There were other announcements after Cordelia Westlake’s team selection but Brivaria didn’t pay any attention to them. She wanted her team and Giselle as far away from the hunt as possible. If anything, their time was better spent pursuing the Decrune armory lead. She’d need to talk to Baroness Westlake in private as soon as possible.

  With the speeches at an end, a band stepped up to the stage. Soft, pleasant music began to fill the ballroom and people rose to dance. The barons were swarmed almost as soon as it became socially acceptable for guests to leave their seats. Brivaria saw the Count pull Zenith onto his lap and realized they were closer than she’d presumed. The horde of people soon came to talk to her team as well as the Seasoned Steel. Having both been chosen for the hunt, the two would themselves be swarmed soon. Alden saved the day by asking Brivaria one simple question—would she like to dance.

  It was a little mean to leave Kseniya, Isolde, and Lucian to field all the questions but the dance floor promised relative safety from the mob. The angel had never danced before and she was a bit clumsy at first but Alden was a kind partner. He guided the winged girl through simple steps. No one would regard their dancing as good but it was enough to keep the angel away from curious adventurers and minor nobles who waited at the edge of the dance floor like sharks for their meal.

  “We’re going to have to talk to them,” Brivaria said as she leaned into Alden, the slow steps of the dance letting her relax.

  “We are. Tomorrow. Let tonight just be tonight,” he said quietly. It was good advice and the angel took it.

  It turned out that dancing was fun and Brivaria got a bit better at it as time passed. She changed partners frequently. While none were quite as nice as Alden, she rather liked the peshmari man named Murado. His yellow and cyan scales were unusual but his friendly demeanor reminded her of Penry Darrow, a peshmari who’d helped her out tremendously after her incident. He had the same kind, earnest disposition Penry did or, at least, that was the impression she had from the little talk they shared while dancing.

  Brivaria saw Nyx on the dance floor with Alden then Giselle. It seemed he was being put through his paces as a dancing instructor. She smiled at that. Meanwhile Brivaria had several more partners. Some men, some women, and with each person she attempted to get a little better at dancing. Her wings bumped into fewer people after the first couple songs and she considered that success of a kind. It was when she changed partners one more time when she found herself staring into Cordelia Westlake’s amber eyes.

  “You’ve been hiding here for a while,” the noble woman observed as moved across the dance floor in time with the music. Her eyes and voice radiated pure mischief as she grinned at Brivaria.

  “You…” the angel bit back what she wanted to say but then felt the world shift. The music stayed the same but the conversations around them grew quiet, as though being whispered at a great distance. Brivaria blinked in surprise.

  “We can speak now without being heard. A lady’s skills in the ballroom are to be feared,” she said with a wink.

  “My team doesn’t want to hunt the deer,” the angel said honestly. Their red dresses caught the eyes of many watching the dance yet the words of the two women were lost to Cordelia’s skill. Even lip-reading was foiled by the power of a lady’s skills.

  “And I don’t want to either. I would be perfectly content to enter the forest, find a scenic spot for a picnic, and return in the early afternoon claiming to be tired.”

  “Isn’t the golden hind supposedly worth a fortune? Why would you give that up?” Brivaria’s questions drew an amused look from the baroness.

  “It’s worth a fortune… to Count Dancarlo and Baron Sorenson. I lack the standing army and mercenary connections to safeguard the hind and see it delivered to buyers across the continent. Felio, Decrune, and Meyers are in the same position. That’s the true reason why Arthur and Dryfus aren’t here. They’ll get a small piece of the hind’s sale, as is their due, but winning the hunt is little better than losing it,” Cordelia explained as they drifted to the sounds of the music. The slow waltz drew all the dancers closer to their partners and the two women were no different, slowly turning in time to the music while they held one another.

  “Oh,” Brivaria replied somewhat lamely, not sure what else to say.

  “Yes. ‘Oh’ is my response to the whole affair. On the bright side, I think I’ve found a team that won’t mind skipping out on the hunt and, after your stunt with the Count yesterday, I think hiring you might get under his skin. That’s a lovely bonus,” the noblewoman smirked as she spoke and Brivaria could hear the laughter in her voice.

  “Does everyone know about that already?”

  “Oh my, yes. Barton is awash with gossip, you wouldn’t believe…” Whatever Cordelia Westlake was about to say ended when a loud “boom” sounded from the ballroom entrance. In an instant, the soft barrier against noise that surrounded the two was dismissed and the screaming began.

  Brivaria looked over in time to see a great, bulbous insect-like creature outside the ballroom. It had used its own head to smash the doors open. The creature was far too large to enter the room so it shoved only its head through the entrance. As soon as Brivaria saw the behemoth, she recognized it for what it was—a Nest Keeper.

  The head of the insect was triangular with three wedges that could open, much like the horse abominations and their starfish-shaped heads. When the nest keeper opened its head, there were no teeth. It possessed something far more terrifying and Brivaria’s heart sank as she watched it open. Three massive combs full of hundreds of small holes the size of a human head were revealed. Within each of them was a wiggling larva that was promptly ejected.

  Some larvae evolved in the air, turning into black, wasp-like creatures with a pair of corrosive tendrils in addition to their rending jaws and deadly stingers. Victims would scream in agony as the aether wasps latched onto them and their insides would liquefy as they were stung. The result was a painful, excruciating death.

  The larvae that reached the ground before evolving were just as terrible. They transformed into wingless aether wasps without stingers but with larger jaws and a paralyzing bite. Worse, once their jaws locked into place they would stay that way until death. Their only purpose was to capture and drag victims into the terrible maw that lurked just below the Nest Keeper’s head. They would mindlessly drag their victims into the corrosive slime pit that was the nest keeper’s mouth and both would die to feed the keeper.

  When a second nest keeper pushed its head through the servant’s entrance, Brivaria knew they were in deep, deep trouble. One nest keeper left unchecked could lay waste to an entire region on its own. Two were a terrifying sight to behold and with both exits blocked, the party guests would soon be under assault from a never-ending flood of aether wasps. The nest keepers would never stop producing their spawn until every last living creature was dead. They killed, ate, and reproduced. Forever.

  Fortunately, this wasn’t a normal party. Many guests weren’t normal guests. They were adventurers. They reacted as adventurers would—they rallied and fought back. Those who relied on weapons or armor were in a bind since they lacked the tools of their trade but those who wielded magic or fought with their claws could stand their ground.

  “Come on, we’ve got to get to the others,” Brivaria said while pulling Cordelia along with her. Cordelia looked almost as though she were going to protest the angel’s instinctive response but did not. She clung to Brivaria’s arm as the two swiftly made their way toward the rest of the angel’s party.

  As they ran, or did their best approximation of running given their dresses, Brivaria surveyed the ballroom. Baron Sorenson pulled a saber from a bag of holding and tossed it to Gerard. Gerard and his team immediately surged toward the nest keepers. The nobles fled the monsters while the adventurers followed Gerard’s example, rallying behind the silver rank Lephori.

  Zenith and her men seemed ready to draw blades of their own and fight but they faced Count Dancarlo who was gesticulating wildly. After a moment, the mercenary leader nodded and touched a ring. Zenith, the Count, and her men all vanished. It was a ring of teleportation. Those were very rare, fairly short range, and usually good for a single use. In other words, they were expensive. A few other nobles vanished by similar means, choosing to pay the heavy price of replacement rather than trust their safety to the adventurers.

  “Damn it, I should have brought my sword,” Alden was saying just as Brivaria and Cordelia got close enough to hear the man. Seasoned Steel hadn’t joined the fight though Lucian had already produced a pair of short daggers from somewhere while both Isolde and Tobias looked ready for battle despite their partywear.

  “Here,” Brivaria said while rapidly pulling items from her inventory. Rory’s mace went to Giselle. Kseniya’s scepter went to the lamia. When her sword came out, Brivaria looked from it to Alden. “Alden, take mine.”

  “Don’t you need it?” he asked while reaching out.

  “No. Get up there and help fight off the aether wasps. Also tell Gerard or whoever is leading the charge to pull back to the tables. I’m going to desecrate this area and you’ll want to be fighting here.” Alden was nodding up until the word “desecrate” which caused him to look at the angel strangely. Bless him, he did not argue the point.

  “Okay, Seasoned Steel with me,” he commanded. Isolde gave Brivaria an odd look as she passed but followed her team leader none-the-less.

  “And us, oh fearless leader?” Kseniya asked with a smile. She was asking the question even as she summoned clouds of poisonous miasma on top of the nest keepers. Each aether wasp that emerged from the nests would be afflicted with Kseniya’s poison, drastically shortening their lifespans.

  “You and Nyx do whatever you need to do. Giselle and Cordelia, I’ll need you to come with me after I’m done,” Brivaria said while beginning to channel Luminous Desecration.

  The angel pushed as much mana as she could into Luminous Desecration. It wasn’t remotely large enough to cover the entire room but she could put it in the middle of the dining area and provide an area of strength to fight in. If the wasps entered the zone, they would be weakened instantly making them slower and easier to kill. Combined with Kseniya’s poison, that would hopefully make them easy prey for the other adventurers. That was the best they could hope for because Brivaria knew the horrible truth.

  The comb of the nest keepers’ heads regenerated nearly instantly and the heads themselves were close to impervious to assault. They liked to hide underground with only their heads above ground and perpetually spew out wasps so normally one had to dig up the large, bulbous creatures to kill them. Unless the adventurers here could wound the bodies, this would be a slow death by attrition.

  “What is this?” Cordelia asked as Brivaria’s Luminous Desecration spell activated. The stone of the castle would decay and crumble just as would the monsters that entered the sphere but it was the price they would have to pay for the advantage provided.

  “A temporary benefit. Now I need…” Brivaria turned only to find Dax standing behind Cordelia. Dax’s dark hair, scarred face, and bulging muscles made him an imposing sight at the best of times. The stylish gray coat he now wore did little to mitigate the warrior’s presence. If anything, the poorly disguised armor and weapons beneath the coat were somehow more ominous and attention-grabbing than they were in his normal attire. Perhaps the adventurers had been forced to check their weapons at the door but friends of nobility were another matter it seemed… or maybe no one possessed the courage to approach the scarred man.

  “Go on,” Cordelia insisted and Brivaria recovered from the sudden appearance of the bodyguard.

  “Giselle and I are going to make an exit. We need you to coordinate people in leaving. We weren’t swarmed immediately and nest keepers aren’t idle so that means the people outside are likely fighting off wasps of their own. The exit may not be much safer than this room but if it is then someone will have to direct them.”

  The angel was certain the people outside were having as bad of a time as inside but she suspected that killing everyone in here was the ultimate goal. Unless the entire city itself was under siege, the deaths of everyone in this room seemed the objective to Brivaria. The adventurers reacted as adventurers did, reaching for steel and sorcery to meet the threat. It was likely what the people behind this expected and wanted. The only reason that Brivaria didn’t do the same was that she wasn’t trained to be an adventurer, she was an angel and saving people was always her first priority.