The Grieving Tree: The Dragon Below Book II (16 page)

She flipped one of the knives through her fingers with a frightening dexterity, then reached out to prod off the lid of a pigment jar. The knife dipped into the jar and emerged dusted with a green powder used for making paint. Bava wiped one side of the flat of the blade against her forehead, turning the paint into a savage smear, then stalked across the studio, knife held out.

If she was playing Chain, she was doing a very good job of it. Dandra looked to Singe and Geth, but the men were frozen, their eyes nearly as wide as Chain’s. Ashi looked uncomfortable—the hunter was a fearless warrior, but Dandra knew she preferred offering her enemies a clean death. She didn’t like torture.
“Cheo do doi, Bava?”
she asked.

“Doa at harano,”
Bava said.

At Dandra’s side, Singe whispered a translation. “I do it for honor.” His face was taut. “Twelve moons, I don’t like this.”

Ashi’s face took on a grim cast. She stepped back out of Bava’s way. The large woman moved close to Chain and brought the knife close to his forehead. The bounty hunter’s hard expression trembled and his eyes crossed, trying to look up as Bava pressed
the knife against his brow, marking him the same way she had marked herself.

Then she took hold of one of Chain’s ears and stretched it away from his head. She settled the blade of the knife against the flesh where ear met scalp—

“Vennet d’Lyrandar,” said Chain. His voice was steady but his body was tense. Dandra could tell it was taking all his willpower to maintain a cool demeanor.

Bava’s knife didn’t rise from his ear, but she didn’t force it any lower, either. Chain’s eyes darted briefly sideways and up to where Bava stood. “Vennet hired me to track and find you,” he added quickly. “He introduced me to Dah’mir at the docks, but nothing more. As soon as Vennet approached me and described the people he wanted me to find, I recognized you. He didn’t know I’d already met you. I thought it would be easy money, but he’s
not
paying me to take torture.”

“You could just be repeating names to keep us happy,” Singe pointed out. “Answer another one: why would Vennet hire you when he could look for us himself?”

“He and Dah’mir were leaving Zarash’ak. After Vennet introduced me to Dah’mir, they both got in shallow-draft boat and put out into the river.”

Dandra felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Dah’mir had left Zarash’ak. She saw Singe glance at Geth, however. The shifter’s eyes were narrow. “They left Zarash’ak?” he asked suspiciously. “Without looking for us?”

“That’s what they hired me for,” snapped Chain. His voice rose into a sharp yelp as Bava gave a tug on his ear.

“How did you find us here?” Dandra asked.

Chain lifted his manacled arms to point at Natrac. “He introduced himself when we met, didn’t he? It was easy to find his house. An old servant there told me where to find you.”

“Urthen!” Natrac curled his hand into a fist. “Dol Arrah turn away—Bava, save me an ear!”

“No,” said Singe sharply. “No one’s going to cut anything off. Bava, let him go.”

Bava released the bounty hunter with an obvious reluctance, twisting his ear hard and smacking him on the back of the head as she let go. “Come near my family again and no one’s going
to save you,” she spat at him.

Chain’s face twisted. “You don’t know who you’ve just made your enemy!”

“Neither do you.” Bava flung down the knives. They stuck, quivering, in the floor on either side of Chain’s knees. She turned away. Natrac went after her. After a moment, Singe leaned forward.

“I don’t suppose you’ll take more money to abandon the contract?” he asked.

Chain glared up at him, his face hard, and snarled something in Goblin.

“I didn’t think so.” Singe glanced at Geth and Dandra and flicked his head to the other side of the studio. They moved away from Chain, leaving Ashi and Orshok to watch him, and gathered around the table with the heap of the bounty hunter’s gear.

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Dandra asked. She couldn’t keep the hope that Dah’mir was gone out of her mind. Tetkashtai was almost singing at the news.

“About Vennet hiring him, yes,” the wizard murmured. “Maybe about Dah’mir leaving, too. The question is, what are we going to do with him? He’s not going to give up.”

Dandra grasped his meaning immediately. “If we leave him here, he’s just going to come after us.”

“We could kill him,” said Geth. Dandra and Singe looked at him in unison. The shifter shrugged. “Or we could let Bava kill him.”

“Nobody is killing anybody in cold blood.” Singe ran a thumb through the whiskers on his chin. “We were lucky that Chain didn’t tell Vennet and Dah’mir he’d just met us. He won’t make that mistake again. If they meet him when they get back to Zarash’ak, you can bet he’ll tell everything this time—and he knows we’re looking for the Spires of the Forge.”

Geth bared his teeth. “And if anyone knows exactly where that is, it’s Dah’mir. Tiger’s blood! We can’t let him find that out. It’s the only thing we’ve got on him right now!”

“We could take Chain with us,” said Dandra. “Abandon him in Vralkek—or ship him on to Sharn.”

“Bring someone who’s hunting for us along for the journey?” Geth growled. “That’s what we tried with Ashi on
Lightning on Water!”

“It would have worked if Vennet hadn’t been planning on betraying us all along.” Dandra spread her hands. “That won’t happen this time.”

“It would be simpler to kill him.”

“You said that about Ashi, too.” Singe looked at Dandra. “It won’t be easy finding a ship that’s willing to smuggle a kidnapped member of House Tharashk.”

Geth groaned. “We’re going to do it?”

“I don’t see another option,” said Singe. “Although we’ll need a way to keep Chain quiet until we get him away from Zarash’ak—I don’t know any spells that would control him.”

Dandra bit her lip. “None of my powers would either.” She looked across the room. “Maybe Orshok—?”

“Grandfather Rat,” Geth said. “Does it always have to be magic?” He reached down to Chain’s gear and hefted the black cudgel, then turned and strode for the bounty hunter.

Dandra caught her breath. “Geth—”

Chain saw what was coming. He tried to twist out of the way, but the cudgel caught him across the back of his head. The bound man gasped and swayed, his eyes glazing over.

Dandra grimaced. “Geth, we can’t just keep hitting him!”

“Easy.” Geth held up his other hand—and the dark bottle of
gaeth’ad
essence. Dropping the cudgel, he grabbed Chain’s head and forced it back, then pulled the plug on the bottle with his teeth and poured a measure of the contents into Chain’s slack mouth. The man sputtered immediately, but Geth forced his jaw shut until he swallowed.

“Was that enough?” asked Orshok critically. “Or too much?”

“We’ll just have to watch and see,” said Geth, hopping off of Chain. The bounty hunter was choking and cursing them all. Ashi picked up the cudgel and moved to stand behind him. Chain stopped cursing. Geth replaced the stopper and tucked the bottle into a pouch. “We should try to get on a ship and out of Zarash’ak soon as possible, though.”

“The sooner you get this
shekot
out of my house, the better,” said Bava.

Dandra turned around. The artist and Natrac had returned. Bava glared at Chain with scarcely diminished anger. Dandra went to her. “Bava,” she said, “I want to thank you for showing us your
map and for your hospitality.” She pressed her hands together and bent her head over them. “We’ve repaid you badly.”

“Dandra, I would help you again.” Bava’s voice was strained. “But next time, no uninvited guests, please.” She took Dandra’s hands and kissed her on both cheeks. “Once the essence takes effect, you should go. It won’t be long before the watch comes to investigate the fight.”

Chain was already starting to look dazed. Dandra nodded. “We’re taking him with us,” she said. “It will be a long while before he’s back in Zarash’ak.”

Natrac drew a deep breath. “I’m coming with you, too,” the half-orc said.

“What?” Geth turned to him. “When we got here, you said you’d never leave Zarash’ak again.”

“The people I love here are getting hurt. Urthen. Bava.” Natrac squeezed the large woman’s hand. “For what? My house? It will wait. Vennet knows me. If he and Dah’mir are looking for you, they’ll come for me first—just like Chain did. Like Dandra said after the battle at the mound, I have to do
something.”
He thrust his tusks forward. “I still owe Vennet revenge. I’m not just going to wait for him to come to me.”

He held out his fist. Geth grinned and bashed his own fist against it.
“Kuv dagga,”
he said.

They separated as they left Bava’s house. Finding passage to Vralkek was a priority, but Natrac was anxious to check on Urthen, worried that Chain might have done something drastic to the old servant. He and Singe headed off to his house, with Orshok along as well to offer healing magic if it was needed, while Dandra, Geth, and Ashi—taking Diad to guide them—went down to the docks. The others would meet them there.

They took Chain with them, too. By the time the
gaeth’ad
essence had taken its full effect on him, the bounty hunter could do no more than stand and stagger along, but Natrac no more wanted him around his house than Bava did around hers. In the end, Dandra agreed to keep the drugged man with her. Between Ashi and Geth, supporting and guiding him was easy enough. and Bava supplied them with an enveloping cloak
and a big conical straw hat to disguise him.

Unfortunately, guiding someone so obviously in disguise through the streets of Zarash’ak was suspicious in itself. A couple of stall-keepers stared at the big, shrouded figure draped across Ashi and Geth.

“Drunk,” the shifter grunted at them.

“Early for it,” one responded.

Geth bared his teeth in a smile. “He started last night.”

Dandra touched Diad’s shoulder. “Take us through quiet streets,” she said. “I don’t think it would be good to run into the city watch.”

They made it down to the docks without incident. Dandra thanked Diad and sent him on his way, then surveyed the ships that lined the nearest stretch of dock. “Where do we start?” she asked.

“At the other end,” said Ashi. She pointed. “There’s Vennet’s ship.”

Lightning on Water
was tied up a good sixty paces away along the busy docks, but Dandra still felt a chill at the sight of her. The sleek lines of the elemental galleon had, when she’d first seen the ship, spoke to her of speed. Now they reminded her of nothing so much as a serpent, ready to strike. The ship was still. No crew moved on the deck, though Dandra could see the dark forms of Dah’mir’s herons perched along the rails like sentries.

“The boat they were loading yesterday is gone,” Geth said. “There are fewer herons, too, I think. It looks our friend here was telling the truth.” He nudged Chain, making the drugged man stumble.

Dandra stared at the ship, a surge of pity for the sailors knotting her heart. Vennet’s crew had been good men. She’d seen nothing to suggest that they shared their captain’s faith in the Cults of the Dragon Below and she knew what it was like to be trapped by Dah’mir’s mind-numbing power. Her teeth clenched tight. “Do you think Dah’mir and Vennet took the whole crew upriver?”

“They couldn’t have. Their boat wouldn’t have held them all,” said Ashi.

“And Dah’mir told Vennet not to bring his best men,” added Geth. “It sounded like they were planning on leaving some of the crew behind.” He cocked his head. “Why?”

“Because we should try and do something for them. They don’t deserve to be Dah’mir’s puppets.”

Geth flinched. “Cousin Boar, Dandra!”

Tetkashtai echoed Geth’s sentiments.
No!
she said.
We can’t. How would you free them? You couldn’t free yourself. And it could be a trap!

Dandra answered them both at once. “I have to try.”

An idea was already forming in her head. There was a stack of crates waiting on the dock not far from
Lightning on Water
. Dandra headed for them, forcing Geth and Ashi to follow or be left behind. Chain’s staggering progress made stealth all but impossible, but Dandra watched the herons carefully. The birds didn’t seem to pay any attention to what was taking place on the docks. She ducked into the shadow of the crates, then peered at the ship and at the herons again as the others wrestled Chain into hiding. The birds still hadn’t moved.

A fragment of rope lay on the dock nearby. Dandra reached out with a whisper of
vayhatana
and sent the rope slithering back and forth like a snake. So long as it was on the dock, the herons ignored it—but the moment she sent it wriggling toward the ship’s gangplank, the nearest birds turned in unison to watch it.

She released her power and the rope fell limp. Dah’mir’s birds watched it for a moment more, then resumed their previous inscrutable poses.

“Ashi,” Dandra asked, “how intelligent are the herons?”

“Like dogs. Dah’mir bred them that way. They’ll take commands, search out specific people—the way they did when we tracked you into the Eldeen Reaches.”