Page 167 of Death of a Mortal

“Excellent. The smaller avian vey will survey from above while Naci and Bernitha head toward the castle. You’ll bring the glythyr Kaelor imbued to keep the light bent around you and hide you from upward-facing eyes, but you’ll need to survey the wards quickly, since Kaelor can only keep the glythyr powered for so long before depletion.Naci finds a weak spot, conveys her findings to Noxie, who will tell Aerie. The information she shares from Noxie and the rest of her aerial crew will dictate our path to and into the castle. Naci and Bernitha will camp out in the woods to the west of the castle where the infiltration team will join them.”

“What happens if Naci can’t find any weak points in the wards?” This was Kellan.

“Then the aerial units return to the ship, and we make a plan B with what we know. Questions on phase one?”

The room remained deathly quiet.

“Phase two is castle entry. Naci will unravel the ward’s weak point enough for us to slip through. From here, Kellan will station a few soldiers to direct any mortal servants to safety at our rendezvous point. Sevrin will glamour himself, Naci, me, Aerie, Kellan, Bernitha, Elene, and Bramick. We need to keep the infiltration team small for Sevrin’s sake. He’ll glamour us to appear as royal guards if we have to go through the main castle. The ideal scenario is that we pass no one on the way to the closest entrance to the servants’ corridor. If we do, Sevrin is the only one to speak. He’llconvinceanyone we meet that we’re legitimate.” The way Drayce said “convince” made me shudder. Sevrin’s deception magic still made me queasy, and I wondered if he’d ever used it on me.

“Phase three is getting the king alone, or as close to as possible. We may be in for a fight here with his guards or court. Noxie will search the castle to find the king’s whereabouts and convey it back to Naci once he’s found.”

“The prince once told me that the king hears petitions from townsfolk and nobles in the throne room each morning after breakfast,” I said. “He’ll likely have Malvina and some of his council with him, but that might be the best we can hope for.”

“That’s perfect, we should aim to time it where we can join the queue disguised as petitioning townsfolk.”

“You’re asking quite a lot of my magic, sir,” came Sevrin’s oily voice.

Drayce turned to him. “If your magic weakens, you keep the glamour on Naci no matter what. The king and guards will undoubtedly recognize the rest of us from Naci’s extraction, but they absolutely cannot find out that Naci is in their midst. Clear?”

“Crystal,” Sevrin said with a slight bow of his head.

“Once we’re in the throne room, we prepare for a fight. We come at them with everything we have. Bramick will seal the door to the throne room with his magic, and I’ll keep a water shield up to protect us from the king’s fire. Sevrin will have to combat the Umbrathren ifthey’re present and deter them as much as possible. With any luck, we’ll get Caedryn by himself in the fight, and a couple of us combined can overpower and kill him. We kill them all with no mercy. Every guard, royal, and court member. Everyone who tries to stop us. Questions?”

He looked around the room at every single person. “Good. Make ready to leave, we head to Fallorian within the hour.”

Everyone left quickly except us, Aerie, Kellan, and Bramick.

“Drayce, I’ve been able to fix wards and glythyrs but not unravel them.” I couldn’t help but voice my fears.

“You can do it, Naci, I know you can. And if you can’t? Then we find another way in. I hear undercarriages are effective too.” He gave me a quick smile.

“You’ve got two weeks to practice on the ship, so no pressure,” Bramick added with a wink. “There’s a lot of what-ifs and unknowns, Dray. You up for this?”

“Wouldn’t oppose some shadows joining us. That might just even the odds.” He looked at me with a wry grin.

“Why do I feel like you nutheads aren’t taking this seriously?” Aerie said with a roll of her eyes.

“Just trying to defuse the tension,” Bramick replied.

“How many soldiers do you want me to bring?” Kellan asked.

“As few as possible, but as many as you need to get the mortals to safety and protect them.”

Kellan nodded. He was generally a man of few words, but when he spoke, everyone listened.

We all left, Kellan breaking off for his soldiers’ barracks and the rest of us headed toward the captain’s row, splitting off when we arrived at Drayce’s.

“You know now would be a great time to find out that your vey is extremely powerful,” he said to me.

“Same could be said for you,sir.”

“I’ll let mine out to play if you do,” he teased.

“Tell me how, and I will.”

He thought for a minute. “The first time usually happens under duress, so it could happen in the fight.”

“How do you transform?”