Bergerron scowled. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that. In order to provide Kaius with more than idle speculation, she would’ve dispatched agents of her own to investigate what was happening at the lodge. It’s entirely possible my message-though sent as swiftly as possible-arrived too late, and you were already under surveillance. If that was the case-”
“Then someone might’ve witnessed both Elidyr and Lirra leaving the lodge,” Vaddon finished.
Bergerron nodded. “And the whereabouts of both remain unknown?”
Despair clutched at Vaddon’s heart, but he did his best to keep his feelings from showing. “Yes, Warlord. We searched the environs around the lodge before I left, but we found no trace of them. None of the horses were missing, so we know both are on foot.” Considering the way a horse would react to a rider bonded to a symbiont, it wasn’t surprising both Lirra and Elidyr had chosen to walk. “This leads me to the main reason I’ve come before you. I request permission to keep the Outguard together for the time being and to remain in command of them, so that I might search for my daughter and brother. Not merely because I am personally concerned for their safety,” he hastened to add, “but because I believe that in their current state they pose a very real threat to the people of Karrnath. And while the safety of our fellow countrymen is no doubt of most importance to you, it would be awkward for you if one of the other warlords-Raskogr, say-should learn about Lirra and Elidyr and capture them first.”
Bergerron looked Vaddon up and down as if reappraising him. “I imagine you spent quite a lot of time working up that little speech.”
Vaddon kept his expression carefully neutral. “As a matter of fact, I did.”
“Well, it worked. I’m actually rather impressed. You always struck me as less of a thinker and more of a reliable, stolid man at arms. Looks like you have a bit of warlord in you, Vaddon.”
Vaddon’s gut curdled at what he took to be an insult, but he forced himself to say, “Thank you, Warlord.”
“Very well, permission granted.” Bergerron held up a pair of fingers. “With two conditions: One, when you capture your brother and daughter, I want them brought here to my keep. If there’s any chance we can train them to be … cooperative soldiers, I want to make sure we give them every opportunity. Agreed?”
Vaddon’s face remained impassive but inside he seethed with anger. He wanted to capture Lirra and Elidyr so that the aberrations that corrupted their bodies and minds could be removed and, the Host willing, their sanity restored. He knew that he’d never be able to turn them over to be used as tools in Bergerron’s intrigues-Lirra especially. The symbiont project was misguided and misbegotten from the start. Vaddon regretted ever taking part in it, and once Lirra and Elidyr were returned to normal, he intended to do everything he could to make certain that symbionts were never used as weapons in Karrnath again. But he knew that if he told Begerron any of this, he’d never obtain the man’s permission to continue commanding the Outguard. And that meant, for the first time in his career, Vaddon would have to lie to a superior.
He didn’t hesitate. “Agreed.”
“Excellent. Now for the second condition.” He raised his voice. “Shatterfist, Longstrider, come in, please.”
The library door opened and the two warforged guards entered and crossed the room to stand before their master.
Begerron looked at Vaddon. “These are two of my best warforged. As of this moment they are assigned to the Outguard under your command, Vaddon, but while they shall take orders from you, ultimately, they will answer to me.” A slow smile spread across the warlord’s face. “If Lirra and Elidyr have truly become as dangerous as you say, I figure you could use the extra muscle. Agreed?”
Vaddon knew he had been outmaneuvered. Bergerron had guessed that he’d had no intention of delivering Lirra and Elidyr to him, and so he’d decided to send along his pet warforged to make certain Vaddon did as he wanted. Though Vaddon raged inwardly at this development, on one level he couldn’t help admiring the warlord’s keen grasp of strategy.
“Agreed,” he said through clenched teeth.
At least for the time being, he thought darkly, giving the two warforged a narrow-eyed glance.
The artificial constructs gazed back at him with their armorlike faces, and whatever thoughts they might’ve had about their new assignment they kept to themselves.
CHAPTER TEN
Lirra had no memory of the sun setting. It seemed that one moment it was day, the next it was night. She had no clear idea where she was either. She was walking across a grassy field that she took to be pastureland for cows, based on the occasional pile of dung she passed, though she’d seen no actual cattle so far. There were no farms of any sort in the vicinity of the lodge. The closest she knew about lay outside the town of Geirrid, but it wasn’t possible that she had traveled that far since leaving the lodge … was it?
She remembered leaving the lodge in search of Elidyr, remembered making her way through forestland, hiding when necessary to avoid Outguard patrols her father had sent out to search for her. While her symbiont granted her no special abilities when it came to concealment, it did possess a certain animal cunning that she was able to draw on, and combined with her battle experience, it allowed her to evade detection and capture. She’d been surprised and, though she was reluctant to admit it to herself, pleased to discover that her symbiont was proving to be an even more useful tool than she’d originally thought.
Too bad it hadn’t sharpened her sense of time. Hours had to have passed since she left the lodge, but though she searched her memory, she couldn’t account for them all. Her hours traveling through the forest were a blur of trees and fields seen through a white-hot rage that only seemed to intensify as the time passed. She was furious at Elidyr for having bungled the experiment so badly-and for having the idiocy to conceive of the symbiont project in the first place. She was furious at her father for not understanding why she needed to find and stop Elidyr and sending forth the Outguard to get in her way. She was furious at Rhedyn for standing stupidly by and watching as the tentacle whip attached itself to her and for not finding the stones to act against Elidyr until it was too late to make a difference. And to make matters worse, she was hungry, thirsty, and her feet ached from all the walking she’d done this day.
The night sky was overcast, as it often was this time of year, and the cloud cover blocked the moons. Though Karrns preferred straightforward battle-which normally meant fighting by daylight-Lirra was no stranger to making her way across country in the dark, and it seemed that her night vision had grown a bit sharper, no doubt another benefit granted by her symbiont. But even so, she was having trouble navigating through the shadows that surrounded her. Her mind felt sluggish, almost feverish, and she was having trouble making sense of the things she saw and heard. It was almost like the confusion that came with being drunk, except without the accompanying pleasant numbness. Most likely she was still adjusting to having joined with a symbiont. Hopefully her mind would clear eventually. In the meantime, she had to find Elidyr, and when she did …
She heard a sound off to her right, a snuffling as if something large was breathing close by. Without thinking she spun and flung her left arm in its direction. Her tentacle whip unfurled, and as the barbed tip flew through the air, wild elation filled her, and she couldn’t tell whether it originated from the symbiont or her. She saw the shape standing before her, a dark outline framed against the night, and for an instant she allowed herself to believe she had caught up with her uncle at last. But she quickly realized the shape was the wrong size-too long and low to the ground-and whatever it was, it possessed four legs instead of two. Elidyr might’ve fused with a trio of symbionts, but when he’d departed the lodge, he’d done so on a single pair of legs.