“No. She is only a scout. We had a duur’kala with us, but she and the others of our party remained in the valley to cover our escape while we sought help from you.”
Makka’s already tiny eyes narrowed even more. “How many others?”
“Six,” Dagii lied.
The bugbear with the mace hissed at this. “Nine of them altogether! Makka, the trolls will be angry for certain!”
“If the other six haven’t escaped the valley, the trolls will be well-fed, Guun.” Makka glared down at Dagii and Ashi. “What were you doing in the valley?”
“We were lost. We slipped past your camp during the day while the sentries dozed. Our scouts told us there was a way through the valley.”
Dagii spoke with utter conviction, but Makka wrinkled his nose. “You were lost,” he said. “Where were you trying to go?”
Ashi felt a chill seep along her back. Makka’s tone was dangerous. Dagii, however, continued to stand tall and confident. “At Lhesh Haruuc’s orders, we are seeking a new route through the Seawall Mountains to Zilargo.”
“And you thought there was a way through the valley?” Makka’s voice rose to a roar. He lunged and grabbed Dagii’s arm with his free hand. “Come!” he said, dragging Dagii out of the hut with no more difficulty than an adult pulling a child. Guun and the other bugbear looked confused for a moment, then prodded Ashi into motion after them.
Makka didn’t take Dagii far. The hut into which they had been thrown stood near one edge of the camp. The tribe stopped its labors to stare as Makka pulled Dagii up to the barricade and twisted him around so that he looked out over the valley. Ashi was pushed up alongside him. With the firepit behind her and the moons shining bright overhead, she found she could see vague shapes and silhouettes a surprising distance into the night. Makka thrust his trident toward the valley.
“There is where you went,” he said, then gave Dagii a half-turn that left him facing in the direction of the western trail down from the mountain. “There is where you could have gone. Is it hard to see? Does the way look more difficult?” He shook Dagii hard. “There is no exit from the valley! No one of any sense would think there was! Why did you go down there?”
“Treasure!” Dagii gasped, his teeth rattling. Ashi saw Guun’s ears turn up, but once again Makka only growled. The shaking stopped. Dagii pointed at her. “She hired us to locate a treasure lost by Deneith during the Last War.”
Ashi felt astonishment cross her face before she remembered she wasn’t supposed to be able to understand what was being said. Fortunately, Makka didn’t seem to notice. Teeth bared, he released Dagii and whirled on her. A massive paw of a fist cracked across her face, driving her to the ground and sending bright spots whirling before her eyes. Rage burst inside her as she stared up at the bugbear chief, her grandfather’s sword in his belt, and she would have leaped at him if Guun and the other bugbear hadn’t seized her shoulders and held her still.
“Treasure?” Makka said. “You entered the valley for treasure?” His angry face moved between her and Dagii. “You’ve stirred up the trolls, you fools! You may have doomed us all. My tribe has held this territory by keeping peace with the trolls, giving them meat to keep them quiet and driving them back when they get restless. And you went looking for treasure?” He grabbed Dagii again and sent him sprawling toward the hut. “Get them out of my sight! Tomorrow we’ll give them to the trolls. That may restore the peace.”
“Makka chib, wait,” said Guun. There was a hungry look in his beady eyes. “What about this treasure? If we could get it-”
“No one goes into the valley. It’s been a cursed place since the mountains were young. If there’s treasure lost in the valley, it will remain lost until they are dust!”
Dagii, however, seized on Guun’s curiosity and greed. “The Deneith are idiots,” he said to Makka. “They went into the valley during the Last War while they were looking for Marguul to fight for them. The treasure is their pay chest, full of gold and gems. The wealth of a king! We got close to it before the trolls drove us away.” He dropped his voice. “How many trolls do you believe are in the valley, chib? We only saw nine. With fire and pitch, your tribe would be a match for them. You could wipe them out for good and claim the treasure.”
The idea sank into Makka’s head and he paused, anger slipping away. Dagii had hit on something even more valuable to Makka, Ashi realized, than the treasure. Wiping out the trolls would eliminate a drain on the resources of the tribe’s territory-how much of the meat that hung on racks around the camp must have been there just to feed the trolls? The thought of a chest full of treasure probably didn’t hurt either.
After a long moment, Makka snorted. “Put them back in the hut. I must think about this.” He stomped away to the longhouse at the back of the camp.
Guun and the other bugbear pushed Ashi and Dagii inside the hut, then dropped the hide door as they went after Makka. Ashi nodded at Dagii once they were gone. “That was nicely done, turning Makka against the trolls.”
“It may not work,” Dagii said. “I think Makka may be too afraid of the valley. It may give us a chance, though.”
“It may give some of us a chance,” said a quiet voice from the ground.
Ashi looked down and stifled a cry of delight. Ekhaas’s amber eyes were open and looking up at them. She dropped down beside her. “How long have you been awake?”
“Long enough to know that I’ve joined the Mur Talaan and been given the position of scout.” She sat up slowly, her eyes squeezing shut as she moved.
“If they’d known you were a duur’kala, they would have watched you more closely or maybe just killed you right away,” said Dagii. “This way we have a secret they don’t know.”
Ekhaas nodded, the motion bringing another brief wince to her face. “There’s more than muscle and honor between your ears,” she said. “The problem with the story you’ve told to Makka is that he doesn’t need all of us to pull it off. You told him that we almost reached the treasure-that means he only needs one of us to find it again.”
“Maabet,” said Dagii. “I’m a soldier, not a duur’kala. Do you think you can come up with something?”
“We can start by telling them Ashi needs to be the one to open the chest. At least we’ve got time to think of something more.” She looked around, her ears flicking. “Geth and the others?”
Ashi took the job of telling her that there had been no sign of their friends. Again, there was no need to speak aloud the possibility that they were dead. She could see in Ekhaas’s eyes that she had considered the same thing already.
The hut grew quiet as Ekhaas thought and Ashi and Dagii rested. The bright light, moving shadows, and wary tension in the camp beyond the flimsy walls continued. There would be none of the tribe’s usual activities that night-the risk of a troll attack kept them all close to the camp and alert. Ashi found herself a spot on the piled hides in the hut that was neither too hard nor too smelly. In spite of the noise of the camp outside, she even managed to fall into a light doze.
She couldn’t have said exactly how long she slept, but it was Dagii’s voice that roused her to semi-waking. The hobgoblin warrior spoke softly in Goblin. “Thank you for healing my ankle, Ekhaas. I’ve never felt anything like your magic.”
“No thanks are necessary,” Ekhaas answered. “We couldn’t leave you.”
Dagii stirred, as if he were sitting up. “Thanks are necessary,” he said. “We got out of the valley because of you. Your songs distracted the trolls and kept us ahead of them. Without you, we wouldn’t have had a chance. Yapanozhii kita atcha.”
I owe a debt to your honor-the most formal way of offering thanks among goblins. Ashi opened her eyes and glanced at the two hobgoblins. Ekhaas was looking at Dagii, amber eyes meeting gray. After a moment, she gave a slow and graceful nod of acceptance.
It was another moment before Ashi realized that the camp had gone still and quiet as well. She sat up sharply. “What’s going on?” she whispered.
Dagii and Ekhaas looked up as if they’d forgotten she was even there. A faint flush spread across Ekhaas’s face, but Dagii was the first to understand what she’d really meant. He twisted around and put an eye to one of the gaps in the wall of the hut. “They’ve stopped,” he said. “Everyone’s staring at something.”
“The valley?” asked Ekhaas.
