Except for maybe Drayce himself.
Wasn’t that a lovely thought? Caelan’s hold on his morality and the powers of the gods was all based on his love for a dragon awaiting execution.
The guard returned the way he’d passed and headed down the stairs. Ten minutes. That was exactly the same as the last pass.
So, the circuit was ten minutes through the main floor, but between fifteen and twenty minutes for the basement. With it being after midnight already, it was unlikely that anyone else was going to be visiting the prison for the rest of the night. He had only the guards to worry about.
Sneaking into the prison itself had been slow and tedious work simply because he’d been out of practice when it came to patiently waiting for opportunities to present themselves. But then, it was clear that the dragons weren’t expecting someone to approach via stealth. No, they were looking for a brute-force attack.
Once he’d gotten inside the perimeter, it was just a matter of sliding from shadow to shadow and sticking to their obvious blind spots.
The second the guard was out of sight, Adrian slipped from his hiding place and soundlessly dropped to the floor, sending the smallest twinge of pain through his right knee. Gods, he was getting too old for this if his knees were going to start complaining.
When this was over, he was going to have a nice, long chat with Mr. King’s Advisor. If this was going to be part of his normal routine when it came to helping the king, he needed a little warning. And maybe some extra hazard pay wouldn’t be remiss either. At least with some warning, he’d know to stretch a bit more.
Pressing his back to the wall, he padded along the stairs. While the upper floors appeared to be a mix of wood and stone, the basement was mostly enormous blocks of stone. Bitter cold stones at that. Within a couple of steps, the temperature had descended several degrees, and his breath puffed icy white past his lips. The air was crisp and clean, lacking the usual smells of body odor, piss, disinfectant, and hopelessness.
Yes, he knew what the inside of a prison smelled like from personal experience. Wouldn’t that be an interesting thing for the king to discover? He had a feeling that Rayne was already aware of his past. That shady bastard knew too much.
But if Rayne knew about him, why the fuck would he have invited him along to protect the king? It didn’t make any sense. Eno was as squeaky clean as they came and until he’d found out that Drayce was a dragon, Adrian would have guessed that Drayce didn’t have a secret in the world.
Adrian violently shoved those distracting thoughts aside. There was so much more going on than he knew, but this wasn’t the time to be wondering about his place in this mess or the reasons. He might not entirely understand everything, but one thing was crystal clear—someone needed to save Drayce.
As he reached the first landing, he realized something had changed. A set of heavier footsteps was scuffing up the stones. This was not the lightweight young man he’d seen making the rounds. No, this person was older and heavier, based on the thud of the steps and the soft grunts.
Fuck! If he turned and went up, he’d easily be seen. The person would shout an alarm, blowing all his valuable sneaking to smithereens.
With no time to plan or second guess, Adrian struck out the second the guard came into view. He caught a flash of wrinkled skin and gray hair with the same black uniform as his fist slammed into the man’s throat.
The guard gasped, but the sound was still soft enough that it likely didn’t draw anyone’s attention. As the man tried to draw breath, Adrian grabbed a fist full of his uniform, jerking him forward. Adrian kicked off the wall and swung his body around the guard’s so that he had one arm wrapped across his throat and his legs circling his waist from behind.
The older guard clawed at his arm, trying to pull it away from his throat. Adrian was blocking both the flow of oxygen and blood.
“Easy now. Not gonna hurt a soul,” Adrian promised in a low whisper in the man’s ear.
The older man went down far slower than Adrian would have guessed. Maybe it was a dragon thing. But several seconds ticked by before the guy dropped to his knees and fell forward. Only then did Adrian release him from the chokehold and double-check his pulse. A little erratic but clear. He’d be fine after his nap.
Very carefully, he made sure the unconscious guard was tucked past the corner so anyone standing at the bottom of the stairs wouldn’t immediately see him. This had to be one of the guards keeping an eye on Drayce. That meant there was still the guard who was making the rounds. Possibly one more.