Haruuc’s face when he’d spoken of the elves as ancient enemies of the hobgoblin empire. “Two upstart nations carved out of territory seized during the Last War. The rod might have been driving him to war, but he was trying to choose a target that wouldn’t bring all of Khorvaire down on Darguun.”
“And if Chetiin hadn’t taken matters into his own hands it might have worked,” Geth said. “I could have gotten Ashi to him. We might have been able to block the rod’s influence.” He sheathed Wrath. “Haruuc and Chetiin had an argument. Chetiin tried to point out to Haruuc that he was heading for conflict. Haruuc ordered him out of Khaar Mbar’ost. The last thing Chetiin said to Haruuc was that he would destroy everything he had built unless he was stopped. Maybe he thought he was acting to preserve Darguun. He’s only made it worse, though.” He held out the rod. “Whoever succeeds Haruuc is going to claim this-and it will claim them. Haruuc had the strength of will to resist it. I don’t think anyone who comes after him is going to have that.”
“Destroy it,” Ashi said. “Steal it. Hide it. Just get rid of it.”
Ekhaas’s ears rose. “We can’t,” she said. “Haruuc’s plan to use the rod as a symbol of power was good. Too good. If it disappears now, there’s never going to be a clear line of succession. It may be possible for the assembly of warlords to agree on a new lhesh, but the rod links him to Haruuc and Darguun.”
“We could warn the new lhesh,” suggested Dagii.
“Warn him how? ‘Be careful. The rod will try to make you an emperor.’” Geth said. “Is that going to scare a new lhesh or make him curious?”
“There’s still the danger of the rod’s real power, too,” Ekhaas said. “Haruuc did everything that he did with the force of his own personality. The rod may have enhanced his presence, but he didn’t need its help. If he hadn’t resisted it, would the rod have revealed itself to him eventually?” She looked around the room at the others. “We’re holding a sword by the blade.”
“So what do we do then?” asked Ashi.
“I don’t know,” said Geth. “But we’ve got ten days of mourning and five of games to think of something.” He pointed the rod at Dagii, then grimaced and lowered it, gesturing instead with his free hand. “Dagii, I’m going to give you charge of keeping order in Rhukaan Draal. Use it to get a message out to Midian and tell him to return to the city. He’s clever. I want his help.”
“Mazo,” Dagii said.
Ekhaas nodded, too-Rhukaan Draal was technically the territory of the Mur Talaan clan, but Dagii’s father Feniic had been one of Haruuc’s original shava and had ceded it to the lhesh as neutral territory for Darguun’s capital city. Putting Dagii in charge of it during the period of mourning would meet with the approval of Darguun’s warlords. Bringing Midian back to the city was a good idea as well. The gnome scholar had left Rhukaan Draal days before to explore Dhakaani ruins in the south, a reward from Haruuc for his role in recovering the Rod of Kings. She wondered if news of the assassination had even reached Midian yet.
“What about Ashi and me?” she asked.
“Listen,” said Geth. “You’re in a position to hear what’s being said among the warlords-especially the possible heirs like Tariic and Aguus. Ashi, you listen to what’s happening among the ambassadors and envoys. They’ll be coming to me, but I want to know what they’re really thinking.”
There was still one worry lurking in Ekhaas’s mind, though. “What about Chetiin? He’s out there somewhere.”
Geth hesitated, then bared his teeth. “If he’s smart, he won’t show his face again.”
CHAPTER TWO
19 Sypheros Storm at dawn
'I think I’m going to go deaf!” said Sindra d’Lyrandar above the roar of the crowd as a fresh wave of noise honoring Haruuc rose to meet the morning sun.
“You’ve said that already!” Pater d’Orien shouted back at her.
“That’s because I mean it. Imagine how bad it must be at the front of the procession. Where’s the dignity? How much longer is this going to go on?”
Ashi clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the running litany of complaints from the viceroys of Houses Orien and Lyrandar. The crowd that packed the windows and rooftops of Rhukaan Draal was bad enough-she could almost feel the weight of hundreds of gazes on her-but the viceroys’ comments just made it worse. All around her, the envoys who represented the affairs of the dragonmarked houses in Darguun marched in their appointed place in Haruuc’s funeral procession, yet only Pater and Sindra felt the need to make their opinions known. It was almost as if they were in competition, something Ashi could believe far too easily. There was no love lost between the two viceroys. Their houses had a long-established rivalry, with Orien controlling overland transport across Khorvaire while Lyrandar’s sailing vessels dominated the sea and their wondrous airships the skies, but Pater and Sindra took it personally. Haruuc’s funeral wasn’t the place for it, though. If they wanted to talk about dignity…
At Ashi’s side, Vounn said calmly, “Ashi, we’re here to show our respect for Haruuc, not start a fight.” The gray-haired lady seneschal of House Deneith-special envoy of the House to the court of Haruuc Shaarat’kor, and Ashi’s mentor in the ways of civilization-nodded pointedly downward.
Ashi realized her hand had gone to the hilt of her sword.
Her first thought, as it always was when she looked at the weapon was, no, not my sword, only the sword I wear. Her sword, the honor blade that had belonged to her grandfather, Kagan, and that had been the first clue she was more than just a hunter of the savage Bonetree clan, had been lost in the wilderness of the Seawall Mountains in the race to recover the Rod of Kings. It had been a terrible bargain. She wished that the rod had stayed lost. She would have Kagan’s sword and Haruuc would be alive.
But she understood what Vounn was trying to tell her. She couldn’t let herself get caught up in Pater and Sindra’s argument. She might not have been walking near the front of the procession as Ekhaas, or Dagii, or Geth were, but she still represented House Deneith. She let her hand fall back to her side.
Vounn leaned closer so that only Ashi could hear her words. “The mourning period has been difficult-for all of us.”
She caught Ashi’s eye as she said it.
“I appreciate that, Vounn,” said Ashi.
Vounn drew back, eyes still on her. Ashi waited a moment before she glanced away, then didn’t look at her mentor again. She knew Vounn had guessed she was holding something back, just as Senen Dhakaan knew Ekhaas wasn’t telling everything. The difference, Ashi thought, was that she wished she could tell Vounn what she knew. When Vounn had first become her mentor in House Deneith, they had been in conflict: a barbarian bearing a rare and powerful dragonmark and the diplomat tasked with turning her into a lady. Talent, knowledge, and poise counted as much or more than an individual’s mark for respect within the house-the mark Vounn bore was small, capable of creating a shield against physical blows for a time, yet she had the ear of Deneith’s patriarch himself-but Ashi’s deeds in recovering the Rod of Kings had opened a new path of respect between the two women. Ashi had taken some of Vounn’s lessons to heart and Vounn had begun to trust her more, treating her as the capable woman she was, not merely as an asset of House Deneith. If Ashi could have returned that trust by telling her the truth about the rod she would have. She didn’t dare. The rod’s secret had to be kept.
They were going to need help soon, though. There had been no word yet from Midian or even from the messenger Dagii had sent to find him. She, Geth, and the others still hadn’t figured out a solution for the problem posed by the rod-as the days left ahead of them shrank, theft or destruction looked like the only options. If they wanted to save Darguun, they might have to risk destroying it.
At least she’d had nothing to report to Geth of unrest or rumors among the envoys of the dragonmarked houses or the ambassadors of the nations of Khorvaire. She’d listened to them as Geth had asked, but most were either angered at being trapped in Rhukaan Draal for the mourning period or uncertain what to make of the shifter who had seized Haruuc’s power. Only the nations of Breland and Zilargo shared a direct border with Darguun. The Brelish ambassador hinted that they were watching events closely. The Zil ambassador, a gnome like most Zils, put on a show of being timid and flighty, but Ashi could tell she was as sharp as a knife. Against Geth’s prediction, almost none of the ambassadors or the envoys were interested in making deals with someone they considered just a figurehead. They preferred to wait until the proper heir was determined.
