the trade road. First Ashi, stuck in Rhukaan Draal while the roads were closed, and then Vounn tried to contact Geth-guessing at what they wanted, he turned them away with shame and took to avoiding them.
Midian wasn’t so easy to get rid of. The gnome turned up in Geth’s chamber one morning. “You’ve got messengers crossing Darguun lining up fighters and strong men. Get me out of here. I’ve got supplies ready to go. I’ve got guards hired and costing me money every day. I want to be on the road!”
“Wait two more days,” Geth said. “You can leave then.”
“With every goblin in Darguun trying to get into the city for these games of yours? No, thank you. I want to go before they come. Word about the games was spreading across the country as soon as they were announced.” Midian’s mouth twisted. “Just like word is spreading that Dagii reached the Gathering Stone yesterday and is traveling south along the trade road now.”
A messenger falcon had come to Khaar Mbar’ost at dawn with the news that the grim march had begun. The Gan’duur were dying. Dagii’s arrival in Rhukaan Draal would coincide with the end of the mourning period. Geth hung his head and closed his eyes. “Go to Munta,” he said. “Tell him I said he should give you a pass out of the city.”
Midian gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Geth.”
Geth clenched his teeth. “You’re welcome.”
The fifth day of mourning came. The games that would commemorate Vanii’s death and the defeat of the Gan’duur were ready. Spectators and participants would begin to arrive the next day and for four days after that, the fields burned by the Gan’duur south of Rhukaan Draal would become the site of a celebration that would be talked about in ten-no, twenty years. “You’ve done well, Geth,” said Haruuc as his court gathered at dusk on the bridge over to the Ghaal River to wait for Dagii’s arrival.
“Razu did well, lhesh. She knew what needed to be done.” Geth looked across the crowd gathered on the crest of the bridge. The entire court had turned out-warlords, clan chiefs, and councilors. The sun’s last rays struck reflections from polished armor, threads of gold, and rich jewelry. Haruuc wore ornate armor edged with the claws of great cats polished like gems. The Rod of Kings shone in his grasp, twilight metal in the twilight of the day.
Geth curled his fist inside his great gauntlet. He had dressed in his best-clean pants, a good white shirt, and a fitted leather vest purchased in Rhukaan Draal’s markets-just as the other members of the court had, but by comparison he was a shadow. He felt like a shadow too. The Darguuls were filled with an excitement he didn’t feel at all. He drew a breath and said, “Haruuc, I’m leaving when the games are finished.”
Haruuc looked at him for a moment, then turned away to watch the road again. “It is your choice, but you judge me harshly, shava. I do what must be done.”
Geth didn’t have anything else he could say to that. He turned away.
Haruuc caught his arm. “I want you at my side when Dagii returns.”
“I’ll be back,” Geth said tersely, pulling his arm free and slipping into the crowd. Warlords called to him. The mistrust they’d shown him only days before seemed to have vanished as if organizing the funerary games had suddenly made him worthy of attention. Geth ignored them all and pushed to the other side of the bridge.
The southern bank of the Ghaal and both sides of the way through Rhukaan Draal were filled with the ordinary folk of the city, all of them eager for a glimpse of what was to come. Haruuc and he had both been wrong about one thing: It wasn’t just the goblins who wanted blood. The humans, elves, dwarves, and half-lings who had found a home in Rhukaan Draal were a part of the howling crowd as well.
They were represented on the bridge, too, but Geth couldn’t have called the representatives of the dragonmarked houses and the Five Nations eager for what was to come. They stood at the back of Haruuc’s assembled court, dressed as well as any hobgoblin but looking far more somber. None of them wanted to be there, he guessed, but none of them wanted to be seen to have stayed away, either.
“You!” Hands grabbed him roughly and turned him around. Ashi glared at him. She was dressed as a lady of Deneith and the effect was startling. Her voice, however, was as rough as ever. “You’ve been hard to talk to lately, Geth!”
“Hush.” Vounn appeared on Ashi’s other side to draw both her and Geth back against the rail of the bridge. Ashi didn’t release her grip on Geth’s arms, though.
“What do you think you’re doing, shutting yourself away?” she snarled at him. “I’ve been worried about you.”
“Let me go, Ashi.”
“No.” Her eyes searched his. “Why have you been avoiding me?”
“You wanted me to get you out of Rhukaan Draal, didn’t you?” He looked away. “I couldn’t have done that. I didn’t want you to ask.”
Ashi slapped him. “Blood in your mouth! You got Midian out, didn’t you? That wasn’t why I wanted to talk to you at all! Ekhaas said you were angry at what Haruuc was doing. I wanted to know if you needed to talk about it.”
“You…” Geth stared at her.
“Rond betch, Geth, sometimes you need a friend to talk to when you’re stuck in a situation that makes you angry. I know that.” She didn’t look at Vounn, but Geth knew exactly what she was talking about. Vounn could probably guess as well. Her lips pressed together, but she said nothing. Ashi’s eyebrows drew together. “How are you feeling now?”
“Helpless.” The word slipped out before he even thought about it. He grimaced. “This is wrong, Ashi, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Haruuc won’t listen to me or to Munta. He doesn’t even care what the powers outside of Darguun think.”
“He knows there’s not much we can do,” said Vounn coolly. It earned her a glare from Ashi, but the lady seneschal ignored her. “The kings and queens of other nations can make sanctions, the dragonmarked houses can take economic action, but ultimately it’s a matter internal to Darguun. And one that needed to be dealt with. If we interfere too much, we weaken Haruuc, and the unity he built in Darguun disappears.”
Geth glowered at her. “And you wanted to talk to me so I’d feel better?”
Vounn’s lips pressed together again. “That wasn’t why I wanted to talk to you.”
“Wait-Vounn?” Ashi looked from one of them to the other. “You were trying to talk to Geth too?”
“You didn’t know?” Geth asked her.
“Be quiet, both of you.” Vounn turned so that her back was to the crowd on the bridge and her face hidden from anyone who might be watching them. “Geth, do you remember that I tried to talk to Munta the day Haruuc closed the roads?”
He nodded but she didn’t wait for a response.
“I’ve been trying to talk to him or to Haruuc for the last five days. They wouldn’t see me. You were a third choice. Someone needs to get a message to Haruuc. I don’t think Keraal was the only one plotting against him. I don’t think Keraal was the one who had the fires started in Rhukaan Draal or tried to have me kidnapped.”
“What?”
Vounn grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight, her fingernails digging into his flesh. “Keep your voice down! I don’t have any proof. While you were away, I overheard Tariic talking to Daavn of the Marhaan. Daavn got Tariic to tell him where you’d gone. Tariic lied when he said no one outside of Haruuc’s circle knew about your mission. Daavn knew you rode to the southwest on a mission for Haruuc.”
“What if he did?”
“Ashi says you were attacked by desperate bandits on your return journey. What if there was no desperation in that attack? She said locals told you the bandits had come south from Rhukaan Draal a couple of weeks before. What if they’d been hired to wait along the road for your return?”
Geth frowned. “That’s risky. No one could have known we’d come back that way.”
“Call it a calculated risk. Based on what Tariic told Daavn, you were most likely to return to Rhukaan Draal the same way you had left.” Vounn’s grip tightened. “The fires in Rhukaan Draal were set by locals hired by a masked hobgoblin. The changeling who tried to kidnap me was hired in Rhukaan Draal by the same person. We assumed it was Keraal. If the bandits were hired in Rhukaan Draal, too, that changes things. It’s possible Keraal might have found out about your mission for Haruuc, but Daavn definitely knew about it-and he’s no friend of Haruuc’s.”
“It’s a thin argument,” Ashi said. “It’s all suspicion.”
“But Haruuc needs to know. Haruuc or someone who can be trusted.”
