Chapter 194: [ - - 194]
"That old goat already tried to have you murdered," Belladonna stated bluntly.
The room went dead silent. Aris stiffened. Remus let out a confused whimper.
"My scouts track everything that moves in the Endless Forest," Belladonna continued. She pushed off the wall and walked slowly to the map table.
"They found the tracks near the abandoned stone outpost. The Zarth envoy didn’t just hand over the Black Sky and walk away peacefully."
She looked at Aris, then back to Leo.
"Right after leaving you, the envoy crushed a crimson signal crystal. It shot a red beam high into the night sky. It was a dinner bell for every single monster in the region."
"And for us."
Aris’s eyes widened in sudden realization. He looked at Leo in shock.
"The monster raid..." Aris whispered. "The horde of fifteen hundred beasts you fought off that I heard... you were specifically targeted?"
"They purposely summoned the Grave Stalkers and the Wild Boars right to your exact location ," Belladonna confirmed, her eyes never leaving Leo’s face. "They wanted the horde to tear you and your precious Temple Guardians into pieces. They wanted no witnesses."
"And then we were supposed to come and take away the Black Sky and hand it over back to the Zarth Kingdom."
Remus looked faint. His knees wobbled under his heavy frame. Aris looked utterly horrified at the sheer scale of the political betrayal.
Leo just chuckled.
It was a cold, harsh, deeply unsettling sound that echoed off the stone walls.
"I had a hunch," Leo said simply.
He reached out and picked up the heavy black iron token. He tossed it casually in the air and caught it in his palm.
"The old goat acted entirely too friendly with me," Leo explained, his voice calm and methodical.
"He was way too polite to someone who was practically rubbing it on his face."
Leo pocketed the token. He didn’t look angry. He looked calculating.
"I knew the massive monster raid wasn’t a random coincidence," Leo said. "The timing was too perfect. But I kept the token anyway. It is a highly useful tool. And more importantly, it keeps Baez thinking I am completely oblivious to his little trap."
Belladonna smirked. It was a dark, dangerous smile. "So what exactly is the new plan, Leo?"
"We still use the token," Leo said. The purple glow in his eyes flared brighter, "I still don’t think that trade is a bad plan."
Leo leaned over the table, his presence dominating the room.
"If Baez thinks he outsmarted me, he won’t expect me to use his own VIP pass to walk straight into his camp," Leo promised, "He won’t suspect me."
"But the next time that goat tries to play me, I am going to chop him into pieces. I will personally make mutton balls out of him and feed them to your Blackfangs."
Belladonna laughed aloud. It was a visceral, vicious sound of pure approval. "My boys do enjoy fresh meat."
Aris nodded slowly. He was finally starting to fully understand Leo’s specific brand of ruthless intelligence.
"So," Aris said, adjusting his collar. "We work on the trade strategy, while preparing the city for Vorath’s inevitable strike."
"I will have someone write a letter," Aris said, "You can have a look at it before we send it to Baez."
Just as the words left the Inquisitor’s mouth, a deafening crash echoed violently from the hallway outside.
The heavy oak doors to the War Room burst open with such immense force that one of the iron hinges cracked loudly.
A man fell heavily into the room. He collapsed face-first onto the hard stone floor.
It was a Blackfang scout. He was covered from head to toe in thick, coagulated blood, dirt, and wet mud.
He scrambled desperately to push himself up, but he only had one arm to work with. His left arm ended abruptly at the bicep.
The stump was hastily and brutally cauterized with fire to stop him from bleeding out while riding his horse.
"Commander!" the scout choked out. He coughed violently, spitting a mouthful of dark red blood that splattered onto the wooden base of the map table.
Belladonna was on her feet in a fraction of a second. She crossed the war room instantly. She dropped to her knees right beside her man. Her face shifted immediately from a bored lover to a ruthless, focused General.
"Who did this?" Belladonna demanded. She grabbed his good shoulder firmly to keep him upright.
"The logging camp..." the scout wheezed. His eyes were wide and completely unfocused with severe trauma, "Outer Camp Four... thirty miles from the eastern walls... It has been hit."
"Monsters?" Leo asked sharply, stepping out from behind the table.
"No," the scout gasped, shaking his head frantically. "Men. Giants. Covered in thick blue tattoos... wearing heavy bone armour. They were riding... boars and wolves. Massive beasts."
Aris cursed bitterly under his breath. "Zarthian outriders."
"How many?" Belladonna pressed. Her voice turned to absolute ice, "A scouting party? Twenty men?"
"No," the scout sobbed. The memory was clearly breaking his sanity, "It was a raiding party. Over a hundred. A full vanguard. We didn’t stand a chance. They fell upon the loggers before the sun was even fully up."
The scout looked up directly at Leo. Tears cut clean tracks through the thick grime and dried blood on his face.
"They slaughtered them, Lord Leo. Every single one of them. Fifty men. The loggers, the guards... they didn’t just kill them quickly. They dragged them out of the tents. They gutted them alive."
The scout shuddered violently. It was a full-body convulsion of pure, unadulterated horror.
"They strung our boys up from the trees," he whispered, his voice cracking with despair. "They used their own intestines as ropes. They hung them like butchered meat to bleed out slowly. They left me alive... just to bring the message."
The War Room fell into a heavy, suffocating, dead silence.
Remus looked like he was about to vomit his dinner. He covered his mouth with both hands, his face turning a sickly pale green.
Aris stood perfectly still. His calculating mind was already running defensive logistical scenarios for a brutal siege.
Belladonna gently laid the unconscious scout down onto the stone floor.
When she stood back up, the Bandit Queen was smiling.
It was not a pleasant smile. It was a feral, deeply disturbing baring of teeth. Her dark eyes were utterly devoid of any humanity. They were replaced entirely by the primal, bloodthirsty instinct of an apex predator whose personal territory had just been violently violated.
She reached behind her back. She drew her massive, serrated greatsword. The heavy steel sang a deadly, high-pitched metallic note as it cleared the leather scabbard.
Leo looked across the room at Aris. His own expression was perfectly calm, but the purple glow in his eyes had intensified heavily, bleeding visibly into the air around him.
"It seems you were exactly right, Lord Aris," Leo said. His voice was terrifyingly steady and devoid of fear. "They are already here testing the fences."
Leo stepped fully out from behind the heavy oak table. He casually stepped over the pooling blood on the floor.
"Bella," Leo commanded. The Draconic authority resonated deeply in his words. "Get the horses prepared. And summon get Bane and a few of your best immediately."
Belladonna’s dark smile widened into a terrifying rictus of pure violence.
"We are going hunting."