Glissa slammed into Alderok Vektro with the speed of a charging zauk, her momentum helping her drive the big man down hard on his back. But Vektro was faster than he looked, and surprised the elf girl by tucking his legs as Glissa came down. He kicked out hard at the elf girl’s gut as he rolled over backwards, flinging Glissa into the air. She twisted and managed to let her shoulder absorb most of the blow. Glissa came up standing a few paces away from Vektro, but her shoulder felt disjointed and she had no weapon. She saw Vektro’s eyes flash red and he held his hand apart, summoning forth another gout of burning magic.
“I still won’t kill you,” he snarled through a wicked grin. “But I will hurt you!”
The fire sputtered and died as a silver blur collided with the big human. The leonin followed through with a wicked kick to the side of Vektro’s head, and finished by removing his own pteron-bone helmet and knocking the Vulshok back one more time as the human tried to raise his head.
Glissa grinned at the Kha, who jerked the dazed Alderok Vektro to his feet and quickly bound the big human’s hands behind his back. “Raksha,” she said, “you might want to take his gauntlets, too, just in case.” Surveying the scene, she grinned and added, “And thanks.”
Every goblin lay unconscious or otherwise incapacitated by injury. It appeared the leonin had gone out of their way not to kill the goblins, which Glissa thought wise. Whatever Dwugget was up to, he could still be a potential ally. And she wasn’t sure this Alderok Vektro was really in league with the old goblin priest anyway.
The other five leonin-all females, Glissa now saw, which made sense if they were all skyhunters-bound the goblins and saw to serious injuries on both sides that needed immediate attention. Glissa heard Lyese whisper an old healing spell their mother had used to fix small knicks and cuts since they were both little, and was surprised to see that she was using the magic on the Kha. Raksha, meanwhile, yanked hard on the Vulshok prisoner’s wrists. The big human emitted a surprisingly high-pitched yelp.
“Thank you, Lyese,” Raksha said. “What do you think, Glissa? Are these our goblins? This one’s bigger than I expected.”
“That human calls himself a Vulshok,” Glissa replied, rubbing her wrists to get blood flowing through them again. “Says his name’s Alderok Vektro. He’s going to take us to see Dwugget. Aren’t you, Vektro?”
Alderok Vektro’s eyes flashed with hatred, but he was unable to free himself from the Kha’s iron grip. “The Prophet will have you skinned alive! Your pelts will line his trophy hall! I shall feast upon your roasted eye … AAAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!”
“Quiet, human!” the Golden Cub snarled, twisting the man’s wrists. “We shall tear out your throat if you do not cease at once!”
“Wait,” Glissa said, shaking off a leonin who was trying to set her injured shoulder in a sling. The hulking human’s eyes had glazed over, and his skin was rapidly growing pale. “I think he’s passing-”
Vektro went limp.
“-out,” Glissa finished.
The elf girl looked incredulously at Raksha Golden Cub. The Kha wore the same light silver plate as the skyhunters, though his bore a golden icon of the yellow sun, or moon, depending on where the viewer came from. He carried no sword, though Glissa did note that all six leonin wore the same long, curved knives hanging from their belts. Like the others, the Kha had a small supply pack strapped firmly to his back so as not to hinder motion in a fight. Tied to Raksha’s pack was a larger bag holding something gourd-shaped. The leonin were barefoot, which didn’t surprise Glissa. If she had weapons like that at the ends of her toes, she wouldn’t wear shoes either.
Glissa accepted her sword from one of the leonin without taking her disbelieving eyes off of Alderok Vektro, and slid the Viridian blade back into place on her belt. “What happened to him? Is he still alive?”
Raksha held the human higher and sniffed him gingerly. His nose wrinkled.
“No. If he’d expired, the human would smell a great deal worse than he already does. He smells like a goblin,” the Kha explained. “He may have had a low pain threshold.” Raksha let the big human drop unceremoniously to the ground, and picked up the Vulshok’s gauntlets. “Or maybe he wasn’t as tough as he looked without these.” The Kha passed the gauntlets to one of the female commandos, who tucked them into her own pack.
“We’ll get back to him,” Glissa said. “What kept you?”
“An old friend of yours stopped by,” Raksha said, the growl replaced by a brief flash of teeth that Glissa hoped was a smile. It was always hard to tell with a leonin.
The Kha swung the larger pack off his shoulder and tossed it to Glissa. She thought she heard a sound like a muffled yelp. “That’s not a gourd,” Glissa said unnecessarily, holding the pack out as far from her nose as possible. Whatever was in there, it smelled terrible.
“Open it carefully. He might bite,” Raksha said.
“Thanks for the warning,” Glissa said, and flipped the pack open.
“Long time, no see,” said Geth’s head.
CHAPTER 13
Glissa slammed the bag shut again, to the muffled surprise of Geth’s cursing cranium.
“What is this, Raksha?” Glissa demanded.
“I’m a ‘who.’ And I can hear you, you know!” Geth’s head shouted. Glissa dropped the bag on the ground, which elicited a yelp.
“This was sitting on a platter in the center of my dining table when I returned to my tent this morning,” Raksha said, slipping into informality. “It said it had an offer from Yert.”
The head in the bag cackled like a lunatic when the Kha said the name, but Glissa ignored it.
“Yert?” Glissa said. “Yert-Yert’s dead.”
“Death is relative in the Dross,” the bag said.
“What’s a Yert?” Lyese asked.
“Someone I thought was long gone.” Glissa leaned down and flipped the bag back open. “All right, Geth. I’m sure you’ve got a wonderful tale about why your head’s sitting there in a bag, but I don’t care. Just talk. What’s Yert got to do with this? You told me you killed him. And if you aren’t honest with me, I will step on you. Hard.”
“No need for threats, my dear, old friend,” Geth’s head simpered. “Here to talk, yes I am. Yes, indeed. Yert says talk, I talk. We talk. All of us ta-”
Glissa pointedly raised her boot.
“So, yes, talking. Yert-oh, he’s one to watch. Yes indeed,” the Geth’s face took on a dark scowl. “An up-and-comer, that one. Should have watched him, eh? Should have made sure …” The head blinked and took on a more placid expression Glissa didn’t buy for a minute. “But I digress. Been doing that a lot lately. I think my brain’s getting a touch of the rot. Yert, he sends a message.”
“How is this dead man sending me a message, and why? What did you really do to him?” Glissa said.
In reply, Geth’s eyes rolled back into his head, leaving empty, blood-red sockets. When the head spoke again, it sounded very different. These tones were much more controlled, a great deal more menacing, over a hundred times as cold as ice, and disturbingly familiar.
“Glissa,” Geth’s head said with what the elf girl barely recognized as Yert’s voice. The sound no longer carried tremors of fear and weakness. This voice was strong, clear, and cold. “And Raksha Golden Cub, I believe? And … how lovely. A new girl. Perfect. I would say it is an honor to meet my noble enemy at last, dear Kha, but I do not wish to start out with lies. Plenty of time for lies later.”
Glissa saw Raksha bristle, but the leonin remained silent.
“Get to the point, Yert,” Glissa snapped. “That is you, right? Nice way to repay a kindness. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”