You’re so wonderful and perfect and I’m sorry.”

I just laughed and shook my head.

“
I take it you have
something to say or did you feel like spewing incoherent
gibberish?” Cathy asked.

“
Spewing incoherent
gibberish?” I asked. “Have you unlocked the thesaurus option in
your brain?”

“
No, I just thought
it was time to add a little class and sophistication to our
discussions,’ she answered dramatically.

I belched into my hand and looked up at
her. “I’m sorry, you were saying?”

She laughed. “Well that didn’t last
long.”

“
You’re just upset
that I ruined it first,” I pointed out.

“
I had to give you
something,” she smirked. “I can’t always be the funny
one.”

“
Oh, is that what you
are?” I joked. “I can think of a different word.”

She punched me in the arm and the
armour clanged loudly. Natalie turned back to look at us but
smirked in a knowing way at the sight of us. What she knew, she
didn’t say, but she kept her distance from us almost like she
wanted us to spend more time together. This was fine by me because
it meant Cathy could continue to get comfortable in her human
role.

The rest of the walk to Riverside flew
by and we arrived outside the gates as the sun was getting low in
the sky. We would probably have to wait for dark before retrieving
the package and that meant the chance of picking up a hot meal.

Natalie went for her headdress on her
arm but stopped. “I might actually be better off if I didn’t cover
my face.” She looked up. “A weird thought.”

“
We’ll pick you up a
hat or something,” Cathy said.

“
Yeah, I have
excellent taste when it comes to choosing hats,’ I
joked.

Out of the corner of
my eye I saw Cathy’s eye twitch, but she maintained her
composure.

Natalie, however,
laughed freely. “No offence, ‘Kairu’, but fashion isn’t, nor will
it ever be, your strongest subject.”

I smiled. “I’ll surprise you one
day.”

“
I’ll be holding my
breath until then,” she replied, sarcastically. “Let’s grab some
dinner before dark. Who’s paying?”

*****

Dinner was light but delicious; the
perfect recharge after the long day on our feet. Our hope was that
our mission would be simple. We needed to get into the castle
grounds and retrieve the ledger from Natalie’s hiding spot.

With me and Cathy still dressed as
guards, the plan was to make it look like a simple prisoner
transfer from the capital. Natalie explained that we would need
some forged documents to make it look legit and she disappeared to
meet an old friend, returning shortly with documents in hand.

Wasting no time, Natalie wrapped her
head in her headdress and Cathy and I ensured our uniforms looked
proper before binding Natalie’s hands and leading her to the Lord
of Riverside’s castle.

The castle was
smaller than the one at Thurlborn Peak, but it was no less grand.
Lord Michaels thought highly of himself and he let the world know
it. High walls surrounded the exterior with an iron bar gate
separating the grounds from the town. The idea was for people to be
able to see the castle, but not get anywhere close to it, as if the
stink of poor people would damage the perfect, smooth walls of the
castle.

We approached the gate guard and I
handed him the forged documents. Being the only person in the group
that was not pretending to be male, my job was to do the talking.
Luckily the gate guard seemed to not be too interested and, after
scanning the document, waved us through.

We entered the grounds and I turned to
Natalie. “Where did you hide it?”

“
In the back,” she
answered, changing our direction. “There was a well, so I threw it
into the bucket and let it drop down. I jammed the crank so nobody
would be able to pull it back up.”