Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75: The Ban Is Working Great. Your Ceiling Says Hi.

"Our Master Mage is the best in Velkaris," Elder Drystan stated. "We will not invite in another disease to cure our current one."

Kael rolled his eyes so hard his head moved with them.

"Your Master Mage has been failing for over eight hours. You cannot fight the bad kind of dark magic with conventional magic alone. That’s like trying to drown a fish."

"That analogy doesn’t work," Varro said. "Fish can’t drown."

"That’s the point—" Kael stopped. Blinked. Looked at him. Looked at the ceiling. Looked at Brennan with a blade still to his throat, who shrugged. Then Kael pinched the bridge of his nose with his non-bladed hand. "Why am I trying to explain this. Nevermind."

"If it helps, I understood the metaphor," Brennan offered.

"It doesn’t help, Brennan."

Brennan looked at the elders.

"He’s right, actually," he confirmed, like his cosign was the missing piece of this negotiation. "Dark ward architecture requires dark countermeasures. You could have prevented this entire situation with some basic dark magic as preventive measures in your ward foundation. A sigil or two. Standard practice."

Kael shot him a look so flat it could have been used to level masonry. He turned back to the elders.

"Brass tacks."

Three elders opened their mouths simultaneously. Kael held up one finger. Three mouths closed. Varro opened his again. Kael’s finger did not lower. Varro’s mouth closed again.

"Draven missed one passage which is how I got in. Northeast service tunnel, lower level. Half-collapsed, but passable. It leads to the eastern ridge. Get your people through it, coordinate with Sterling and Jaxon from the other side. I’ll figure out the wards in here."

"You are a war criminal," Varro said. "This was your plan all along. Remove Draven. Position yourself as the solution. Take the Keep from the inside while the army is locked outside."

"If that were my plan, I would have left the portals open, let Draven’s reinforcements finish the job, walked through the chaos, and sat on that goddamn throne while you were all too busy talking about it. If I wanted a throne, I’d pick one that wasn’t falling apart and governed by fifteen elders."

He exhaled. "This throne is the worst strategic acquisition on the continent. I want to fix the wards before the ceiling collapses."

The silence that followed was the sound of fifteen egos processing a direct hit. None of them had a rebuttal to logic.

Somewhere outside the Keep, Sterling Emberfell was trying to break through wards for the eighth consecutive hour and would have paid actual gold to hear someone insult the elders this efficiently.

"We need to dismantle the ward nexus to stabilize this Keep. A few floors have already partially collapsed. It’s only a matter of time for the rest to follow. Draven was an idiot who hired a budget mage to install military-grade wards without understanding the structural load." He gestured to the mage beside him. "No offense."

Brennan shrugged. "Budget clients get budget results. You get what you pay for."

Kael looked at Brennan with the familiarity of a boss who had hired him before, fired him before, and was now being forced to work with him while holding a blade to his throat. Again.

"I’ve dismantled the anchor points I could reach," Kael continued. "The rest require access to the ward nexus, which requires understanding dark magic, which requires me. Until I get that access, I would evacuate."

Brennan nodded along like a teaching assistant, at one point so vigorously that the blade was in genuine danger of doing Kael’s job for him.

"Can you stop moving?" Kael clipped. "I’m trying not to kill you and you’re making it difficult."

The ceiling groaned. The elders all looked up at it.

Drystan moved two feet to the left. His survival instincts were excellent.

Kael moved his blade away from Brennan’s throat and pointed it at one of the soldiers.

"Who pays your contract?"

The tallest of the six jerked his chin toward the floor where Draven’s body was cooling. "The man you just threw a blade through."

"Draven. Right. Of course he wouldn’t have a middle man for that." Kael let out a breath. "Famously cheap. Currently dead. Your second payment is never coming."

He let that settle for exactly two seconds.

"You can die on Draven’s contract. Flame from the girl, fangs from the wolves, or a shield from the angry grandmother."

"I am not a grandmother," Cassia snapped. "I am an elder of the Drakencrest council, and if he calls me that again, the shield meets his skull."

"She’s proving my point," Kael noted, without looking at her, eyes still on the soldiers. "Or I pay you double tonight for one job. You walk out with a pulse and the first positive employment experience of your careers."

Cassia watched the recruitment, then shot Drystan a look that said clearly, take notes.

Drystan returned a look that said clearly, your husband left you, Cassia.

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