Under the baking southern sun, the army stopped briefly to eat and rest. Adeenya followed Jhoqo and Taennen through the marching lines to where the prisoners were being guarded in a single-file line. A thin but strong rope bound their arms and formed a chain between each prisoner as they gnawed at waybread. The dozen or so humans and the halfling were at the front of the line, kept separate from the goblins and kobolds.
Behind them were the formians. Their flesh was dark but shone faintly iridescent in the bright sunlight. The formians were bound with double ropes-extra caution seemed prudent given their mysterious nature. The largest creature, the one who had felled Taennen, stood at the center of the others. The smaller formians seemed to surround the largest, as if protecting it. The cloths over their eyes did not seem to diminish their ability to be aware of one another as they flicked their antennae over the offered waybread. The Maquar guards kept several paces away from the formians, their crossbows trained on the creatures. Jhoqo signaled one of the guards to remove the gag from the largest creature's mouth.
'Go ahead, ask your questions. Anything you learn will be for your ears only,' Jhoqo said. 'And keep your voice down.'
Adeenya moved close to the largest creature. 'Who are you?' she asked.
The creature turned its head toward her, and Adeenya felt as though dozens of eyes were watching her even though she was looking only at the dark cloth encircling its head. After a long moment, the beast spoke in a voice that sounded like twenty voices speaking through a hollow log, all jumbled together and with gravel in their throats. It proceeded to say a word so long, so incomprehensibly full of syllables, that Adeenya was reminded of a magic spell she had heard before.
She fought off a shiver and picked the only syllable from the garbled mess that could be made out. 'Would it be all right to call you Guk?'
The formian twitched for a moment, the tiny appendages on either side of its maw clacking as it said, 'Yes.'
Adeenya straightened herself and asked, 'Are you… male or female?'
What Adeenya could only assume was a laugh, the sound of bird cries turned inside out and piled atop one another, burst from the creature and set her gooseflesh tingling.
'Male,' Guk said.
'Why did you attack us?' she asked, wishing now she'd never demanded to interrogate the strange creature. 'For work, for the hive,' Guk said. 'The hive?' 'My people.'
'What does attacking us get your people?' she asked. 'Workers,' Guk said.
'Slaves,' Taennen interjected, stepping closer to Guk.
'The other creatures with you were workers?' she asked, glancing at Jhoqo. The commander's face was unreadable.
'All creatures should work for the hive,' the formian said. 'All creatures will.'
'No one should be your slaves,' Taennen said.
'Why?' Adeenya asked the formian. 'Why should everyone work for your hive?'
'There is work,' Guk replied. 'There is always work. The work needs to be done.'
'But what if we do not want to work for the hive?' she said.
'The work must be done. You will work. Every creature will work. No work is chaos. Chaos cannot be allowed. You will work.'
Adeenya stepped away from the prisoners and took in a deep breath. The formians sort of devoted thought was dangerous. The world had experienced such zealous devotion before, and the results were never positive or pleasant.
'Do you see, now?' Jhoqo said, joining her.
'Aye, sir. We'll keep this from the troops,' she said. She did not enjoy admitting the man was right, but the formians dedication had certainly put her on guard.
A melodious but melancholy voice called out ahead of them. 'Let me go!'
Adeenya turned to see a grim-faced halfling covered from head to toe in leather and furs waving his bound arms as best he could. He was standing at the back of the line of humans just in front of the goblins.
'My name's Corbrinn Tartevarr, miss. A little help?' he said.
Adeenya looked to Jhoqo who nodded for her to respond. The three officers moved closer to the human prisoners. Adeenya was relieved to leave the presence of the formians.
'I am Adeenya Jamaluddat, commander of the Durpari troops on this expedition. How do you find yourself fallen in with these creatures?' she asked, nodding toward Guk.
'He was a worker and will be again. Like you will become,' Guk said from farther back in the line, his voice grating, like thrown ice shattering against a wall. Adeenya wondered if the blindfold inhibited the creature at all.
'Get that gag back on him,' she shouted to the guards.
Corbrinn sighed. 'What he said, I'm afraid. Well, at least that I was,' the halfling said with a sneer toward the formian. 'I'm from Thruldar in Luiren. I remember being with a caravan of folks from Var the Golden. I'm a woodsman and often act as a scout in these parts. I was guiding the caravan back from a successful trading trip to
Mulhorand. After that, everything gets a little fuzzy, but I know I was working for these things.'
The sun glinted off the halfling's reddish blond curls. Adeenya boggled at how the halfling was not sweating himself dry in his many layers of clothing and furs.
'Why did you work for them?' she asked.
The halfling's eyes went to the ground for a moment before turning to rest upon her again. 'It wasn't really like that. The reason didn't seem to matter… just the work.' The halfling shrugged. 'I can't explain it. It was like my body just did what they needed to be done, and I couldn't really stop it or even ask why I was doing it. But, I think the strangest part was that it was… somehow satisfying.'
'Sir,' she said, turning to Jhoqo, 'we should let the humans and the halfling go, at least. They shouldn't be bound so close to those things. They might try to reassert their control over them again.'
Taennen stiffened. 'Sir, we can't allow that. No one should…' he said, unable to finish his thought.
Jhoqo did not speak as he moved away, waving for the two to follow him. Adeenya followed, already knowing the man would say no. She did not know Jhoqo well, but he was not difficult to read at that moment. He wore his displeasure like a heavy cloak.
'Urir, these people did nothing wrong of their own will,' she said. 'Surely we must-'
Jhoqo stopped her with a raised hand. To her relief his scowl turned to a look of exhaustion, and he seemed to deflate with a long sigh. 'Surely you see why I can't let them go yet? You worry about them falling back under the control of the formians? What if they are still under the control of those…'-his face curled in distaste-'things? How do we know how far that manipulation extends? We could set them loose only for them to come back and attack us to free their masters.'
Adeenya sighed. Jhoqo was right.
'And even if they're not being controlled, even if they are the freest of spirits, look where we are,' Jhoqo said, extending his arm in a wide arc. 'This is the wilds, my children. Aerilpar. There's none worse.'
Adeenya followed the man's gesture to the distant tree line. While small compared to the Lluirwood to the west, the Aerilpar Forest was home to dozens of clans of foul beasts that fought each other for power nearly as often as they fought the humans who tried to cleanse the woods of them.
Huge, ancient trees with twisted, gnarled limbs rose tall from the sparse grass all around them. Green and brown foliage dotted the edge of the woods, a sign of the heat. A branch of the Liontongue River far to the east fed the trees and allowed the forest to exist at all.
Taennen nodded. 'Anyone we freed would be killed instantly.'
'Or recruited,' Jhoqo said.
'You're right,' Adeenya said reluctantly. 'We'll figure out how to deal with the humans once we arrive at Neversfall.'
Jhoqo smiled. 'Good. I'll leave it in your hands. Both of you,' he said. 'Now, I think it's time we got moving.'
The Maquar commander offered a salute that Adeenya returned before he turned and walked away. The horns were blown to signal the soldiers' rest was done, and the trek to Neversfall would begin again.
