The Doom of Kings: Legacy of Dhakaan - Book 1 (48 page)

On 22 Rhaan, less than a week after they returned with the rod, Dagii was gone again. He rode north out of Rhukaan Draal at the head of a column of soldiers almost three hundred strong—far larger, Ashi learned, than an inexperienced leader of his rank might normally command. The force was swollen, however, by troops from half a dozen clans, sent by warlords and clan chiefs eager to see the Gan’duur brought down. Most of the troops were infantry. An elite handful were Darguul cavalry, hobgoblins mounted on tigers and goblins mounted on leopards, separated from those officers mounted on horses. They left Rhukaan Draal with as much pageantry as Tariic had displayed on entering Sentinel Tower. Pipes wailed, drums throbbed.

The column marched to battle, however, not just in parade. Ashi remembered the fanciful armor that Tariic had worn when he came before House Deneith, still functional but ornate. In contrast, Dagii wore armor scarred by fighting. It wasn’t the armor that he’d worn on their journey into the mountains, but something older and heavier. The only decoration it bore was the three horns of a tribex that must have been massive in life, mounted one behind each shoulder and one in the small of his back. They rose like banner
poles and would mark him out in the swirl of combat, a mobile rallying point for his men.

“It’s the armor of the lord of his clan,” Ekhaas said beside her as they watched the troops pass from the fire-scarred walls of the House Orien compound. “Mur Talaan means ‘horned shoulders.’ His father wore it before him, his father before that, and back through five generations.”

Ashi glanced at the
duur’kala
. Before Dagii had ridden to the head of the column, she’d seen her approach and pass a small casket up to him. A casket that flashed in the afternoon sun like gold and iron. “Was that the reliquary of Duural Rhuvet you gave him?” she asked. “The one you took from the tower in Karrlakton?”

Ekhaas’s ears bent. “I admire Dagii, but he will need inspiration if he’s to win this battle,” she said stiffly.

“I would have thought it had already vanished into the vaults of Volaar Draal.”

“I haven’t had a chance to present it to Senen Dhakaan yet. We left so soon after we arrived from Karrlakton, and we’ve been so busy since we returned.”

Ekhaas’s voice remained level, but a flush crept into her face. Ashi raised an eyebrow. Ekhaas scowled and turned away. Holding back a laugh, Ashi looked along the street below to where Haruuc waited on horseback at the foot of the bridge across the Ghaal River, his two
shava
flanking him. Dagii stopped and thumped a fist against his chest in salute. The lhesh said something, and Dagii sat up straight for a moment, then nodded deeply and saluted again. At a glance from Haruuc, Vanii urged his horse forward to stand beside Dagii’s. The two of them saluted in unison and rode on, leaving Haruuc with only Geth behind him.

Ekhaas, it seemed, had not been the only one who thought Dagii might need guidance in the battle to come.

A week after Dagii had led his soldiers away to the north, it was Ashi’s turn to leave.

Messenger falcons brought word that the new
lhevk-rhu
had engaged the Gan’duur, bottling Keraal up in his primary stronghold. Raiders who had stayed outside the walls to harry the attackers had been captured in a clever deception devised by Dagii. The roads were clear and safe. An Orien caravan, heavily guarded by Deneith mercenaries, was leaving Rhukaan Draal, and Ashi would ride with it back through Marguul Pass to Sterngate and the lightning rail.

All of her friends—except Dagii, of course—came to the House Orien compound to say good-bye to her, and even Dagii had managed to send a message with a falcon. Geth brought it and another from Haruuc expressing once more his thanks and the thanks of Darguun.

Chetiin emerged from the shadows to offer her a solemn good-bye. Midian tried to be somber as well but didn’t succeed. Until a few days before, it had seemed that he might be riding out with the same caravan, but the gnome had gone to Haruuc and begged a favor. By the grace of the lhesh, he would be allowed to remain for a few more months and venture into the south of Darguun to pursue a research opportunity—provided that he shared what he found with Haruuc as well as with the Library of Korranberg.

That decision didn’t please Haruuc’s newest allies. The Kech Volaar had decided to formalize the alliance that had led to the discovery of the rod and had sent a message that they would swear allegiance to the lhesh. Their leaders, the
duur’kala
Tuura Dhakaan and a warlord Kurac Thaar, would travel to Rhukaan Draal. The announcement that Midian would be allowed to enter Dhakaani ruins provoked an angry outburst from Senen, but in the face of an outpouring of public enthusiasm for Haruuc and a surge in interest in the great tales and achievements of ancient Dhakaan, the Kech Volaar objections were like the sting of a mosquito. Other modern Dhakaani clans—the militaristic Kech Shaarat, the shadowy Kech Nasaar—were also making hints at allegiance, and Haruuc was listening. If the Kech Volaar wanted a position as the first of the Dhakaani clans to ally with Haruuc, they didn’t dare be too loud with their objections to a single gnome scholar.

The increased activity between the lhesh and the Kech
Volaar had also kept Ekhaas busy. Senen had drafted her as an aide. She would be remaining in Rhukaan Draal, of course— unless Senen dispatched her to Volaar Draal. The ambassador seemed to regard the position as an honored reward. Ashi wasn’t certain Ekhaas felt the same way about it, but the
duur’kala
held her tongue. When the time came for them to say their good-byes, she offered Ashi a hug that was almost human. She also offered her a sword, not a heavy, notched hobgoblin blade but a slim, double-edged human sword.

“Magewrought in Cyre before the end of the Last War,” Ekhaas said as Ashi slid the weapon out to examine it. “Not as good as your honor blade, but still good. It’s the least I can do after dragging you out of Karrlakton.”

“You didn’t drag me out, Ekhaas. If you hadn’t let me come, I would have stowed away on your ship.” Ashi gave her another hug, then turned to the last of her friends still waiting for her.

Geth smiled at her. He looked as reputable as she had ever seen him, his thick hair brushed and pulled back, his clothes clean and untorn. He didn’t wear the armband of red cords—a
shava
wasn’t a servant—but there was a heavy ring with the lhesh’s crest on his finger. “What about you?” Ashi asked him. “How long will you be staying?”

“How do you know I won’t stay?”

“Because I know you.”

He laughed. “I’ll stay until the fighting’s over at least. All this standing around while people cheer Haruuc and talk about putting up statues in his honor is starting to bore me. There’s a letter to Singe and Dandra in the post with this caravan, but I want to get back and rub it in Singe’s face personally.”

“You accepted Haruuc’s invitation to be his
shava
so you could make Singe jealous?” said Ekhaas. There was shock in her eyes.

“No!” Geth said. “Well, maybe a bit, but what was I supposed to do? It’s not the sort of offer you turn down.”

“Why did you do it, then?” asked Ashi. “It wasn’t exactly what I would have expected from you, either.”

The shifter looked from her to Ekhaas, then dropped his voice. “It was Wrath,” he said. Ekhaas’s ears rose. Geth spread his hands.
“Ever since you woke it, sometimes I get the feeling that I should do certain things. Like when I charged back to stop the trolls. Wrath wants me to be a hero, and it pushes me to do things a hero would do.”

Ashi raised her eyebrows and glanced at Ekhaas. Before they’d entered the shrine of the Uura Odaarii, the
duur’kala
had asked her if Geth had seemed more impetuous than usual. “Wrath takes control of you?”

“Control? No. But it … pushes me. Puts the right ideas in my head. During the presentation of the rod, it showed me how a hero would answer Haruuc—it even gave me the right words to say.”

“I noticed that your Goblin improved suddenly,” said Ekhaas.

“I don’t think Wrath can give me the right words all the time.” Geth’s hand slipped down to grip the sword’s hilt. “Only when it’s important. It wants me to live up to the legacy of the heroes of the name of Kuun. To tell you the truth, I kind of like it. It’s almost like having you whispering stories in my ear, Ekhaas. It’s inspiring.”

“Taruuzh created Aram to represent the inspiration heroes provided for the people,” Ekhaas said. She frowned. “Maybe it provided inspiration to the line of Kuun as well. Just be careful, Geth.”

“I’m not going to doing anything stupid.” He hugged Ekhaas as well. “I’ll come see you in Karrlakton.”

“I’ll watch for you,” she said.

Tariic and Vounn were waiting, too. Haruuc’s nephew bowed. “Swift travel and great glory, Ashi d’Deneith. Darguun will remember you. I only regret I never saw you perform the sword dance.”

Ashi returned his bow with perfect form. “You’ll have to visit House Deneith again, Tariic of Rhukaan Taash,” she told him.

Tariic straightened up and looked at Vounn. “She has clearly learned from you,” he said with a smile.

Vounn acknowledged the compliment with a nod, then turned to Ashi and held out her scarf. “You left this in your chamber,” she said.

“I know,” said Ashi. “I don’t think I need it.” She felt her mentor’s gaze trace the pattern of the dragonmark over her face and held her head up a little higher. “I’m not going to hide anymore. Let people think what they will.”

“In Rhukaan Draal or among the Five Nations maybe, but on the road to Sterngate?” Vounn asked. “You’ve made a reputation for yourself now, Ashi. If there are bandits on the road, you’ll be a target.”

“And I’ll fight them. I’ve done it twice before. The bandits of Darguun aren’t that terrifying.”

She kept her voice light, trying to ease Vounn’s reaction, but the expression that creased the older woman’s forehead wasn’t anger—it was confusion. “Twice?”

“The Gan’duur raiders on the journey from Sterngate and a pack on the way back north with the rod.”

Vounn’s eyes narrowed, and Ashi realized that her reports to her had focused only on retrieving the rod. They had told Haruuc, but Vounn hadn’t been in the small chamber when they told their story.

“It was nothing, Vounn,” she added quickly. “They were just a gang of desperate thugs along the road a couple of days south of Rhukaan Draal. We saw some locals and they said the gang had been making trouble in the area for a couple of weeks.”

Vounn didn’t look relieved. “Were they Gan’duur?”

“We thought of that,” said Geth. “We checked their bags to see but it looks like they came from Rhukaan Draal. The locals thought they must have fled south to avoid being mistaken for Gan’duur raiders by Haruuc’s men.”

“But they attacked you?”

“I said they were desperate,” Ashi pointed out.

“Could they have been waiting for you?”

“How could they have been? Why would they wait for me—?”

Vounn’s lips pressed together. “Not just you, Ashi. All of you.” She glanced at Ekhaas and Geth, Chetiin and Midian.

Chetiin’s ears twitched. “It is possible,” the goblin admitted. “But Ashi is right. Why would they be waiting for us? Even if they were Gan’duur, they wouldn’t have known when we’d return or even if we’d come back the same way we left.”

“That was why they were waiting.”

“Vounn, no one outside of Haruuc’s circle knew of the mission,” Tariic said. “It can only have been a coincidence.”

Vounn looked at Haruuc’s nephew, then smiled and nodded. “You may be right. The attempted abduction has left me on edge.” She stepped forward to embrace Ashi—and whisper in her ear, “By the honor of our House, be careful until you’re out of Darguun.”

Ashi felt unease wrap around her heart. “What’s wrong, Vounn?”

“Maybe nothing. Just be cautious.” She stood back again, the smile still on her face, but Ashi couldn’t help noticing that she no longer stood quite as close to Tariic as she had.

Not so long ago, Ashi might have pressed her and demanded to know what she was keeping back. Part of her wanted to, but another part urged her to respect Vounn’s wishes. If her teacher didn’t want to say anything more, there had to be a reason. Ashi kept her mouth closed, nodded to Vounn, took one last look at her friends, then turned to mount her horse. The caravan was waiting for her. The caravan master threw a suffering look at her and raised a horn to his lips, blowing a sharp note.

“Orien caravan,” he bellowed, “move ou—”

“Hold!” A goblin runner in the uniform of Haruuc’s guard raced through the gates of the compound, waving his arms and gasping for breath. “Lhesh Haruuc declares the roads closed!”

The caravan master’s face turned as red as the goblin’s uniform, and he snatched at a scroll the runner offered to him. The noise in the compound rose at the sudden delay. The goblin, however, turned around as if searching for something more and his gaze landed on Geth. He stumbled over to him.
“Shava
, Lhesh Haruuc calls you to Khaar Mbar’ost immediately!”

Geth stiffened, and his eyes opened wide, but before he could say anything the caravan master’s voice rose in another bellow. “Someone fetch the viceroy! He needs to see this. Kol Korran’s golden bath—closing the roads for mourning?”