Daktari smiled. At last the girl had been found.
In a few minutes one of his golems would blow Kent’s warehouse apart and the rest smash through the city before exploding in turn. A fitting punishment for the disloyal swine. He’d never had much faith in humanity, but lately, the betrayals were coming at a record pace.
Now to King’s Port to collect his prize and finally conclude his bargain with Balthis.
“Bane.”
“Yes, Master?”
“Fetch the world map.”
Bane flapped into the lab with a rolled-up map in his arms. The large parchment was almost more than the homunculus could handle. Daktari snatched it from him and spread it across the stone table. He started scanning the coasts looking for the port. He’d never been to King’s Port, so it wouldn’t be possible to teleport there directly. Instead he’d have to find the nearest place he had visited and fly the rest of the way.
“Found it, Master.” Bane pointed to the city marked King’s Port.
Directly across the Sea of Torments, so she wasn’t that far away after all. A hundred miles north was the city of Queen’s Port. He’d visited there a few times. It wouldn’t take long to fly south and pick up the girl.
Bane alighted on his shoulder and Daktari snapped his fingers.
They appeared three hundred yards above the ground. Daktari fell a few feet before activating his flying spell. Bane circled around his floating master.
“Better hang on to me, Bane,” Daktari said.
When he felt Bane’s claws get a good grip on his robe, Daktari willed them forward. Without his shield he had no doubt the acceleration would have broken his neck. As it was, he felt barely a whisper of wind as he streaked through the morning sky. At this speed if anyone saw them they would register as nothing but a dark blur.
It took less than a minute to reach King’s Port. Daktari slowed above the city and wove an invisibility spell around himself and Bane. He called up the image of the building he sought along with its location to the front of his mind.
Soon enough he spotted the building and settled on the ground beside it. Three men dressed in uniforms stood across the street, but of course they paid no attention to the invisible sorcerer.
Daktari pushed the doors open and found two dead bodies lying on the floor. He pushed his will out, seeking any signs of life and finding none. Daktari drifted up the steps, finding several more bodies. He checked the entire second floor and found even more bodies, none of them belonging to Princess Shara.
“She’s not here.”
How could that be? He’d only taken minutes to get here after Raven contacted him. He shook his head at the irrelevant thought. The how didn’t matter.
Daktari spun in a slow circle, fists clenched. “SHE’S NOT HERE!”
With the full weight of his frustration and magic behind them, the words manifested as a physical force lashing out in every direction, blasting the second floor of the building to smithereens.
He levitated out the top of the ruined building. The guards were staring up at him and the destruction he’d caused.
One of them cleared his throat and said, “You there, you’re under arrest. Come down here this instant.”
Daktari narrowed his eyes. The unmitigated gall of the presumptuous insect astonished him. It appeared guards were getting stupider by the day.
He didn’t seem to be alone in his assessment. The two other guards stared at their companion like he’d grown a second head.
As Daktari descended he conjured an aura of dark fire to surround his body. The fool guard was standing with his arms crossed and left foot tapping the ground as if impatient for Daktari to land.
His companions were looking about for a place to hide.
One suddenly seemed to get a bright idea and slammed the blunt side of his halberd into the back of the stupid one’s head.
The guard collapsed, unmoving, to the dirt.
The guard that struck him waved at Daktari and said, “Just kidding.”
Daktari smiled and started to laugh. He laughed so hard his whole body shook. When he finally got control of himself he wiped the tears from his eyes and banished the dark fire.
Laughter had cooled his rage and cleared his mind. Clearly Raven had delayed his report long enough for the princess to be relocated or, judging from the number of bodies inside, captured by another group.
She could be anywhere in the city or even on a ship out of it if the delay had been great enough. With Silvermane’s ring still protecting her, he had no choice but to wait for another chance.
Daktari was getting extremely sick of waiting.