Free Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) by Stephan Morse Page A

compared to the full gear load
used during my four-year travels. Dirt was still caked along the
bottom from my journey home. The bag was thrown into the backseat of
Daniel’s parked vehicle. Crusty flakes broke off upon landing.
He didn't even look offended."I gotta tell Julianne." I
said.
    "I'll be here." Daniel was poking through files on his
laptop.
    Julianne wasn't at the bar for once. She wasn't at home either, or
she would have noticed my call from the bar’s phone. I left a
message on her machine.
    "Headed out for a bit, not sure how long. Daniel’s got
some work he's decided I need to help with. Watch my stuff please,
I'll be back soon." The back of Daniel's car was crowded. Files
and papers all over. I could barely make out the squiggles and small
print. Everything looked mind numbing anyway.
    An hour later, at the border of town, it occurred to me that Kahina
hadn't been informed of my departure. Being attacked by her
bodyguards a second time wasn't appetizing. I borrowed Daniel’s
phone and passed a second message onto Julianne's answering service.
The call barely ended when Daniel snatched the cellphone back.
    "Can you straighten those up? They're my secret plans for world
domination and you can't read them." He joked. I rolled my eyes
and closed up his boring files.
    "Where we headed?" I asked, shuffling papers into folders.
    "Last place he was at, going to have you do a new fix."
    "Caesars Junction?" The bright neon light had flashed
annoyingly while tracking the elf.
    "Yes. We'd had him sitting pretty and the bastard just
vanished." Daniel sighed. His hands clenched at the steering
wheel.
    Only some elves could do it. Illusions. Normally they pretended to be
elsewhere, then stood up and walked off, invisible. Miles down the
road an elf, ragged from carrying iron, would be looking for a
handsaw and a benefactor. The news tried to squash the stories, but
the internet was filled with good deeds performed by elves in return
for freedom. Elven punishments were harder to track due to their
subtly.
    "Checked the normal stuff?" I asked.
    "Glamour? Illusion? Sure, I know you got your thing, but I do
this for a living, trained for it. Besides, only like one in twenty
can do that." The redhead was being defensive.
    I covered my head with the bag and tried to blot out the passing
landscape. Traveling in cars for a long while made me sick and
irritated. Daniel kept right on talking.
    "You packed everything you'll need?" He said.
    "Like a good scout," I muttered. A hint of nausea could
already be felt. Daniel’s idle motions distracted me, one of
his fingers was rubbing against the steering wheel.
    "Don't make fun, man, I was a scout for years. You weren't,"
Daniel said.
    "Doesn't mean I'm not prepared." I said. The agent paused
while trying to figure out my implications. What Daniel was trying to
read into my statement was beyond me.
    "Alright, we'll be there in an hour," He said. I felt the
engine rev up as he switched focus towards driving.
    My bag made a great shade against the world. Sickened by the motion,
I slipped into unconsciousness. When I came to the car was turning
into a gravel covered parking lot. A glance outside confirmed we were
at the same gaudy hotel I had seen in my vision. They could afford
the neon signs but not a paved parking lot. Police tape still
cordoned off a room that looked like a herd of elephants had passed
through.
    "Come on, man, site’s barred, but the hotel manager is
gearing up to whine like a firetruck." Daniel escorted us past
the police officer, past the angry manager, and up to the room. "Get
in, see if you can trace him using the hair, getting something solid
this time would help. A direction, anything."
    "You dropping me off at home after this?" I pulled up the
bag on my shoulder and glared around the seedy hotel parking lot.
This place looked as bad as it felt.
    "Probably not," He admitted as he showed me into the room.
He was paying more attention to the stack of paperwork