Dagii met his gaze. “I deny my oath.”
Tariic laughed. “You? Dagii, son of Fenic of Mur Talaan? You’re not capable of it.” He looked at Ashi. “Any more than Ashi here seems capable of placing any value in her own life.”
Some of Ashi’s own anger came back. “All your bracelets have done is keep me in Rhukaan Draal and my hands from your throat, Tariic,” she said.
Tariic flicked his finger, and the bugbear holding her arms gave them a sharp tug. The pain made her gasp. Tariic smiled again. “True,” he said. “That’s why I think I need new leverage against you. Against both of you.” He pointed the Rod of Kings at Ashi. “You are going to remain my prisoner, though not in the comfortable surroundings you have been enjoying.”
He pointed his other hand at Dagii. “You will command the assault on New Cyre, the hero of the Battle of Zarrthec at the head of my armies. If either of you disobeys me, the other dies.” His ears twitched and rose. “Is that simple enough?”
Dagii thrust out his chest. “Command me with the rod. You’ll have my obedience then!”
“You don’t understand, Dagii.” Tariic’s words rasped between his teeth. “I can command anyone. I command the Ghaal’dar clans. I command the Kech Shaarat who dared to come before me. I command the envoys of the dragonmarked houses and the ambassadors of the Five Nations. But that isn’t true power. That’s not how the emperors of Dhakaan truly ruled.” He held up the rod. “This is a crutch. Unless I put care into my orders, my power doesn’t extend beyond those who see and hear me. To rule an empire requires servants who serve because they want to”-he lowered the rod-“or because they have to.”
He waited.
Dagii looked down at Ashi, then his ears drooped, and he lowered his head. His fist rose to rap his chest. “I will command the assault, lhesh.”
“Dagii-” Ashi said, but the instant her lips moved, the bugbear jerked on her arms again. Her words vanished in another gasp.
Tariic ignored her. “Serve me well, and you’ll be rewarded,” he said. He gestured toward the door. “Now go, and remember what you have to lose.”
Dagii walked out the door like a broken man. Tariic closed it behind him, then turned his gaze back to Ashi, gesturing for the bugbear to ease his grip on her arms.
“I know you don’t care about risking your own life,” he said. “How do you feel about risking Dagii’s?”
Ashi glared at him. “I saw the letter that you had forged. It doesn’t matter what Dagii does. You always intended to destroy me.”
He drew his foot back to kick her again. Ashi braced herself, but the kick never came. Tariic lowered his foot. “Not always,” he said. “But I knew that in the aftermath of my attack on Breland there was a chance Breven might relent and ask you to return to Karrlakton. I couldn’t let that happen. You do know my secret-and my ‘crutch’ is very convenient.” He turned the rod in his hands. “I didn’t so much intend to destroy you as to make certain that no one outside of Darguun would want anything to do with you.”
“Why not just kill me, then?”
He smiled at her. “Because I don’t need to.” He stepped back. “I saw that you tore up my letter. There really wasn’t much point to that. I can have another one made. In fact, you’ve given me the chance to send Breven an even more impressive gesture of your disdain for Deneith.”
He gestured, and Pradoor dragged out something she’d been hiding behind her back. Ashi’s bright honor blade. “In the new letter,” said Tariic, “you’ll be sending it back.” He took the sword from Pradoor.
Ashi started to struggle, but her bugbear captor renewed the pressure on her arms. She forced herself to relax. She glared at Tariic.
“I’ll stop you, Tariic. I swear I will.”
“I don’t see how,” said Tariic. “Dagii is gone. Aruget is gone. Senen is gone. You’re out of allies. I’d suggest focusing on behaving yourself and keeping Dagii alive. His life is in your hands now.”
He turned to the door. “Pradoor,” he said. “Hold her.”
The goblin priestess murmured a prayer, and once again pain burned through Ashi’s body. While she writhed, the bugbear released her and lumbered to his feet, taking the lantern with him. By the time she could breathe again, Tariic, the bugbear, and Pradoor were all at the door. Tariic clapped the bugbear on the shoulder. “You already know your new jailer,” he said. “Don’t bother screaming. Nobody is going to be coming for you.”
She managed to raise her voice. “The dragonmarked envoys will miss me.”
“No,” said Tariic. He lifted the Rod of Kings. “They won’t.”
The door closed. The room plunged into darkness. Ashi heard the rasp of a bolt being slid home on the other side of the door. Two bolts. And a key in a lock.
She sat up slowly, utterly alone in the cold darkness.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
24 Vult
The riverboat drew in its oars and glided into an empty berth along the docks of Rhukaan Draal. Thick hawsers flew over the side, were caught by dockmen and made fast. A few moments later, the gangplank slid out.
Ekhaas and the others were down it as soon as the lower end touched the dock. “Good luck to you,” the captain called after them. “Find your fortune and live to spend it!”
“We’ll hire you a better cook for your galley,” Ekhaas shouted back with false levity, then turned away and said to the others, “Let’s get off the docks and find out what’s going on.” Her fingers touched the reassuring weight of the shaari’mal within her pouch, a habit of the last ten days.
They’d slipped out of the varags’ territory as quickly as they could. Fortunately, the savage creatures were still cowed by what had happened at Suud Anshaar-they heard the varags’ shrieks in the distance but didn’t so much as catch a glimpse of them. If the ancient construct that lurked in the Dhakaani ruins still wailed, they didn’t hear it.
The power of the Shield of Nobles was a revelation. Ekhaas had barely been able to sleep. She’d lain awake, listening to the jungle and imagining what they could do. One shaari’mal had weakened the hold of the Rod of Kings on Midian. Two had shattered it. They had three of the disks. What effect would waking all three have? Who would they give the third disk, the one Tenquis carried hidden in his vest, to?
Dagii’s gray-eyed face had risen in her memories.
Tooth, restored by rest and more healing magic, led them north out of the jungle. Several days later, they’d arrived at the town of Rheklor and the mouth of the Ghaal River, where boats traveled upstream to Rhukaan Draal in a constant flow of river traffic.
Unlike Arthuun in the south, they’d found the town alive with excitement over Tariic’s plans for defense against the Valenar. The news had given them a convenient excuse for traveling to Rhukaan Draal-when they’d approached a boat’s captain to arrange transportation, they claimed to be mercenaries looking to take Lhesh Tariic’s coin-at the same time as it had made Ekhaas’s stomach tighten with fear. A few inquiries established that no Valenar had been seen since Dagii’s triumph at the Battle of Zarrthec. What was Tariic up to? What had happened to Dagii and Ashi?
They’d also bid farewell to friends at Rheklor. Tooth wanted more rest before he made the journey back to Arthuun. Marrow refused to board a boat or enter Rhukaan Draal. She would return to her pack across country. They’d said good-bye and boarded their boat a party of five once more. Ekhaas. Geth. Tenquis. Chetiin.
And Midian.
After he’d stopped screaming, the gnome had begged for the chance to take his revenge against Tariic. He’d poured out a story that, coming from anyone else, would have roused Ekhaas’s pity. Coming from Midian, it only made her glad of his suffering. At the same time, though, they all agreed on two things. First, that freed of the influence of the Rod of Kings, Midian hated Tariic as much as any of them did.