Chapter 660: An Opportunity for Escape
Darragh slumped in the back of a wagon as it trundled down the ancient roadway that led out of the Vale of Mists and followed the River Luath toward Lothian City. He never imagined that he’d have an opportunity to escape the Vale of Mists so soon after last night’s celebratory banquet, but at the same time, he wished that he’d been able to get a proper night’s sleep before taking the risk to make an escape.
"You look half dead, Darragh," Eamon teased him from the wooden bench on the opposite side of the wagon. "You’re still young, aren’t you? Don’t tell me that you never stayed out drinking the night before Lord Owain summoned us to hunt for him. I won’t believe you even if you say that you didn’t."
"This is different," Darragh groused as he pulled the heavy autumn cloak tighter against his body against the damp chill. "A night drinking with mates is one thing. But dancing? With a snake woman?" Darragh said, shaking his head bitterly at his inability to escape the claws of the demon who held him hostage until the musicians finally stopped and the banquet ended as the sky began showing the first hints of growing brighter.
It was all ’Sir’ Ollie’s fault, the young hunter thought. No one had shown any interest in him or Eamon during Lady Ashlynn’s display of heretical magic when couples flocked to the open areas of the great hall to join the Demon Lady of the Vale in a celebratory dance.
After the dance, a Claw Demon named Georg made a grand show of presenting dishes for the feast, and Darragh hoped that he could quickly devour his meal and then make a polite, or even not so polite, escape when the parents with young children began to leave. Who would have thought that the newly dubbed knight would appear at their table and ask for their help with a sensitive mission for Lady Ashlynn the very next day?
Once it became clear that Eamon and Darragh might be important people of status, men that the famous Cypress Knight would personally seek out for help, the snake women had been all too eager to wrap their tails around the hunters and pull them onto the dance floor for hours of ’entertainment’, broken only by trips back to their table to drink more of the heady, mulled wine or the strangely potent cider that seemed to flow without limit.
Now, he’d barely had any sleep after staggering back to the soldier’s barracks in the ancient fortress, and his head still pounded with the aftereffects of drinking too much. Lady Ashlynn had offered to use a bit of her witchcraft to ease any discomfort the men felt after the night of revels, but Darragh wasn’t about to let her bewitch him the way she seemed to have bewitched others.
Thankfully, she’d accepted his claims that he hadn’t drunk enough the previous night to need her help, and she told him that there would be plenty of time to rest in the wagon before he was needed for any real work.
"They call themselves the Scaled Clan," Eamon pointed out. "You know the women we danced with are friends of Lady Heila. It’s not a bad thing that Eusebia took a liking to you. Dalmatia said that they’re merchants and they want to find good investments to make in Vale City or beyond."