"Sounds like justification to me. A criminal might say the same thing about stealing," Adeenya said.
"A criminal does the wrong things for the wrong reasons," Taennen countered. "It's a fine distinction."
"What do we do about the people behind the operation that Jhoqo worked for?" Adeenya asked. She paused a moment and added, "My father is one of them."
"I'm sorry he is involved, Adeenya."
Adeenya nodded. "I probably shouldn't feel so surprised. When Jhoqo talked of patriotism, he reminded me of my father. It was almost as though the two were of the same mind. My father has always taken the path of profit for profit's sake. But there have to be others. What do we do about them?"
"We find them."
"Taennen, how do we do that? Anyone could have been involved. The rajah himself might be behind it, for all the One!"
"They'll come to us," he said.
"Why would anyone reveal themselves by coming here?"
Taennen kicked a sword from the hand of a nearby Chondathan corpse.
"The weapons," he said. "They need weapons. There's a fortune down there. They'll have to come for them. How we stop them is the better question."
Adeenya patted him on the shoulder and said, "We collapse the tunnels."
Taennen looked at her, beautiful even through the pain, sweat, blood, and fatigue on her face. "We stay, then?"
"The citadel needs to be defended," she said.
"Reinforcements?"
"With any luck, we'll find among these bodies a pendant that was stolen from me. With it, we can contact someone back home for help," she said.
"Whom do we trust?" he asked.
"We contact those we've always trusted and hope we're right to do so."
"What if the leaders of Durpar and Estagund are behind it all?" he asked.
Adeenya looked back to the sky and said, "Then we stop them. All of them."
"Of course," Taennen said, casting his eyes up to the tower again. "Of course we do."