They continued down the corridor, swiftly dealing with the next few guards who attacked them. The further they got, the louder the noises from the arena were. There was a fight in progress, it seemed, as the crowd was cheering.
Once they reached what appeared to be the administrative part of the underground complex, Tristan said, “We need to find the office. Would be easiest to compel a guard to take us there.”
“How fortunate that we have a bunch of guards heading our way.” When the guards got closer, Verner addressed them with, “You don’t mind us being here. We’re friends of the boss.”
The guards all nodded and one of them said, “Of course, sir.”
“You will designate one of your group to help us into your boss’s main office.”
The men talked briefly before one of them stepped forward. “I will lead you to His Lordship’s office, gentlemen.”
“And the rest of you shall forget about this encounter and go to sleep.”
The men blinked, as if confused, but then they all nodded, lay down on the floor, and closed their eyes. This was a very convenient power, although Tristan was almost certain it had never been successfully used against him. He wondered what made him immune.
The remaining guard led them to a room at the far end of the spacious hallway. He unlocked the door and let them inside, then was dismissed by Verner.
“We must hurry,” Tristan said. “The duke must have noticed the fairy’s absence by now.”
He searched the duke’s large desk while Verner focused on the cabinets. After a few minutes, Tristan found a locked drawer, which he pulled open using force. In it, he found what they’d been looking for, as well as a list of all the kidnapped people and what they’d been assigned to do. Tristan’s and Verner’s fake names were already there, under ‘Fighting ring.’
“Got all five bells here,” Tristan said. “Sexual services, fighting ring, performance arts, factory work, and dismiss.”
“Of course ‘other kinds of entertainment’ had to include rape,” Verner said with a grimace.
“The clients’ names are in the other book. Names, signatures, and seals. It’s all here. You take these books with you, and I’ll stay and—”
“You’ll stay and what?”
“Eliminate as much evil as I can and free as many prisoners as I can.”
Verner shook his head. “You’re not here on duty. You’re here to help me.”
“If you leave the horses here, you’ll be faster without me. You need to take these books to the Kingsbridge city guard.”
“The city guard is most likely corrupt. I wouldn’t be surprised if the commander gets some extra money from the duchess. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think we should take these to the grand inquisitor.”
“The grand inquisitor? Didn’t you say that if I reported the duchess to the Inquisition, I would be ignored?”
“I don’t want you to report this to the Inquisition,” Verner said. “We should talk to the grand inquisitor privately. He might have some ideas. And this is different from the duchess’ case, since we have so much evidence.”
“I don’t understand. You would trust the grand inquisitor?”
“Not exactly trust, but after meeting him, I must grudgingly admit that of the people with authority I’ve talked to, he seems the least likely to be corrupt. I have been wrong about people before, though. Do you have any other ideas?”
“No,” Tristan said. “We can trust him.”
“Then we’re leaving together. He won’t talk to me if I come back without you. He’ll probably try to have me arrested on the spot. Oh, and we’ll have to make sure that inquisitor buddy of yours doesn’t see me.”
“He spends most of his time gathering intel or hunting, so he’s unlikely to be there. But what about those prisoners?”
“If we free the fairy, she will help them. She and the other supernaturals, including the werewolf you so heroically saved.”
Tristan pursed his lips. “Or they’ll enjoy the free meals.”
“I assure you that they all just want to leave this place.” Verner huffed. “And I bet all the supernaturals here combined have killed fewer people in their entire lives than you have in just over a year.”
“I kill evil people,” Tristan said. “And monsters.”
“Monsters like that utterly terrifying, murderous boy you killed a few days ago?”
Tristan averted his gaze. “I take no pleasure in what I do. It just needs to be done.”
“That kid never killed anyone, so if you killed him as prevention, you might as well start killing random humans, because you never know what they might do one day.”
“Humans don’t have supernatural powers.”
“That doesn’t stop them from doing some really nasty things.”
“You’re… not wrong about that. I—”
“Hold that thought,” Verner said. “He’s coming.”
Lord Asher entered the office, accompanied by two guards. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
“It doesn’t matter,” Verner said, “because you’re all about to forget about us, anyway. And you, Lord Asher, will give me your necklace before you forget.”
The duke nodded, then took off the chain with the locket and handed it to Verner.
“Let’s leave before they recover,” Verner said.
They found the fairy, who had already been searching for them, and Verner handed her the necklace.
“You—You got it! Thank you!” She opened the locket and took the lock of hair from it. She held it in her closed fist for a moment, and when she uncurled her fingers, the hair had turned to dust. “I’m free.”
“Can you free the others?” Verner asked her. “We need to report this place to the authorities before all evidence is gone.”
She nodded. “I’ll help as much as I can.”
“Please try not to kill the duke,” Verner said. “His public humiliation will be more helpful in the long run.”
“I understand. I’ll, uh, try to keep myself from getting quick revenge.”
Tristan and the vampire didn’t have to fight anyone on their way back to the lift, as the vampire was still able to use compulsion, which he claimed worked even better thanks to the other supernatural’s blood.
After retrieving Tristan’s gun and checking his stitches—which had somehow stayed mostly intact—they set off toward the Inquisition’s palace.
“You’re not going to try to kill me as soon
as we’ve delivered these documents to your boss, are you?” Verner said.
“I agreed to help you take care of the duchess and her friends,” Tristan said. “Delivering the documents to His Eminence won’t be the end of that mission. Although I’m not sure how His Eminence will react when he learns I deceived him. I might get…”
“Grounded?”
“Yes,” Tristan replied. “I suppose you could put it that way.”
“Hopefully, we’ll make him see it was worth it. But getting back to our earlier conversation—what were you about to say when I interrupted you?”
“When you—Ah. Well, it was nothing.”
“I happen to be really into nothings.” Verner smiled.
Tristan stifled a sigh. “I was merely going to say that I’m a knight of the Holy Inquisition, and a knight’s primary duty is to protect humanity from evil. Randomly killing humans would mean going against my very purpose. But I do realize that humans can also be monsters, and I’ve eliminated some truly vile ones. Humans don’t have supernatural powers, though, so they are far less dangerous.”
“Supernatural powers can be used for good.”
“Money can be used for good, but I seldom see it used for good.” Tristan turned to fully look at Verner. “Now that I think about it, you have both. Supernatural powers and money.”
“I’m definitely evil, then?”
“That would be the logical conclusion.”
Verner’s unusual eyes gleamed in the sunlight when he grinned at Tristan, and Tristan caught himself staring too long. He turned away quickly. Finding someone’s eyes pretty wasn’t a sin, was it? It was no different from finding a painting pretty.
“What’s wrong, handsome?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s okay. Most people stare, so there’s no need to panic about your potential homosexual tendencies.”
Tristan refused to meet Verner’s gaze. “I—I couldn’t have any… tendencies. My body belongs to the Holy Inquisition.”
“Does the Holy Inquisition condone slavery?”
“Of course not.”
“Then it cannot own you.”
“I chose to take the vows. That’s not slavery. I bound myself to the Inquisition of my own will.”
“And gave up your will at the same time?”
Tristan squinted at the vampire. “You seek to confuse me with your words.”
The vampire laughed. “Or maybe I’m just trying to get you to think?”
“You suggest I don’t think?”
“Do you think about anything other than duty?”
“Of course I do.”
“Any examples?”
Tristan searched his memory, but so much had happened recently that it was hard to recall anything not related to fighting evil. “I don’t see why I should tell you such things,” he said.
“You just can’t think of anything. Admit it.”
Tristan glanced down at the reins. “Would thinking that something’s pretty count? It doesn’t have anything to do with duty.”
“That does prove you’re not a lost cause, but it doesn’t involve that much thinking. Well, unless you’re secretly quite a poet when you think about beauty, which I highly doubt. A normal person has interests outside of their job, you know. And some random, silly thoughts. What do you think about when you’re alone, with enough time to get bored?”
“I do something then. Exercise, clean my weapons, tidy my room… But most of the time, I will just go out and hunt.”
Verner sighed. “Okay, this is not normal at all.”
Tristan looked at him. “A vampire telling me what is normal…”
“Yeah, and what does that say about you, Inquisitor Starling?” Verner said with a smug grin.
“You have servants who do things for you, so you have a lot of time for idle thinking.”
Verner chuckled. “So thinking about stuff other than work is just some sort of rich people’s affliction?”
“Exactly that.”
“Ha! You count me among rich people, then? People?”
Tristan turned away with a huff. “I refuse to continue this pointless conversation.” He hated how easily the vampire tricked him into saying the wrong things. It made him feel stupid.
Urging his horse to go faster, he failed to tune out the vampire’s infuriating laughter and the subsequent, “Aww, don’t be upset.”
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