Chapter 206: Bait

Ileus went completely still and his mind couldn't make out the sentences that his men tried to convey to him. Muffled sounds came as if he was wearing earplugs. He looked at them with a flat gaze. It all happened in a fraction of seconds. A knot formed in his stomach and for a while he was blank as if his brain had stopped working. His lips parted as he gazed dully at his men. If he were opening the casket instead of Guarhal, he would have been there. His hands covered his face in utter shock. When he removed them, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the casket to understand what just happened. He wanted to pluck Guarhal because as soon as he opened the casket, he sensed that the cerulean lights were not just magical lights that had air to breathe but there was more to them. He smelled… sorcery.

When he came to senses and found Aidan shaking his shoulders, he communicated 'We have to abort this mission as of now!'

Everyone was shocked by his sudden declaration.

Irritated as hell, Kaizan barked, 'What? Why? No, are you insane? We have finally found a clue about Iona and you want us to abort the mission? That is ridiculous!' He was just too frustrated. His gaze traveled to Guarhal, who was lying unconscious in the casket. The mission had taken its toll. There was no way he would let Ileus terminate it.

Ileus turned to him and glared. Through their mental link he lashed, 'Can't you see that everything around us is too simple? There are no guards protecting this casket. There is not one sentinel who has come to check this place even once ever since we have come. If Iona was to be in it, then do you think Rhys would have kept it so casually in a litter room that is so near the boundary of Zmjia?'

Kaizan thrust his right fist in his left palm and let out a litany of curses.

Ileus continued, 'The barriers were too simple to break and what I can't believe is that Iona isn't in the coffer! Am I to believe that the casket was kept on that rocky surface for the past eight years with Iona in it? It is impossible.' He looked at the coffer, the cerulean lights that danced around it and the man they engulfed. He felt… creepy. He felt an irrational fear. 'Those lights are not just what we have around us—they contain foul sorcery… kind of black magic. And trust me I can smell it now.'

Everyone's gaze flitted between the casket and Ileus. They took a step back to maintain more distance.

'Smell it now?' Kaizan asked, almost lashing at him. 'Why couldn't you smell it before Guarhal was sucked in?'

'Because the lights spilled once he opened the casket! I shouted for him to come back but he didn't listen. Didn't you bloody see that?'

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Kaizan stabbed his fingers in his hair. He took a deep breath and straightened his body. 'Look, now that Guarhal is already there, we cannot thwart a chance to find Iona. We have come to this spot after a span of eight years. We are this close to finding Iona. I say that we shouldn't abort this mission. Let us go further inside Zmjia and explore it.'

Tadgh supported him. 'I agree with him, my lord. It is possible that they have removed Iona from here, discarded the casket and taken her elsewhere.'

'Are you a thickhead?' Ileus almost shouted through their mental connection. 'They need these lights for Iona to survive. According to Faris, Maple never went in the ocean with the serpent shifters, and Rhys doesn't know this kind of magic. How would he emulate these lights? Moreover, these are mixed with evil sorcery, else why would they suck Guarhal in…?' He trailed off, uncomfortable with his turbulent emotions. He wanted to burst in a despairing, raging scream for not finding Iona there and for Guarhal getting attacked by foul magic.

The hush around them was too unnatural. It was growing more and more stifling as the time passed. The waters around them were as if waiting for something to come. 'It's a trap,' he said finally. He was now sure about it. Otherwise there was no way the casket would lie there unprotected. Rhys had abandoned it in this garbage room only to trap them. He pointed to the casket with lights and said, 'We have to take Guarhal back with us.' He started walking towards them when Aidan pulled him back.

'Do you also want to get inside with Guarhal?' he grunted.

'Since these lights are intermingled with foul sorcery, one thing is for sure, Iona is nowhere in Zmjia,' said Ileus. 'I am going to mix a spell for the black sorcery to shrink, but it will only shrink for some time and then the previous one will break.' Ileus was surprised as to how Maple knew such powerful sorcery. He was the dark wizard and could be the Master of darkness if he wanted to be. He recognized the sorcery. He could conjure it, but who else could? Surely, Maple couldn't. So who was as powerful as him in this realm? The realization startled him.

He took a step closer and thrust his hands forward. Tiny viridian orbs emanated from his hands and mingled with the cerulean lights. The cerulean lights swirled as if trying to fight the viridian orbs, but they eventually retreated next to Guarhal and the viridian ones covered them from all the sides as if prodding a cattle herd with a whip in a barn. He walked closer to the casket and closed it. Then he turned to his group and conveyed, 'This casket was a bait in the hope that I would return one day to retrieve Iona. Mother had sent several Mozias to Zmjia on suspicion but everyone came back empty-handed.'

Kaizan frowned. 'That is true. No one even talked about this coffer, which means that no one saw it. So how come we see it now?' Suddenly his eyes became wide with horror. 'They have been tracking us ever since we entered the Tides of Bromval.'

Tadgh shook his head. 'No they were tracking us ever since the bandit attack or when you asked us to send the ashes back to Rhys.'

'Do you think that the patrol sent the ashes back?' Ileus smirked. 'They aren't so efficient and they are hardly bothered. The serpent-shifters came to know about us when we came to Tides of Bromval.' He remembered how the ocean waves thrashed on the shores the night they entered the village. There was no storm, but he realized that there were creatures beneath, lurking…

'So it means that right now we are standing in the middle of a trap and that too with a casket, which contains Guarhal?' said Kaizan. 'Isn't the lady luck shining on us?' he scoffed.

Tadgh and Aidan looked equally disgusted. There was turbulence in the water around them and everyone froze. Did the guards come? Had they sensed them already? Aidan pointed with his chin that he was going outside to check.

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