Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
I’d forgotten about that, so sure I’d find something to lead me to Granny’s other location. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Well then. You have something. And given the beta’s tightening up of the kingdom, we have time to look into it. I’ve heard all his tests have gone smoothly—”
A gentle tap sounded at the door before the handle turned and Hadriel stuck his head in. “Oh good, you’re here. Listen to this!”
He practically bounded into the room, took a look at all the stuff spread across the table, and pulled a chair back so that he wasn’t right on top of it.
“I did it!” His large smile stretched his little mustache. “I did it!”
“Did what?” Leala crossed her arms over her chest.
“Saved the day. Well, there was the beta’s expert setup and the fact that Micah finally came through, and the towns and cities were all locked down for the most part—but besides all of that, I have saved the fucking day.”
I sat back into my chair, too grumpy to be excited by his glowing enthusiasm.
“As you probably don’t know because I didn’t tell you,” he went on, “I could not get any sort of hint about how Granny’s spies were getting into the kingdom. No one was talking! Not one to be deterred, I took to the second largest town. Why the second largest? Because they—”
“Skip forward,” Leala said.
He frowned at her. “Well, that town has two taverns—”
“Let’s just get to where you actually saved the day,” Leala pressed, and I furrowed my brow to stop the smile that threatened to spread across my face.
Hadriel sent her a hostile glare for a moment before turning back to me with a haughty expression. “Well, I got talking to this one old woman, a real grumpy type who doesn’t trust anyone. She would only talk to me because she thought I was part of the queen’s guard—long story. Anyway, apparently she overheard two boys talking—” He put out his hand. “To her, ‘boys’ means anyone under sixty. Anyway, they were way back in the corner and didn’t notice her lurking back there. I sought her out specifically because of her location. She’s a regular—”
“Does this story have a conclusion?” Leala’s continued annoyance made the fight against that smile even harder.
“I’m getting there, I’m getting there. She didn’t recognize those guys from the bar. They weren’t regulars. Well, she overheard them talking about a way to slip into the castle at the dead of night.”
I lifted my eyebrows, suddenly all ears—and also concerned about whatever hole they might’ve found in Weston’s defense.
Hadriel nodded with glee at our interest. “They haven’t been back since. I got their descriptions and checked the other tavern. Nothing. Then I went to the other towns, the village—nothing. So, I got this bright idea—”
“To take a class in concise storytelling?” Leala said.
“I went to the squares and started loitering around the towns. And this morning . . . I found one of them!” He pumped a fist in the air. “He runs a stall in the city market. He sells baked goods!”
Leala dropped her hands. “Please tell me you told the beta instead of coming back here to gloat.”
“Leala, my darling, don’t be so dense. Of course I ran straight to the beta. I told him what I knew, and he had the guards grab the guy and do a sweep of his house.” He sat back in the chair, face smug and his arms spread wide. “In a little cubby under the floorboards in the bedroom . . . were mostly empty crates of Granny’s product!”
I gasped, adrenaline making my head feel light. “I thought they’d searched houses before.”
“They did a generalized sweep, but the hiding place was hard to find—very discreet. The beta himself was the one to spot it. I gave the description of the other guy, but they haven’t found him. Doesn’t matter, though—they took the one I did find in for questioning. They’ll get something out of him. It’s only a matter of time before we start to unravel who else is working for her.”
Happiness filled me, as did relief. She was still out there, but at least we were starting to close the door on how easily she could get in here. In the meantime, I’d been working diligently on fixing my product to get it ready for market. Soon we’d start edging her out of that, as well. Those efforts would buy me time to look for more clues to help us locate the packaging place. It was a start, at least.
“Excellent work, Hadriel,” I said, my mood finally lightening.
He twisted and patted himself on the back. “I’ll keep looking, just in case they can’t get anything out of the guy in questioning, but this is good.”
“What about the hole in our defenses, though?” Leala asked.