Free Promise of Wrath (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 6) by Steve McHugh

Mordred I knew to repay kindness with anything but pain and suffering, but we needed the information he had. “I’ll have to talk to Nanshe about getting her whereabouts.”
    “The guard must not know,” he said. “I don’t want her tracked and hounded. I’ll repeat myself for those who are hard of hearing: I want her out of the city. Take her to Jerusalem or something. France would be a good idea.”
    “France? But she lives here . I doubt she’s going to want to move that far. I can get her out of the city. I’ll arrange passage north, maybe to Constantinople.”
    “Fine, just get it done. And hurry, because if these people carry out whatever they’re going to do, Acre is going to be a city you’re not going to want to be inside of.”
    “How can you possibly know that without knowing their plan?”
    “When I tell you who’s involved, you’ll realize just how much danger we’re all in.”
    “I’ll let you know.”
    “Don’t take long,” Mordred called after me as I walked away. “People’s lives are counting on you doing as I ask. And I know how much you care about them.”
    I found Nanshe outside of the building talking to Gilgamesh. Both of them turned toward me as I got closer, clearly expecting me to give a report.
    “Mordred wants a woman by the name of Isabel removed from the city,” I told them, and I gave all of the details that Mordred had divulged to me.
    “I spoke to the woman when she was arrested. We do not believe she’s involved, but we are keeping her guarded for her own protection. Those who Mordred betrayed might want to get to him through her. Siris is with her.”
    “Who is Siris?” I asked. All I knew of her was that she had been considered the goddess of beer. Why any group of deities needed one for beer, I’d never really understood, but most of the different pantheons had at least one.
    “Ah, you haven’t met,” Gilgamesh said. “We thought it best to have someone there we trusted, just in case it turned out this Isabel was important. Turns out she’s not. Except to Mordred, and no one cares what he finds important.”
    Gilgamesh was a great warrior, a smart man, and had been a benevolent king for the most part, but he was also arrogant, with a fiery temper, and unable to see the quality in people he hadn’t personally fought, either beside or against. Everyone else was either unimportant and beneath his concern, or someone he wanted to do battle with. It was one of the many reasons why he wasn’t in charge of the Mesopotamians.
    “Gilgamesh, can you ensure the city’s defenses are good enough? If Mordred thinks we’re about to have unwanted visitors—and that would be a good assumption to make—I’d like someone of your caliber checking everything.”
    Gilgamesh beamed and walked off without saying a word.
    “A vain but brilliant man,” Nanshe said when he was out of earshot. “I just wish he didn’t pick fights to get to know people.”
    I remembered the first time I’d met Gilgamesh three centuries earlier. I had bruises on my bruises after that encounter: an encounter I lost. Although to be fair, Gilgamesh never once lorded it over me.
    “Something feels wrong about all of this.”
    Nanshe regarded me for a moment. “Mordred isn’t usually someone to aid Avalon. Even in a roundabout sort of way. You think he’s involved in something more?”
    I nodded. “Maybe this Isabel is all a big distraction. Maybe she’s involved without even knowing it. She could have been regarded as a target for something or other. When a particular person leaves the city, it’s attacked. It’s clutching at straws, but I don’t have a lot of other ideas at the moment.”
    “Maybe we should go see this woman—or rather, you should.”
    “Come with me. I’d like someone else’s take on this, and frankly, anything Mordred is involved in clouds my judgment.”
    She agreed and we were soon walking together through the busy Acre streets. “At least you know it