Crease formed on his forehead. How come only fifty soldiers were coming? Did Eltanin think that he was so powerful that he could take him with just fifty soldiers? Or was he mocking him? No, that couldn't be. This wasn't the time to mock anyone.
The soldier continued, "There is a carriage with a wagon that is traveling right in the middle of the group."
Felis left his eating and got up. This meant that Lusitania was in the carriage. What was the wagon for? He didn't have the time to think over it. "Get me ready!" he ordered his men. He turned towards the soldier and asked, "When did you see the group?"
"I saw them, a little over two hours. It took me an hour to reach here, so they should be here in an hour or so," the soldier informed. He was patrolling the woods of the ivory forest.
A servant came to help him wash his hands. Another came to ready him up with armor and sword. If only fifty men were coming, then he would be more than enough to take over them.
As soon as he marched out of his tent, he commanded Alphard, "Take two units and hide in the forests in a way that when I order you, you are ready to ambush them."
"Yes, Your Highness," Alphard said, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword.
But oddly there was no answer. Instead, the soldiers parted and made a way for him. Felis wondered if they thought he was such a fool that he would enter between them, then they were mistaken. He had to reach the carriage because he was certain that Eltanin, Lusitania and Menkar were inside it. So, he signaled his men to follow him. As he rode towards the carriage, his men followed him.
The Draka soldiers further gave them space to enter, but none raised a sword.
Alphard was a little wary of the carriages. The last time, when he had gone near a carriage, he had come across a man with golden eyes. So he opened his mind link with Felis and said, "You have to be careful, Your Highness. Don't open the carriage, but ask someone else to open it."
As soon as Felis reached the middle of the group where the carriage and the wagon were, he yelled at the coachman to open the door.
At the same time, he nudged his horse to go towards the wagon. "Open it!" Two soldiers of the Draka opened the wagon and Felis jerked his head back in complete surprise. A very shriveled up merman was lying inside a cage. He was hardly four feet in length.
The merman had a very long white beard and white hair. His listless tail was flapping feebly against the cage. The merman coughed and said, "I— I am Menkar..."
Felis stared at the merman. His frustration rose pretty high. He was expecting a healthy priest with Eltanin and Tania, but who was this? The merman whispered something that sounded like "help" and "save" and spat blood. It was as if his body was... rotting without water. Felis was getting agitated by the minute. He turned back to the horse.
The coachman jumped and opened the carriage. A woman was sitting inside with her hood over her face in a way that her face was hidden completely.
"Who are you? Come out!" This wasn't the fae girl. Where were her wings?
The woman got out of the carriage and pulled her hood down. Shock blasted in his chest at the unexpected.