The young knight smiled, his color already returning to him. “Nothing could have broken the grip I had on that thing’s neck.”
“Where’s Monja?” Kandler asked. The little shaman had disappeared in the grasses, which rose a full foot over her head.
“Just gathering my things,” her voice said from off to the left. “You should all do the same. The glidewings will leave us soon.”
“Thank goodness,” Xalt said as he crept up to his mount to strip it of his supplies.
“They won’t wait for us?” Kandler asked.
Monja’s head popped up through the grasses, right behind her mount. Kandler guessed she was standing on its tail. “A grounded glidewing is easy prey for larger beasts,” she said. “As soon as we let them loose, they’ll make their way back to the Wandering Inn.”
Kandler said, “How are we going to get into Fort Bones? Just walk up and knock on the gates?”
Sallah, who stood out ahead of the others, shading her eyes with her hand as she stared at the distant fort, answered, “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”
Kandler peered out alongside the lady knight. The gates to the fort had been flung open, and a squad of twenty soldiers, each dressed in gleaming, black suits of Karrnathi armor, swarmed out of the place. A trio of what Kandler guessed had to be officers rode out after them astride massive, ebon-coated horses.
“Keep your swords sheathed,” Monja said. “We are here to talk, not fight.”
“Do they know that?” Burch asked.
As the Karrnathi troops grew nearer, Kandler saw glimpses of thin, white limbs peeking through gaps in the armor of the foot troops. Beneath their high-crested helmets, empty eye sockets stared back at him and the others, merciless and unblinking.
The officers, though, looked out at the newcomers with living eyes as they guided their steeds with their solid, well-muscled frames. Kandler nodded, happy that the Captain of Bones had sent out actual people for him to talk with. It was a good sign. Had there been nothing but skeletons in the greeting party, the only response they would have understood would have been cold steel.
Still, he was prepared to kill them all—every last one—if they stood between him and Esprë.
As the foot soldiers neared, they spread out in a long line that came wrapping around Kandler and the others until the skeletons surrounded them. When the circle of skeletons was complete, it parted on the edge nearest the fort, and the three officers rode their black horses into the gap.
“You have wandered into the lands of the Kingdom of Karrnath, ruled over by his beneficence King Kaius the Third,” the small, stout, broad-faced rider in the center said, her words clipped and efficient. “As his honored representative, the Captain of Bones welcomes you to Karrnath and inquires as to the reason for your visit.”
Monja started to reply but then looked to Kandler instead. The justicar stepped forward, reminding himself to keep his hand off the hilt of his sword. The display of Karrnathi force didn’t intimidate him as it was meant to, but he needed these people to help rather than hinder him.
“We’re pursuing my stepdaughter, a young elf by the name of Esprë. A changeling brought her in this direction aboard a stolen airship.”
The dwarf slid down from the side of her horse using an unusual set of double-stepped stirrups. Most dwarves stuck with ponies instead of horses, animals more suited to their stature, but this dwarf wasn’t the sort to let her size get in her way. She bounded over to Kandler, her hands stretched out before her in greeting, although she halted a sword’s length from the justicar.
“Are you Kandler?” she asked, a smile on her wide lips and a look of astonishment in her eyes.
Kandler froze, staring at the dwarf. He’d never been here before. He’d never met this dwarf. How could she know his name, unless …?
“Tell her, boss,” Burch said, slapping the justicar on the shoulder. The gesture snapped Kandler into action again.
“Yes,” he said. “That’s—I’m Kandler.”
The dwarf favored the justicar with an infectious grin. “Have I got some good news for you.”
25
Kandler couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so happy—perhaps on his wedding day, maybe on the day the Treaty of Thronehold ended the Last War, or not ever.
As he held Esprë in his arms, he felt tears welling up in his eyes. By reflex, he choked them back. He hadn’t wept since the Day of Mourning, when he’d realized that Esprina had been caught up in the mysterious massacre, and he wasn’t about to start up again now.
Esprë, on the other hand, had been sobbing openly since the moment Kandler and the others had come into the infirmary. Her whole body shook with relief as she let loose all the fears she’d kept bottled up since the changeling had stolen her from her bed in Mardakine. She seemed like she might never stop shaking, but Kandler resolved to hold on to her until she fell still.
After a long while, Burch came around and put a hand on Esprë’s shoulder, and she turned and threw her arms around him, leaving her body resting in Kandler’s lap.
“Good to see you again, kid,” the shifter said. “They feeding you all right here? Looks like the food’s so rotten most of the solders are nothing but bones.”
Esprë shoved herself back to stare into the shifter’s mischievous eyes, then started to laugh between her sobs. Soon the laughter took over the rest. Then it sloughed away too.
The young elf gazed at each of her visitors in turn: Kandler, Burch, Xalt, Sallah, Brendis—even Berre Stonefist. Then she hugged Kandler again.
“I thought I was all alone, that you were all dead.” The tears returned but softly this time, for joy.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Kandler said, his voice raw with emotion. “I may be only human, but I got a few good years in me yet.”
“Decades,” Esprë whispered to him. “At least.”
Over Esprë’s shoulder, Kandler saw Berre smiling at the two of them. He reached out a hand to her, and she took it in a double-fisted grip. “I never thought I’d say this to a Karrnathi officer,” he said, “but thanks. I owe you.”
“Nonsense,” Berre said. “All we did was help a lost child find her parent. What civilized people would not do the same?”
Brendis spoke up. “The creatures who attacked Mardakine when Esprë was kidnapped wore Karrnathi armor. Some were even Karrnathi dead.”
Berre’s face fell. “I had not heard that.” She looked Kandler in the eyes. “I assure you that none of my troops would be involved in such a crime.”
Kandler nodded. “They had a lot more meat on them than the creatures you have around here.”
“Perhaps they came from Fort Zombie to the west then. If so, it must have been a rogue operation. I know the Captain of Corpses well. He is a good man, and I cannot imagine him perpetrating such an act.”
“They wore the symbols of the Blood of Vol,” Sallah said.
Berre nodded. “As I suspected. While the Blooded are outlawed in Karrnath, they are still a powerful force. Many Karrn subscribe to their sanguine beliefs, holding their blood-drenched services in secret. The zombies of which you speak could have come from anywhere in the nation.”
“Maybe even from Korth,” Kandler said. He did not want to anger his host, nor did he share her apparent trust in her fellow citizens of Karrn.
“I’ll grant that,” she said, “but I would not tar all of the people of Karrn with the same brush.”
“Different brushes it is,” Burch said.
“Where is Te’oma?” Esprë asked, cutting off any reply.
Kandler stiffened, his arms still wound around the young elf.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“She was here when I fell asleep this morning.” She blushed. “I’m still a little worn out from all this, but she wasn’t here when you came in.”