Neversfall

'They're gone. We won't find them this day.'

'How do you know?' the halfling asked.

'If they were still here after that fire,' she said, 'they wouldn't have left us alive.'?* + + +

Taennen and Loraica's examination of the tower had revealed no clues to Khatib's death. When they returned to the courtyard, word was waiting for Taennen to join Jhoqo in the formians' prison.

By the torchlight, Taennen saw Neversfall with all its dancing shadows. He found that he had no taste for the place. He accepted the salutes of the four guards outside the low stone structure and pushed the heavy door open. The smell inside nearly caused him to retch, and he took a step backward.

'Close the door,' Jhoqo's voice came from the dimness of the interior.

Taennen lifted an orange silk sash to his face and tried to breathe through it, hoping to dull some of the stench. His eyes adjusted to the low torchlight, and he saw the formians divided among cells. Their feces and waste were in one corner of each cell and, although there was very little of it, the stench burned Taennen's nostrils.

'We'll get them outside for that in the future, sir,' Taennen said, indicating the mess.

Jhoqo shook his head. 'They stay in here. Under no circumstances are they to leave this building.'

One look at Jhoqo's face told Taennen not to argue the point. He acknowledged the order with a nod and turned his attention to Guk.

'Has he said any more?' Taennen asked.

'He's talking. In fact, he'll answer nearly any question you ask him.'

Taennen's eyebrow went up. 'Do they know who attacked us?'

'Ask him,' Jhoqo said, anger rising in his voice.

Taennen knew the anger was not directed at him, but he wondered what the formian had done to provoke Jhoqo. He turned to the big formian. 'Do you know who attacked us?

'It does not matter. You and they will all become part of the hive,' Guk responded. He looked smaller, locked in the cell. He was still bound and blindfolded, the gag hanging loose around his neck.

Jhoqo snorted. 'That's his response to everything,' he said.

'It is the truth,' Guk said, his grating voice setting Taennen's ears vibrating.

'They weren't involved with the intruders, sir,' Taennen said, risking his commander's ire.

Jhoqo spun to face him. 'How do you know?'

'Because the attackers didn't head for these cells at all. They weren't here to free the prisoners. I doubt they even knew of them.'

Jhoqo's eyes narrowed, his lips pursed. 'They did not get the chance to,' he reasoned. 'We know what these things can do, if the halfling and the other humans and even your experience are to be believed. And we've established that these things aren't foolish. Their rescuers were outnumbered and ordered to retreat.'

Taennen had not considered that the intruders might be slaves of the formians. He knew the ant creatures had the ability to control the actions of other creatures. Guk stood passively as the two men discussed the situation. The formians ease and lack of expressive or readable features disturbed Taennen more than he could admit. But his gut still told him that the creatures were not involved in the attack on the citadel.

'It won't matter,' Taennen said. 'Adeenya will find the bastards, and we'll hunt them to the ground this time.'

'Let us hope so, Durir,' Jhoqo said. 'We're not getting anywhere with these beasts.'

'Sir, a moment, please,' Taennen said.

'Yes?' Jhoqo said.

'Sir, why didn't I know about the tower? You told Khatib but not me,' Taennen said. He felt young and small again, but he needed to hear the answer.

'You didn't need to know,' Jhoqo said as though he had been waiting for Taennen to ask the question. 'The phrase was shared with me in the mission briefing. I knew that as our only arcanist Khatib would be using the tower, so he needed to know it. No one else had the information, not even the orir,' Jhoqo said.

'What about the lost company, sir? Who among them knew the phrase?'

'Their commander, certainly, and their arcanists,' Jhoqo said. 'I don't know who else. I knew that regiment's commander. He was a good man and wouldn't have revealed the phrase even under duress.'

'And their mage?' Taennen asked.

'I don't know,' Jhoqo said. 'Perhaps that's the answer- the citadel's former wizard was captured and revealed the phrase under torture. Or perhaps he had been on the intruders' side all along.'

'That's possible, sir,' Taennen said. The answer seemed too easy to Taennen but, as his own father had said, often the easy answer was the right answer.

'It's more than possible. Much as I hate to doubt the fellow, it's the only logical answer,' Jhoqo said, turning toward the door. 'Come to my office at first light, Durir. We have plans to discuss.'

Taennen looked to Guk a few moments after the door closed. 'We'll see that removed,' he said, pointing to the fecal matter.

'It does not matter,' Guk said.

'It does to me. It isn't healthy,' Taennen said.

When no response came, Taennen turned for the door. As he grasped the iron handle, his gooseflesh leaped again at the sound of the formians voice behind him.

From her watch position on the southern wall Loraica studied the empty plains that unfolded before her eyes, seeming to roll on endlessly. Even with their patrol time before the mission, Loraica was accustomed to life in the cities of Estagund, and she missed the smells of civilization, even the unpleasant ones. At Neversfall, she could smell only the nearby woods, and the Aerilpar held an odor of rot and decay mixed with the usual clean smells of foliage that she found unsettling, unlike any forest she'd ever experienced.

She scanned the ground below her in the darkness. Twice she believed she might have spotted something before picking out the movement as some sort of prairie rodent scuttling along the ground. When she spotted the creature again, she was tempted to fetch a bow to make a meal of it for the morning, but she decided to let it go about its foraging. It was nocturnal, much like herself, after all, and she honored that kinship.

'Report.'

Loraica spun, sword in hand in a flash, to face Jhoqo, who had approached her from behind. She did her best to settle her racing heart and school her face against the shock.

'No report, sir,' she said.

Jhoqo nodded and leaned against the outer wall, looking out into the vast night.

'You heard that Orir Jamaluddat returned?' he asked.

Loraica affirmed, sheathing her sword. 'I haven't heard the details.'

'They say a trap was set for them,' he said, jerking his chin toward the forest, 'a ring of fire that erupted around them. But they escaped.'

'Are they all right? What happened?' Loraica said.

'They're fine. Two of the wall guards earlier did report seeing some smoke from the forest interior,' he said.

'So they did not find the invaders?' Loraica asked.

'No,' he said.

'If they attacked the citadel simply to set a trap for us in the woods, they are foolish. They lost several men in the fight,' she said.

'Whose bodies we can't even examine because they took the damned things,' Jhoqo said.

Loraica nodded. 'Sir, I beg your pardon if I'm too bold, but what's on your mind?'

He looked up from the floor and smiled. 'Very well. I can always count on you to get to the heart of the matter, Terir. I need your help,' he said, looking her in the eyes.

'Anything, sir,' she said.

He blew out a long breath, leaning against the walls once again, and looked out into the dark plains. 'Watch her. Tell me what she does, who she talks to, where she goes.'

'Sir…' she started but didn't know how to finish. He was asking her to spy on Adeenya. She couldn't think of anything less becoming a Maquar, let alone an officer.

'I know. I don't like it, either, but I've put a lot of thought into this.'