Unlike the horrors a certain mortified twig was facing, one dragon was filled with nothing but disgust and annoyance.
For one, he had suddenly felt the presence of a mana signature that clearly belonged to the fifth prince. But because Kael could not track his aide directly, he could not simply be compelled to head straight for the signature.
If his guess was right, he would end up in one of the cells. And if those cells were like the others he had already passed, then every so often there would be one of those guards. If he burdened himself with victims this early, how was he supposed to find Riley faster? The commotion would only draw those guards to be more vigilant.
His first encounter with them had already raised questions. Even after narrowing in on the mana reading, what he found was wrong. Extremely wrong. The readings were twisted, broken. Kael had killed the guard anyway, with nothing more than physical strength, and only then realized the reason for the distortion.
