She pulled her mouth into a wry grin and lifted the cup in a mock salute. “You knew I would. You wouldn’t have told me any of this if you had been deeply concerned about the truth of the matter. You would have let him die in silence.”
“True.” He poured another cup of wine and saluted her in turn. “Your sense of honor is something I admire and can depend on.”
“Will you go with me?” she asked, knowing he would. His sense of honor was equally as predictable, and despite his limp, he was an excellent companion to have on a clandestine quest.
“Of course.”
“This could be a trap. The Tarmaks know we want the eggs. They could have planted that man out in the Rough for us to find.”
“Agreed. We should take some centaurs with us in case we find the eggs. If we find them, we can bring them back here.”
“Good idea. Leonidas wouldn’t want to be left out.”
Linsha felt that old feeling of subdued excitement steal back into her thoughts. It was a tense, exhilarating anticipation that she used to feel often when she was faced with a mission that would test her wits, skills, and courage. It was a feeling she had been too tired to experience lately.
“Nor do I,” Varia spoke up again. Although she did not like to talk around other people, she had talked to Lanther before and included him in her small circle of acceptable humans. “How do you plan to get inside the labyrinth? The mercenaries found your door in the garden and guard it day and night.”
“They didn’t find the pool entrance,” Linsha suggested.
Lanther abruptly scowled and set his cup rather heavily on a table. “Isn’t that the one with the water weird guarding the stairs?”
Linsha smothered a smile. Lanther and the water weird Iyesta had placed to guard the pool stairs had not met in the friendliest circumstances. The odd water creature had tried to attack the man before Crucible called her off.
“Yes, but the entrance is unguarded outside, and it is out of sight of the palace. All we’d have to do is avoid patrols and slip in after dark.”
“What about the weird? How do we get past her?”
Linsha’s hand started to reach for the chain and the scales around her neck, then she changed her mind and resisted the temptation to show him. She moved her hand up instead to scratch her chin. Lanther had seen them once, but she preferred not to flash them about. They were a secret, a pact of friendship between herself and the dragons, and something she wasn’t ready to share. They were also a safeguard from some of Iyesta’s guardian creatures.
“I’ll think of something,” she said.
He gestured to the doorway. “Then let’s not wait. We’ll broach this to Falaius and go tonight.”
Falaius proved easier to convince than General Dockett or even Sir Remmik. The Legion commander trusted Lanther to be a good judge of his own information and a competent leader of missions. He also respected Linsha’s abilities, and if the two of them chose to go into the labyrinth again to look for Iyesta’s eggs, he agreed to help. When he asked for volunteers among the sentries and guards coming off duty, seven Legionnaires stepped forward. It was something they all owed to the memory of Iyesta.
General Dockett had some worries about the validity of the information, but in the end he agreed with Falaius and assigned a patrol of eight centaurs and Leonidas to accompany them.
The centaurs, all of them grays or dark browns, looked pleased to be chosen for such an assignment. They hurried off to find baskets large enough to carry dragon eggs but not so large as to interfere with their movements in the tunnels.
Only Sir Remmik voiced strong objections to the “ridiculous and dangerous scheme based on the words of a dead man.” He didn’t argue for Linsha’s sake. She suspected he’d be quite pleased if she got herself killed. But he hated to endanger eight perfectly healthy centaurs and the Legionnaires who could be put to better use. At last he threw up his hands and stalked off to check the guard changes at the posts around the canyon.
Falaius watched him go, a wry look on his weathered face. “It’s a shame such a talented Knight has so many burrs stuck up his armor.”
By the time a late half moon lifted above the eastern hills, the party was ready to go. The centaurs slipped out of the Wadi in a single file, each one carrying one of the humans and a set of panniers strapped to their sides. They broke into a smooth, ground-eating jog and headed south and east toward the faint glow of the city eight miles away.
The land slept silently around them. The night was too cold for insects, and the small rodents, birds, and reptiles that lived in the sparse grass and scrub stayed snug in their holes and nests. Even the wind was still. Only the faint howl of a distant wild dog broke the silence. Overhead, against the frosty stars, Varia the owl flew on silent wings. Almost as soundless, the centaurs moved like shadows through the darkness. They had padded their harnesses and weapons, so the only sounds that gave them away were the click of hooves on rocks and the dry rustle of disturbed grass.
They were nearing the edge of the known limit of the mercenary patrols when Linsha saw the leading centaur raise his hand and make a motion in a noiseless signal. Every centaur slowed to a walk and spread out in a line across the faint path.
“What is it?” Linsha whispered to Leonidas.
The buckskin, the lightest-coated centaur in the patrol, shifted over to a bare patch of sand and windswept rock where he would not be as noticeable. “There is someone up ahead,” he answered softly.
The eerie cry of a hunting owl floated overhead. Wings braked softly by Linsha’s head, and she heard Varia say, “It is Mariana.”
Leonidas heard her, too, and quickly trotted forward. “Tanefer,” he called to the black stallion who served as the leader. “It is the captain’s patrol.”
There were a few other officers in the dragonlord’s militia who held the rank of captain, but only the half-elf Mariana Calanbriar was referred to as “the captain” with automatic recognition and full respect. She materialized out of the darkness, three militia fighters behind her, and trod softly across the grass to meet the centaurs. Seeing Leonidas and Linsha, she raised a slim hand and laughed. “Of course, you are here. Nine centaurs with baskets, in the middle of the night, and the Rose Knight is with them. Are you off to collect berries?”
“No,” Linsha said. “Eggs.”
Mariana’s humor vanished. She and Linsha had been the ones who found Iyesta’s body in the great chambers under the palace. She despised the Tarmaks with all her heart for their part in the death of her overlord and had vowed to do anything within her means to help retrieve the brass eggs.
“You found the eggs?” she asked.
“There is a possibility the Tarmaks have moved the eggs back into the labyrinth,” Lanther said from Tanefer’s back.
A flash of paler white on Mariana’s oval face revealed a quick smile. “Good. Then you are probably going in through the pool entrance. I’d like to come with you, but we have three more outposts to check. One of them,” she added, her voice grim in the darkness, “was wiped out.”
Lanther swore something under his breath. The centaurs and their riders stirred, muttering angrily to each other.
“That is the third watchers’ post we’ve lost,” Linsha said. “It makes me wonder if someone is telling the Brutes where they are.”
The half-elf made a slight shrug. “Maybe. Or maybe they just have an excellent tracker.”
“Have you seen any activity along the ruin’s edge?”
“We were there along the outskirts and we saw no sign of the Tarmaks. There are a few mercenary patrols out, but they are slow and not particularly determined.
If you slip in quickly along that low line of hills, you shouldn’t be spotted. Good luck!”
She waved to her men, and they moved on, shadows casting shadows on the ground. In a moment, they were gone.
Linsha tossed a salute in the direction of her friend. “Be safe,” she murmured.