Word of Traitors: Legacy of Dhakaan - Book 2 (54 page)

“He has it,” said Chetiin.

Geth looked to Midian. The gnome’s lips pressed tight and he raised his eyes to scan the rooftops—also crowded with people—around them. He shook his head. “The plaza is too wide. Even with a more powerful crossbow I’d have trouble hitting him. With my little hand bow it’s impossible.”

“Don’t worry,” said Geth, “we’re going closer.”

“We’ll be recognized!”

“I’m counting on it.” A plan, desperate and dangerous but possibly their only hope, had formed in his mind. He slid from his horse and gestured for the others to do the same.

The hats and cloaks Aruget had used to smuggle them out of Khaar Mbar’ost had been abandoned by Haruuc’s tomb, but silver quickly procured more. Ashi kept her face down and her cowl—stinking of the hobgoblin beggar who been wearing it only moments before—well up as she fought her way through the crowd beside Ekhaas. A few paces away, Geth wore a similarly ragged and foul cloak. Ekhaas, along with Aruget, his features shifted to anonymity, blended into the crowd of other
dar
faces. Chetiin and Midian—arms unbound but now tethered to and closely watched by Aruget—simply moved unseen among the legs of larger figures. Ashi wasn’t sure if she envied Tenquis his role or not. Standing back with the horses, he didn’t need to wear a disguise, but it would be his job to get them out again once they’d done what they had to do.

Her palms were wet. She wiped them on the legs of her trousers.

“If we’d taken the rod and run after Haruuc died,” she murmured to Ekhaas in human language as bodies jostled them on all sides, “none of this would be happening.”

The
duur’kala
glanced at her. “If we’d taken the rod and run,” she answered, lips barely moving, “the succession would have been even more chaotic and Darguun likely would still have been at war with Valenar.”

“We’re going to force a new succession
and
we’re going to steal the rod.”

Ekhaas’s ears flicked and drooped. “But now we have war.
Dar
may not understand peace, but we understand war very well. There will be a new lhesh in days, and he won’t need the rod as a symbol to unify the clans. He’ll continue the war with Valenar and that will be enough. Darguun will follow him. And without the rod’s dreams of empire, Darguun will remain only Darguun.”

“If the war drags on, Darguun will weaken. Other nations could decide to take it on. It could fall.”

Ekhaas gave a thin smile. “Even Dhakaan fell eventually, Ashi. We can only make certain Darguun does not fall today.” She stopped. “We part here.”

Ashi raised her head a little, just enough to look around. They stood about fifteen paces from the platform and close to the line of guards that kept the path through the plaza clear. Geth and Chetiin had already pushed and slid their way to a position five paces nearer the platform. Aruget and Midian were a little to the right.

Up on the platform, Vounn chatted casually with warlords, ambassadors, and other envoys. Ashi knew her well enough now to recognize her apparent ease for the act it was. Her mentor’s back was stiff and her hands moved in small circles when she spoke. She knew something was amiss. If she didn’t know Tariic had regained the true rod, she at least guessed it.

Ashi felt a twinge of guilt for the trouble she was about to cause both Vounn and all of House Deneith. She glanced at Makka and at the sword—her sword, the Deneith honor blade—he still carried. Perhaps it was just as well she hadn’t recovered it. Her grandfather probably wouldn’t have approved of what she was about to do. Or
maybe he would have. She forced the sword out of her mind, saying a silent good-bye to it and Vounn alike, then looked at Ekhaas and gave her a silent nod. The
duur’kala
returned it and moved to join Aruget and Midian. Ashi pushed through the crowd to Geth and Chetiin. The stench of her cowl actually helped—people shifted just to get away from her.

Beneath his cloak, Geth had Wrath already drawn. He turned his head and looked at her. “Ready?” he murmured.

Ashi concentrated, drawing on the power of her dragonmark. The bright lines that patterned her skin warmed and she felt the familiar clarity of the mark’s protection settle over her mind. She concentrated again, the warmth becoming an almost uncomfortable heat, and reached down to touch Chetiin. The goblin shivered as the shield of the Siberys Mark of Sentinel wrapped him as well. Even if Tariic had mastered the rod’s power, they would be safe from it, while Wrath protected Geth. Then she nodded and reached for her sword. “Read—”

A sudden roar erupted from behind them at the edge of the plaza. It spread quickly through the crowd. Heads turned, even among those on the platform. Ashi twisted around.

At the end of the path through the plaza, two hobgoblins rode at the head of a column of soldiers. One wore chains wrapped around his torso like a badge of honor. The other, mounted on a tiger, wore the horned armor of the warlord of Mur Talaan and raised his arms in triumph.

Dagii—and Keraal—had reached the plaza.

“Now!” snapped Geth. His gauntleted arm rose and fell, dashing a vial of dark glass, surrendered by Midian, against the paving stones at their feet. Ashi squeezed her eyes shut.

The intense light released by the shattered vial flared even through her eyelids. All around them, cheers turned into shouts of alarm.

Ashi forced her eyes open again, throwing back her cowl with one hand and drawing her sword with the other. She whirled the blade around her head and let the fluting battlecry of the Bonetree Clan ripple from her lips.

Geth thrust Wrath toward the platform and howled, “Tariic Kurar’taarn! We come for you!”

Shocked and dazzled by the burst of light, startled by cries and swinging swords, the crowd surged away from them. Chetiin drove them back further, darting and tumbling among them like a furious black cat, his dagger slashing at legs. The line of guards trying to hold the crowd back from the path through the plaza buckled and fell as people moved. Out of the corner of her eye, Ashi had a glimpse of Keraal’s horse rearing and Dagii fighting to control his tiger, even as he caught sight of them.

Chaos erupted on the platform as well. Warlords flinched in surprise, then pushed forward like the trained warriors they were, struggling for a moment with the envoys and ambassadors who were trying to get back. Makka forced Pradoor behind him and drew his sword. Tariic, rod raised to greet Dagii, froze for an instant, then moved. The others on the platform had closed in behind him, blocking access to stairs. He turned, crossing the front of the platform away from her and Geth.

And Aruget, waiting just at the edge of the open space cleared by the panicked crowd, waiting for just such an attempt at escape, lifted Midian up onto his shoulders. In one smooth movement, the agent of Zilargo braced himself, brought down his crossbow, and aimed over the heads of the crowd. Ekhaas stepped in front of the pair, drawing her blade to turn back blundering spectators. The crossbow tracked Tariic for a moment, then Midian squeezed the trigger.

Ashi couldn’t hear the crack of the bow’s release over the noise of the crowd’s confusion, but she saw Tariic jerk and sprawl backward. The fletching of a crossbow bolt smeared with Midian’s entire remaining supply of strandpine sap protruded from his throat.

Tariic’s hand spasmed and the Rod of Kings fell from it.

Still howling, still waving Wrath, Geth sprang for the platform. Ashi and Chetiin stayed close behind him, and the remnants of the crowd parted before them. Before the rod had even stopped rolling, before greedy warlords could do more than stare at the prize before their feet, the three of them had vaulted onto the platform. Chetiin took one side of Geth and Ashi the other, twitching her sword back and forth to keep Aguus of Traakuum and Garaad of Vaniish Kai at bay, as the shifter scooped up the rod.

Standing close beside Aguus and Garaad, calmer than any other envoy, Vounn stood and stared at her. Ashi drew a breath between her teeth. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

Vounn’s eyes opened wide. Her finger came up—and pointed at something behind Ashi. Aguus and Garaad stiffened as well. Ashi heard a soft curse from Chetiin. She threw a fast look over her shoulder. Like Vounn and the warlords, Geth had stopped and was staring. She followed his eyes down to Tariic’s corpse.

Red-brown flesh seemed to flow and turn dusky gray. Flat, harsh features became round and soft. Brown eyes so bright they were almost red turned white. Short, dark hair grew long and became pale.

A changeling, returned to his true form in death.

“Ko!” choked Geth. He flipped the Rod of Kings around to reveal the faint spiral Tenquis had made to mark the false rod.

Ashi gasped. “Where’s Tariic?”

“Here!”

Ashi whirled as those on the platform parted and the real Tariic stepped forward with the rod—the true rod—raised high. Protected by her dragonmark, she couldn’t feel the power of the true rod, but she could see it in the expressions of those around Tariic. It made the effects of the false rod seem as cheap and gaudy as gilded lead. The Darguul warlords who moved aside for Tariic stood straight, ears high, proud in his presence. The ambassadors and dragonmarked envoys looked even more frightened than they already had. A startled silence spread among the crowd as they saw that Lhesh Tariic still lived—and moreover that he stood before them like an emperor returned.

He swept the Rod of Kings across the platform and his voice almost trembled with eagerness. “Seize them, Darguuls! Seize the assassins!”

Within the arc that the rod described, every
dar
head—hobgoblin, bugbear, and goblin—turned to Ashi, Geth, and Chetiin. Those few envoys and ambassadors who hadn’t already retreated looked around in confusion. Vounn, still standing in front of Ashi, opened her mouth as if to speak, but anything she might have said was lost as more than a dozen of the most powerful and important warlords in Darguun surged forward.

“Run!” shouted Geth.

Ashi hesitated for an instant, as if she could seize Vounn and drag her free, then she spun and followed him and Chetiin in a desperate leap from the platform.

Too slow. Arms wrapped around her in a tackle that sent her sword flying from her hand and brought her crashing down.

“Maabet!”
cursed Aruget.

Midian froze in the act of climbing down from his shoulder. Ekhaas felt a sudden nausea sweep through her.

The changeling who’d impersonated Geth. The false rod. Tariic had anticipated an attempt to recapture the true rod. He’d prepared for it.

And they’d failed.

“Seize them!” Tariic shouted. “Seize the assassins!”

The command spread from the platform, sweeping over the crowd. Out to the limits of Tariic’s voice, it gripped minds and souls. The crowd that had been scattering in panic turned and rushed back like the turning tide.

The line of Aruget’s jaw tightened, and he shook Midian off his back. “Ideas?” he said.

“One,” said Midian—and Ekhaas heard his crossbow clatter to the stones under their feet. She turned, but the gnome was already sprinting past her and racing
into
the crowd, darting among a forest of legs. Chaos marked his plunge, but he was fast, using his small size to evade the hands that grabbed for him.

Aruget looked at Ekhaas and his ears flicked. “We tried,” he said.

Then he was diving into the crowd, too. Even as he moved, though, Ekhaas saw his face and body shift and start to change. Adult hobgoblin became youthful bugbear. A few hands grabbed for him, there was a flurry of activity, but then nothing. His disappearance was even more complete than Midian’s—and it left an even greater hole in Ekhaas’s gut. She dragged her sword from its sheath and swung it in a wide circle, forcing the advancing crowd back for a moment, but where the blade passed, the crowd pressed in—

—until the roar of a tiger brought them and Ekhaas around. Above the heads of the crowd, Dagii appeared, his tiger mount leaping through the mob as if through grass. In his wake, led by Keraal, came the soldiers of the Iron Fox Company. Joy and anger warred in Ekhaas. Anger that Dagii had involved himself, opened himself up to Tariic’s retribution. Joy that he’d come to her rescue. The last ranks of the crowd scattered as the tiger came to a snarling stop before her. Ekhaas looked up at Dagii, her heart racing.