He walked out, shutting the door softly behind himself. Vennet looked after him for a moment, then glanced at Dandra. “Is it true?” he asked. “Are they worse?”
Her belly tightened. The horrific memories she had shared with Singe and Geth surged back at her, forcing a whimper from Tetkashtai. “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “I don’t have anything to compare them to.”
“If Dah’mir commands dolgrims and a dolgaunt, he must be very powerful,” Vennet said.
“You know what dolgrims are?” asked Singe.
“I’ve seen a lot of things I’ve tried to forget.” said Vennet. Dandra thought she saw his eyes dart briefly toward Geth.
The shifter only grunted. “What are we going to do with Ashi? Dropping her over the side sounds like a good idea.”
“Dropping people over the side is bad for business,” the half-elf said firmly. “The crew sees it, they start talking, word gets around …”
He sat back in his chair. “When we reach Zarash’ak, we turn her over to the authorities there.”
“I’ve been to Zarash’ak,” Dandra reminded him. “The authorities there seemed as likely to turn her loose as imprison her-if she didn’t just escape from them. Either way, she’s going to start tracking us again!”
Vennet frowned. “What am I supposed to do then? Carry her all the way to my next stop at Sharn?”
Dandra glanced at Singe and Geth. The wizard raised his eyebrows. “Why not?” he asked. “Even if she escapes or is turned loose there, she’s going to be hundreds of miles away from us.”
“You’re asking me to carry a dangerous cargo,” Vennet said darkly. He steepled his fingers in front of his face for a moment, then looked up. “An extra five hundred gold from your letter of credit when we reach Zarash’ak and I’ll do it.”
Singe’s eyebrows climbed even higher. “Twelve moons, you’re mercenary!”
“No,” said Vennet, “that would be the province of House Deneith.” He gave the wizard a biting smile. “And unlike Natrac, I wouldn’t dream of cutting into Deneith’s business.” There was a knock at the door. “Come in!” Vennet called.
One of the big crewmen who had gone into the hold along with Geth and Vennet opened the door. “Beg you pardon, captain, but we may have found out why the fighting started. It sounds like the woman had valuables with her-the first men into the fight were trying to intimidate her into handing them over.”
“Not a very successful attempt,” commented Vennet. “Have you looked for these valuables, Karth?”
The crewman shook his head and flushed. “They’d be in the hold, captain, and none of us want to go down with …”
His voice trailed off, but Dandra could guess what he meant. None of the crew wanted to be around Ashi. The hunter had done a lot of damage and even chained up she was intimidating.
Vennet rolled his eyes. “Is there any word what kind of valuables we’re talking about?” he asked crossly.
“Some kind of jewelry,” said the crewman. “Some of Natrac’s gang say it was like a headband set with diamonds.”
“I find it hard to believe that a Marcher savage is going to be carrying a diamond bloody headband, Karth. Or that one of Natrac’s thugs would recognize diamonds if he saw them.”
Tetkashtai stirred uneasily within Dandra’s mind. Dandra, a headpiece set with crystals … An image of the spidery, crystal-studded devices Dah’mir’s mind flayers had used on them flickered within her light.
I know, said Dandra. “Vennet,” she said aloud, “I’d like to look for this headband.”
Geth and Singe stared at her, but Vennet tilted his head, then nodded slowly. “If you want to,” he said. “You can’t go down alone, though-”
“I’ll go with her,” Singe said. He shot a glance at Geth. The shifter growled agreement as well.
“We’ll all go,” said Vennet. “Karth, fetch a couple of lanterns. We’ll need more light down there.”
As they left the captain’s cabin and paced back along the ship’s length, Vennet leaned close to Dandra. “You think there’s something special about this headband?”
Dandra clenched her teeth. “I think it might be connected to the cult of the Dragon Below.” The half-truth seemed to satisfy Vennet.
Karth was waiting by the hatch down to the aft hold, two everbright lanterns in his hands. Vennet took them, passing one to Singe, then nodded at Karth to raise the hatch.
The hold was silent. Geth crouched down and peered into the dimness, then nodded and went in all the way. Vennet followed. Singe gestured for Dandra to go ahead of him, but she swallowed and stepped aside. Ashi might have been shackled, but facing the hunter was still going to be difficult. “After you,” she said. Singe nodded and descended the steps. Dandra swallowed. Tetkashtai had already drawn herself into a tight, tense spark. Cautiously, Dandra stepped down into the hold.
From where she sat chained to the floor, bound hand and foot, Ashi glared at her. The Bonetree hunter’s face was bruised and swelling from the brawl and her ferocious fight with Geth, and there was fierce hatred in her eyes.
Vennet and Singe kept their distance from the bound hunter, but Geth strode right up to her. His lips peeled back from his teeth and he growled in Ashi’s face. The hunter’s gaze shifted slowly from Dandra to Geth. Her lips twitched as well, but they didn’t part. She kept her silence. Her arms, however, tensed against her shackles.
“Get away from her,” said Vennet. He grabbed Geth and pulled him away, then faced Ashi himself. “Where’s this headband trinket that started the fight?” he demanded.
Ashi didn’t answer. Her eyes didn’t waver from Geth. The shifter growled again. “Beat it out of her,” he said, his voice thick and almost irrational.
Ashi’s jaw tightened, but her expression of angry resolve didn’t change.
“Geth!” Dandra hissed. A part of Dandra understood what Geth wanted: a measure of revenge against their enemy. The temptation to hurt Ashi as she had been hurt herself was strong. Dandra pushed the urge away. She stepped up to Geth and grabbed his shoulders. The shifter’s chest was heaving. “We’re better than that,” she said. “Beat her while she’s bound or kill her in cold blood and we bring ourselves down to her level.”
To her surprise, the statement provoked more of a reaction from Ashi than any of Geth’s threats-the hunter drew a sharp breath and spat out a harsh, deeply accented rebuke. “Blood in your mouth, outclanner! I’m not a torturer. Or a murderer either!”
Geth turned on her. “One of your clan murdered Adolan!”
Ashi’s eyes narrowed. “The Gatekeeper? He died fighting, like the hunters you killed, shifter. If that’s murder, then there’s more of my clan’s blood on your blade than yours on mine!”
Dandra felt Geth’s body stiffen under her hands, his massive muscles flexing. She shoved him back several more steps from the bound hunter. Singe grabbed him from the other side, helping to restrain him, though Dandra was reasonably certain that he could have wrenched himself away from both of them easily. After a moment, he slowly relaxed. Dandra let him go, then looked at Ashi.
“The headband,” she said. “Where is it?”
The hunter lapsed back into sullen silence. Dandra looked around the hold. Searching the stacks of crates, barrels, and sacks-not to mention the blankets and packs Natrac’s clients had left behind-would take hours. There was another possibility though. If the “diamond headband” was, as both she and Tetkashtai suspected, some kind of psionic-empowered creation, it would more than just a physical presence. She cleared her thoughts and opened her mind’s eye.
A swirling mist took shape in her vision, similar to Tetkashtai’s presence but shadowy instead of glowing with light. The feel of it filled her dread, but she focused her mind and pointed where the aura seemed strongest. A heavy sack rested in front of a pile of crates. “Behind there,” she said.