A sudden roar erupted from behind them at the edge of the plaza. It spread quickly through the crowd. Heads turned, even among those on the platform. Ashi twisted around.
At the end of the path through the plaza, two hobgoblins rode at the head of a column of soldiers. One wore chains wrapped around his torso like a badge of honor. The other, mounted on a tiger, wore the horned armor of the warlord of Mur Talaan and raised his arms in triumph.
Dagii-and Keraal-had reached the plaza.
“Now!” snapped Geth. His gauntleted arm rose and fell, dashing a vial of dark glass, surrendered by Midian, against the paving stones at their feet. Ashi squeezed her eyes shut.
The intense light released by the shattered vial flared even through her eyelids. All around them, cheers turned into shouts of alarm.
Ashi forced her eyes open again, throwing back her cowl with one hand and drawing her sword with the other. She whirled the blade around her head and let the fluting battlecry of the Bonetree Clan ripple from her lips.
Geth thrust Wrath toward the platform and howled, “Tariic Kurar’taarn! We come for you!”
Shocked and dazzled by the burst of light, startled by cries and swinging swords, the crowd surged away from them. Chetiin drove them back further, darting and tumbling among them like a furious black cat, his dagger slashing at legs. The line of guards trying to hold the crowd back from the path through the plaza buckled and fell as people moved. Out of the corner of her eye, Ashi had a glimpse of Keraal’s horse rearing and Dagii fighting to control his tiger, even as he caught sight of them.
Chaos erupted on the platform as well. Warlords flinched in surprise, then pushed forward like the trained warriors they were, struggling for a moment with the envoys and ambassadors who were trying to get back. Makka forced Pradoor behind him and drew his sword. Tariic, rod raised to greet Dagii, froze for an instant, then moved. The others on the platform had closed in behind him, blocking access to stairs. He turned, crossing the front of the platform away from her and Geth.
And Aruget, waiting just at the edge of the open space cleared by the panicked crowd, waiting for just such an attempt at escape, lifted Midian up onto his shoulders. In one smooth movement, the agent of Zilargo braced himself, brought down his crossbow, and aimed over the heads of the crowd. Ekhaas stepped in front of the pair, drawing her blade to turn back blundering spectators. The crossbow tracked Tariic for a moment, then Midian squeezed the trigger.
Ashi couldn’t hear the crack of the bow’s release over the noise of the crowd’s confusion, but she saw Tariic jerk and sprawl backward. The fletching of a crossbow bolt smeared with Midian’s entire remaining supply of strandpine sap protruded from his throat.
Tariic’s hand spasmed and the Rod of Kings fell from it.
Still howling, still waving Wrath, Geth sprang for the platform. Ashi and Chetiin stayed close behind him, and the remnants of the crowd parted before them. Before the rod had even stopped rolling, before greedy warlords could do more than stare at the prize before their feet, the three of them had vaulted onto the platform. Chetiin took one side of Geth and Ashi the other, twitching her sword back and forth to keep Aguus of Traakuum and Garaad of Vaniish Kai at bay, as the shifter scooped up the rod.
Standing close beside Aguus and Garaad, calmer than any other envoy, Vounn stood and stared at her. Ashi drew a breath between her teeth. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.
Vounn’s eyes opened wide. Her finger came up-and pointed at something behind Ashi. Aguus and Garaad stiffened as well. Ashi heard a soft curse from Chetiin. She threw a fast look over her shoulder. Like Vounn and the warlords, Geth had stopped and was staring. She followed his eyes down to Tariic’s corpse.
Red-brown flesh seemed to flow and turn dusky gray. Flat, harsh features became round and soft. Brown eyes so bright they were almost red turned white. Short, dark hair grew long and became pale.
A changeling, returned to his true form in death.
“Ko!” choked Geth. He flipped the Rod of Kings around to reveal the faint spiral Tenquis had made to mark the false rod.
Ashi gasped. “Where’s Tariic?”
“Here!”
Ashi whirled as those on the platform parted and the real Tariic stepped forward with the rod-the true rod-raised high. Protected by her dragonmark, she couldn’t feel the power of the true rod, but she could see it in the expressions of those around Tariic. It made the effects of the false rod seem as cheap and gaudy as gilded lead. The Darguul warlords who moved aside for Tariic stood straight, ears high, proud in his presence. The ambassadors and dragonmarked envoys looked even more frightened than they already had. A startled silence spread among the crowd as they saw that Lhesh Tariic still lived-and moreover that he stood before them like an emperor returned.
He swept the Rod of Kings across the platform and his voice almost trembled with eagerness. “Seize them, Darguuls! Seize the assassins!”
Within the arc that the rod described, every dar head-hobgoblin, bugbear, and goblin-turned to Ashi, Geth, and Chetiin. Those few envoys and ambassadors who hadn’t already retreated looked around in confusion. Vounn, still standing in front of Ashi, opened her mouth as if to speak, but anything she might have said was lost as more than a dozen of the most powerful and important warlords in Darguun surged forward.
“Run!” shouted Geth.
Ashi hesitated for an instant, as if she could seize Vounn and drag her free, then she spun and followed him and Chetiin in a desperate leap from the platform.
Too slow. Arms wrapped around her in a tackle that sent her sword flying from her hand and brought her crashing down.
“Maabet!” cursed Aruget.
Midian froze in the act of climbing down from his shoulder. Ekhaas felt a sudden nausea sweep through her.
The changeling who’d impersonated Geth. The false rod. Tariic had anticipated an attempt to recapture the true rod. He’d prepared for it.
And they’d failed.
“Seize them!” Tariic shouted. “Seize the assassins!”
The command spread from the platform, sweeping over the crowd. Out to the limits of Tariic’s voice, it gripped minds and souls. The crowd that had been scattering in panic turned and rushed back like the turning tide.
The line of Aruget’s jaw tightened, and he shook Midian off his back. “Ideas?” he said.
“One,” said Midian-and Ekhaas heard his crossbow clatter to the stones under their feet. She turned, but the gnome was already sprinting past her and racing into the crowd, darting among a forest of legs. Chaos marked his plunge, but he was fast, using his small size to evade the hands that grabbed for him.
Aruget looked at Ekhaas and his ears flicked. “We tried,” he said.
Then he was diving into the crowd, too. Even as he moved, though, Ekhaas saw his face and body shift and start to change. Adult hobgoblin became youthful bugbear. A few hands grabbed for him, there was a flurry of activity, but then nothing. His disappearance was even more complete than Midian’s-and it left an even greater hole in Ekhaas’s gut. She dragged her sword from its sheath and swung it in a wide circle, forcing the advancing crowd back for a moment, but where the blade passed, the crowd pressed in — until the roar of a tiger brought them and Ekhaas around. Above the heads of the crowd, Dagii appeared, his tiger mount leaping through the mob as if through grass. In his wake, led by Keraal, came the soldiers of the Iron Fox Company. Joy and anger warred in Ekhaas. Anger that Dagii had involved himself, opened himself up to Tariic’s retribution. Joy that he’d come to her rescue. The last ranks of the crowd scattered as the tiger came to a snarling stop before her. Ekhaas looked up at Dagii, her heart racing.